In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, amen. Today on the Feast of the

Immacly Conception, the lesson comes from Proverbs chapter 8. The Lord possessed me at the beginning of his

work, the first of his acts of old. Ages ago I was set up at the first before the beginning of the

earth. When there were no depths, I was brought forth,

when there were no springs abounding with water,

before the mountains had been shaped,

before the hills I was brought forth,

before he had made the earth with its fields,

or the first of the dust of the world,

when he established the heavens I was there,

when he drew a circle on the face of the deep,

when he made firm the skies above, when he established the fountains of the deep,

when he assigned to the sea its limit,

so that the waters might not transgress his command

when he marked out the foundations of the earth. Then I was beside him,

like a master workman, and I was daily his delight, rejoicing before him always, rejoicing in his

inhabited world, and delighting in the children of men. And now, a son's listen to me,

blessed of those who keep my ways, hear instruction and be wise and do not neglect it.

Blessed is the one who listens to me, watching daily at my gates, waiting beside my doors, for whoever finds me finds life, and obtains favor from the Lord.

A continuation of the Holy Gospel, according to St. Luke.

And in the sixth month, the angel Gabriel was sent from God into a city of Galilee called Nazareth,

to a virgin, a spouse to a man whose name was Joseph of the house of David,

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