Feast of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary (December 8th)

[ Saint Jerome, Doctor of the Church]

The virtue and the greatness of the Blessed and Glorious Mary ever Virgin were proclaimed in God’s own words by the Angel when he said, “Hail, full of grace, the Lord is with thee. Blessed art thou amongst women.” For it was fitting that the Virgin should be enriched by gifts so great as to make her full of grace-she who gave glory to heaven, the Lord to the earth, poured out peace on the world, gave faith to the nations, made an end to wickedness, brought order to life, instruction and discipline to human ways. And indeed she is full of grace, for whereas grace is given to others only part, on Mary it was poured out all at once in all its fullness. She is truly full of grace; for, even though, as we believe, the holy Prophets and Fathers possessed grace, it was not yet in fullness; but into Mary came the whole fullness of all grace, which is in Christ, although in another way. And therefore the Angel says, “Blessed art thou amongst women,” that is, more blessed than all other women. Thus whatever curse devolved upon mankind through Eve was wholly removed by the blessing given to Mary. In Mary’s praise, as it were, Solomon says in the Canticle, “Come, my dove, my immaculate one. For see, the winter is past, the rains are over and gone.” And then he says, “Come from Lebanon, come and be crowned.”

Not without reason is she called to come from Lebanon. For the name “Lebanon” is interpreted “Shining Whiteness”. And Mary shines with the purity of many virtues, glistening whiter than the whitest snow with gifts of the Holy Ghost, in all things showing the simplicity of a dove. For everything about her is wholly the work of purity and simplicty, of grace and truth, of the mercy and justice that look down from heaven. And so she is unstained, since she is in no way corrupted. She has encompassed a man in her womb, as holy Jeremias testifies, and received Him from no one else. “For the Lord,” he says ” hath created a new thing upon the earth: A Woman shall compass a Man.” (Jeremias xxxi, 22) Indeed this was a new thing, a work of God (Whom the world cannot contain, Whom no man can see and Live) so entered the Guest-house of her womb as not to know confinement in her body; and when He was so carried that the whole God was in her womb; and He so came forth from it that (as Ezechiel prophesied) it was a door never opened. This is why the same Canticle sings of her, “A garden enclosed, a fountain sealed up, thy plants are a paradise.” [Cant.iv, 12] Truly she is a garden of delights, planted with all kinds of flowers and the perfumes of all virtues; she is enclosed in that she has known no violation nor corruption by any wiles or deceits. She is a fountain sealed with the seal of the whole Trinity.

[From the Bulla ‘Ineffabilis Deus’, Pius IX, Dec 8 1854]
God enriched her so marvellously more than all angels and saints with an abundance of gifts poured out from the treasure of the Divinity, that she had been free from the least taint of original sin, entirely beautiful and perfect and raised to that fullness of innocence and sanctity beyond which nothing is conceivable under God, and which none can ever comprehend but God….

Therefore, after having offered to God the Father through His Son our own private prayers with humility and fastings as well as the public prayers of the Church, that He may deign to direct and confirm our mind with the power of the Holy Ghost, having invited the help of the whole celestial choir, having invoked with sighs the Holy Ghost and been moved by Him, for the honor of the Holy and Undivided Trinity, for the glory and embellishment of the Vigin Mother of God, for the exaltation of the Catholic Faith and the increase of the Christian Religion, by the authority of Our Lord Jesus Christ, of the Blessed Apostles Peter and Paul, and Ours, we declare, pronouce and define: That the doctrine which holds the Most Blessed Virgin Mary to have been at the first instant of her conception, by a singular grace and privilege of the Almighty God, in consideration of the merits of Jesus Christ, the Saviour of the human race, Preserved Immune From All Stain Of Original Sin, is revealed by God and therefore to be firmly and constantly believed by all the faithful.