What makes mary the immaculate conception

Because of the grace of God, Mary was preserved from sin. Because Mary was preserved from sin, she was prepared to become the sinless Mother of Jesus, who by his life, death and resurrection, has ransomed us from sin. Since the beginning of the Church, the Blessed Virgin Mary has been regarded as the holiest and the most blessed of all disciples. We can say that the Immaculate Conception was the beginning of our salvation and is now one of the central doctrines of our faith.

Because of this, we celebrate the Feast Day to highlight the significant place Our Lady has in salvation history. The doctrine of the Immaculate Conception also encourages us to do our best to remain free from sin. Bernard d. Most of the great scholastic theologians — including St.

Albert the Great d. Bonaventure d. Thomas Aquinas d. Thus, since Mary, unlike Jesus, was conceived in the ordinary human way, they reasoned, she too was subject to original sin.

But the great Franciscan philosopher-theologian Duns Scotus d. Supporters began to gain the upper hand in the 15th century. Ten years later, in Paris, the Sorbonne required all candidates for degrees to swear an oath to defend the idea, and many other universities followed suit.

In , although he conceded that the church had not yet decided on the matter and that, consequently, neither side was heretical, Pope Sixtus IV approved the feast of the Immaculate Conception with its own mass — an approval later confirmed and strengthened by Pope Clement XI in The Council of Trent expressly declared that its decree on original sin did not include the Blessed Virgin Mary.

The doctrine of the Immaculate Conception teaches that Mary, the mother of Christ, was conceived without sin. The doctrine of the Immaculate Conception teaches that Mary, the mother of Christ , was conceived without sin and her conception was thus immaculate. Mary's sinless conception is the reason why Catholics refer to Mary as "full of grace". Mary received God's grace from the first moment of her existence, and was totally and completely redeemed by this grace.

Because she was redeemed, Mary spent her whole existence in a perfect relationship with God. Mary received this redeeming grace not because of any merits of her own, but because God freely gave her the gift of his love. Christians believe that God's redeeming grace is available to all believers: those who accept the doctrine of the Immaculate Conception regard Mary as the perfect example of the redeeming action of God's grace, and believe that Mary was only able to receive this grace because Christ would later redeem all humanity through his death on the cross.

Chosen in advance to be the Mother of the incarnate Word, Mary is at the same time the first-fruits of his redeeming action. The grace of Christ the Redeemer acted in her in anticipation, preserving her from original sin and from any contagion of guilt. This is an ancient teaching, but it remains controversial to some Protestants because it is not explicitly referred to in the Bible.

Early Protestant thinkers were more devoted to Mary than some of their successors. But the Roman Catholic laity and clergy was permitted to accept or reject the concept. This freedom was confirmed at the Council of Trent in the mid 16th century. By having Mary free of original sin resulted in both Mary's and Jesus' conceptions being miraculous.

The concept of the immaculate conception -- that Mary was conceived without sin while a pre-embryo circa 20 BCE gained support in the church. It was only in modern times that scientists determined that both the woman and man contributed genetic information to the production of offspring. In ancient times, the man was regarded as being totally responsible for the start of pregnancy.