Last Thursday we celebrated the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin, the Mother of God, Mary. Adding this to the list of numerous things that Protestant and Evangelical theology finds “protestable” about Our Lady, I believe there are a few distinctions that are important to remember:

The Immaculate Conception is about Grace
Mary was not preserved from the stain of original sin by virtue of her own efforts or merit; The Church interprets “full of Grace” to mean a literal, total filling and imparting of complete divine grace, that which Christ offers to us through his body and blood – a gift we do not deserve. The Immaculate Conception proposes that Mary must have been prepared by grace to be a vessel worthy to bear the responsibility of carrying God Incarnate.

God’s Mercy and Grace are Endless
If God can find it within His will to continually make new propositions of love toward us, His creation, which He has done continually from generation to generation – in spite of our rejection of Him – it makes sense that he could prepare the vessel that would, through her great Yes, make way for the true hope of Salvation, Jesus Christ in a particular and special way.

“Remembering our most holy, pure, blessed, and glorious Lady, the Theotokos and ever-virgin Mary, with all the saints, let us commit ourselves and one another and our whole life to Christ our God.”