Sacred Calendar

Fourth Lesson - The Church's Prayer for a Definition

From of old time continual prayers have been offered to this Apostolic See not only by Bishops, Churchmen, and the Regular Orders, but also by Emperors and Kings, beseeching that the sinlessness of the Conception of the Mother of God might be made the subject of a Dogmatic Definition. These prayers have been still more urgently addressed in recent times to Our Predecessor, of happy memory, Gregory XVI., and to Ourselves, by the Bishops, by the Secular Clergy, by the Regular Orders, and by the most eminent Christian Princes and nations. The knowledge of these things hath caused Our heart to rejoice, and they have been the serious occupation of Our thoughts ever since, in spite of our unworthiness, the inscrutable Providence of God was pleased to set Us in this Supreme Chair of Peter, and to put His Church into Our hands, for Us to govern. Since then, We have had nothing so much at heart as to yield to the desires of the Church in this matter, to the increasing of the veneration of which the most holy Virgin is already the object, and to the setting in a clearer light the singular graces with which God hath adorned her, being Ourselves especially drawn to the same by the reverence, love, and affection with which We have been from Our childhood animated towards the same most holy Virgin Mary, Mother of God.

Fifth Lesson - The Time to Define the Doctrine

And now We trust in the Lord that the time is come to define as a truth of faith the doctrine of the stainless Conception of the most holy Virgin Mary, Mother of God, that doctrine already set forth by Holy Scripture, by the ancient tradition, by the unbroken belief of the Universal Church, by the one common opinion of the Catholic Episcopate and laity, and by the marked acts and decrees of Our Predecessors. We have weighed everything in Our mind, and We have without ceasing implored the help and light of God's Holy Spirit by earnest prayer, and We are of opinion that it is Our duty no longer to delay, but by Our Supreme Decision to settle and declare that the Virgin was conceived without sin, and thus to satisfy the godly cravings of the whole Christian world, as well as the instinct of Our own love for the said most holy Virgin, and, above all, because she is His Mother, to glorify our Lord Jesus Christ by this act, since whatever we do rightly to honour the Mother must redound to the glory of the Son.

Sixth Lesson - The Dogmatic Definition

Wherefore, having in all fasting and humbleness of heart continually implored God the Father through His Blessed Son, to hear Our own prayers and those of His whole Church, and to teach and strengthen Our mind by the power of His Holy Spirit, having begged the intercession of the Church triumphant, and, above all, with groans called on the Holy Ghost the Comforter, We now, moved by Him, for the honour of the Holy and Undivided Trinity, for the greater praise and exaltation of the Virgin Mother of God, the glory of the Catholic Faith, and the good of Christianity, in the name and authority of our Lord Jesus Christ, of the Blessed Apostles Peter and Paul, and in Our own, declare and define that: - That doctrine which declareth that the most blessed Virgin Mary was, in the first instant of her Conception, preserved, by a special grace and privilege granted to her by Almighty God, through the merits of Christ Jesus, Saviour of mankind, which He foreknew, from any stain of original sin, is a doctrine taught and revealed by God, and therefore from this time forward must be held by all faithful Christians firmly and constantly. Wherefore if any one, which God forbid, shall at any time think in his heart any thing contrary to this Our definition, let him know that he is condemned by his own judgment, that he hath made shipwreck of the faith, and that he hath cut himself off from the body of the Church.