Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary – Saturday, December 8th, 2018
Tota pulchra es, Maria, et macula originalis non est in te. Tu gloria Jerusalem, tu laetitia Israel, tu honorificentia populi nostri; You are all beautiful, Mary, and the original stain (of sin) is not in you. You are the glory of Jerusalem, you are the joy of Israel, you give honor to our people.
On the eve of this Solemnity, exactly seventy-seven years ago, the Empire of Japan bombed Pearl Harbor. The next day, President Roosevelt announced that we were at war. He spoke of “the day that will live in infamy.” Thus began our participation in the sad events of World War II, which had already begun in Europe in 1939. We would be at war until the defeat of Japan on August 15, 1945. A whole generation, and indirectly those after, would be formed by these tragic years of war.