1. When the fullness of time had come, the Creator, giv-ing full
rein to His infinite mercy, resolved that the Work of Redemp-tion of
mankind be accomplished. To
that end the Most High gave us the New Adam and the New Eve, Christ and
Mary, whose Souls were clothed in flesh, since, in the flesh of a man and
a woman was committed original sin, cause of the great ruin of mankind.
2. With the Immaculate Conception of Mary Most Holy the Work of
Redemption began. Before the
sin of our first parents, Divine Providence had reserved two glorious and
immaculate procreative elements, one from each, which in due course would
transform one of the most blessed ova of Saint Anne and likewise a seed of
Saint Joachim, in order that, through a sublime conjugal act, there be
formed the glorious and immacu-late Body of Mary Irredeemed.
That transformation was accomplished before the Conception of Mary
through the fusion of each of the germinal ele-ments of the Parents of the
Virgin with those respectively of Adam and Eve.
Without losing their personal character, those of Saint Anne and
Saint Joachim acquired, through the transformation, the condition proper
to the state of original justice, being now by nature full of all the
gifts and graces belonging to those of Adam and Eve before the fall, and
that in greater degree. We
define then that the transformed ovum of Saint Anne continued to be her
own, and that the fertilizing male element of Saint Joachim, transformed,
also continued to be his own. That
is the reason why the Virgin Mary, true daughter of redeemed parents, is,
at the same time, Immaculate. Thanks
to that singular providence of God, the Most Holy Soul of Mary was not
stained by original sin on receiving Her body from Her parents.
Thus was fulfilled the Divine Decree by which Mary is the
Irredeemed, most singular privilege owed to Her in view of Her sublime
dignity of Mother of God. Mary
is Immaculate because She had always to remain the Irredeemed.
3. With that preamble we come to the mystery of the Immaculate
Conception of Mary Most Holy with clear and complete comprehen-sion of its
whole process, thanks to the magisterial teaching of His Ho-liness Pope
Gregory XVII, who has presented it most resolutely and clearly.
4. At the supreme moment when the Immaculate Conception of Mary
took place, Her most holy Body was united to Her Divine Soul, pre-existing
and, since the moment of its creation, full "of all virtue and grace
in unimaginable degree", undiminished by union with Her corpo-real
nature. The most holy and
beautiful Body of the Divine Child Mary was conceived and entirely formed
at the same instant, all members and organs perfectly and harmoniously
proportioned, though minute in size.
Her Body was not subject to the natural development proper to the
time before birth, though it was subject to normal growth.
The Immaculate Body of the Daughter of the Most High was conceived
in the womb of Anne Most Holy by the action of Most Holy Joachim,
necessarily with the gifts and virtues of a body in glory, given the state
of glory of the germi-nal elements of Her most holy parents after their
transformation, all in virtue of the Divine Espousal.
For Mary was not subject to the divine decree pertaining to fallen
human nature. Furthermore the exalted Mother of God continued, at the
moment of conception, to enjoy the beatific vision, as well as infused
knowledge, in the same plenary grade that was Hers from the creation of
Her Divine Soul, the greatest possible to a creature after the Most Sacred
Humanity of Christ, and one not susceptible to increase.
As the new Eve, the Most Holy Virgin Mary, from the first moment of
conception, enjoyed the fullest use of reason and most perfect human
discernment.
5. The Immaculate Conception accomplished, the Divine Mary, there
in the very womb of Saint Anne, dedicated Herself with all of Her most
perfect will to the reparation of the Eternal Father and to the redemption
of mankind. This She began by
offering Herself with the deepest humility entirely to Her Divine Spouse,
the Creator, and by consecrating the first fruits of Her Being: the
exquisite lily of the Perpetual Vow of Her Virginity.
6. Divine Providence had planned that the Immaculate Body of the
Divine Child Mary, retain the gifts and virtues of Her state of glory,
including the beatific vision, during the time She remained in the womb of
Her mother, Saint Anne. But
as the Most Holy Child wished to make expiatory acts of reparation and
redemption, She was moved by the Divine Spirit to employ Her omnipotent
supplication before the Eternal Father; and He, unable to resist, heard
the supplication of His most loving Daughter, revoked His plans and
granted Her fervent petition, that could only be fulfilled by suspending
Mary's glorious gifts, to which He acceded at certain moments.
When the Body of the Divine Child Mary was left in the ordinary
state of mortal men, She retained the fullness of sanctity as well as the
perfect harmony and equilibrium that distinguished Her from others.
Also in certain moments, the beatific vision was wholly veiled in
order for Her to be able to make acts of heroic virtue, like those of
faith and hope, acts incompatible with the soul in the state of vision. Her infused knowledge was also veiled, above all, that
pertaining to Her sublime mission, since in this way, deprived of
know-ledge, She was capable of greater suffering and merit.
The merit was not for Her own benefit, but rather for ours, for the
banished children of Eve.
7. The time spent by the Divine and Immaculate Mary Irredeemed in
the womb of Her mother, Saint Anne, was filled with repara-tive and
redemptive activity. In the
moments She enjoyed Her glorious gifts, She performed those acts without
expiatory value, howbeit with merit.
When the gifts and virtues were
suspended Her acts were meritori-ous with expiatory value.
Thus Mary, with unspeakable sighs and the most sublime and heroic
acts of all the virtues made reparation to the Celes-tial Father and
secured redemption for mankind, and hastened as well the Coming of the
Promised Messias. At other times the beatific vision was veiled in the inferior
part of the soul, and remained only in the supe-rior part.
She was thus able to make reparation and to obtain redemption with
expiatory value. In the three
states Her sacrifices had infinite value since, although Mary is finite by
nature, being a pure creature, nevertheless, by reason of the Espousal of
Her Divine Soul with the Most Divine Soul of Christ, all Her acts embrace
a content of infinite extent.
8. The difference between the value of the sacrifices of Mary and
the acquired infinite value of the works of the rest of man-kind after the
fall of Adam, rests on the fact that the Divine Virgin did not need
Calvary for Her acts to have infinite value, whereas, for the rest of men,
excepting Saint Joseph, it is only through the union of their sacrifices
with that of Christ and Mary on Calvary that such merit is possible.
Regarding the Angels, these were incorporated into the Mysti-cal
Soul of the Church at the moment of their creation, and from that moment
their acts acquire infinite value, without the need of Calvary. The angelic spirits who overcame the trial, were, by the
Decree of Redemp-tion, subject to the economy of grace that corresponds to
the Sacrifice of Christ and Mary on Calvary in what concerns the two
future increases of essential glory, like the rest of the Blessed with the
exception of Mary, who was raised to the highest degree of the hypostatic
order in virtue of the Nuptials of the Lamb through the Espousal of the
Divine Souls.
9. O what prodigious activity, all converted in love of God and
love for men! Divine activity
that knew no rest or respite dur-ing the nine months the Most Holy Child
abode in the maternal womb! Dur-ing
that time, the most chaste womb of Saint Anne attained the exalted dignity
of an authentic Sanctuary of the Tabernacle of God.
From that Sanctuary there rose without cease to the Creator, the
most pure and a-greeable sacrifices of the whole of the Old Testament,
sacrifices second only to the spiritual offertory of the Soul of Christ,
with the most in-tense flames of ardent love, a blazing fire of infinite
complacency to the Most August Trinity.
The Immaculate Heart was an immense volcano of divine fire and
love, and of love for men, an inexhaustible fount of deepest reverence and
of sublimest praise and adoration to the Infinite Majesty of the Triune
God, as the most loving gift of Herself, and of all creation.
10. Although in chapter XVI of this Treatise it was de-fined that
the New Testament opened with the Incarnation of the Word, we add the
clarification that Mary, in what pertains exclusively to Her Person,
anticipated that opening at the moment of the Immaculate Conception, given
that She, from that moment, was within the Messianic Era.
We af-firm and define that Mary,
with Her complete human nature, that being the union of Her Divine Soul
with Her Most Pure Body, did not belong to the Old Testament, but
altogether to the New. We
make clear that this singular privilege did not extend to Her Mystical
Body.
11. From the very instant of Her Immaculate Conception, the Most
Holy and Divine Child Mary, the new Eve, continued, now more than ever, to
crush the head of the infernal dragon, Lucifer; since, from then on, She
began to act fully as Co- Reparatrix and Co-Redemptrix.
This activity was marked particularly by a continual, most humble
and loving violence towards the Eternal Father in order for Him to hasten
the hour of the Incarnation of His Divine Son, the Redeemer.
12. All the sacrifice, prayer and praise of angels and men taken
together, in the Old Testament, except those of the Most Di-vine Soul of
Christ, were far from pleasing the Father, as did those which the Divine
Child continually and lovingly offered in reparation and redemption from
the womb of Her mother, Saint Anne.
13. The intense and profound reparative and redemptive action of
the future Mother of God during Her time in the privileged womb of Saint
Anne was eminently priestly. The
Most Holy Soul of the Di-vine Mary already possessed the eternal
Priesthood from the moment of Her creation, in virtue of Her Espousal with
the Most Divine Soul of Christ. In
the Immaculate Conception of Mary there was accomplished the exten-sion of
Her priesthood to Her whole bodily nature.
The truth of this doctrine is admirably deduced from the following
dogmatic definition of His Holiness Pope Gregory XVII: "In the
Incarnation of the Divine Word there also operated the Priesthood of Mary
clothing the Divine Word with Her own flesh and blood through the action
and grace of the Holy Ghost". In another dogma His Holiness Gregory XVII defines that, for
the Incarna-tion of the Divine Word, Mary's Fiat was necessary.
In these definitions are expounded and firmly established the acts
proper to the sacerdotal ministry of the Mother of God in the Work of the
Incarnation of the Word, that of Her Divine Soul in pronouncing Her Fiat
and that of Her Most Pure Body in clothing the Divine Word in Her own
flesh and blood, both at the same moment.
14. In the light of the Holy Ghost we affirm and define that the
Most Holy Body of Mary, from the very moment of Her Conception, harboured
all the members of the Church. Thus
was constituted the Mys-tical Body of Mary, vivified by the Mystical Soul,
that is, by the Es-pousal of the Divine Souls.
15. The basis for our doctrine is this: In the same in-stant that
the Soul of Mary informed Her Most Pure Body, the Mystical Soul of the
Church vivified Her Mystical Body, since the two Divine Souls act
inseparably, forming, as they do, one Soul, the Mystical Soul of the
Church, though individually they remain differentiated without confusion
of nature or person. At the very moment of the Immaculate Conception of Mary,
there was extended to Her
Mystical Body vinculation (bond of rela-tionship) or, according to the
case, incorporation, of the members who up to that moment belonged to the
Mystical Soul. From that
moment on, new members entered the Church through vinculation with, or
incorporation into the Mystical Body of Mary, until the Conception of the
Mystical Body of Christ, Fruit of the Mystical Fecundity of the sublime
union of the Dei-fic Heart of Jesus and the Immaculate Heart of Mary.
16. The Mystical Body of Mary was not a figure of the Mystical Body
of Christ, but rather a sublime Ark which enclosed the whole Church, later
to be surrendered to Jesus when the Most Divine Soul of Christ inseparably
united to the Word, would be clothed in His own Flesh and Blood.
Thus the Mystical Body of Mary was an essential element in the
future formation of the Mystical Body of Christ.
17. In previous chapters we explained and defined the doctrine of
vinculation (bond of relationship) with, or according to the case,
incorporation into the Mystical Soul of the Church, through circum-cision
or sanctification, which is understood of the period up to the Im-maculate
Conception of Mary. From that
moment on, those who pertained to the Mystical Soul of the Church came
now, by extension, to belong to the Mystical Body of Mary.
Therefore the doctrine of vinculation with or in-corporation into
the Mystical Soul of the Church already treated contained implicitly the
doctrine of extension to the Mystical Body of Mary from the moment it
would be constituted.
18. The doctrine of the Mystical Body of Mary is also supported by
that of Her Universal Mediation, "Ad Jesum per Mariam", since
She is the Divine Bridge which is indispensable in order to go to Jesus, -
doctrine which, with all exactness, has always been realized in the
economy of grace of each epoch, and which will attain a yet higher degree
at the moment of the establishment of the Messianic Kingdom with the
enthronement of the glorified hearts of all who then live on earth, and
those as well of the Blessed in Heaven including the angelic spir-its, in
the Immaculate Heart of Mary, and - through Her Immaculate Heart - in the
Heart of Christ. This will
culminate at the end of the Messi-anic Kingdom, when the hearts of all the
Blessed will be directly en-throned in the Heart of Christ in virtue of
the Nuptials of the Lamb.
19. The Immaculate Conception of Mary filled the whole Church with
glory and jubilation for the fulfillment of that first pro-mise given in
Paradise, the moment so long desired by Patriarchs, Prophets and all the
faithful. The Church
likewise, pertaining now to the Mystical Body of Mary, received a special
increase of grace and blessing with the sure hope of prompt redemption.
20. We crown the present chapter with the following declaration:
This Holy Council affirms and defines that 8th
December 1981 is the two thousandth anniversary of the Immaculate
Conception of the Divine Virgin Mary.
We base this declaration on the following documents and
mystical-prophetical revelations:
21. In chapter 14 of the present Treatise it was defined that the
Immaculate Conception of Mary took place in the year 5, 180 of the
Creation. Reckoning from that
date to the year 1981 after Christ (Year 7,180 of the Creation), it is
clear that exactly 2,000 years have passed.
22. In the Martyrology of the Church, the feast of the Immaculate
Conception is given as 8th December.
23. Pope Saint Pius IX pronounced solemnly the dogma of the
Immaculate Conception on 8th December 1854.
24. In a message to the present Pope Gregory XVII, the Virgin Mary
revealed that the 8th September was the feast of Her Nativi-ty, in the
following clear and definite words: "A great day, the feast of My
Nativity! the Nativity of the Mother of the Church" (Message of 8th
September 1972). Given the
due interpretation of this message of Mary, one sees with perfect clarity
that the Virgin there determines not mere-ly that we celebrate Her
Nativity, but that 8th September is the day of Her birth.
25. The Holy Doctor Saint Mary of Jesus of Agreda, speaking of the
Birth of the Virgin, says textually: "Her birth took place on the
eighth day of September".
26. In the various documentary proofs previously men-tioned there
is perfect correspondence regarding the day and month of the Immaculate
Conception of Mary. One sees
how the Holy Ghost has assisted the Church, on the one hand, through many
facts given in the Sacred Martyrology, as well as by the date chosen by
Saint Pius IX for his magnif-icent dogmatic proclamation, and again
through the mystical-prophetical revelations mentioned above.
The documentation in support of the date of the Nativity clearly
determines the date of the Immaculate Conception of Mary.
27. After a detailed investigation of Holy Scripture and of books
on general History, this Holy Council does not find any proof or
conclusive argument to contradict the chronological data previously
defined on the Immaculate Conception of Mary and on the completion in 1981
of two thousand years of this most sacred mystery.
Certain historians who have treated the question of Christian
Chronology have limited them-selves to calculations with hypothetical
details. Others present
certain historical facts that serve to support our declaration.
28. The Gospel of Saint Luke states that Saint John the Baptist
began his prophetic mission in the fifteenth year of
the reign of Tiberius Caesar (Luke III: 1).
Having consulted various works of his-tory, including History of
the Church, we find they agree in that Tiber-ius Caesar began to govern in
the year 14 of the Christian Era. This
in-formation offers us, as date for the beginning of the preaching of the
Precursor of the Messias, the year 29 of the Christian Era already in
progress. This harmonizes
with the gospel text, from which is deduced that Saint John the Baptist
was nearing the age of thirty when he began his mission, since Christ's
age was thirty when He was baptized by John (Luke III: 23).
All of which supports our doctrine on the Christian Era.
This Holy Council also affirms and defines the following:
29. That the Assumption of the Most Holy Virgin Mary took place in
the year 5,256 of the Creation of the world, corresponding to the year 57
of the Christian Era.
30. That the Apostles Saint Peter and Saint Paul died as martyrs in
the year 5,266 of the Creation of the world, corresponding to the year 67
of the Christian Era.
31. And that the year 1981 of the traditional calendar is the exact
year of the Christian Era, corresponding to the year 7, 180 of the
Creation of the world.
32. This Holy Council repudiates any historic date con-trary to the
chronology defined above.
33. The year One of the Christian Era begins on 1 Janu-ary of the
year of Creation 5,200, - that is to say, once the year ended in which the
Incarnation of the Word and the Birth of Christ took place, since that is
the year zero of Christian chronology.
34. Another convincing proof of the doctrine given a-bove we find
in the documents of numerous Popes, who, on writing the date, add the
words "of the Year of Our Lord Jesus Christ", understood to mean
"post Christum natum", (after the Birth of Christ).
That is how the Holy Ghost, when He inspired the phrase, wished to
show that the date on papal documents correspond in truth to Christian
chronology.
35. This Holy Council with joy and satisfaction ex-presses
gratitude to the Blessed Virgin Mary for having reserved for this year
these several important dogmatic declarations which immense-ly enrich the
doctrine already defined on Her Immaculate Conception.
This has come to pass precisely within the preparatory novena of
that sublime mystery, which, in the present year, 1981, coincides with the
two thousandth anniversary of the Immaculate Conception of Mary.
36. CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE WITH DATES
DEFINED IN THE PRESENT CHAPTER.
YEAR
BEFORE CHRIST
YEAR OF THE CREATION
==================
====================
452
Decree
of Artaxerxes
4,747
19
8 December
Immaculate Conception
5,180
of the Most Holy Virgin
Mary
18
8 Sept.
Nativity of the Most
5,181
Holy Virgin Mary
YEAR
OF THE INCAR-
AGE OF THE
NATION
AND BIRTH
MOST HOLY
OF
CHRIST
VIRGIN MARY
=================
===========
(0)
25 March
Incarnation of the
5,199
17
Word of God
25 December Birth of Christ
5,199
18
YEAR
OF THE
CHRISTIAN
ERA
================
1
1 January
Circumcision of the
5,200
18
Child Jesus
29
Saint John the Baptist
5,228
begins to preach
30
Baptism of Christ
5,229
48
34
Death of Christ
5,233
51
57
15 August
Assumption of the Most
5,256
74
Holy Virgin Mary
===========
67
Martyrdom of Saint
5,266
Peter and Saint Paul
1981
December The Holy Palmarian Coun-
7,190
that is,
cil, within the novena of
2000 years of
the Immaculate Conception
the Immaculate
of the Most Holy Virgin
Conception of
Mary, defines important
Mary
doctrinal aspects relat-
ing to this mystery.
