From: richarra@gmail.com   
      
    -- Galatians 2:20 --    
      
   I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ   
   lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the   
   Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.   
   ========================   
   If Christ has died for me--ungodly as I am, without strength as I   
   am--then I can no longer live in sin, but must arouse myself to love   
   and serve Him who has redeemed me. I cannot trifle with the evil that   
   killed my best Friend. I must be holy for his sake. How can I live in   
   sin when He has died to save me from it?   
      
      
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   December 8th - Feast of the Immaculate Conception   
      
   Today, December 8, we celebrate the feast of the Immaculate Conception   
   of the Blessed Virgin Mary—the day on which Mary, the future Mother of   
   God, was conceived in spotless purity of soul, free from Original Sin   
   at her first moment of animation. Our Blessed Mother, in preparation   
   for her role as Mother of Jesus, was granted this singular grace by   
   God, upon the merits of Jesus. Intrinsically linked and inseparable   
   with the purity and divinity of Our Savior, Mary, the Blessed Virgin,   
   persisted in grace and purity, becoming the vessel of the Incarnation,   
   the Mother of the Word of God.   
      
   Pope Pius IX pronounced the doctrine of the Immaculate Conception in   
   1854, stating in the Constitution Ineffabilis Deus: “The Blessed   
   Virgin Mary in the first instance of her conception, by a singular   
   privilege and grace granted by God, in view of the merits of Jesus   
   Christ, the Savior of the human race, was preserved exempt from all   
   stain of original sin.”   
      
   An explanation from the Catholic Encyclopedia (newadvent.org   
   ):   
      
   “"The Blessed Virgin Mary..."   
      
   The subject of this immunity from original sin is the person of Mary   
   at the moment of the creation of her soul and its infusion into her   
   body.   
      
   "...in the first instance of her conception..."   
      
   The term conception does not mean the active or generative conception   
   by her parents. Her body was formed in the womb of the mother, and the   
   father had the usual share in its formation. The question does not   
   concern the immaculateness of the generative activity of her parents.   
   Neither does it concern the passive conception absolutely and simply   
   (conceptio seminis carnis, inchoata), which, according to the order of   
   nature, precedes the infusion of the rational soul. The person is   
   truly conceived when the soul is created and infused into the body.   
   Mary was preserved exempt from all stain of original sin at the first   
   moment of her animation, and sanctifying grace was given to her before   
   sin could have taken effect in her soul.   
      
   "...was preserved exempt from all stain of original sin..."   
      
   The formal active essence of original sin was not removed from her   
   soul, as it is removed from others by baptism; it was excluded, it   
   never was in her soul. Simultaneously with the exclusion of sin. The   
   state of original sanctity, innocence, and justice, as opposed to   
   original sin, was conferred upon her, by which gift every stain and   
   fault, all depraved emotions, passions, and debilities, essentially   
   pertaining to original sin, were excluded. But she was not made exempt   
   from the temporal penalties of Adam — from sorrow, bodily infirmities,   
   and death.   
      
   "...by a singular privilege and grace granted by God, in view of the   
   merits of Jesus Christ, the Savior of the human race."   
      
   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 Savior 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.”   
      
   With that said, we see that at the very moment of conception—that is   
   the animation of Mary’s soul crated, the Lord filled her with grace   
   (pre-determining the Archangel Gabriel’s words) and preserved her from   
   sin. Our Blessed Mother referred to herself this way when appearing at   
   Lourdes, at Beauraing, at the striking of the Miraculous Medal, and   
   others. In this title, we see Mary as the New Eve, saved by Christ,   
   the New Adam, from the original stain of sin as foretold in the Book   
   of Genesis (3:15):   
      
   I will put enmities between thee and the woman, and thy seed and her   
   seed: she shall crush thy head, and thou shalt lie in wait for her   
   heel. (Genesis 3:15)   
      
   In the entire history of creation, only four individuals were created,   
   in their first moments, without the stain of sin: Adam and Eve, Mary   
   and Jesus. And as we know, only Mary and Jesus remained sinless,   
   unblemished, and pure in the eyes of the Lord throughout their lives.   
      
   Mary, the Blessed Virgin didn’t found churches, preach great sermons,   
   convert large crowds, work miracles, or die for the faith as so many   
   of our great saints have. She did something much more difficult,   
   requiring a much greater sacrifice, and leading to the greatest of   
   joys, linked inextricable with the greatest of suffering. She simply   
   said “yes.” Of course, there was nothing simple about it, and the   
   Church recognizes her obedience and service as the greatest of traits,   
   the epitome of the Christian faith. That is, Our Blessed Mother is the   
   perfect model of Christian faith. When the Lord asked her to serve   
   Him, she said yes. The Church instructs us to imitate Mary in her   
   living of the Christian life, through her faith, her hope, her   
   charity, and her obedience.   
      
   Oh Mary, conceived without sin, pray for us who have recourse to thee!   
      
      
   Saint Quote:   
   Truly we are passing through disastrous times, when we may well make our own   
   the   
   lamentation of the Prophet: "There is no truth, and there is no mercy, and   
   there   
    is no knowledge of God in the land" (Hosea 4:1). Yet in the midst of this   
   tide of evil, the Virgin Most Merciful rises before our eyes like a rainbow,    
   as the arbiter of peace between God and man.   
   -- St. Pius X   
      
      
   <><><><>   
   Prayer of Pope John Paul II:   
      
   Queen of peace, pray for us! Our gaze is directed toward you in great   
      
   [continued in next message]   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)