"Behold, the chaste Mother who knew no stain"

                                        Immaculate Conception Chapel, Seton Hall University, South Orange, NJ


Today the Church celebrates the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary.  From the 1907 edition of the Catholic Encyclopedia:

"The immunity from original sin was given to Mary by a singular exemption from a universal law through the same merits of Christ, by which other men are cleansed from sin by baptism.  Mary needed the redeeming Saviour to obtain this exemption, and to be delivered from the universal necessity and debt (debitum) of being subject to original sin.  The person of Mary, in consequence of her origin from Adam, should have been subject to sin, but, being the new Eve who was to be the mother of the new Adam, she was, by the eternal counsel of God and by the merits of Christ, withdrawn from the general law of original sin.  Her redemption was the very masterpiece of Christ's redeeming wisdom.  He is a greater redeemer who pays the debt that it may not be incurred than he who pays after it has fallen on the debtor."

Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners.