The Immaculate Conception (Virgo Potens)

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Blake Fletcher
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1 The Immaculate Conception (Virgo Potens) The Lord possessed me in the beginning of His ways, before He made anything, from the beginning. [ ] He that shall find me shall find life, and shall have salvation from the Lord. 1. Before becoming Pope Pius XII, Eugenio Pacelli once wrote: The first thought which comes to our mind with regard to Mary, the Saint among all the saints, is this: eternally, before every other creature, God looked down on her; He loved her, and chose her, to make her rich with His gifts, in as far as it is possible for a creature. That is the mind of the Church, when She applies to Mary, with the reservations that Faith demands, what the author of Proverbs has said of the Son of God: the Lord possessed me in the beginning of His ways Wishing, at the beginning of time, to create the world to pour forth His love and to grant existence and happiness to others besides Himself, God first of all (if one may speak thus, in accordance with our successive manner of understanding and acting), God first cast His eyes on Him Who would be their Head and King There is God s masterpiece, the most excellent of His works; whatever may be the date and circumstances of His manifestation in time, this was assuredly what He willed first, and in view of which He made all the rest. But wishing that this unique object of His complacency be born of a woman, He cast on thee, O Mary, a very gentle glance and predestined thee to be His Mother [1 st in intention, last in execution]. 2. This is an echo of Pope Pius IX s Apostolic Constitution defining the Immaculate Conception, wherein we read: the very words with which the Sacred Scriptures speak of Uncreated Wisdom and set forth His eternal origin, the Church, both in its ecclesiastical offices and in its liturgy, has been wont to apply likewise to the origin of the Blessed Virgin, inasmuch as God, by one and the same decree, had established the origin of Mary and the Incarnation of Divine Wisdom. 3. Both the Christ (i.e., the hypostatic Union) and His Holy Mother were willed by God prior to all other things in God s Creation. They were willed together in one and the same decree before every other creature angels, men, sun, moon, and so on. She was willed before sin came into the world before the agents of sin the devil and his companions, Adam and Eve were made and able to sin. Thus, she is Immaculate

2 conceived in the mind of God outside of the envelope of sin opened by the devil and Adam And so, when her time arrives to enter into the world, she is physically conceived without sin in the womb of her mother St. Anne. 4. Why is this so important for us? There are many truly wonderful realities that flow from this truth, this doctrine. St. Thomas Aquinas comes to our aid. 5. First, St. Thomas notes that the less noble part exists for the more noble. Being willed first, being at very top of the Divine Ordering from the very beginning, puts Bld. Mary over all of creation, including the angels! 6. Thus, Pope Pius IX stated: far above all the angels and all the saints so wondrously did God endow her with the abundance of all heavenly gifts poured from the treasury of His divinity that this mother, ever absolutely free of all stain of sin, all fair and perfect, would possess that fullness of holy innocence and sanctity than which, under God, one cannot even imagine anything greater, and which, outside of God, no mind can succeed in comprehending fully. She is Queen of angels not just an honorary title but in power too. 7. This means the demons have to obey her every command they have to submit to her the less noble part exists for the more noble. At one point during the apparitions at Lourdes, France the demons tried to dislodge St. Bernadette from her place before the Grotto They rose up out of the River Gave, commanding the little girl Get out of here! Get out of here! Yet, one glance of the Virgin Queen from her niche in the wall, a look of sovereign authority, reduced the invisible hellish mob of the river to silence. They had to flee before her face! Thus, Pope Pius IX: 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. 8. Our Lady of Good Success said to Ven. Mother Marianna of Jesus (a Conceptionist Nun of 17 th Century Quito) about our times: Although evil will seem to triumph in a formidable and frightful war nevertheless, this will mark the arrival of my hour, when I, in a marvelous way, will

3 dethrone the proud and cursed Satan, trampling him under my feet and fettering him in the infernal abyss. 9. This means we should not fear the devil. Instead, we should turn to this Queen and he will be conquered. 10. At Fatima, she opened the ground below the children to show them hell, and later commanded the Sun to come out of the sky to threaten the earth. The children noted how the power to do these things flowed from the hands of the Lady. The Sun and Moon what are they to her? Thus, the Canticle of Solomon wonderfully describes her: as the morning rising, fair as the moon, bright as the sun, terrible as an army set in array. Here is the Woman St. John describes in the Apocalypse clothed with the Sun the Moon under her feet and a crown of twelve stars on her head. Here is the Virgo Potens! Here is the sign of the Lord as deep as hell and as high as the heaven above given to king Achaz through the prophet Isaias. 11. All this means we should not fear natural disasters of any kind nor any physical evils that may come upon the world but instead turn to this Immaculate Virgin most powerful to help in our time of need. We may die in some disaster, but she will make sure it is not useless but meritorious. 12. Pope Pius XII explains the source of this nearly infinite power in a radio address given at Fatima in 1942: She remains associated with Him [Christ the King] for all time, with an almost infinite power in the distribution of the graces flowing from the Redemption. Jesus is the King of the eternal ages, by nature and conquest. Through Him, with Him, in dependence on Him, Mary is Queen, by grace, by divine association, by conquest, by singular election. And Her Kingdom is as vast as that of Her Son, Who is God, since nothing is excluded from His domain (Oct 31, 1942). 13. Second, St. Thomas also teaches that whatever is first in any order is the cause of everything which follows it. Blessed Mary is from the same decree as the Christ, the first born of creation the alpha and omega, the first and the last, the beginning of Creation. What does this say about all the hostility we are experiencing from the religions inspired by man s imagination and the whisperings of the devil? Should we fear Islam and

4 its militant forces attacking and killing our people? NO. She will be the cause their ultimate defeat! Time and time again, Our Lady of Victories has shown that those who rely on her will defeat all such attacks on the Church, often winning major decisive battle on her feast days especially through the praying of the Rosary. We may die in the battle, but She will make it count! 14. Third, and last of all, St. Thomas teaches in another place: the most perfect is always the exemplar of what is less perfect. Christ and His Mother come first in the order. They are perfect, spotless without sin. Thus, the Fathers and doctors taught that the first Adam was made in view of the second Adam, His Majesty, Jesus Christ. For example, St. Peter Chrysologus: The first Adam was made by the last Adam, from Whom he also received his soul, to give him life. The second Adam stamped His image on the first Adam when He created him. The last Adam is indeed the first; as He Himself says, I am the first and the last. 15. Taking the next step, we can say: just as the first man Adam was made in the image of the Christ already willed by God, so too was the first woman Eve made in the image of Mary, the Mother of Christ already willed by God in one and the same decree. 16. St. Thomas further explains that belief of some kind in the mystery of Christ s Incarnation was necessary at all times and for all persons, but this belief differed according to differences of times and persons. before the state of sin, man believed [i.e., Adam], explicitly in Christ s Incarnation, in so far as it was intended for the consummation of glory it is incredible that the first man was ignorant about this mystery (II-II, 2, 7). Adam knew he was made in the image of the Christ. Adam knew he was only a type of the Christ. This means he also knew Eve was made in the image of Blessed Mary, making Eve was Mary s prefigurement. 17. Here is the significance: When Eve made her choice to partake of the forbidden fruit, Adam was confronted with a choice either he choose Eve (according to his senses) or Mary (according to his faith)? We know what he did. He chose the lesser good the prefigurement over its fulfillment the seen over what is unseen the natural over the supernatural. That is what sin is choosing a lesser good. If, however, he had turned to the fulfillment of the type to what Eve represented, and clung to her with all

5 his strength of will according to his faith, Adam would have conquered and then he could have helped Eve return unharmed. Is all this not indicated by how God cured Adam by showing Him the Woman and Her Seed? (cf. Gen 3:15). 18. Here is a deep lesson. When we are tempted to sin we must do what Adam failed to do turn to the Immaculate Virgin, cling to her, and we will conquer the serpent will be forced to flee in defeat! 19. No power of hell, of the earth or the skies of angel or man can resist the Immaculate Conception because God possessed her in the beginning of His ways, before He made anything, from the beginning. [ ] He that shall find her shall find life, and shall have salvation from the Lord.

Immaculate Conception

The solemnity of the Immaculate Conception is always a good day to go over this often-misunderstood feast of Mary. The Immaculate Conception of Mary is, of course, NOT about the conception of Jesus in