* December 6 – Our Lady of the Vow (Siena, Italy) * Perfect purity does not apply only to virginity  --- An initiative of the Mary of Nazareth Association December 6 – Our Lady of the Vow (Siena, Italy) Perfect purity does not apply only to virginity  Today we would like you to turn your gaze to the sweet Virgin Mary, of whom the Church, in two days, will celebrate the feast of her Immaculate Conception. ... Jesus Christ wanted the Church, his mystical wife, to be "without stain or wrinkle... holy and without blemish" (Eph 5:27). Dear husbands, this is precisely the model that the great apostle Paul presents to you: "Husbands," he writes, "love your wives as Christ loved the Church" (Eph 5: 25), because what constitutes the greatness of the sacrament of marriage is its similarity with the union of Christ and the Church (Eph 3:32). You may think maybe that the idea of unblemished purity applies only to virginity, the sublime ideal to which God calls not all Christians, but only a few chosen souls... And yet the state of marriage, willed by God for common men, can and should have its spotless purity. Anyone who performs his duties of state faithfully and without weakness is immaculate before God. God does not call all his children to the state of perfection, but he invites all of them to the perfection of their state. Pope Pius XII Allocution to the Newlyweds, December 6, 1939 www.mariedenazareth.com Let’s pray together  Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee. Blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus. Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners now, and at the hour of death. Amen.