St. Pius X & The Immaculate Conception

It seems quite Providential to complete the commissioning of a special linen order as we now begin (tomorrow - November 29!) the novena in preparation for the feast of the Immaculate Conception. What does a linen order and this feast of Our Lady have in common?

Why, St. Piux X, or course! :)

We were privileged to design and embroider the Crest of St. Piux X in sketch-like stitches, to be applied on linens for Holy Mass.

While working with this saintly Pope's coat of arms, we were reminded of those treasures he brought o Holy Mother Church during his papacy. Amongst his care in the souls of little children being allowed to receive Holy Communion, a stalwart fight throughout his Papacy against Modernism, and a heroic dedication toward the teaching of Catechism in all avenues of the Church, Pope St. Pius X was also dedicated toward devotion to Our Lady. It was during his Papacy that the Church celebrated the 50th Anniversary of the Dogma of the Immaculate Conception. In his encyclical AD DIEM ILLUM LAETISSIMUM, the Holy Pope writes,

"But the first and chief reason, Venerable Brethren, why the fiftieth anniversary of the proclamation of the dogma of the Immaculate Conception should excite a singular fervor in the souls of Christians lies for us in that restoration of all things in Christ which we have already set forth in Our first Encyclical letter. For can anyone fail to see that there is no surer or more direct road than by Mary for uniting all mankind in Christ and obtaining through Him the perfect adoption of sons, that we may be holy and immaculate in the sight of God? For if to Mary it was truly said: "Blessed art thou who hast believed because in thee shall be fulfilled the things that have been told thee by the Lord" (Luke i., 45); or in other words, that she would conceive and bring forth the Son of God and if she did receive in her breast Him who is by nature Truth itself in order that "He, generated in a new order and with a new nativity, though invisible in Himself, might become visible in our flesh" (St. Leo the Great, Ser. 2, De Nativ. Dom.): the Son of God made man, being the "author and consummator of our faith"; it surely follows that His Mother most holy should be recognized as participating in the divine mysteries and as being in a manner the guardian of them, and that upon her as upon a foundation, the noblest after Christ, rises the edifice of the faith of all centuries." - Ad Diem Illum Laetissimum 1904

Will you join us in a Novena to Our Lady in honor of her Immaculate Conception?

**Special note: Congratulations to Mindy McDonald, chosen at random as winner of the Advent Apron Giveaway! Thank you all for participating. The comment section is full of wonderful Advent traditions and practices. Make sure to take a peek! (Maybe you'll find a new treasure to add to your own traditions this year?) For those that didn't win the apron - it's not to late to order one now!