Mother inviolate . . .

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Mary Introduction
Mary's Litany

Mary is set apart by God from all others of his creation to be his pure instrument through which and by which He redeemed all from the slavery of sin.  She was present in God's mind before the beginnings of creation, to be the spouse of the Divine Holy Spirit and nourish his human nature with her very life.  She is the pure, sinless, spotless vessel created and used by God through whom God brought his Son into the world.

She is the ladder of heaven; for by Mary, God descended from heaven into the world, that by her men might ascend from earth to heaven. (1)  St. Fulgentius

Our Lady’s love is like a limpid stream which has its source in the eternal fountains, quenches the thirst of all, can never be drained, and ever flows back to its source. (2)  St. Margaret Mary Alacoque

Who ever heard of an architect who built himself a temple, and yielded up the first possession of it to his greatest enemy? (3)  St. Cyril of Alexandria

We must certainly believe that Jesus Christ preserved the body of Mary from corruption after death; for if he had not done so, he would not have observed the law, which, at the same time that it commands us to honor our mother, forbids us to show her disrespect.
  (4)  St. Alphonsus de Liguori

It is to be believed that the Holy Spirit, as a very special favor, redeemed and preserved Mary from original sin by a new kind of sanctification, and this in the very moment of her conception; not that sin was in her, but that it otherwise would have been. (5)  St. Bonaventure

Others had Jesus as a liberator, but to the most Blessed Virgin he was a pre-liberator; meaning, that all others had a Redeemer who delivered them from sin with which they were already defiled, but that the most Blessed Virgin had a Redeemer who, because he was her Son, preserved her from ever being defiled by it. (6)  Cardinal Cusano

The divine Spirit, the love itself of the Father and the Son, came corporally into Mary, and enriching her with graces above all creatures, reposed in her and made her his Spouse, the Queen of heaven and earth. (7)  St. Anselm

Mary is called the temple of the Lord, and the sacred resting-place of the Holy Spirit: for by the operation of the Holy Spirit she became the Mother of the Incarnate Word. (8)  St. Thomas

My sister, my spouse, is a garden enclosed, a fountain sealed up.  Canticle 4:12

Mary was this enclosed garden and sealed fountain, into which no guile could enter, against which no fraud of the enemy could prevail, and who always was holy in mind and body. (9)  St. Sophronius

You are an enclosed garden, into which the sinner's hand has never entered to pluck its flowers. (10)  St. Bernard

It is providential that just as Advent is a portal to Christmas, the Annunciation is the feast of the one who is the Mother of Jesus and who, better than anyone else, can lead us to know, love and adore the Son of God made man.
  (11)  Benedict XVI, pope

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Mary Introduction
Mary's Litany