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Advent Season · The Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary · Year A

Ephesians 1:3-6, 11-12

Chosen in Christ Before Creation

December 8, 2025

The Immaculate Conception, Bartolomé Esteban Murillo
The Immaculate Conception, Bartolomé Esteban Murillo, about 1680The Cleveland Museum of Art
Mary, robed in white and blue, rises on the clouds above a ring of child angels carrying lilies, roses and a palm, her hands crossed on her breast and her eyes on heaven.Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing … just as he chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world to be holy and blameless before him in love.Bartolomé Esteban MurilloThe great painter of Seville, who painted the Immaculate Conception more than twenty times and made it his signature subject.The Cleveland Museum of ArtThe Cleveland Museum of Art.The Cleveland Museum of Art
Roman Lectionary
GospelLuke 1:26-38Lk 1:26-38
Second ReadingEph. 1:3-6, 11-12Eph 1:3-6, 11-12
First ReadingGen. 3:9-15, 20Gn 3:9-15, 20
Responsorial PsalmPs. 98:1, 2-3a, 3b-4 (1a)Ps 98:1, 2-3a, 3b-4 (1a)

Overview & Insights

“He chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world to be holy and blameless before him.” (Ephesians 1:4)

This is the opening of a blessing that runs as one sentence in Greek from v. 3 to v. 14, among the longest in the New Testament. Its form is the Jewish berakah, the pattern of praise that begins by blessing the God who has blessed, and which also opens 2 Corinthians and 1 Peter. Three times the sentence breaks into the same refrain about the praise of God’s glory (vv. 6, 12, 14), and the lectionary’s two excerpts are cut so that each of them ends on it. Two phrases carry the feast. “Before the foundation of the world” places election prior to any history, and the pair of adjectives in v. 4, holy and without blemish, is sacrificial vocabulary borrowed from the requirement that an offering have no defect (Lev 22:20). It is worth noting that Ephesians says all of this in the plural, of a community; applied to a Marian feast, it reads one life as the clearest instance of a corporate grace.

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Commentary

The Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception Catholic Productions · Brant Pitre

Dr. Brant Pitre connects Paul's language of being chosen and holy before the foundation of the world to Mary's preservation from sin.

Commentary on Ephesians 1:3-14Commentary on Eph 1:3-14 Working Preacher

Luther Seminary reading of Paul's opening blessing on election and adoption in Christ (the RCL covers these verses on a different Sunday).

Ephesians 1:3-14 CommentaryEph 1:3-14 Commentary Center for Excellence in Preaching

Reformed preaching commentary on the great doxology of blessing to the praise of God's glory.

Ephesians 1 Commentary: God's Ultimate PlanEph 1 Commentary: God's Ultimate Plan Enduring Word · David Guzik

David Guzik's verse by verse notes on the spiritual blessings and predestination in Christ.

Ephesians 1:3 CommentariesEph 1:3 Commentaries BibleHub

Classic commentators compiled on the blessing that opens Ephesians.

Background & Word Study

Ephesians 1:3 InterlinearEph 1:3 Interlinear BibleHub

Greek text of Paul's blessing word by word with parsing and Strong's numbers.

Book of Ephesians SummaryBook of Eph Summary BibleProject

Animated overview of the structure and message of Ephesians.

The Church Fathers

Ephesians 1 - Catena Bible & CommentariesEph 1 - Catena Bible & Commentaries Catena

Patristic comments on election and adoption in Ephesians 1.

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