Understanding the Mystery of Mary Being Conceived without Sin
On 13 May 1846, during the Sixth Provincial Council of Baltimore, in the residence of Archbishop Samuel Eccleston, the bishops present chose “the Blessed Virgin Mary, conceived without sin, as the Patroness of the United States of America.” Moreover, the bishops petitioned Pope Gregory XVI to approve the request and grant permission to add the word Immaculate to the prayers and orations for the Mass of the Conception of Mary. It fell to Pope Pius IX to do so the following year. Eight years and four months (8 December 1854) after the American bishops had chosen Mary Immaculate as the Patroness of the United States, Pope Pius IX solemnly declared the dogma of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary to be an article of faith.
Directory on Popular Piety and the Liturgy
According to the Directory on Popular Piety and the Liturgy (DPPL), “There can be no doubt that the feast of the pure and sinless Conception of the Virgin Mary, which is a fundamental preparation for the Lord’s coming into the world, harmonizes perfectly with many of the salient themes of Advent. This feast also makes reference to the long messianic waiting for the Savior’s birth and recalls events and prophecies from the Old Testament, which are also used in the Liturgy of Advent. The novena of the Immaculate Conception, wherever it is celebrated, should highlight the prophetical texts which begin with Genesis 3,15, and end in Gabriel’s salutation of the one who is ‘full of grace’ (Lk 1, 31-33). The approach of Christmas is celebrated throughout the American continent with many displays of popular piety, centered on the feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe (12 December), which dispose the faithful to receive the Savior at his birth. Mary, who was ‘intimately united with the birth of the Church in America, became the radiant Star illuminating the proclamation of Christ the Savior to the sons of these nations’ (DPPL, no.102).”
Pope Pius IX – Ineffabilis Deus
In the apostolic constitution Ineffabilis Deus, Pope Pius IX proclaimed that the Virgin Mary, while being conceived in the normal biological manner, was by a singular privilege kept free from original sin from the first moment that she was conceived in her mother’s womb. Using the language of infallible declarations, the Holy Father wrote, “We declare, pronounce, and define, that the doctrine which holds that the most Blessed Virgin Mary, in the first instance of her conception (Lat. in primo instanti suae conceptionis), by a singular grace and privilege granted by Almighty God (Lat. fuisse singulari Omnipotentis Dei gratia et privilegio), in view of the merits of Jesus Christ (Lat. intuitu meritorum Christi Jesu), the Savior of the human race, was preserved free from all stain of original sin (Lat. ab omni originalis culpae labe praeservatam immunem) is a doctrine revealed by God and therefore to be believed firmly and constantly by all the faithful” (cf. Denz. n. 1641). This nineteenth century declaration (8 December 1854), then, is the belief that the Virgin Mary was without original sin from the moment she was conceived in the womb of her mother Saint Ann.
Unlike the remainder of the human race, rather than having to be cleansed of sin after she was born, Mary was prevented from contracting original sin. This singular blessing was hers in view of the foreseen merits of her Son, Jesus Christ—either understood as pre-redemption by Christ’s meritorious death and resurrection or as preservative redemption. Moreover, inoculated against original sin, Mary was in the state of sanctifying grace from the first instance of her life and was free from the lack of grace that is the universal result of original sin. It is important to underline the fact that Mary’s salvation was the result of her Son’s passion, death, and resurrection and was not due to her own merits.
Prevenient Grace
On December 8th, when the Church recalls that the Virgin Mary was immaculately conceived, among the prayers for that day, the Prayer over the Offerings explicitly mentions that the Mother of God was “untouched by any stain of sin” due to prevenient grace. Mary was spared inheriting original sin because of the theological notion of prevenient grace or operating grace already available before Christ’s sacrificial death. Prevenient (or operating) grace is freely-bestowed divine grace in which God operates alone and does so without human cooperation. It is grace that precedes any human decision or action. Thus, prevenient grace exists prior to and without reference to anything a human person may have done.
In regard to the Virgin Mary being immaculately conceived as an act of prevenient grace, it entails that she was preserved free of original sin not because of anything she herself had done or would later do to merit such a unique blessing but because such a grace was gratuitously bestowed on her in anticipation of the redemptive death and resurrection of Christ. Like all humanity, the Virgin Mary was saved by Christ her Son as we all are! Subsequent (or cooperating) grace occurs when God cooperates in a freely-willed good act. Prevenient (Lat. “to go before”) grace is received when God acts on a soul without any willful cooperation on the part of the recipient.
As a prior divine gift, each and every holy act is preceded by prevenient grace understood as the impetus to do what is holy. This enabling grace makes subsequent cooperation possible if the will freely chooses to do so. Prevenient grace, then, is the first grace of God that cannot be refused and, so, occurs before every holy act of every human person, including the Virgin Mary and even the human nature of Christ.
Nature and dignity 