The Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception, which will be celebrated this year on Monday, Dec. 8, is a Holy Day of Obligation.
With the holy day falling on a Monday in 2025, there will be no evening Masses of Anticipation for the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception on Sunday, Dec. 7.
All Masses on Sunday, Dec. 7, will be celebrated for the Second Sunday of Advent.
The normal conditions apply on the holy day for the obligation to attend Mass, meaning that Catholics are to attend Mass on both Sunday and on Monday.
The Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception is one of the holy days of obligation observed annually in the United States. The others are the Solemnities of Mary, Mother of God on Jan. 1, Easter Sunday, the Ascension (abrogated in most U.S. dioceses, including Columbus, to the Sunday following the Thursday of the sixth week of Easter), the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary on Aug. 15, All Saints on Nov. 1 and the Nativity of the Lord on Dec. 25.
The Immaculate Conception honors the Blessed Mother’s purity and that she was preserved from the stain of original sin by a special grace at the moment of her conception in anticipation of her becoming the mother of Jesus Christ at the incarnation. It is sometimes misunderstood that the Immaculate Conception celebrates Jesus’ conception in the womb of Our Lady.
The Church defined the doctrine of the Immaculate Conception in 1854 with Pope Pius IX’s papal bull Ineffabilis Deus. Four years later, the Blessed Mother appeared to St. Bernadette in Lourdes, France, under the title of the Immaculate Conception.
The U.S. bishops had adopted a decree in 1846 during a meeting in Baltimore at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary to make Our Lady the patroness of the United States. In 1857, Pope Pius IX approved the decree to place the U.S. under her patronage.
Mary’s purity serves as a reminder of her role in salvation history and as an inspiration for the faithful to seek holiness in their lives.
As an additional reminder for those who pray the Liturgy of the Hours, Evening Prayer for Sunday, Dec. 7 is for the Second Sunday of Advent and not Evening Prayer I for the Immaculate Conception.
All Catholics in the diocese are advised to check their parish bulletins and websites for Mass times on Monday, Dec. 8.