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Immaculate Conception

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This article is about the doctrine that Mary was free from original sin. For the conception of Jesus, see Virgin birth of Jesus. For other uses, see Immaculate Conception (disambiguation).
Several terms redirect here. For other uses, see Immacolata (disambiguation), Immaculata (disambiguation), Immaculate (disambiguation), and Mary Immaculate (disambiguation).

Immaculate Conception of Mary
The Immaculate Conception (1767–1769)
by Giovanni Battista Tiepolo
Venerated inCatholic Church
(East and West)
Major shrineBasilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception
FeastDecember 8 (Roman Rite)
December 9 (Byzantine Rite)
Attributes
Patronage
Part of a series on the
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Immaculate Conception
Immaculate Conception by Bartolomé Esteban Murillo (c. 1675)
Overview
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Approved, with widespread liturgical
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The Immaculate Conception is a teaching that states that the Virgin Mary was free of original sin from the moment of her conception.[1] Long associated with the Catholic Church and debated by medieval theologians, it proved so controversial that it did not become part of official Catholic teaching until 1854, when Pius IX gave it the status of dogma in the papal bull Ineffabilis Deus.[2]

The Roman Missal and the Roman Rite Liturgy of the Hours include references to Mary's Immaculate Conception in the feast of the Immaculate Conception. The Immaculate Conception became a popular subject in literature,[3] but its abstract nature meant it was late in appearing as a subject in works of art.[4] The iconography of the Virgin of the Immaculate Conception shows Mary standing, with arms outstretched or hands clasped in prayer. The feast day of the Immaculate Conception is December 8.[5]

Protestants have rejected the Immaculate Conception as having no foundation in the Bible,[6] while other Christian traditions such as some Eastern Orthodox object on theological grounds.[7] Patriarch Anthimus VII of Constantinople characterized the dogma of the Immaculate Conception as a "Roman novelty".[8]

Doctrine

The Immaculate Conception of Mary is one of the four Marian dogmas of the Catholic Church, meaning that it is held to be a divinely revealed truth whose denial is heresy.[9] Defined by Pope Pius IX in Ineffabilis Deus in 1854, it states that Mary, through God's grace, was conceived free from the stain of original sin through her role as the Mother of God:[10]

We declare, pronounce, and define that the doctrine which holds that the most Blessed Virgin Mary, in the first instance of her conception, by a singular grace and privilege granted by Almighty God, in view of the merits of Jesus Christ, the Saviour of the human race, was preserved free from all stain of original sin, is a doctrine revealed by God and therefore to be believed firmly and constantly by all the faithful.[11]

While the Immaculate Conception asserts Mary's freedom from original sin, the Council of Trent, held between 1545 and 1563, had previously affirmed her freedom from personal sin.[12]

Theological Implications

The doctrine of the Immaculate Conception, as the generation of a human in the absence of Original Sin, immediately raises theological questions about the correllary aspects of the unique nature of Mary’s (1) conception, and (2) state-of-existence.

Mechanism of Mary's Conception

Difficulties

The 3 layers of human nature.
The three layers of human nature, from Biblical typology and Classical-Scholastic Philosophy.

The greatest difficulty for Catholic theologians like Thomas Aquinas and Augustine[13][14][15], in understanding the transmission of Original Sin (and, by extension, Mary’s immunity from it), is the seeming contradiction that Original Sin, is commonly thought, like all sins, to be a quality within one’s spiritual soul (i.e, within one’s Rational layer), whereas it is transmitted by descent from Adam, which can only occur through sexual, bodily reproduction (in one’s Physical layer).[16][17] This seems like a category error.
This difficulty becomes even greater, in view of the fact that, the rational part of the soul is held to be created and infused directly by God[18][19][20], and since no work of God can ever be sinful,[21][22] the soul itself cannot possibly be the source of Original Sin, as one might expect, although it somehow nevertheless becomes tainted by Original Sin, through its association with the body, which raises further questions of how it becomes infected thereby.[23]

Catholic Church’s Later Understanding

To this problem, later Catholic belief would come to clarify that Original Sin is not in fact an evil quality,[24] or deficit, within one’s rational soul, but is instead the mere lack of something extra, beyond human nature, in this case, an added extra ("preternatural"[25]) Grace,[26] thus leaving fallen mankind with just its bare, normal, natural, ungraced existence, neither essentially evil, nor “intrinsically depraved” (as Calvinists say), as if it were missing an essential piece, but merely disposed to anything at all, either good or evil[27]. This means that Original Sin, at least as far as its rational guilt is concerned,[28] could be healed, merely by the re-addition of that added extra Grace, as Catholics claim happens with the coming of the Holy Spirit, around the time of Baptism,[29][30] which confers a supernatural joy in one's own identity as a child of God.[31] Additionally, Original Sin's ability to exist in a human at all, could theoretically be prevented, by some sort of reproduction that doesn’t count as physical descent from Adam,[32] thereby permitting God to confer a new holy identity, unconnected with the corrupted identity of Adam's posterity,[33] something suggested by the Proto-evangelium’s cryptic phrase “seed of [not man, but] woman” (Genesis 3:15). The child Mary, being unbaptized, could not receive the former immunity, but might receive the latter.

Anne Catherine Emmerich’s solution

Relying upon her visions of the event, Anne Catherine Emmerich insists a dozen times, that the conception of Mary was not accomplished by physical sex, but by “the spoken word” and that this is how reproduction would have occurred in the garden of Eden.[34] Emmerich outlines a secret “sacrament” of the Jews, taken from Adam,[35] and communicated thru the Patriarchal blessings upon one another (cf. Genesis 27[1]),[36] down to the time of St. Joachim, who received it, enabling him to verbally impregnate his wife Saint Anne, while leaving her "unsullied."[37] On the female side, Emmerich says that this also required the generational purification of the female Jewish ancestral line, leading to Christ, down to the time of St. Anne, who was thereby able to be the most “chaste” woman then alive.[38] This explanation of course leaves unclarified how (1) a man’s spoken word, could physically (albeit miraculously) alter a woman’s body, and (2) what role the mother's chastity played, whether in merely accomplishing the conception, or also in removing Mary's concupiscence, perhaps for the honor of the future flesh of Jesus Christ, who would take his from hers. The mystic St. Mary of Agreda seems to suggest the latter, when she says that "her soul always enjoyed his presence as to his Divinity,"[39] a statement which accords well with modern medical knowledge about the earliness of offspring oogenesis[40], and fetomaternal Microchimerism, according to which, from four months before her birth, until her death, Mary would always have some cells of Jesus alive in her. Joachim's and Anne's non-physical style of reproduction explains how Mary would be immune, in her rational layer, from Adam's formal, legal guilt.[32] It is also theoretically possible that such a spoken word could confer an added, extra bodily alteration, to remove concupiscence. However, this could instead be accomplished by whatever new rational identity God might give to the new child's rational soul (See "infused knowledge" below), as a new creation independent of Adam. Regardless, Emmerich describes 6 supernatural irregularities from the way that most children are born:

  • Purification of the female line.[38]
  • Opening of a new area within St. Anne's body.[41]
  • Jewish sacramental blessing infused into St. Joachim.[42]
  • Conception by the spoken word.[43]
  • Animated and born one week early.[44]
  • Infused Knowledge imparted within the infant Mary's soul.[45]


Mary's Resultant State of Existence

Consistent with their view of human nature, Catholic theologians and mystics have identified three aspects of Original Sin, one at each level of human nature: Original Justice, Original Integrity, and Original Immortality:

3 Levels of Human Nature[46][47][48][49] Adam in the Garden of Eden[50][51] Fallen humanity[52] The Baptized (spiritually regenerated); & Mary (even more so[53][54])
Rational[55] (Intellect[56] & Will[21])[57][58] Original Justice[59]
(as the lack of...→) 		Original Sin
(A weakened will, and a darkened intellect)[60][61] 		Justification[62] (introducing Sanctifying Grace, as the presence of the Holy Spirit "indwelling" the soul[63][64])
Sensate (Animal Senses) Original Integrity[65][66][26][50]
(as the lack of...→) 		Concupiscence (Rom. 6:12)[67][24] / "fomes peccati"
(The overpowering of higher Rationality, by lower passions)[68][69] 		Sanctification[70][68][71]
Physical (Body)[72] Original Immortality
(as the lack of...→) 		Death
(Separation of Spirit and Body[73]) 		Glorification[74][75]

It is logical that Mary would be the same as the chart’s last column, only in a more perfect degree than normal Christians experience it.

Mary’s Rational Justification

The Catholic Church has long held that Mary never submitted to a sinful temptation, and therefore never had personal sin.[76][77][78] This would presumably involve some sort of intellectual illumination that would strengthen her will, as Catholic mystics have described, from their visions.[45][79][77] A concomitant question to this, is how she could've been justified, without detracting from Christ's universal salvific role (John 14:6[2]), to which, the church has proposed the curious retroactive formula, in the dogma above, that Mary was somehow justified "in view of" her son's future merits.[80][81] Additionally, the Catholic belief in Mary as “Spouse of the Holy Spirit,” among her three divine relationshipsβ, might also imply an extra-perfect form of Justification; hagiographers have described various saints as experiencing something similar, known as Mystical Marriage. Indeed, the church holds that the grace given to Mary was exceedingly great,[82] as was her cooperation with it,[83] thus making her, within the order of grace, higher than the Angels, even “Queen of Angels,” as the Litany of the Loretto proclaims.[84] Several other such titles, from the same litany, also describe Mary’s rational illumination: “Seat of Wisdom,” “Virgin most prudent,” “Virgin most faithful;” others describe her strength of Will: “Mirror of Justice,” “Singular vessel of devotion.”

Mary’s Sensate Sanctification

Catholic Theologians have generally held that Mary did not possess any Concupiscence, also known as the fomes peccati ("tinder of sin"[68]).[85][86][87] Anne Catherine Emmerich even goes so far as to say that this was, not a result of the Immaculate Conception, but the cause of it, achieved by generations of Jews marrying according to prophetic guidance, so as to purify the female line from concupiscence,[88] thereby enabling St. Anne to conceive once-and-only-once by a specially-graced spoken word from St. Joachim.[34] Multiple titles from the Litany of the Loretto reference Mary’s sensate sanctification: “Holy Virgin of virgins,” “Mother most pure,” “Mother most chaste,” “Mystical rose,” “Tower of David,” “Tower of Ivory,” etc. Of course, another such relevant[54] title is the Angelic greeting itself, "Hail, Full of Grace."[89]

Mary’s Physical Glorification

While admitting that Mary died, the Catholic Church also believes in her subsequent bodily Assumption into Heaven, and Coronation as queen of Heaven. The Catholic church has also granted credence to numerous Marian apparitions in which she bodily appeared, over the centuries to various visionaries, frequently accompanied by angels, or other miraculous phenomena, such as occurred at Guadalupe, Lourdes, and Fatima. Multiple titles from the Litany of the Loretto describe Mary’s bodily glorification, either on earth, in life, or in Heaven: “House of Gold”, “Ark of the Covenant,” “Spiritual vessel,” “Vessel of honor.”


History

Scriptural & Patristic Origins

As with all Catholic dogmas, the church holds that it was believed in, at least implicitly, either in Sacred Scripture, or in oral Sacred tradition, and thence through all Christian centuries.[90][91][92][93] The two are to be viewed, not in isolation, but with each supplementing and interpreting the other.[94] Catholic theologians and apologists therefore commonly point to the following ancient inter-corroborating authorities (side-by-side, on each row) as possible confirming testimonies to the antiquity and longevity of the doctrine:

Possible Scriptural and Patristic Basis for Mary's Immaculate Conception
Verse Sacred Scriptural text Possible Sacred Tradition based on Church Father attestation
Songs of Songs 2:1-2 I am a rose of Sharon,
a lily of the valleys.
As a lily among brambles,

so is my love among maidens.

St. Theodotus of Ancyra[95]
Songs of Songs 4:4 Your neck is like the tower of David, built for an arsenal, whereon hang a thousand bucklers, all of them shields of warriors. See note.α
Songs of Songs 4:7 You are all fair, my love; there is no flaw in you. (Latin "Tota Pulchra.") Ephrem the Syrian[77], Epiphanius[96], Augustine[97]
Songs of Songs 4:12 A garden locked is my sister, my bride, a garden locked, a fountain sealed. Epiphanius[96], Justus of Urgell[98],
Revelation 11:19-12:2 Then God’s temple in heaven was opened, and the ark of his covenant was seen within his temple; . . . And a great portent appeared in heaven, 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 and she cried out in her pangs of birth, in anguish for delivery. Epiphanius[96]; either Ambrose[99] or Maximus of Turin[100] [101] on Mary as the Ark of the Covenant.
Luke 1:28 Hail, O having-been-grace-ified girl. (Greek "Κεχαριτωμένη").[102] Epiphanius[96], Augustine[103], (Pseudo[104][105]-)Athanasius[106]

Apocryphal texts

Anne, mother of Mary, and original sin

Main article: Original sin

Anne appears as the mother of Mary in the late 2nd-century Gospel of James.[107] Anne and her husband, Saint Joachim, are infertile, but God hears their prayers and Mary is conceived. [108] The conception occurs without sexual intercourse between Anne and Joachim, but the story does not advance the idea of an immaculate conception.[109]

Medieval formulation

Altar of the Immaculata by Joseph Lusenberg, 1876. Saint Antony's Church, Urtijëi, Italy.

By the 4th century it was generally accepted that Mary was free of personal sin,[110] but original sin raised the question of whether she was also free of the sin passed down from Adam.[111] The question became acute when the feast of her conception began to be celebrated in England in the 11th century,[112] and the opponents of the feast of Mary's conception brought forth the objection that as sexual intercourse is sinful, to celebrate Mary's conception was to celebrate a sinful event.[113] (The feast of Mary's conception originated in the Eastern Church in the 7th century, reached England in the 11th, and from there spread to Europe, where it was given official approval in 1477 and extended to the whole Church in 1693; the word "immaculate" was not officially added to the name of the feast until 1854).[112]

The doctrine of the Immaculate Conception caused a virtual civil war between Franciscans and Dominicans during the middle ages, with Franciscan 'Scotists' in its favour and Dominican 'Thomists' against it.[114] [115] The English ecclesiastic and scholar Eadmer (c.1060-c.1126) reasoned that it was possible that Mary was conceived without original sin in view of God's omnipotence, and that it was also appropriate in view of her role as Mother of God: Potuit, decuit, fecit, "it was possible, it was fitting, therefore it was done."[111] Others, including Bernard of Clairvaux (1090–1153) and Thomas Aquinas (1225–1274), objected that if Mary were free of original sin at her conception then she would have no need of redemption, making Christ superfluous; they were answered by Duns Scotus (1264–1308), who argued that her preservation from original sin was a redemption more perfect than that granted through Christ.[116] In 1439, the Council of Basel, in schism with Pope Eugene IV who resided at the Council of Florence,[117] declared Mary's Immaculate Conception a "pious opinion" consistent with faith and Scripture; the Council of Trent, held in several sessions in the early 1500s, made no explicit declaration on the subject but exempted her from the universality of original sin; and by 1571 the Pope's Breviary (prayerbook) set out an elaborate celebration of the Feast of the Immaculate Conception on 8 December.[118]

The eventual creation of the dogma was due more to popular devotion than scholarship.[119] The Immaculate Conception became a popular subject in literature and art,[3] and some devotees went so far as to hold that Anne had conceived Mary by kissing her husband Joachim, and that Anne's father and grandmother had likewise been conceived without sexual intercourse, although St Bridget of Sweden (c.1303–1373) told how Mary herself had revealed to her that Anne and Joachim conceived their daughter through a sexual union which was sinless because it was pure and free of sexual lust.[120]

In the 16th and especially the 17th centuries there was a proliferation of Immaculatist devotion in Spain, leading the Habsburg monarchs to demand that the papacy elevate the belief to the status of dogma.[121] In France in 1830 Catherine Labouré (May 2, 1806 – December 31, 1876) saw a vision of Mary as the Immaculate Conception standing on a globe while a voice commanded her to have a medal made in imitation of what she saw,[122] and her vision marked the beginning of a great 19th-century Marian revival.[123] In 1849 Pope Pius IX asked the Bishops of the Church for their views on whether the doctrine should be defined as dogma; ninety percent of those who responded were supportive, and in 1854 the Immaculate Conception dogma was proclaimed with the bull Ineffabilis Deus.[124] Although the Archbishop of Paris, Marie-Dominique-Auguste Sibour, warned that the Immaculate Conception "could be proved neither from the Scriptures nor from tradition" he was present at the promulgation of the decree and shortly afterwards solemnly published it in his own diocese.[125]

Ineffabilis Deus found the Immaculate Conception in the Ark of Salvation (Noah's Ark), Jacob's Ladder, the Burning Bush at Sinai, the Enclosed Garden from the Song of Songs, and many more passages.[126] From this wealth of support the pope's advisors singled out Genesis 3:15: "The most glorious Virgin ... was foretold by God when he said to the serpent: 'I will put enmity between you and the woman,'"[127] a prophecy which reached fulfilment in the figure of the Woman in the Revelation of John, crowned with stars and trampling the Dragon underfoot.[128] Luke 1:28, and specifically the phrase "full of grace" by which Gabriel greeted Mary, was another reference to her Immaculate Conception: "she was never subject to the curse and was, together with her Son, the only partaker of perpetual benediction."[129]

Ineffabilis Deus was one of the pivotal events of the papacy of Pius, pope from 16 June 1846 to his death on 7 February 1878.[130] Formerly it had been understood that the content of a dogma had to be contained in Scripture,[131] but Mary's immaculate conception is not stated in the New Testament and cannot be deduced from it;[132] Ineffabilis Deus therefore was a novelty, being based instead on the declaration of a special commission to the effect that neither Scripture nor tradition were necessary to define dogma, but only the authority of the Church expressed in the Pope.[131] Four years after the proclamation of the dogma, in 1858, Mary appeared to the young Bernadette Soubirous at Lourdes in southern France, to announce that she was the Immaculate Conception.[133]

Feast, patronages and disputes

The procession of the Quadrittu of the Immaculate Conception taken on December 7 in Saponara, Sicily
Main article: Patronages of the Immaculate Conception
Main article: Feast of the Immaculate Conception

The feast day of the Immaculate Conception is December 8.[5] Its celebration seems to have begun in the Eastern church in the 7th century and may have spread to Ireland by the 8th, although the earliest well-attested record in the Western church is from England early in the 11th.[134] It was suppressed there after the Norman Conquest (1066), and the first thorough exposition of the doctrine was a response to this suppression.[134] It continued to spread through the 15th century despite accusations of heresy from the Thomists and strong objections from several prominent theologians. [135] Beginning around 1140 St Bernard of Clairvaux, a Cistercian monk, wrote to Lyons Cathedral to express his surprise and dissatisfaction that it had recently begun to be observed there,[113] but in 1477 Pope Sixtus IV, a Franciscan Scotist and devoted Immaculist, placed it on the Roman calendar (i.e., list of Church festivals and observances) via the bull Cum praexcelsa.[136] Thereafter in 1481 and 1483, in response to the polemic writings of the prominent Thomist, Vincenzo Bandello, Pope Sixtus IV published two more bulls which forbade anybody to preach or teach against the Immaculate Conception, or for either side to accuse the other of heresy, on pains of excommunication. Pope Pius V kept the feast on the tridentine calendar but suppressed the word "immaculate".[137] Gregory XV in 1622 prohibited any public or private assertion that Mary was conceived in sin. Urban VIII in 1624 allowed the Franciscans to establish a military order dedicated to the Virgin of the Immaculate Conception.[137] Following the promulgation of Ineffabilis Deus the typically Franciscan phrase "immaculate conception" reasserted itself in the title and euchology (prayer formulae) of the feast. Pius IX solemnly promulgated a mass formulary drawn chiefly from one composed 400 years by a papal chamberlain at the behest of Sixtus IV, beginning "O God who by the Immaculate Conception of the Virgin...". [138]

By pontifical decree a number of countries are considered to be under the patronage of the Immaculate Conception. These include Argentina, Brazil, Korea, Nicaragua, Paraguay, the Philippines, Spain (including the old kingdoms and the present state), the United States and Uruguay. By royal decree under the House of Bragança, she is the principal Patroness of Portugal.[citation needed]

Prayers and hymns

The Roman Missal and the Roman Rite Liturgy of the Hours naturally include references to Mary's immaculate conception in the feast of the Immaculate Conception. An example is the antiphon that begins: "Tota pulchra es, Maria, et macula originalis non est in te" ("You are all beautiful, Mary, and the original stain [of sin] is not in you." It continues: "Your clothing is white as snow, and your face is like the sun. You are all beautiful, Mary, and the original stain [of sin] is not in you. You are the glory of Jerusalem, you are the joy of Israel, you give honour to our people. You are all beautiful, Mary.")[139] On the basis of the original Gregorian chant music,[140] polyphonic settings have been composed by Anton Bruckner,[141] Pablo Casals, Maurice Duruflé,[142] Grzegorz Gerwazy Gorczycki,[143] Ola Gjeilo,[144] José Maurício Nunes Garcia,[145] and Nikolaus Schapfl [de].[146]

Other prayers honouring Mary's immaculate conception are in use outside the formal liturgy. The Immaculata prayer, composed by Saint Maximillian Kolbe, is a prayer of entrustment to Mary as the Immaculata.[147] A novena of prayers, with a specific prayer for each of the nine days has been composed under the title of the Immaculate Conception Novena.[148]

Ave Maris Stella is the vesper hymn of the feast of the Immaculate Conception.[149] The hymn Immaculate Mary, addressed to Mary as the Immaculately Conceived One, is closely associated with Lourdes.[150]

Artistic representation

Main article: Roman Catholic Marian art
Giotto, Meeting at the Golden Gate, 1304–1306

The Immaculate Conception became a popular subject in literature,[3] but its abstract nature meant it was late in appearing as a subject in art.[4] During the Medieval period it was depicted as "Joachim and Anne Meeting at the Golden Gate", meaning Mary's conception through the chaste kiss of her parents at the Golden Gate in Jerusalem;[151] the 14th and 15th centuries were the heyday for this scene, after which it was gradually replaced by more allegorical depictions featuring an adult Mary.[152] The 1476 extension of the feast of the Immaculate Conception to the entire Latin Church reduced the likelihood of controversy for the artist or patron in depicting an image, so that emblems depicting The Immaculate Conception began to appear. Many artists in the 15th century faced the problem of how to depict an abstract idea such as the Immaculate Conception, and the problem was not fully solved for 150 years. The Italian Renaissance artist Piero di Cosimo was among those artists who tried new solutions, but none of these became generally adopted so that the subject matter would be immediately recognisable to the faithful.[citation needed]

The definitive iconography for the depiction of "Our Lady" seems to have been finally established by the painter and theorist Francisco Pacheco in his "El arte de la pintura" of 1649: a beautiful young girl of 12 or 13, wearing a white tunic and blue mantle, rays of light emanating from her head ringed by twelve stars and crowned by an imperial crown, the sun behind her and the moon beneath her feet.[153] Pacheco's iconography influenced other Spanish artists or artists active in Spain such as El Greco, Bartolomé Murillo, Diego Velázquez, and Francisco Zurbarán, who each produced a number of artistic masterpieces based on the use of these same symbols.[154] The popularity of this particular representation of The Immaculate Conception spread across the rest of Europe, and has since remained the best known artistic depiction of the concept: in a heavenly realm, moments after her creation, the spirit of Mary (in the form of a young woman) looks up in awe at (or bows her head to) God. The moon is under her feet and a halo of twelve stars surround her head, possibly a reference to "a woman clothed with the sun" from Revelation 12:1–2. Additional imagery may include clouds, a golden light, and putti. In some paintings the putti are holding lilies and roses, flowers often associated with Mary.[155]


Other churches

Further information: Sinlessness of Mary

Eastern Orthodoxy

Eastern Orthodoxy never accepted Augustine's specific ideas on original sin, and in consequence did not become involved in the later developments that took place in the Roman Catholic Church, including the Immaculate Conception.[156][157] When in 1894 Pope Leo XIII addressed the Eastern church in his encyclical Praeclara gratulationis, Ecumenical Patriarch Anthimos in 1895 replied with an encyclical approved by the Constantinopolitan Synod in which he stigmatised the dogmas of the Immaculate Conception and papal infallibility as "Roman novelties" and called on the Roman church to return to the faith of the early centuries.[8] Eastern Orthodox Bishop Kallistos Ware comments that "the Latin dogma seems to us not so much erroneous as superfluous."[158]

Oriental Orthodoxy

The Eritrean and Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo do believe in the Immaculate Conception of the Theotokos. The Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church celebrates the Feast of the Immaculate Conception on Nehasie 7 (August 13).[159][160] The 96th chapter of the Kebra Nagast states: “He cleansed Eve's body and sanctified it and made for it a dwelling in her for Adam’s salvation. She [i.e., Mary] was born without blemish, for He made her pure, without pollution, and she redeemed his debt without carnal union and embrace...Through the transgression of Eve, we died and were buried, and by the purity of Mary we receive the honor, and are exalted to the heights.”

Old Catholics

In the mid-19th century, some Catholics who were unable to accept the doctrine of papal infallibility left the Roman Church and formed the Old Catholic Church. This movement rejects the Immaculate Conception.[161][162]

Protestantism

Protestants overwhelmingly condemned the promulgation of Ineffabilis Deus as an exercise in papal power, and the doctrine itself as without foundation in Scripture,[6] for it denied that all had sinned and rested on a translation of Luke 1:28 (the "full of grace" passage) that the original Greek did not support.[163] Protestants, therefore, teach that Mary was a sinner saved through grace like all believers.[129] The ecumenical Lutheran-Catholic Statement on Saints, Mary, issued in 1990, after seven years of study and discussion, conceded that Lutherans and Catholics remained separated "by differing views on matters such as the invocation of saints, the Immaculate Conception and the Assumption of Mary;"[164] the final report of the Anglican–Roman Catholic International Commission (ARCIC), created in 1969 to further ecumenical progress between the Roman Catholic Church and the Anglican Communion, similarly recorded the disagreement of the Anglicans with the doctrine, although Anglo-Catholics may hold the Immaculate Conception as an optional pious belief.[165]

See also

References

Citations

  1. ^ Reynolds 2012, p. 330.
  2. ^ Wright 1992, p. 237.
  3. ^ a b c Twomey 2008, p. ix.
  4. ^ a b Hall 2018, p. 337.
  5. ^ a b Barrely 2014, p. 40.
  6. ^ a b Herringer 2019, p. 507.
  7. ^ Shea, Mark (November 9, 2012). "The Immaculate Conception: What About the Eastern Orthodox Churches?". National Catholic Register. Retrieved April 26, 2022.
  8. ^ a b Meyendorff 1981, p. 90.
  9. ^ Collinge 2012, p. 133.
  10. ^ Collinge 2012, p. 209.
  11. ^ Sheed 1958, pp. 134–138.
  12. ^ Fastiggi 2019, p. 455.
  13. ^ Aquinas, Thomas (1275). "III.27.2.corpus, obj.4; III.27.3.corpus.". Summa Theologiae. Torino: San Paolo. Retrieved April 28, 2022.
    III.27.2.corpus: Now sin cannot be taken away except by grace, the subject of which is the rational creature alone. . . .
    III.27.2.obj4: [Personal Sanctification] is not transmitted to the children begotten of the flesh: because it does not regard the flesh but the mind. Consequently, though the parents of the Blessed Virgin were cleansed from original sin, nevertheless she contracted original sin, since she was conceived by way of fleshly concupiscence and the intercourse of man and woman: for Augustine says (De Nup. et Concup. i): "All flesh born of carnal intercourse is sinful."
    III.27.3.corpus: For, according to Augustine (De Nup. et Concup. i.), it is lust that transmits original sin to the offspring.
  14. ^ Augustine, St. (1887). "I. (Vol. 5)". In Holmes, Peter; Wallis, Earnest; Warfield, Benjamin B.; Schaff, Philip (eds.). De Nuptiis et Concupiscentia, Libri Duo / On marriages and Concupiscence, 2 books. Buffalo, NY: Christian Literature Publishing Co. Retrieved April 28, 2022.
    Our new heretics, . . . are constantly affirming, in their excessive hatred of us, that we condemn marriage . . . inasmuch as we assert that they who are born of such a union contract that original sin of which the apostle says, By one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for in him all sinned; and because we do not deny, that of whatever kind of parents they are born, they are still under the devil's dominion.
    [Basically, they're asking, 'how could a holy sacramental marriage, with parents sanctified in their mind, produce unholy, fallen children, unsanctified in their body?']
  15. ^ Denzinger, Henry (1954). "§170(4)". In Rahner, Karl (ed.). The Sources of Catholic Dogma / Enchiridion Symbolorum (13th ed.). Fitzwilliam, NH: Loreto Publications. Retrieved April 28, 2022.
  16. ^ Carthage, Council of (418 A.D.) (1954). "§102". In Denzinger, Henry; Rahner, Karl (eds.). The Sources of Catholic Dogma / Enchiridion Symbolorum (13th ed.). Fitzwilliam, NH: Loreto Publications. Retrieved April 28, 2022.
    ...whoever says that infants fresh from their mothers' wombs ought not to be baptized, or says that they are indeed baptized unto the remission of [personal] sins, but that they draw nothing of the original sin from Adam, which is expiated in the bath of regeneration, whence it follows that in regard to them the form of baptism "unto the remission of sins" is understood as not true, but as false, let him be anathema.    {{cite book}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  17. ^ Pius XII, Pope (1950). "§37". Humani Generis. Rome.: Vatican. Retrieved April 28, 2022.
    For the faithful cannot embrace that opinion which maintains that either after Adam there existed on this earth true men who did not take their origin through natural generation from him as from the first parent of all, or that Adam represents a certain number of first parents. Now it is in no way apparent how such an opinion can be reconciled with that which the sources of revealed truth and the documents of the Teaching Authority of the Church propose with regard to original sin, which proceeds from a sin actually committed by an individual Adam and which, through generation, is passed on to all and is in everyone as his own.
  18. ^ Leo I The Great, Pope St. (1922). "2181". In de Journel, Rouet (ed.). Enchirideon Patristicum (in Latin) (4th and 5th ed.). Freiburg: Herder and Co. Retrieved April 28, 2022.
    What a fable of impiety, they have woven for themselves from the errors of many; but the Catholic faith separates all those from the body of its unity, constantly and truly preaching, that the souls of men, before they are breathed into their bodies, neither preexisted, nor were incorporated by anything else, except by the creator-God, who is the creator of both them and of bodies; and that because, through the transgression of the first man, the entire propagation of the human race was vitiated, no one is able to be liberated from the condition of the old man, except through the sacrament of Christ's baptism, in which there is no distinction between those renewed, with the apostle saying: 'For whosoever you are who have been baptized in Christ, have put on Christ.'
    Quam impietatis fabulam ex multorum sibi erroribus texuerunt; sed omnes eos catholica fides a corpore suae unitatis abscidit, constanter praedicans atque veraciter, quod animae hominum, priusquam suis inspirarentur corporibus, non fuere, nec ab alio incorporantur nisi ab opifice Deo, qui et ipsarum est creator et corporum; et quia per primi hominis praevaricationem tota humani generis propago vitiata sit, neminem posse a conditione veteris hominis liberari, nisi per sacramentum baptismatis Christi, in quo nulla est discretio renatorum, dicente Apostolo: Quicumque enim in Christo baptizati estis, Christum induistis.
  19. ^ Athanasius II, Pope (1954). "§170". In Denzinger, Henry; Rahner, Karl (eds.). The Sources of Catholic Dogma / Enchiridion Symbolorum (13th ed.). Fitzwilliam, NH: Loreto Publications. Retrieved April 28, 2022.
    Certain heretics in Gaul think that by a rational assertion they are persuaded of this, that just as the parents transmit bodies to the human race from material dregs, so also they bestow the vital principle of the living souls. . . . How (therefore) do they, contrary to God's will, with a very carnal mind think that the soul made to the image of God is diffused and insinuated by the mixture of human beings, when that very action by Him, who did this in the beginning, has not ceased even today, just as He Himself said: My Father works up to this time, and I work (cf. Jn 5,17)? Although likewise they ought to know what is written: "He who lives unto eternity, created all things at the same timely (Si 18,1). If, then, previously according to the Scripture He placed order and reason by single species in every individual creature (potentially), which cannot be denied, and causally in the work pertaining to the creation of all things at the same time, after the consummation of which He rested on the seventh day, but now operates visibly in the work pertaining to the passage of time even up to the present, * let the sound doctrines then rest, namely, that He, who calls those, which are not, just as those that are (cf. Rm 4,17), imparts souls.
  20. ^ Aquinas, Thomas (1275). "I.90.3.corpus.". Summa Theologiae. Torino: San Paolo. Retrieved April 28, 2022.
    On the contrary, It is written (Genesis 2:7) that God Himself "breathed into the face of man the breath of life."
  21. ^ a b Leo IX, Pope (1954). "§348". In Denzinger, Henry; Rahner, Karl (eds.). The Sources of Catholic Dogma / Enchiridion Symbolorum (13th ed.). Fitzwilliam, NH: Loreto Publications. Retrieved April 28, 2022.
    (I believe) That God predestined only the good things, but that He foreknew the good and the evil. I believe and profess that the grace of God precedes and follows man, yet in such a manner that I do not deny free will to the rational creature.
  22. ^ "Sirach / Ecclesiasticus 15:11-20". Bible. Retrieved April 28, 2022.
    Do not say "because of the Lord I left the right way"; for he will not do what he hates. . . . He has not commanded anyone to be ungodly, and he has not given anyone permission to sin.
  23. ^ Honorius I, Pope (1954). "§251". In Denzinger, Henry; Rahner, Karl (eds.). The Sources of Catholic Dogma / Enchiridion Symbolorum (13th ed.). Fitzwilliam, NH: Loreto Publications. Retrieved April 28, 2022.
    For Christ . . . was conceived of the Holy Spirit without sin, and was also born of the holy and immaculate Virgin mother of God without sin, experiencing no contagion of our vitiated nature. . . .
  24. ^ a b Trent, Council of (1954). "§792". In Denzinger, Henry; Rahner, Karl (eds.). The Sources of Catholic Dogma / Enchiridion Symbolorum (13th ed.). Fitzwilliam, NH: Loreto Publications. Retrieved April 28, 2022.
    But this holy Synod confesses and perceives that there remains in the baptized concupiscence of an inclination, although this is left to be wrestled with, it cannot harm those who do not consent, but manfully resist by the grace of Jesus Christ. Nay, indeed, "he who shall have striven lawfully, shall be crowned" [2 Tim. 2:5]. This concupiscence, which at times the Apostle calls sin [Rom. 6:12 ff.] the holy Synod declares that the Catholic Church has never understood to be called sin, as truly and properly sin in those born again, but because it is from sin and inclines to sin.
  25. ^ Denzinger, Henry; Rahner, Karl, eds. (1954). "§2212". The Sources of Catholic Dogma / Enchiridion Symbolorum (13th ed.). Fitzwilliam, NH: Loreto Publications. Retrieved April 28, 2022.
  26. ^ a b Clement IX, Pope (1954). "§1516". In Denzinger, Henry; Rahner, Karl (eds.). The Sources of Catholic Dogma / Enchiridion Symbolorum (13th ed.). Fitzwilliam, NH: Loreto Publications. Retrieved April 28, 2022.
    The doctrine of the synod about the state of happy innocence, such as it represents it in Adam before his sin, comprising not only integrity but also interior justice with an inclination toward God through love of charity, and primeval sanctity restored in some way after the fall; in so far as, understood comprehensively, it intimates that that state was a consequence of creation, due to man from the natural exigency and condition of human nature, not a gratuitous gift of God, [is to be condemned as] false, elsewhere condemned in Baius [see n. 1001 ff.], and in Quesnel [see n. 1384 ff.], erroneous, favorable to the Pelagian heresy.
  27. ^ "Sirach/Ecclesiasticus 15:16". Bible. Retrieved April 28, 2022.
    "He has placed before you fire and water: stretch out your hand for whichever you wish."
  28. ^ Leo the Great, Pope St. (1954). "§144". In Denzinger, Henry; Rahner, Karl (eds.). The Sources of Catholic Dogma / Enchiridion Symbolorum (13th ed.). Fitzwilliam, NH: Loreto Publications. Retrieved April 28, 2022.
    From the mother of the Lord, nature, not guilt, was assumed; . . .
  29. ^ Carthage, Council of (1954). "§109a". In Denzinger, Henry; Rahner, Karl (eds.). The Sources of Catholic Dogma / Enchiridion Symbolorum (13th ed.). Fitzwilliam, NH: Loreto Publications. Retrieved April 28, 2022.
    The Lord [is] faithful in his words [ Ps. 144:13] and His baptism holds the same plenitude in deed and words, that is in work, confession, and true remission of sins in every sex, age, and condition of the human race. For no one except him who is the servant of sin is made free, nor can he be said to be redeemed unless he has previously truly been a captive through sin, as it is written: "If the Son liberates you, you will be truly free [John 8:36]. For through Him we are reborn spiritually, through Him we are crucified to the world. By His death that bond of death introduced into all of us by Adam and transmitted to every soul, that bond contracted by propagation is broken, in which no one of our children is held not guilty until he is freed through baptism.
  30. ^ "Acts 10:44-48". Bible. Retrieved April 28, 2022.
  31. ^ John Paul II, Pope (1994). "§1266". Catechism of the Catholic Church (2 ed.). Vatican: Libreria Editrice Vaticana. Retrieved April 28, 2022.
    1266 The Most Holy Trinity gives the baptized sanctifying grace, the grace of justification:
    • enabling them to believe in God, to hope in him, and to love him through the theological virtues;
    • giving them the power to live and act under the prompting of the Holy Spirit through the gifts of the Holy Spirit;
    • allowing them to grow in goodness through the moral virtues.
    Thus the whole organism of the Christian's supernatural life has its roots in Baptism.
  32. ^ a b Aquinas, Thomas (1275). "I-II.81.4.corpus.". Summa Theologiae. Torino: San Paolo. Retrieved April 28, 2022.
  33. ^ Innocent III, Pope (1954). "§410". In Denzinger, Henry; Rahner, Karl (eds.). The Sources of Catholic Dogma / Enchiridion Symbolorum (13th ed.). Fitzwilliam, NH: Loreto Publications. Retrieved April 28, 2022.
    The punishment of original sin is deprivation of the vision of God, but the punishment of actual sin is the torments of everlasting hell. . . . [Conversely then, if you lack original sin, then you could theoretically have the vision of God.]
  34. ^ a b Emmerich, Blessed Anne Catherine (2006). "passim.". In Schmöger, Rev. Carl E.; Brentano, Clemens (eds.). The Life of Jesus Christ and Biblical Revelations (in German). Charlotte, NC: St. Benedict Press. Retrieved April 29, 2022.
    The sunbeams around Adam's mouth bore reference to a holy posterity from God, which, had it not been for the Fall, would have been effectuated by the spoken word.
    https://tandfspi.org/ACE_vol_01/ACE_1_0121_out.html : I was also told that Mary was conceived just as conception would have been effected, were it not for the fall of man.
  35. ^ Emmerich, Blessed Anne Catherine (2006). Schmöger, Rev. Carl E.; Brentano, Clemens (eds.). The Life of Jesus Christ and Biblical Revelations (in German). Charlotte, NC: St. Benedict Press. Retrieved April 29, 2022.
    The blessing of a pure and holy multiplying out of God and by God, which Adam had received after the creation of Eve was, in consequence of that indulgence, withdrawn from him; for I saw that the instant Adam left his hill to go to Eve, the Lord grasped him in the back and took something from him. From that something, I felt that the world's salvation would come.
  36. ^ Emmerich, Blessed Anne Catherine (2006). Schmöger, Rev. Carl E.; Brentano, Clemens (eds.). The Life of Jesus Christ and Biblical Revelations (in German). Charlotte, NC: St. Benedict Press. Retrieved April 29, 2022.
    The Patriarchs, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, had more strength in their right side than in their left; it was not, however, noticeable, for their garments were wide and full. There was in their right side a certain fullness like a swelling. It was the Holy Thing, the Blessing, the Mystery. It was luminous, in shape like a bean, and it contained a germ. The firstborn received it from the father, hence the prerogatives of primogeniture. Jacob received it instead of Esau, because Rebecca knew that he was the one destined for it. In his struggle with the angel, it had been taken away from Jacob, though without producing a wound. It was like a drying up of the swelling. But after the removal of the Blessing, Jacob no longer lived so securely, so immediately under God's protection. While he possessed the Blessing, he was like one strengthened by a Sacrament; afterward, however, he felt himself humiliated, he was careworn and he experienced great troubles. He was conscious of the Blessing's having been withdrawn from him, therefore he would not let the angel go until, by a benediction, he had strengthened him. Joseph later on, when in the prison of Pharao, in Egypt, received that same Blessing from an angel.
  37. ^ Emmerich, Blessed Anne Catherine (2006). Schmöger, Rev. Carl E.; Brentano, Clemens (eds.). The Life of Jesus Christ and Biblical Revelations (in German). Charlotte, NC: St. Benedict Press. Retrieved April 29, 2022.
    It seemed to me that the angel then said to him that Anne should conceive although remaining just as unsullied by him as this ball. The angel then took it from Joachim and raised it on high. I saw it hovering in the air and, as if through an opening, innumerable and wonderful pictures went into it. They were like a whole world, one picture growing out of another.
  38. ^ a b Emmerich, Blessed Anne Catherine (2006). "passim.". In Schmöger, Rev. Carl E.; Brentano, Clemens (eds.). [hhttps://tandfspi.org/ACE_vol_01/ACE_1_0361_out.html#ACE_1_p0368 The Life of Jesus Christ and Biblical Revelations] (in German). Charlotte, NC: St. Benedict Press. Retrieved April 29, 2022.
    ...asked why He, Jesus, had not come sooner upon earth. Jesus answered that He could have been born only of a woman who had been conceived in the same way that, were it not for the Fall, all mankind would have been conceived; and that, since the first parents, no married couple had been so pure both in themselves and in their ancestors as Anne and Joachim. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Jesus remarked that no woman had ever been more chaste than Anne; that she had married twice after Joachim's death in accordance with the command of God, for it was proper that the number of fruits destined to be produced by this branch should be filled up.
  39. ^ Agreda, St. Mary of (1650). Marison, Fiscar; Blatter, Rev. George J. (eds.). Mystical City of God. Ágreda, Soria, Spain. Retrieved April 30, 2022.
  40. ^ Rhona Lewis; Dr. Sanaz Ghazal (2022). ""How Many Eggs Are Women Born With? And Other Questions About Egg Supply"". Healthline. Healthline Media. Retrieved April 30, 2022.
    Yes, babies who have ovaries are born with all the egg cells they're ever going to have. No new egg cells are made during their lifetime. This has long been accepted as fact. . . .
    As a fetus early in development, a baby with ovaries has around a whopping 6 million eggs. The number of these eggs (oocytes, to be precise) is steadily reduced so that when the baby is born, they have between 1 and 2 million eggs left.
  41. ^ Emmerich, Blessed Anne Catherine (2006). Schmöger, Rev. Carl E.; Brentano, Clemens (eds.). The Life of Jesus Christ and Biblical Revelations (in German). Charlotte, NC: St. Benedict Press. Retrieved April 29, 2022.
    I saw on Anne's person at the instant the angel appeared to her a beam of light and in her a shining vessel. I cannot better describe it than by saying that it was like a cradle, or a tabernacle which had been closed but was now opened, and made ready to receive a holy thing. How wonderfully I saw this, is not to be expressed; for I saw it as if it were the cradle of salvation for the whole human race, and also as a kind of sacred vessel now opened, and the veil withdrawn. I saw it quite naturally as if one and the same holy thing.
  42. ^ Emmerich, Blessed Anne Catherine (2006). Schmöger, Rev. Carl E.; Brentano, Clemens (eds.). The Life of Jesus Christ and Biblical Revelations (in German). Charlotte, NC: St. Benedict Press. Retrieved April 29, 2022.
    The angel now removed something from the Ark of the Covenant, though without opening the door. It was the Mystery of the Ark, the Sacrament of the Incarnation, the Immaculate Conception, the Consummation of the Blessing of Abraham. I beheld it under the appearance of a luminous body. The angel blessed or anointed Joachim's forehead with the tip of his thumb and forefinger; then he slipped the shining body under Joachim's garment and it entered into him, how I cannot say. He also gave him something to drink out of a glittering chalice which he held supported by two fingers. The chalice was of the same shape as that used at the Last Supper, but without a foot. Joachim was directed to take it with him and keep it at his home.
  43. ^ Emmerich, Blessed Anne Catherine (2006). Schmöger, Rev. Carl E.; Brentano, Clemens (eds.). The Life of Jesus Christ and Biblical Revelations (in German). Charlotte, NC: St. Benedict Press. Retrieved April 29, 2022.
    "I saw Joachim and Anne embrace each other in ecstasy. They were surrounded by hosts of angels, some floating over them carrying a luminous tower like that which we see in the pictures of the Litany of Loretto. The tower vanished between Joachim and Anne, both of whom were encompassed by brilliant light and glory. At the same moment the heavens above them opened, and I saw the joy of the Most Holy Trinity and of the angels over the Conception of Mary. Both Joachim and Anne were in a supernatural state. I learned that, at the moment in which they embraced and the light shone around them, the Immaculate Conception of Mary was accomplished. I was also told that Mary was conceived just as conception would have been effected, were it not for the fall of man."
  44. ^ Emmerich, Blessed Anne Catherine (2006). Schmöger, Rev. Carl E.; Brentano, Clemens (eds.). The Life of Jesus Christ and Biblical Revelations (in German). Charlotte, NC: St. Benedict Press. Retrieved April 29, 2022.
    I learned that Mary's soul animated her body five days earlier than is customary with ordinary children, and that she was born twelve days sooner.
  45. ^ a b Emmerich, Blessed Anne Catherine (2006). Schmöger, Rev. Carl E.; Brentano, Clemens (eds.). The Life of Jesus Christ and Biblical Revelations (in German). Charlotte, NC: St. Benedict Press. Retrieved April 29, 2022.
    [At the time of Mary's Birth] I saw all her gifts and graces in a supernatural way revealed to her.
  46. ^ Plato. "Book IV (434c-435b, 439d-e), Book IX (580d-e)". Republic. Retrieved April 28, 2022.
  47. ^ Aristotle. "I:1(641b1-9)". De Partibus Animalium / On the Parts of Animals.
    But perhaps it is not the whole soul, nor all its parts collectively, that con- stitutes the source of motion ; but there may be one part, identical with that in plants, which is the source of growth, another, namely the sensory part, which is the source of change of quality, while still another, and this not the intellectual part, is the source of locomotion. I say not the intellectual part ; for other animals than man have the power of locomotion, but in none but him is there intellect.
  48. ^ Aristotle. "II.3(414a28-b30)". De Anima / On the Soul.
  49. ^ Aquinas, Thomas (1275). "I.77.4.corpus.". Summa Theologiae. Torino: San Paolo. Retrieved April 28, 2022.
    Thus, according to the first kind of order among the powers, the intellectual powers are prior to the sensitive powers; wherefore they direct them and command them. Likewise the sensitive powers are prior in this order to the powers of the nutritive soul.
  50. ^ a b Pontifical Biblical Commission (1954). "§2123". In Denzinger, Henry; Rahner, Karl (eds.). The Sources of Catholic Dogma / Enchiridion Symbolorum (13th ed.). Fitzwilliam, NH: Loreto Publications. Retrieved April 28, 2022.
    Question 111: Whether in particular the literal and historical sense can be called into question, where it is a matter of facts related in the same chapters, which pertain to the foundations of the Christian religion; for example, among others, the creation of all things wrought by God in the beginning of time; the special creation of man; the formation of the first woman from the first man; the oneness of the human race; the original happiness of our first parents in the state of justice, integrity, and immortality; the command given to man by God to prove his obedience; the transgression of the divine command through the devil's persuasion under the guise of a serpent; the casting of our first parents out of that first state of innocence; and also the promise of a future restorer?--Reply: In the negative.
  51. ^ Aquinas, Thomas (1275). "I.95.1.corpus.". Summa Theologiae. Torino: San Paolo. Retrieved April 28, 2022.
    But the very rectitude of the primitive state, wherewith man was endowed by God, seems to require that, as others say, he was created in grace, according to Ecclesiastes 7:30, "God made man right." For this rectitude consisted in his reason being subject to God, the lower powers to reason, and the body to the soul: and the first subjection was the cause of both the second and the third; since while reason was subject to God, the lower powers remained subject to reason, as Augustine says [Cf. De Civ. Dei xiii, 13; De Pecc. Merit. et Remiss. i, 16]. Now it is clear that such a subjection of the body to the soul and of the lower powers to reason, was not from nature; otherwise it would have remained after sin; since even in the demons the natural gifts remained after sin, as Dionysius declared (Div. Nom. iv). Hence it is clear that also the primitive subjection by virtue of which reason was subject to God, was not a merely natural gift, but a supernatural endowment of grace; for it is not possible that the effect should be of greater efficiency than the cause. Hence Augustine says (De Civ. Dei xiii, 13) that, "as soon as they disobeyed the Divine command, and forfeited Divine grace, they were ashamed of their nakedness, for they felt the impulse of disobedience in the flesh, as though it were a punishment corresponding to their own disobedience." Hence if the loss of grace dissolved the obedience of the flesh to the soul, we may gather that the inferior powers were subjected to the soul through grace existing therein.
  52. ^ Trent, Council of (1954). "§788". In Denzinger, Henry; Rahner, Karl (eds.). The Sources of Catholic Dogma / Enchiridion Symbolorum (13th ed.). Fitzwilliam, NH: Loreto Publications. Retrieved April 28, 2022.
    If anyone does not confess that the first man Adam, when he had transgressed the commandment of God in Paradise, immediately lost his holiness and the justice in which he had been established, and that he incurred through the offense of that prevarication the wrath and indignation of God and hence the death with which God had previously threatened him, and with death captivity under his power, who thenceforth "had the empire of death" [Heb. 2:14], that is of the devil, and that through that offense of prevarication the entire Adam was transformed in body and soul for the worse [see n. 174], let him be anathema.
  53. ^ John Paul II, Pope (1987). "1,47". Redemptoris Mater. Vatican City: Vatican. Retrieved April 29, 2022.
    1: ...she who, uttering the first fiat of the New Covenant, prefigures the Church's condition as spouse and mother.
    47: And by her ecclesial identification as the "woman clothed with the sun" (Rev. 12:1),139 it can be said that "in the Most Holy Virgin the Church has already reached that perfection whereby she exists without spot or wrinkle."
  54. ^ a b John Paul II, Pope (1987). "8". Redemptoris Mater. Vatican City: Vatican. Retrieved April 29, 2022.
    8: ...in the soul of this "daughter of Sion" there is manifested, in a sense, all the "glory of grace," that grace which "the Father...has given us in his beloved Son." For the messenger greets Mary as "full of grace"; he calls her thus as if it were her real name. He does not call her by her proper earthly name: Miryam (= Mary), but by this new name: "full of grace." What does this name mean? Why does the archangel address the Virgin of Nazareth in this way?
  55. ^ Chalcedon, Council of (1954). "§148". In Denzinger, Henry; Rahner, Karl (eds.). The Sources of Catholic Dogma / Enchiridion Symbolorum (13th ed.). Fitzwilliam, NH: Loreto Publications. Retrieved April 28, 2022.
    Therefore, following the holy fathers, we all teach with one accord we confess one in the same Son, Our Lord Jesus Christ, the same perfect in human nature, truly God in the same with a rational soul and the body truly man . . ."
  56. ^ Damasus, Pope (1954). "§65". In Denzinger, Henry; Rahner, Karl (eds.). The Sources of Catholic Dogma / Enchiridion Symbolorum (13th ed.). Fitzwilliam, NH: Loreto Publications. Retrieved April 28, 2022.
    We anathematize those who say that instead of the rational and intellectual soul of man, the Word of God dwelt in a human body, although the Son Himself and Word of God was not in His own body instead of a rational and intellectual soul, but assumed our soul without sin (that is the rational and intellectual soul) and saved it.
  57. ^ Aristotle. "III.9 (422b21-433a8)". De Anima / On the Soul.
  58. ^ Aquinas, Thomas (1275). "Passim (e.g, I.77.5.corpus).". Summa Theologiae. Torino: San Paolo. Retrieved April 28, 2022.
  59. ^ "Ephesians 4:24". Bible. Retrieved April 28, 2022.
    ...and put on the new nature, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.
  60. ^ Orange, Second Council of (1954). "§181,186,199, cf. 325". In Denzinger, Henry; Rahner, Karl (eds.). The Sources of Catholic Dogma / Enchiridion Symbolorum (13th ed.). Fitzwilliam, NH: Loreto Publications. Retrieved April 28, 2022.
    Freedom of will weakened in the first man cannot be repaired except through the grace of baptism; cc once it has been lost, it cannot be restored except by Him by whom it could be given. Thus Truth itself says: If the Son liberates you, then you will be truly free" [ John 8:36 ; St. Prosper].
    . . . through the sin of the first man free will was so changed and so weakened that afterwards no one could either love God as he ought, or believe in God, or perform what is good on account of God, unless the grace of divine mercy reached him first.
  61. ^ Orange, Second Council of (1954). "§793". In Denzinger, Henry; Rahner, Karl (eds.). The Sources of Catholic Dogma / Enchiridion Symbolorum (13th ed.). Fitzwilliam, NH: Loreto Publications. Retrieved April 28, 2022.
    whereas all men had lost their innocence in the prevarication of Adam [Rom. 5:12; 1 Cor. 15:22: see n. 130], "having become unclean" [Isa. 64:6], and (as the Apostle says), "by nature children of wrath" [Eph. 2:3], as it (the Synod) has set forth in the decree on original sin, to that extent were they the servants of sin [Rom. 5:20], and under the power of the devil and of death, that not only the gentiles by the force of nature [can. 1], but not even the Jews by the very letter of the law of Moses were able to be liberated or to rise therefrom, although free will was not extinguished in them [can. 5], however weakened and debased in its powers [see n. 81].
  62. ^ "Rom. 3:21-5:21". Bible.
  63. ^ "John 14:15-24". Bible. Retrieved April 28, 2022.
    15 "If you love me, you will keep my commandments. 16 And I will pray the Father, and he will give you another Counselor, to be with you for ever, 17 even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him; you know him, for he dwells with you, and will be in you. . . . 20 In that day you will know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you. 21 He who has my commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves me; and he who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and manifest myself to him. . . . If a man loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him.
  64. ^ Sollier, J. (1911). "Paraclete". Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company. Retrieved April 28, 2022.
  65. ^ Orange, Second Council of (1954). "§192". In Denzinger, Henry; Rahner, Karl (eds.). The Sources of Catholic Dogma / Enchiridion Symbolorum (13th ed.). Fitzwilliam, NH: Loreto Publications. Retrieved April 28, 2022.
    "That no one is saved except by God's mercy. Even if human nature remained in that integrity in which it was formed, it would in no way save itself without the help of its Creator; therefore, since without the grace of God it cannot guard the health which it received, how without the grace of God will it be able to recover what it has lost?" [St. Prosper]
  66. ^ Pius V, Pope (1954). "§1021,1026". In Denzinger, Henry; Rahner, Karl (eds.). The Sources of Catholic Dogma / Enchiridion Symbolorum (13th ed.). Fitzwilliam, NH: Loreto Publications. Retrieved April 28, 2022.
    Errors of Michael Dubay:
    The sublimation and exaltation of human nature in participation with the divine nature has been due to the integrity of the first condition, and hence must be called natural, and not supernatural.
    The integrity of the first creation was not the undeserved exaltation of human nature, but its natural condition.
  67. ^ Ephesus, Council of (1954). "§132". In Denzinger, Henry; Rahner, Karl (eds.). The Sources of Catholic Dogma / Enchiridion Symbolorum (13th ed.). Fitzwilliam, NH: Loreto Publications. Retrieved April 28, 2022.
    No one even after having been restored by the grace of baptism is capable of overcoming the snares of the devil and subduing the concupiscenses of the flesh, unless he has received through the daily help of God the perseverance of the good way of life.
  68. ^ a b c Aquinas, Thomas (1275). "III.15.2.obj1-2,corpus". Summa Theologiae. Torino: San Paolo. Retrieved April 28, 2022.
    For the "fomes" of sin, and the passibility and mortality of the body spring from the same principle, to wit, from the withdrawal of original justice, whereby the inferior powers of the soul were subject to the reason, and the body to the soul. . . . Now since the "fomes" of sin is nothing more than concupiscence, as the gloss says on Romans 7:8, it seems that in Christ there was the "fomes" of sin. . . . But there belongs to the very nature of the "fomes" of sin an inclination of the sensual appetite to what is contrary to reason. And hence it is plain that the more perfect the virtues are in any man, the weaker the "fomes" of sin becomes in him.
  69. ^ John Paul II, Pope (1994). "§1264". Catechism of the Catholic Church (2 ed.). Vatican: Libreria Editrice Vaticana. Retrieved April 28, 2022.
    Yet certain temporal consequences of sin remain in the baptized, such as suffering, illness, death, and such frailties inherent in life as weaknesses of character, and so on, as well as an inclination to sin that Tradition calls concupiscence, or metaphorically, "the tinder for sin" (fomes peccati); since concupiscence "is left for us to wrestle with, it cannot harm those who do not consent but manfully resist it by the grace of Jesus Christ." Indeed, "an athlete is not crowned unless he competes according to the rules."
  70. ^ "Rom. 6-8, esp. 6:19&22, 12:1-2, Heb. 2:11 & 10:14, Eph. 4:13, Mt. 25:14-30, Philippians(All)". Bible. Retrieved April 28, 2022.
    I am speaking in human terms, because of your natural limitations. For just as you once yielded your members to impurity and to greater and greater iniquity, so now yield your members to righteousness for sanctification. 20 When you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness. 21 But then what return did you get from the things of which you are now ashamed? The end of those things is death. 22 But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the return you get is sanctification and its end, eternal life.
  71. ^ Aquinas, Thomas (1275). "III.27.3.corpus.". Summa Theologiae. Torino: San Paolo. Retrieved April 28, 2022.
    ...by the abundance of grace bestowed on the Blessed Virgin, such a disposition of the soul's powers was granted to her, that the lower powers were never moved without the command of her reason: just as we have stated to have been the case with Christ (III:15:2), who certainly did not have the fomes of sin; as also was the case with Adam, before he sinned, by reason of original justice....
  72. ^ Vienne, Council of (1954). "§481". In Denzinger, Henry; Rahner, Karl (eds.). The Sources of Catholic Dogma / Enchiridion Symbolorum (13th ed.). Fitzwilliam, NH: Loreto Publications. Retrieved April 28, 2022.
    ...whoever shall obstinately presume in turn to assert, define, or hold that the rational or intellective soul is not the form of the human body in itself and essentially must be regarded as a heretic.
  73. ^ Plato. "Phaedo". Perseus Digital Library. p. 64c. Retrieved May 2, 2022.
    "We believe, do we not, that death is the separation of the soul from the body, and that the state of being dead is the state in which the body is separated from the soul and exists alone by itself and the soul is separated from the body and exists alone by itself? Is death anything other than this?" "No, it is this," said he.
  74. ^ "Rom. 8, especially 8:17-19 & 30, John 17:1-5". Bible. Retrieved April 28, 2022.
    Rom. 8:17-19 - . . . 17 and if children, then heirs, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him. 18 I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us. 19 For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God;
    John 17:1-5 - When Jesus had spoken these words, he lifted up his eyes to heaven and said, "Father, the hour [of my Crucifixion] has come; glorify thy Son. . . . Father, glorify thou me in thy own presence with the glory which I had with thee before the world was made.
  75. ^ John Paul II, Pope (1987). "1,47". Redemptoris Mater. Vatican City: Vatican. Retrieved April 29, 2022.
    6: The Council emphasizes that the Mother of God is already the eschatological fulfillment of the Church: "In the most holy Virgin the Church has already reached that perfection whereby she exists without spot or wrinkle (cf. Eph. 5:27)"; and at the same time the Council says that "the followers of Christ still strive to increase in holiness by conquering sin, and so they raise their eyes to Mary, who shines forth to the whole community of the elect as a model of the virtues."15 The pilgrimage of faith no longer belongs to the Mother of the Son of God: glorified at the side of her Son in heaven, Mary has already crossed the threshold between faith and that vision which is "face to face" (1 Cor. 13:12). At the same time, however, in this eschatological fulfillment, Mary does not cease to be the "Star of the Sea" (Maris Stella) 16 for all those who are still on the journey of faith. "
  76. ^ Aquinas, Thomas (1275). "III.27.4.corpus.". Summa Theologiae. Torino: San Paolo. Retrieved April 28, 2022.
    On the contrary, Augustine says (De Nat. et Grat. xxxvi): "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."
  77. ^ a b c Ephrem, St. (350). "27:8". Nisibene Hymns (in Syriac). Corpus Scriptorum Christianorum Orientalium. p. 109. Retrieved April 26, 2022.
    "Only you and your Mother
    are more beautiful than everything.
    For on you, O Lord, there is no mark;
    neither is there any stain in your Mother."
  78. ^ John Paul II, Pope (1994). "§493". Catechism of the Catholic Church (2 ed.). Vatican: Libreria Editrice Vaticana. Retrieved April 28, 2022.
    The Fathers of the Eastern tradition call the Mother of God "the All-Holy" (Panagia), and celebrate her as "free from any stain of sin, as though fashioned by the Holy Spirit and formed as a new creature". By the grace of God Mary remained free of every personal sin her whole life long.
  79. ^ of Agreda, Mary (1914). "XVI,XX,XXI". In Marison, Fiscar; Blatter, Rev. George J. (eds.). The Mystical City of God, vol. 1 (PDF) (1 ed.). Chicago: Conkey. Retrieved May 2, 2022.
    Chapter XVI:The most faithful Lord executed his design, showering down all his graces and gifts in the most holy soul of Mary at the time of her Conception in such an overpowering measure as no other saint, nor all of them combined, can ever reach, nor ever human tongue can manifest. 226. Although She was adorned as the Bride, descending from heaven, endowed with all perfections and with the whole range of infused virtues, it was not necessary that She should exercise all of them at once, it being sufficient that She exercise those, which were befitting her state in the womb of her mother. Among184
    Chapter XX: In order that She might grow in the contemplation and love of God not only by the infused knowledge of created things, but also by the direct vision of the Trinity itself, and in order that She might exercise Herself in many acts of virtue befitting her present state, the Lord repeated the wonderful vision and manifestation of his Divinity on two other occasions; so that, the blessed Trinity manifested Itself to Her in abstract vision three times before her birth : first at the instant of her Conception, then in the fourth or fifth month, and the third time, on the day before her birth This vision was not continual, but it must not be inferred, that She did not enjoy another kind of vision, very exalted and superior to the one by which She perceived the essence of God in the light of faith. For in most holy Mary these kinds of visions were incessant and continual, and superior to all visions of the saints during their earthly pilgrimage.
  80. ^ Pius IX, Pope (1854). Ineffabilis Deus. Vatican City: Vatican. Retrieved April 30, 2022.
    From the dogma-proclamation itself: "...by a special grace and privilege of God, in view of the merits of Jesus Christ, her Son and the Redeemer of the human race, preserved free from all stain of original sin.
  81. ^ Vatican II, Council of (1964). "53". In Paul VI, Pope (ed.). Lumen Gentium: Dogmatic Constitution of the Church. Vatican City: Vatican. Retrieved April 29, 2022.
    Redeemed by reason of the merits of her Son
  82. ^ "Luke 1:49". Bible. Retrieved April 28, 2022.
    Mary's Magnificat: "For he that is Mighty hath done to me great things,..."
  83. ^ Most, William. "Church Teaching on Mary's Cooperation in the Redemption of Mankind". The Eternal Word Television Network. EWTN. Retrieved May 2, 2022.
  84. ^ Garrigou-Lagrange, Fr. Reginald (1948). The Mother of the Savior. Tan Books. Retrieved May 2, 2022.
  85. ^ Pope Leo the Great, Pope St. (1954). "§144". In Denzinger, Henry; Rahner, Karl (eds.). The Sources of Catholic Dogma / Enchiridion Symbolorum (13th ed.). Fitzwilliam, NH: Loreto Publications. Retrieved April 28, 2022.
    He was generated in a new nativity, because inviolate virginity [that] did not know concupiscence furnished the material of His body. From the mother of the Lord, nature, not guilt, was assumed; and in the Lord Jesus Christ born from the womb of the Virgin, because His birth was miraculous, nature was not for that reason different from ours.
  86. ^ Aquinas, Thomas (1275). "III.27.3.corpus.". Summa Theologiae. Torino: San Paolo. Retrieved April 28, 2022.
    On the contrary, It is written (Canticles 4:7): "Thou art all fair, O my love, and there is not a spot in thee!" But the fomes implies a blemish, at any rate in the flesh. Therefore the fomes was not in the Blessed Virgin.
  87. ^ Akathist hymn (
    Rejoice, completely unblemished One, the palace of the only King.)     (in Greek). Retrieved April 29, 2022.
  88. ^ Emmerich, Blessed Anne Catherine (2006). Schmöger, Rev. Carl E.; Brentano, Clemens (eds.). The Life of Jesus Christ and Biblical Revelations (in German). Charlotte, NC: St. Benedict Press. Retrieved April 29, 2022.
    Anne's grandmother was of Mara in the desert. Her name was Moruni, or Emorun, that is, noble mother. She married Stolanus upon the advice of Archos, the Prophet, who was the Superior of the Essenians for about ninety years. He was a very holy man with whom counsel was always taken by those intending to enter upon the married state, that they might make a good choice. It seemed to me strange that this divinely enlightened Superior always prophesied respecting the female descendants, and that the ancestors of Anne, as well as Anne herself, always had daughters. It was as if the religious education of the pure vessels that were to conceive the holy children destined to be the precursors of the disciples, of the Apostles, and of the Lord Himself, devolved upon them.
  89. ^ "Luke 1:28". Bible. Retrieved April 28, 2022.
  90. ^ Paul VI, Pope (1965). "2(§7-10)". Dei Verbum. Vatican City: Vatican II. Retrieved April 29, 2022.
    Therefore the Apostles, handing on what they themselves had received, warn the faithful to hold fast to the traditions which they have learned either by word of mouth or by letter (see 2 Thess. 2:15). . . . and so the Church, in her teaching, life and worship, perpetuates and hands on to all generations all that she herself is, all that she believes. . . . Hence there exists a close connection and communication between sacred tradition and Sacred Scripture. For both of them, flowing from the same divine wellspring, in a certain way merge into a unity and tend toward the same end. ... . Sacred tradition and Sacred Scripture form one sacred deposit of the word of God, committed to the Church.
  91. ^ Pius IX, Pope (1873). "4:5-6". In Denzinger, Henry; Rahner, Karl (eds.). Pastor Aeternus: Dogmatic Constitution I on the Church of Christ. Vatican City: Vatican Council I. p. Denz. 1836. Retrieved April 27, 2022.
    "The Roman Pontiffs . . . have defined that those matters must be held which with God's help they've recognized as an agreement with Sacred Scripture and apostolic tradition. For, the Holy Spirit was not promised to the successors of Peter that by His revelation they might disclose new doctrine, but that by His help they might guard sacredly the revelation transmitted through the apostles and the deposit of faith, and might faithfully set it forth."
  92. ^ John XXIII, Pope (1964). "3(§20,25)". Lumen Gentium: Dogmatic Constitution of the Church. Vatican City: Vatican Council II. Retrieved April 27, 2022.
    Thus, as St. Irenaeus testifies, through those who were appointed bishops by the apostles, and through their successors down in our own time, the apostolic tradition is manifested and preserved. . . .
    Under the guiding light of the Spirit of truth, revelation is this religiously preserved and faithfully expounded in the Church. The Roman Pontiff and the bishops, in view of their office and of the importance of the matter, strive painstakingly and by appropriate means to inquire properly into that revelation and give apt expression to its contents. But they do not allow that there could be any new public revelation pertaining to the divine deposit of faith.
  93. ^ Ratzinger, Joseph (1990). "23". Donum Veritatis: On the Ecclesial Vocation of the Theologian. Vatican City: Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith. Retrieved April 27, 2022.
    When the Magisterium of the Church makes an infallible pronouncement and solemnly declares that a teaching is found in Revelation, the assent called for is that of theological faith. This kind of adherence is to be given even to the teaching of the ordinary and universal Magisterium when it proposes for belief a teaching of faith as divinely revealed.
  94. ^ Paul VI, Pope (1965). "2(§7-10)". Dei Verbum. Vatican City: Vatican II. Retrieved April 29, 2022.
    Hence there exists a close connection and communication between sacred tradition and Sacred Scripture. For both of them, flowing from the same divine wellspring, in a certain way merge into a unity and tend toward the same end. For Sacred Scripture is the word of God inasmuch as it is consigned to writing under the inspiration of the divine Spirit, while sacred tradition takes the word of God entrusted by Christ the Lord and the Holy Spirit to the Apostles, and hands it on to their successors in its full purity, so that led by the light of the Spirit of truth, they may in proclaiming it preserve this word of God faithfully, explain it, and make it more widely known. . . .
    10. Sacred tradition and Sacred Scripture form one sacred deposit of the word of God, committed to the Church. . . .
    It is clear, therefore, that sacred tradition, Sacred Scripture and the teaching authority of the Church, in accord with God's most wise design, are so linked and joined together that one cannot stand without the others, and that all together and each in its own way under the action of the one Holy Spirit contribute effectively to the salvation of souls.
  95. ^ Livius, Thomas (1893). The Blessed Virgin in the Fathers of the First 6 Centuries. London: Burns and Oates, Ltd. p. 221. ISBN 979-8677248009. Retrieved April 27, 2022.
    In place of the virgin Eve who had been ministersess of death, is chosen a Virgin, most pleasing to God and full of God's grace, for the service of life: a Virgin included in woman's sex, without part in woman's fault: the Virgin innocent, immaculate, free from all guilt, spotless, undefiled, holy in spirit and body; as a Lily blossoming among thorns; learned in Eve's evil ways; unspoilt by feminine vanity . . . but who when yet unborn was already consecrated to God her Maker; . . . a disciple of His law, be dude with the Holy Spirit, clad with divine grace as with a mantle, . . .
  96. ^ a b c d Epiphanius, St. (2008). Homilia in laudes Mariae deiparae / ἐγκώµιος εἰς τὴν ἁγίαν τὴν Θεοτόκον (PDF) (in Greek). University of California, Irvine: Thesaurus Linguae Graecae. Retrieved April 26, 2022.
    Hail, O holy daughter of holy men. . . . The temple and mother of my God.
    . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
    For the Holy Theotokos, the girl Mary, exists as the bride of the Trinity, the completely inexpressible masterpiece of the [Trinity's] Economy.
    . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
    For the prophets, wisely wrote it down, preaching the order of the marriage, how the heavenly virgin will be found, simultaneously, both bride and mother, freely receiving the gifts even before the marriage, [namely,] the Holy Spirit, [and thereby] simultaneously both heaven and paradise.
    . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
    Hail, grace-ified, adorned with many virtues, lamp-carrying virgin of the brightest undiminishing light of the sun.
    . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
    Hail, grace-ified, the conscious Ark of glory;
    Hail, grace-ified, the golden pitcher, holding the heavenly manna.
    Hail, grace-ified, the one having sated the thirsty with the sweetness of the fountain of Henna.
    Hail, grace-ified, the conscious sea, holding the heavenly pearl that is Christ.
    Hail, grace-ified, the bright heaven, holding the unyielding God within the heavens.
    Hail, grace-ified, holding the cherubic throne of the Godhead.
    Hail, grace-ified, holding the circle of the heaven, and the unyielding God, but in you as yielding, and narrowly yielding.
    . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
    About this gate, and in the Assyrian text the prophet is clearly and distinctly spoken of, saying.
    A garden enclosed, is my sister, my bride.
    A garden enclosed, is my wife, my sister.
    . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
    O, all-holy virgin, mother of the Savior, birther of the pre-eternal word, the co-ruling Son of the Father, the same substance of the Father and of the Holy Spirit, eternally pre-existent with the Father and the Holy Spirit, the one having sculpted the Heavens and fashioned the earth.
    . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
    Holy mother without blemish, the one having begotten the one before you, the Christ, who said, 'Before Abraham was, I am.'
  97. ^ Augustine, St. (1887). "42 (XXXVI)". In Homes, Peter; Wallis, Robert Ernest; Schaff, Philip; Knight, Kevin; Warfield, Benjamin B. (eds.). On Nature and Grace. Buffalo, NY: Christian Literature Publishing Co.,. Retrieved April 26, 2022.
    We must except the holy Virgin Mary, concerning whom I wish to raise no question when it touches the subject of sins, out of honour to the Lord; for from Him we know what abundance of grace for overcoming sin in every particular was conferred upon her who had the merit to conceive and bear Him who undoubtedly had no sin. 1 John 3:5 Well, then, if, with this exception of the Virgin, we could only assemble together all the forementioned holy men and women, and ask them whether they lived without sin while they were in this life, what can we suppose would be their answer?    {{cite book}}: CS1 maint: extra punctuation (link)
  98. ^ Urgellensis, Justus (1844). "67, 978". In Migne, J.P. (ed.). On the Song of Songs of Solomon: Mystical Explanation (in Latin). Paris: Patrologia Latina. p. 978. Retrieved April 26, 2022.
    Potest etiam hortus conclusus et fons signatus, ipsa mater Domini S. Maria intelligi, quae virgo concipiens virgoque generans, conclusi horti et signati fontis intemeratum in se decus exhibuit.
    A locked garden and a sealed fountain can also be understood as the very mother of God, who, conceiving as a virgin, and giving birth as a virgin, displayed within herself the spotless honor of a closed garden and of a sealed fountain.
  99. ^ Milan, Ambrose of (1527). Roterodamus, Erasmus (ed.). Divi Ambrosii Episcopi Mediolanensis Opera Omnia (in Latin). p. 386. Retrieved February 12, 2022.
  100. ^ "Arcam autem, quid nisi S. Maria dixerimus? Siquidem arca intrinsecus portabat testamenti tabulas, Maria autem ipsius testamenti gestabat heredem. Illa intra semet legem, haec Evangelium retinebat. Illa Dei vocem habebat; haec Verbum verum; tamen arca intus forisque auri nitore radiabat; sed et S. Maria intus forisque virginitatis splendore fulgebat. Illa terreno ornabatur auro, ista coelesti.
    "But as for the ark, what shall we have called it, except Holy Mary? Indeed, the ark [of the old covenant] carried within the [Old] Testament tablets, but Mary gestated the heir of the same Testament. That [old ark] had within it the [mosaic] Law, this [new ark as Mary] contained the Gospel. That one had the voice of God; this had the true divine Word; nevertheless, that [old] ark radiated inside and outside with the shine of gold, but also Saint Mary shone inside and out with the splendor of virginity. The first was adorned with earthly gold, and the second one with a heavenly one.
  101. ^ "Textus Receptus". BlueLetterBible.org. Sowing Circle. p. Luke 1:28. Retrieved April 25, 2022.
  102. ^ Augustine (1844). "Sermon 194: "De Annuntiatione Dominica, II."". In Migne, J.P. (ed.). Patrologiae cursus Completus (PDF) (in Latin). Paris. p. 2105. Retrieved April 25, 2022.
    ""'Hail,' said the angel to her, 'full of grace, the Lord is with you.' Mary is filled therefore, with grace, and Eve is emptied of fault. The curse of Eve is changed into the blessing of Mary. 'Hail, Full of Grace, the Lord is with you.' He is with you in your heart, with you in your womb, with you as assistance. Rejoice, blessed virgin:...The mother of our race brought penalty to the world; the begetress of our Lord brought salvation to the world. The originatoress of sin was Eve; the originatoress of merit, was Mary."
  103. ^ Lapide, Cornelius (1891). "Luke 1:28". Commentaria in Scripturam Sacram (in Latin). Paris: Ludovico Vives. Retrieved April 26, 2022.
    Quocirca S. Athanasius (vel quisquis est Auctor; videtur enim S. Athanasio fuisse posterior, uti solerter advertit Baronius et Bellarminus, De Scriptor. ecclesiast.):
  104. ^ Guild, William (1627). "CHAP. VIII. 1. How the Romanists adduce the Testimonies of Fathers, agaynst vs as true; whom not withstan∣ding them selues else▪ where doe pronounce Coutfyt.". Popish glorying in antiquity turned to their shame . . . Robert Allot. Retrieved April 25, 2022.
    "Lyke-wyse, Athanasius Sermon, De Sanctissima Deipara, is cited by Bel∣larmine, for Invocation of Sayncts, but is declared by Baronius, to bee a miere Counterfeyt.
  105. ^ Athanasius, (Pseudo? / St.?) (2008). Sermon on the Annunciation of the God-Begetress (PDF) (in Ancient Greek). University of California, Irvine: Thesaurus Linguae Graecae. p. [00127-00124]. Retrieved April 26, 2022.
    "If the Son, according to commonly-reasoned theology, is called the 'Power of the Most High,' it is clear that neither in the Virgin was the power enfleshed, nor the Spirit in-personed, but, as in the apostles, power was coming about for [their] empowerment, with respect to every underlying power, so also the 'over-coming-upon' of the Holy Spirit [was coming about] with respect to the entire [dispensation] essentially leading to that, inwardly-working, in signs, and wonders, and powers, for [popular] establishment and belief in the promises of Christ; so in this way, also, upon the Virgin, the over-coming-upon of the Holy Spirit occurred, in all those things essentially leading to it, with respect to conceiving the God[-man], inwardly working the grace for the grace-ifying of her in all things. Yay indeed, also for this she was pronounced 'κεχαριτωμένη / grace-ified', for the sake of her being in-filled with all the graces of the Spirit; and 'the power of the most high overshadowing' [was pronounced] for her also, as occurring, in every time, [both] with respect to the conception, so also, I have believed, for after the conception. [00123] For neither for a time, as I am persuaded, did this occur in the Virgin, but in every time, both then, and now, and even for the power of the Most High perpetually overshadowing her, the virgin standing forth; and the over-coming-upon of the Holy Spirit over-coming upon her, so that she might remain grace-ified.
  106. ^ Nixon 2004, p. 11.
  107. ^ Nixon 2004, pp. 11–12.
  108. ^ Shoemaker 2016, p. unpaginated.
  109. ^ Shoemaker 2016, p. 119.
  110. ^ a b Coyle 1996, p. 36-37.
  111. ^ a b Collinge 2012, p. 2019-210.
  112. ^ a b Boss 2000, p. 126.
  113. ^ Cameron 1996, p. 335.
  114. ^ Kappes 2014, p. 13.
  115. ^ Coyle 1996, p. 37-38.
  116. ^ Kappes 2014, pp. 158–159.
  117. ^ Reynolds 2012, p. 4-5,117.
  118. ^ Granziera 2019, p. 469.
  119. ^ Solberg 2018, p. 108-109.
  120. ^ Hernández 2019, p. 6.
  121. ^ Mack 2003.
  122. ^ Foley 2002, p. 29.
  123. ^ Foley 2002, p. 153.
  124. ^ Schaff 1931, p. unpaginated.
  125. ^ Manelli 2008, p. 35.
  126. ^ Manelli 1994, pp. 6–7.
  127. ^ Twomey 2008, pp. 73–74.
  128. ^ a b German 2001, p. 596.
  129. ^ Hillerbrand 2012, p. 250.
  130. ^ a b Lohse 1966, p. 204.
  131. ^ Coyle 1996, p. 35.
  132. ^ Hammond 2003, p. 602.
  133. ^ a b Boss 2000, p. 124.
  134. ^ Boss 2000, p. 128.
  135. ^ Manelli 2008, p. 643.
  136. ^ a b Hernández 2019, p. 38.
  137. ^ Manelli 2008, pp. 643–644.
  138. ^ The text (in Latin) is given at Tota Pulchra Es – GMEA Honor Chorus.
  139. ^ Tota pulchra es Maria, Canto gregoriano nella devozione mariana, studio di Giovanni Vianini, Milano. November 6, 2008. Archived from the original on December 11, 2021 – via YouTube.
  140. ^ Anton Bruckner – Tota pulchra es. October 3, 2008. Archived from the original on December 11, 2021 – via YouTube.
  141. ^ Maurice Duruflé: Tota pulchra es Maria. May 23, 2010. Archived from the original on December 11, 2021 – via YouTube.
  142. ^ Tota pulchra es – Grzegorz Gerwazy Gorczycki. June 17, 2011. Archived from the original on December 11, 2021 – via YouTube.
  143. ^ TOTA PULCHRA ES GREX VOCALIS. May 21, 2009. Archived from the original on December 11, 2021 – via YouTube.
  144. ^ Tota pulchra es, Maria Canto gregoriano nella devozione mariana. September 21, 2008. Archived from the original on December 11, 2021 – via YouTube.
  145. ^ Tota Pulchra – Composed by Nikolaus Schapfl (*1963). January 4, 2010. Archived from the original on December 11, 2021 – via YouTube.
  146. ^ "Prayers of Consecration". Archived from the original on December 11, 2008. Retrieved December 7, 2008.
  147. ^ "Nine Days Of Prayer – Immaculate Conception".
  148. ^ Sutfin, Edward J., True Christmas Spirit, Grail Publications, St. Meinrad, Indiana, 1955
  149. ^ "Immaculate Conception Prayers".
  150. ^ Hall 2018, p. 175.
  151. ^ Hall 2018, p. 171.
  152. ^ Moffitt 2001, p. 676.
  153. ^ Katz & Orsi 2001, p. 98.
  154. ^ Jenner 1910, pp. 3–9.
  155. ^ McGuckin 2010, p. unpaginated.
  156. ^ Coyle 1996, p. 36.
  157. ^ Ware 1995, p. 77.
  158. ^ "What is our position on St. Mary and Immaculate Conception and what is it?". January 19, 2016.
  159. ^ "THE BIRTH OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY – Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church Sunday School Department – Mahibere Kidusan".
  160. ^ Hillerbrand 2012, p. 63.
  161. ^ Smit 2019, pp. 14, 53.
  162. ^ Hammond 2003, p. 601.
  163. ^ J. Francis Stafford, Avery Dulles, Robert B. Eno, Joseph A Fitzmyer, Elizabeth Johnson, Killian McDonnell, Carl J. Peter, Walter Principe, Georges Tavard, Frederick M. Jelly, John f. Hotchkin, George Anderson, Robert W. Bertram, Joseph W. Burgess, Gerhard O. Forde, Karlfried Froelich, Eric Gritsch, Kenneth Hagen, John Reumann, Daniel F. Martensen, Horace Hummel, John F. Johnson (February 23, 1990). "Lutheran-Catholic Statement on Saints, Mary" (PDF). USCCB. Retrieved April 7, 2020.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  164. ^ Armentrout 2000, p. 260.

Bibliography

Notes

^α Anne Catherine Emmerich doesn't qualify as a 'Father of the Church,' but she uniquely describes the Tower of David mystically, from her visions, in two places, in: Blessed Anne Catherine Emmerich, Life of Jesus Christ and Biblical Revelations, ed. Carl E. Schmöger, trans. Clement Brentano (St. Benedict Pres, Charlotte: 2006), vol.1, 136 & 138-9, accessed 20 April 2022.
  • Page 22: "I saw Adam's glittering rock of precious stones arise before the throne of God, as if borne up by angels. It had steps cut in it, it increased in size, it became a throne, a tower, and it extended on all sides until it embraced all things. I saw the nine choirs of angels around it, and above the angels in Heaven, I saw the image of the Virgin. It was not Mary in time; it was Mary in eternity, Mary in God. The Virgin entered the tower, which opened to receive her, and she appeared to become one with it [and several other holy things entered it, too.].
  • Page 136: "I saw also a garden enclosed by a dense thorn hedge. All kinds of horrible animals were trying to enter, but could not. I saw a tower stormed by numerous warriors who were, however, always repulsed. And in this way I saw innumerable pictures all bearing some reference to Mary."
  • Pages 138-139. "I saw Joachim and Anne embrace each other in ecstasy [at the time of Mary's immaculate conception]. They were surrounded by hosts of angels, some floating over them carrying a luminous tower like that which we see in the pictures of the Litany of Loretto. The tower vanished between Joachim and Anne, both of whom were encompassed by brilliant light and glory. At the same moment the heavens above them opened, and I saw the joy of the Most Holy Trinity and of the angels over the Conception of Mary."
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^β (1) Daughter of the Father (Zeph. 3:14.[3]); (2) mother of the Son (); (3) spouse of the Holy Spirit.
  • Luke 1:35 - "The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High [God the Father] will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be called holy, the Son of God."
  • Redemptoris Mater, 9 - "As the [2nd Vatican] Council says, Mary is "the Mother of the Son of God. As a result she is also the favorite daughter of the Father and the temple of the Holy Spirit."
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