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Immaculate
Conception / Sinlessness
Also See:
Blessed Virgin Mary (Topic Page)
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"You
shall make an ark of acacia wood, two and a half cubits long, one
and a half cubits wide, and one and a half cubits high. Plate it
inside and outside with pure gold, and put a molding of gold
around the top of it." (Ex. 25:10-11) [Note: This
Old Testament passage referring to the Ark of the Covenant may
also be applied to Mary - the immaculate Ark of the New Covenant.]
"Thou
art all fair, O my love, and there is not a spot in thee."
(Cant. 4:7)
"And
in the sixth month, the angel Gabriel was sent from God into a
city of Galilee, called Nazareth, To a virgin espoused to a man
whose name was Joseph, of the house of David; and the virgin's
name was Mary. And the angel being come in, said unto her: Hail,
full of grace, the Lord is with thee: blessed art thou among
women. Who having heard, was troubled at his saying, and thought
with herself what manner of salutation this should be. And the
angel said to her: Fear not, Mary, for thou hast found grace with
God. Behold thou shalt conceive in thy womb, and shalt bring forth
a son; and thou shalt call his name Jesus. He shall be great, and
shall be called the Son of the most High; and the Lord God shall
give unto him the throne of David his father; and he shall reign
in the house of Jacob for ever. And of his kingdom there shall be
no end." (Lk. 1:26-33)
"O
Virgin undefiled, undefiled is your birth." (St. Andrew of
Crete, a. 740 A.D.)
"Thou,
O Lord, and thy Mother are the only ones who are perfectly
beautiful in every respect, for in thee, O Lord, there is no
blemish, and in thy Mother there is no stain." (St. Ephraem
the Syrian, Doctor of the Church)
"From
the moment of her conception in the womb of her Mother, Ann, when,
having chosen her as the mother of his own son, he freed her from
the yoke of the heritage of original sin." (Pope John Paul
II)
"For
nothing is worthy to receive God unless it be pure, according to
Psalm 93:5: 'Holiness becometh Thy House, O Lord.'" (St.
Thomas Aquinas, Doctor of the Church and "greatest theologian
in the history of the Church")
"The
Immaculate Conception is the name which reveals with precision who
Mary is: it not only affirms a quality, but it exactly defines her
person; Mary is radically holy in the totality of her existence
from the very beginning." (Pope John Paul II)
"The
commemoration of the mystery of the Most Holy Virgin, conceived
immaculate and immune from all stain of original sin, should, in
the first place, urge us to that innocence and integrity of life
which flees from and abhors even the slightest stain of sin."
(Pope Pius XII, "Fulgens Corona", 1953)
"It
was fitting that Jesus Christ should have such a mother as would
be worthy of Him as far as possible; and she would not have been
worthy, if, contaminated by the hereditary stain even for the
first moment only of her conception, she had been subject to the
abominable power of Satan." (Pope Pius XII, "Fulgens
Corona", 1953)
"Come, then, and search out Your sheep, not
through Your servants or hired men, but do it Yourself. Lift me up
bodily and in the flesh, which is fallen in Adam. Lift me up not
from Sara but from Mary, a Virgin not only undefiled but a Virgin
whom grace has made inviolate, free from every stain of sin."
(St. Ambrose of Milan, Doctor of the Church, c. 387 A.D.)
"This holy Synod declares nevertheless that
it is not its intention to include in this decree, where original
sin is treated of, the blessed and immaculate Virgin Mary mother
of God, but that the constitutions of Pope Sixtus IV of happy
memory are to be observed, under the penalties contained in these
constitutions, which it renews." (Council of Trent, 1546 A.D.)
"In the matter of sin, it is my
wish to exclude absolutely all questions concerning the holy
Virgin Mary, on account of the honor due to Christ. For since she
conceived and brought forth Him who most certainly was guilty of
no sin, we know that an abundance of grace was given her that she
might be in every way the conqueror of sin." (St. Augustine,
Doctor of the Church)
"[The
Church] did not hesitate to present for the public devotion and
veneration of the faithful the Feast of the Conception of the
Blessed Virgin. By this most significant fact, the Church made it
clear indeed that the conception of Mary is to be venerated as
something extraordinary, wonderful, eminently holy, and different
from the conception of all other human beings" (Pope Pius
IX, "Ineffabilis Deus", 1854)
"I consider that the blessing of a fuller
sanctification descended upon her, so as not only to sanctify her
birth, but also to keep her life pure from all sin; which gift is
believed to have been bestowed upon none other born of woman. This
singular privilege of sanctity, to lead her life without any sin,
entirely benefited the queen of virgins, who should bear the
Destroyer of sin and death, who should obtain the gift of life and
righteousness for all." (St. Bernard, Doctor of the Church)
"The
Catholic Church, directed by the Holy Spirit of God, is the pillar
and base of truth and has ever held as divinely revealed and as
contained in the deposit of heavenly revelation this doctrine
concerning the original innocence of the august Virgin - a
doctrine which is so perfectly in harmony with her wonderful
sanctity and preeminent dignity as Mother of God - and thus has
never ceased to explain, to teach and to foster this doctrine age
after age in many ways and by solemn acts." (Pope Pius IX,
"Ineffabilis Deus", 1854)
"If
then God has such a horror of sin as to have willed to keep free
the future Mother of His Son not only from stains which are
voluntarily contracted but, by a special favor and in prevision of
the merits of Jesus Christ, from that other stain of which the sad
sign is transmitted to all us sons of Adam by a sort of hapless
heritage: who can doubt that it is a duty for everyone who seeks
by his homage to gain the heart of Mary to correct his vicious and
depraved habits and to subdue the passions which incite him to
evil?" (Pope St. Pius X, "Ad Diem Illum Laetissimum",
1904)
"And
so these two very singular privileges [Immaculate Conception &
Assumption], bestowed upon the Virgin Mother of God, stand out in
most splendid light as the beginning and as the end of her earthly
journey; for the greatest possible glorification of her virgin
body is the complement, at once appropriate and marvelous, of the
absolute innocence of her soul, which was free from all stain; and
just as she took part in the struggle of her only-begotten Son
with the wicked serpent of Hell, so also she shared in His
glorious triumph over sin and its sad consequences." (Pope
Pius XII, "Fulgens Corona", 1953)
"The devotion to the most blessed Virgin
Mary is indeed of long standing among the faithful of Christ who
believe that her soul, from the first instant of its creation and
infusion into her body, was preserved immune by a special grace
and privilege of God from the stain of original sin, in view of
the merits of her Son, Jesus Christ, the Redeemer of our human
race, and who, in this sense, esteem and solemnly celebrate the
festivity of her conception...We renew the Constitutions and
decrees published by Roman Pontiffs in favor of the opinion that
asserts that the soul of the blessed Virgin Mary at its creation,
and at its infusion into her body, was blessed by the grace of the
Holy Spirit and was preserved from original sin." (Pope
Alexander VII, 1661 A.D.)
"It
was due to His own infinite sanctity that God should suspend, in
this instance, the law which His divine justice had passed upon
all the children of Adam. The relations which Mary was to bear to
the Divinity, could not be reconciled with her undergoing the
humiliation of this punishment. She was not only daughter of the
eternal Father; she was destined also to become the very Mother of
the Son, and the veritable bride of the Holy Ghost. Nothing
defiled could be permitted to enter, even for an instant of time,
into the creature that was thus predestined to contract such close
relations with the adorable Trinity: not a speck could be
permitted to tarnish in Mary that perfect purity which the
infinitely holy God requires even in those who are one day to be
admitted to enjoy the sight of His divine majesty in heaven"
(Dom Gueranger)
"From
the very beginning, and before time began, the eternal Father
chose and prepared for his only-begotten Son a Mother in whom the
Son of God would become incarnate and from whom, in the blessed
fullness of time, he would be born into this world. Above all
creatures did God so love her that truly in her was the Father
well pleased with singular delight. Therefore, far above all the
angels and all the saints so wondrously did God endow her with the
abundance of all heavenly gifts poured from the treasury of his
divinity that this mother, ever absolutely free of all stain of
sin, all fair and perfect, would possess that fullness of holy
innocence and sanctity than which, under God, one cannot even
imagine anything greater, and which, outside of God, no mind can
succeed in comprehending fully." (Pope Pius IX, "Ineffabilis
Deus", 1854)
"And
indeed it was wholly fitting that so wonderful a mother should be
ever resplendent with the glory of most sublime holiness and so
completely free from all taint of original sin that she would
triumph utterly over the ancient serpent. To her did the Father
will to give his only-begotten Son - the Son whom, equal to the
Father and begotten by him, the Father loves from his heart - and
to give this Son in such a way that he would be the one and the
same common Son of God the Father and of the Blessed Virgin Mary.
It was she whom the Son himself chose to make his Mother and it
was from her that the Holy Spirit willed and brought it about that
he should be conceived and born from whom he himself proceeds."
(Pope Pius IX, "Ineffabilis Deus", 1854)
"'We
shrink from saying,' is the answer of Dionysius of Chartreux, 'of
this woman who was to crush the head of [Satan] that had been crushed by him and that Mother of God that
she had ever been a daughter of the Evil One' (Sent. d. 3, q. 1).
No, to the Christian intelligence the idea is unthinkable that the
flesh of Christ, holy, stainless, innocent, was formed in the womb
of Mary of a flesh which had ever, if only for the briefest
moment, contracted any stain. And why so, but because an infinite
opposition separates God from sin? There certainly we have the
origin of the conviction common to all Christians that Jesus
Christ before, clothed in human nature, He cleansed us from our
sins in His blood, accorded Mary the grace and special privilege
of being preserved and exempted, from the first moment of her
conception, from all stain of original sin." (Pope St. Pius
X, "Ad Diem Illum Laetissimum", 1904)
"[T]he
Fathers proclaimed with particular and definite statements that
when one treats of sin, the holy Virgin Mary is not even to be
mentioned; for to her more grace was given than was necessary to
conquer sin completely. They also declared that the most glorious
Virgin was Reparatrix of the first parents, the giver of life to
posterity; that she was chosen before the ages, prepared for
himself by the Most High, foretold by God when he said to the
serpent, 'I will put enmities between you and the woman.' -
unmistakable evidence that she has crushed the poisonous head of [Satan].
And hence they affirmed that the Blessed Virgin was, through
grace, entirely free from every stain of sin, and from all
corruption of body, soul and mind; that she was always united with
God and joined to him by an eternal covenant; that she was never
in darkness but always in light; and that, therefore, she was
entirely a fit habitation for Christ, not because of the state of
her body, but because of her original grace." (Pope Pius IX, "Ineffabilis Deus", 1854)
"And
indeed, illustrious documents of venerable antiquity, of both the
Eastern and the Western Church, very forcibly testify that this
doctrine of the Immaculate Conception of the most Blessed Virgin,
which was daily more and more splendidly explained, stated and
confirmed by the highest authority, teaching, zeal, knowledge, and
wisdom of the Church, and which was disseminated among all peoples
and nations of the Catholic world in a marvelous manner - this
doctrine always existed in the Church as a doctrine that has been
received from our ancestors, and that has been stamped with the
character of revealed doctrine. For the Church of Christ, watchful
guardian that she is, and defender of the dogmas deposited with
her, never changes anything, never diminishes anything, never adds
anything to them; but with all diligence she treats the ancient
documents faithfully and wisely; if they really are of ancient
origin and if the faith of the Fathers has transmitted them, she
strives to investigate and explain them in such a way that the
ancient dogmas of heavenly doctrine will be made evident and
clear, but will retain their full, integral, and proper nature,
and will grow only within their own genus - that is, within the
same dogma, in the same sense and the same meaning." (Pope
Pius IX, "Ineffabilis Deus", 1854)
"Speaking
of the conception of the Virgin, they testified that nature
yielded to grace and, unable to go on, stood trembling. The Virgin
Mother of God would not be conceived by Anna before grace would
bear its fruits; it was proper that she be conceived as the
first-born, by whom 'the first-born of every creature' would be
conceived. They testified, too, that the flesh of the Virgin,
although derived from Adam, did not contract the stains of Adam,
and that on this account the most Blessed Virgin was the
tabernacle created by God himself and formed by the Holy Spirit,
truly a work in royal purple, adorned and woven with gold, which
that new Beseleel made. They affirmed that the same Virgin is, and
is deservedly, the first and especial work of God, escaping the
fiery arrows of the evil one; that she is beautiful by nature and
entirely free from all stain; that at her Immaculate Conception
she came into the world all radiant like the dawn. For it was
certainly not fitting that this vessel of election should be
wounded by the common injuries, since she, differing so much from
the others, had only nature in common with them, not sin. In fact,
it was quite fitting that, as the Only-Begotten has a Father in
heaven, whom the Seraphim extol as thrice holy, so he should have
a Mother on earth who would never be without the splendor of
holiness." (Pope Pius IX, "Ineffabilis Deus", 1854)
"While in an examination of devout
deliberation we are thoroughly investigating the distinguished
marks of merit, by which the Queen of Heaven, the glorious Virgin
Mother of God, is preferred to all in the heavenly courts; just as
among the stars the morning star foretells the dawn, we consider
it just, even a duty, that all the faithful of Christ for the
miraculous conception of this immaculate Virgin, give praise and
thanks to Almighty God (whose providence beholding from all
eternity the humility of this same Virgin, to reconcile with its
author human nature exposed to eternal death because of the fall
of the first man, by the preparation of the Holy Spirit
constituted her the habitation of His Only-begotten Son, from whom
He took on the flesh of our mortality for the redemption of His
people, and the Virgin remained immaculate even after childbirth),
and therefore that they say Masses and other divine offices
instituted in the Church of God, and that they attend them to ask
by indulgences and by the remission of sins to become more worthy
of divine grace by the merits of and by the intercession of this
same Virgin." (Pope Sixtus IV, 1476 A.D.)
"In
the first place, the foundation of this doctrine is to be found in
Sacred Scripture, where we are taught that God, Creator of all
things, after the sad fall of Adam, addressed the serpent, the
tempter and corrupter, in these words, which not a few Fathers,
Doctors of the Church and many approved interpreters applied to
the Virgin Mother of God: 'I will put enmities between thee and
the woman, and thy seed and her seed' (Gen. III-15). Now, if at
any time the Blessed Mary were destitute of Divine grace even for
the briefest moment, because of contamination in her conception by
the hereditary stain of sin, there would not have come between her
and the serpent that perpetual enmity spoken of from earliest
tradition down to the time of the solemn definition of the
Immaculate Conception, but rather a certain subjection. Moreover,
since the same holy Virgin is saluted 'full of grace' and 'blessed
among women' (Luke I. 28, 24), by these words, as Catholic
tradition has always interpreted, it is plainly indicated that 'by
this singular and solemn salutation, otherwise never heard of, it
is shown that the Mother of God was the abode of all Divine
graces, adorned with all the charisms of the Holy Spirit, yea, the
treasury well nigh infinite and abyss inexhaustible of these
charisms, so that she was never subjected to the one accursed'
(Bull Ineffabilis Deus). This doctrine, unanimously received in
the early Church, has been handed down clearly enough by the
Fathers, who claimed for the Blessed Virgin such titles as Lily
Among Thorns; Land Wholly Intact; Immaculate; Always Blessed; Free
From All Contagion Of Sin; Unfading Tree; Fountain Ever Clear; The
One And Only Daughter Not Of Death But Of Life; Offspring Not Of
Wrath But Of Grace; Unimpaired And Ever Unimpaired; Holy And
Stranger To All Stain Of Sin; More Comely Than Comeliness Itself;
More Holy Than Sanctity; Alone Holy Who, Excepting God, Is Higher
Than All; By Nature More Beautiful, More Graceful And More Holy
Than The Cherubim And Seraphim Themselves And The Whole Host Of
Angels'. If these praises of the Blessed Virgin Mary be given the
careful consideration they deserve, who will dare to doubt that
she, who was purer than the angels and at all times pure, was at
any moment, even for the briefest instant, not free from every
stain of sin? Deservedly, therefore, St. Ephrem addresses her
Divine Son in these words: 'Really and truly Thou and Thy Mother
are alone entirely beautiful. Neither in Thee nor in Thy Mother is
there any stain.' (Carmine Nisibena, Ed. Bickell, 123). From these
words, it is clearly apparent that there is only one among all
holy men and women about whom it can be said that the question of
sin does not even arise, and also that she obtained this singular
privilege, never granted to anyone else, because she was raised to
the dignity of Mother of God." (Pope Pius XII, "Fulgens
Corona", 1953)
Also
See: Infallible
Proclamation of the Immaculate Conception | Mary
& Grace / Graces | Mary
& Eve | Mary
Vs. Satan | Praise
of Mary | We
Should Imitate Mary / Mary is Our Model | Mary's
Virtues | The
Assumption of Mary Into Heaven | Infallible
Proclamation of the Assumption | Original
Sin (Catholic Basics/Reflections) | Marian
Facts | Marian
Scriptural References | Some
Reasons to Honor the Blessed Virgin Mary
| Some
Thoughts on the Blessed Virgin Mary
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