It has been a long-standing papal tradition that Popes pay homage to the Immaculate Conception at the foot of the Marian column close to the Spanish Steps in Rome.
The statute of the Immaculate Conception is put on top of a 12-meter high column, dedicated on December 8, 1857, shortly after Pope Blessed Pius IX proclaimed that Mary was Immaculately Conceived. Starting with Pope Venerable Pius XII in 1953, it has been a tradition for popes to venerate this beautiful statue for the feast day. Around every visit by the Pope at the Spanish Steps on the Feast of the Immaculate Conception there is always a powerful message to be conveyed. It is wise now to appreciate this important fact.
With Pope St John Paul II’s visit on December 8, 1979, in his first visit to the Immaculate Conception at the Spanish Steps he names Mary as the Mother of the Eternal Word. He gives us a short catechesis on Ave Maria gratia plena, Hail Mary full of grace: Ave! Today we come to greet you, Mary, who was chosen to be the Mother of the Eternal Word. We come to this place, guided by a particular tradition, and we say to you: Hail! Blessed are you, full of grace (“Ave Maria, gratia plena”).
We use the words pronounced by Gabriel, Messenger of the Holy Trinity. We make use of these words, pronounced by all generations of the People of God, who have been making their pilgrimage on this earth in the space of almost two millennia. We use these words, dictated by our hearts: “Ave Maria, gratia plena”: full of grace. We come today, on the day in which the Church, with the greatest veneration, remembers the fullness of this Grace, with which God has filled you from the first moment of your conception.
The words of the Apostle fill us with joy: “Where sin increased, grace increased all the more” (Rom 5:20). We are happy with this particular abundance of divine grace in you which bears the name of “Immaculate Conception”.
When Pope Benedict XVI offered his own veneration to the Immaculate at the Spanish Steps on December 8, 2007, he expressed this act as an expression of piety. He saw this moment as being one family under the guidance of one mother. He said: This expression of piety is at the same time an opportunity to offer to all who live in Rome or who are spending a few days as pilgrims and tourists, an opportunity, despite the diversity of cultures, to feel they are one family gathered around a Mother who has shared the daily efforts of every woman and mother of a family.
In his address, Pope Benedict spoke about what makes this mother different from others. He said: She is, however, a completely singular mother, for she was chosen in advance by God for a unique and mysterious mission: to bring forth to earthly life the Father’s Eternal Word, who came into the world for the salvation of all people. And Mary, Immaculate in her conception – this is how we venerate her today -, travelled her earthly pilgrimage sustained by undaunted faith, steadfast hope and humble and boundless love, following in the footsteps of her Son, Jesus. She was close to him with motherly solicitude from his birth to Calvary, where she witnessed his crucifixion, transfixed by suffering but with unwavering hope. She then experienced the joy of the Resurrection, at dawn on the third day, the new day, when the Crucified One left the tomb, overcoming for ever and definitively the power of sin and death.
Mary’s special closeness to Christ makes her our mother in all truth and grace. Pope Benedict expounded on this point when he said: Mary, in whose virginal womb God was made man, is our Mother! Indeed, from the Cross before bringing his sacrifice to completion, Jesus gave her to us as our Mother and entrusted us to her as her children. This is a mystery of mercy and love, a gift that enriches the Church with fruitful spiritual motherhood.
Mary is a mother who teaches us how to love Christ, her Son and our Brother. Pope Benedict invited us with the following words: Let us turn our gaze to her, especially today, dear brothers and sisters, and imploring her help, prepare ourselves to treasure all her maternal teaching. Does not our Heavenly Mother invite us to shun evil and to do good, following with docility the divine law engraved in every Christian’s heart? Does not she, who preserved her hope even at the peak of her trial, ask us not to lose heart when suffering and death come knocking at the door of our homes? Does she not ask us to look confidently to our future? Does not the Immaculate Virgin exhort us to be brothers and sisters to one another, all united by the commitment to build together a world that is more just, supportive and peaceful?
In another beautiful message Pope Benedict XVI did as he paid homage to the Immaculate at the Spanish Steps in Rome on December 8, 2008, he presented Mary as the mother of the “little ones”. He earnestly prayed:
O Immaculate Virgin, at this moment I would especially like to entrust to you the “little ones” of our City: the children, first of all, and above all those who are seriously ill, children who are disabled and those who are suffering the consequences of oppressive family situations. Watch over them and grant that they may feel the warmth of God’s love in the affection and help of those who are beside them! To you, O Mary, I entrust the lonely elderly, the sick, immigrants who find it hard to adjust, families that find it difficult to make ends meet and people who cannot find employment or who have lost a job indispensable for their survival. Teach us, Mary, to show solidarity with those in difficulty, to fill the ever increasing social gaps. Help us to foster a more lively sense of the common good, of respect for public property, and spur us to view the city and more than ever our City of Rome as the patrimony of all, making each one of us do our part, to build a more just and supportive society with awareness and commitment. O Immaculate Mother, who are a sign of certain hope and comfort to everyone, help us to let ourselves be attracted by your immaculate purity. Your beauty Tota Pulchra, as we sing today assures us that the victory of love is possible; indeed, that it is certain. It assures us that grace is stronger than sin, and that redemption from any form of slavery is therefore possible. Yes, O Mary, help us to believe with greater trust in good, to wager on giving freely, on service, on non-violence, on the power of the truth. Encourage us to be alert, not to give into the temptation of easy evasions, to face reality and its problems with courage and responsibility. This is what you did, a young woman called to stake everything on the Word of the Lord. May you be a loving mother for our young people, so that they may have the courage to be “watchmen of the dawn”, and give this virtue to all Christians so that they may be the heart of the world in this difficult period of history. Virgin Immaculate, Mother of God and our Mother, Salus Populi Romani, pray for us!
Finally, Pope Francis, when visiting the Immaculate Conception at the Spanish Steps, on December 8, 2018, he entrusted to Mary the people in Rome, the sick, those who are undergoing through terrible turmoil in life, the priests, consecrated people, the migrants, the prison inmates as well as the people of God at large.
Immaculate Mother, on the day of your celebration, so dear to the Christian people, I come to pay you homage in the heart of Rome. In my soul I carry the faithful of this Church and all those who live in this city, especially the sick and those who due to various circumstances struggle harder to go on. First and foremost we wish to thank you for the motherly care with which you accompany our journey: how often we hear those who have experienced your intercession describe with teary eyes the graces that you request for us from your Son Jesus!
I also think of an ordinary grace that you give to the people who live in Rome: that of patiently facing the discomforts of daily life. For this we ask you for the strength not to give in, but rather, to each do our part each day to improve things so that each one’s care may make Rome more beautiful and livable for every one; so that each one’s duty properly fulfilled may ensure the rights of every one.
And thinking of the common good of this city, we pray to you for those who play roles of great responsibility: may you obtain for them wisdom, foresight, the spirit of service and cooperation.
Blessed Virgin, I wish to entrust to you in a particular way the priests of this Diocese: pastors, assistant pastors, elderly priests who, with a shepherd’s heart, continue to work at the service of the People of God, the many student priests from every part of the world who cooperate in the parishes. For all of them I ask you for the gentle joy of evangelizing and the gift of being fathers, close to the people, merciful.
To you, Lady wholly consecrated to God, I entrust the consecrated women in religious and in secular life who, thank God, are more numerous in Rome than in any other city in the world, and who form a marvelous mosaic of nationalities and cultures. For them I ask you for the joy to be, like you, spouses and mothers, fruitful in prayer, in charity, in compassion.
O Mother of Jesus, I ask of you one last thing in this Season of Advent, reflecting on the days in which you and Joseph were in distress for the then imminent birth of your child concerned because there was the census and you too had to leave your town, Nazareth, and go to Bethlehem….
You know, Mother, what it means to carry life in your womb and to feel indifference, rejection, at times scorn around you. For this reason I ask you to be close to families that today in Rome, in Italy, in the entire world, are experiencing similar situations, so that they not be abandoned to themselves, but protected in their rights, human rights which come before any other justifiable need.
O Mary Immaculate, dawn of hope at the horizon of humanity, watch over this city, over its houses, over its schools, over its offices, over its shops, over its factories, over its hospitals, over its prisons; may no place lack the most valuable thing that Rome has, and which it preserves for the entire world, the testament of Jesus: “Love one another, as I have loved you” (cf. Jn 13:34). Amen.
What these reflections by the three great Popes given near the Immaculate Conception column at the Spanish Steps for the yearly solemnity of the Immaculate Conception of Mary is that in and with Mary we all may find our spiritual home.