Holy Day: Feast of The Immaculate Conception (December 8th)
🗣️ DISCUSSION 💬
In the Constitution Ineffabilis Deus of 8 December, 1854, Pius IX pronounced and defined that the Blessed Virgin Mary "in the first instance of her conception, by a singular privilege and grace granted by God, in view of the merits of Jesus Christ, the Saviour of the human race, was preserved exempt from all stain of original sin."
There are many, but this is the main one in the New Testament I am aware of…
Luke 1:26-28
26 And in the sixth month, the angel Gabriel was sent from God into a city of Galilee, called Nazareth, 27 To a virgin espoused to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David; and the virgin's name was Mary. 28 And the angel being come in, said unto her: Hail, FULL OF GRACE, the Lord is with thee: blessed art thou among women.
Now the angel being would not refer to a sinful fallen women as “FULL OF GRACE” and greet her with HAIL, something reserved for one of a higher place than the one greeting.
Check out the book below if you are interested in the many Old Testament references, but it seems clear to me that Mary is the new ark of the covenant to carry Jesus Christ. The old ark carried the stone tablets of the Ten Commandments, the new ark carries Christ the God Child himself. It does not follow that the old ark would be sacred and holy, and yet the new ark for Christ himself would be a lesser vessel of a “sinful women”. God, looking forward to Christ’s infinite sacrifice on the cross allowed Mary a special grace to be conceived without sin to fulfill her sacred role in salvation history as the new ark for the Christ Child. Mary can’t full be understand apart from the Old Testament. This is my understanding anyway.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07HHF7C9D/ref=cm_sw_em_r_mt_dp_1MNTRGAQABRF25A19HE1?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1