Madrid, Spain, Dec 9, 2011 / 15:52 pm
Cardinal Antonio Maria Rouco Varela of Madrid, Spain emphasized Mary's trust in God's will during his remarks on the Feast of the Immaculate Conception.
“She trusted in God, she did not make her plans apart from God’s will. She put her life in the heart of God … and allowed herself to be led by Him,” Cardinal Rouco said.
The cardinal then related society's current difficulties with “the refusal to live according to grace and the love of God.”
Conscience guided by God’s law, enlightened by the Gospel of Christ and animated by his grace and love ought to again become a decisive factor not only in personal and private conduct, but also in the way people behave and act in public, the cardinal explained.
The feast of the Immaculate Conception invites Catholics each year into “a deeper understanding of the history of man” that began with the sin committed by Adam and Eve, he continued.
At that moment a journey of sin began, he explained, but also a journey of glory to which we are all called. “That gift and grace is in our hands. It depends how we use it, it depends on our freedom,” the cardinal said.
“We all need grace and we all need to receive it from the hand of the Virgin Mary, the Immaculate Conception,” he added.