Immaculate Conception Trivia

Blogger’s Note: Culled from varied Catholic online sources, this Marian Trivia is aimed at enriching Religious Education students’ understanding and appreciation of the meaning and celebration of the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception.

1.    This dogma of our Catholic faith refers to the condition that the Blessed Virgin Mary was free from original sin from the very moment of her conception in the womb of her mother.

2.    Does the feast of the Immaculate Conception also celebrate the conception of Christ in the womb of the Blessed Virgin Mary?

3.    What is the name of that feast and its feast day that joyfully commemorates the conception of Christ in the womb of the Blessed Virgin Mary?

4.    When (exact date) is the dogma of the Immaculate Conception promulgated, the pope (complete name) who declared the promulgation decree, and the Apostolic Constitution (complete name) that contains the definition of this Marian dogma?

5.    State the concise definition of the dogma of the Immaculate Conception. Write your answer in sentence case. Do not capitalize all the letters.

6.    Cite the three important biblical references which support the teaching of the Church on the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary.

7.    The famous Catholic theologian (+1308) whose outstanding defense of the doctrine of the Immaculate Conception made the feast spread throughout the West. "He showed that God had sanctified Mary at the moment of her conception in His foreknowledge that the Blessed Virgin would consent to bear Christ."  In other words, Mary too had been redeemed—her redemption had simply been accomplished at the moment of her conception, rather than (as with all other Christians) in Baptism.

8.    What is the name of the feast observed by Christian churches in the East beginning the seventh century which celebrates the conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary in the womb of Saint Anne?

9.    Is the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception a holy day of obligation in the Philippines?

10. What is a holy day of obligation?

11. What biblical reference/text is considered as the locus classicus for the doctrine of the Immaculate Conception of Our Lady?

12. Read this classic passage from Gen 3:15, "And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her Seed; He shall crush your head, and you shall strike at His heel." To whom God is addressing the statement? Who is the woman and the Seed that God is referring to?

13. What is the New Testament biblical reference which links Mary as the mystical Ark of the New Covenant who "contains" the Messiah? It describes a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars; she was with child.

14. The Pope who made the feast of the Conception of Mary a Holy Day of Obligation on 6 December 1708.

15. What is the name of a 14-year-old girl, who claimed that a beautiful woman appeared to her and said, "I am the Immaculate Conception" at Lourdes in 1858?

16. Name the six countries in the world which took Our Lady of the Immaculate Conception as their nation's principal patroness.

17. The Pope who declared declared the Blessed Virgin Mary, under the title of the Immaculate Conception, principal patron of the Philippines by the issuance of the bull Impositi Nobis on September 12, 1942

18. What is the meaning or traditional translation of the Greek term kecharitomene spoken by the Angel to the Blessed Virgin Mary describing her as a truly the immaculately conceived woman?

19. Known as the Apostle of Consecration to Mary, this Franciscan Conventual friar organized the Militia Immaculata or Army of Mary to work for conversion of sinners and enemies of the Catholic Church, specifically the Freemasons, through the intercession of the Virgin Mary. He added to the Miraculous Medal prayer:  Oh Mary, conceived without sin, pray for us who have recourse to thee.  And for all those who do not have recourse to thee; especially the Masons and all those recommended to thee.

20. Name Papal Encyclical and the Pope who published it in 1953 which aimed to proclaim the first Church Marian Year in 1954 and to commemorate the centenary of the definition of the dogma of the Immaculate Conception of the Virgin Mary.