CV NEWS FEED // Each year on December 8, Catholics commemorate the incredible grace bestowed on Mary the Mother of God through her Immaculate Conception.
While the dogma formally declaring that the Blessed Mother was conceived without original sin wasn’t pronounced until 1854, it is not a “new” teaching! Saints throughout Church history have beautifully attested to this miraculous event.
Here are several quotes to ponder as we rejoice and meditate on the immense role Our Immaculate Mother had in salvation history!
Pope Saint John Paul II (d. 2005, AD) – Angelus Address, Dec. 8, 1997
“Man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart” (1 Sm 16:7). And Mary’s heart was fully disposed to the fulfillment of the divine will. This is why the Blessed Virgin is the model of Christian expectation and hope… In her heart there is no shade of selfishness: she desires nothing for herself except God’s glory and human salvation. For her, the very privilege of being preserved from original sin is not a reason to boast, but one for total service to her Son’s redemptive mission.
Saint Ephrem of Syria (d. 373, AD) – Nisibene Hymns
You alone and your Mother are more beautiful than any others, for there is no blemish in you nor any stains upon your Mother. Who of my children can compare in beauty to these?
St. Maximilian Kolbe (d. 1941, AD) – Final Sketch
At Lourdes, the Immaculata did not say of herself that she had been conceived immaculately, but, as St. Bernadette repeated, “Que soy era immaculada councepciou”: “I am the Immaculate Conception.” If among human beings the wife takes the name of her husband because she belongs to him, is one with him, becomes equal to him and is, with him, the source of new life, with how much greater reason should the name of the Holy Spirit, who is the divine Immaculate Conception, be used as the name of her in whom he lives as uncreated Love, the principle of life in the whole supernatural order of grace?
Saint Augustine (d. 430, AD) – Sermon 123
“Hail, full of grace.” By these words the angel shows that she was altogether excluded from the wrath of the first sentence, and restored to the full grace of blessing.
Saint Bernardine of Siena (d. 1444, AD) – Sermon
It is not to be believed that he, the Son of God, would be born of a Virgin, and take her flesh, were she in the slightest degree stained with original sin.
Pope Blessed Pius IX (d. 1878, AD) – Ineffabilis Deus
And indeed it was wholly fitting that so wonderful a mother should be ever resplendent with the glory of most sublime holiness and so completely free from all taint of original sin that she would triumph utterly over the ancient serpent.
Saint Alphonsus Liguori (d. 1787) – Discourse on the Immaculate Conception
The proud spirit endeavored to infect the most pure soul of this Virgin with his venom, as he had already infected the whole human race. But praised and ever blessed be God, who, in his infinite goodness, pre-endowed her for this purpose with such great grace, that, remaining always free from any guilt of sin, she was ever able to beat down and confound his pride…
St. Louis-Marie de Montfort (d. 1716, AD) – Treatise on True Devotion to the Blessed Virgin
Since she is the sure means, the direct and immaculate way to Jesus and the perfect guide to him, it is through her that souls who are to shine forth in sanctity must find him. He who finds Mary finds life, that is, Jesus Christ who is the way, the truth and the life.
BONUS: Saint Thomas Aquinas (d. 1375, AD) – Commentary on the Sentences
The Angelic Doctor stands at the center of the controversy over Mary’s Immaculate Conception, and some scholars have accused him of denying that she was free from original sin. Others, however, defend his orthodoxy on the issue. And we will allow him to speak for himself.
Such was the purity of the Blessed Virgin Mary, who was exempt from both original and actual sin.
