Drear Gabriel,

This Feast may have perplexed you, as it has me over the years.

How could a woman, a mere mortal, have been made sinless all her life? Start by looking at the story in an allegorical way. If God exists, he would need a messenger – Christ. If Christ, God and Man, exists, he needs a mother, wholly human – the Virgin Mary. As a mother of God, she cannot be with sin. Anyway, away with these baffled attempts at argument.

I went to a Mass in the Little Oratory for my son’s school.

During the singing of the ‘Credo,’ The Schuola of boys’ voices took over to sing the “Homo Factus Est”. They sang it so slowly and beautifully and with such feeling, that tears welled in my eyes. Ultimately, religion is not and cannot be a rational experience. It has to be enjoyed as an emotional one.

Yours ever,

Thomas