mary sinless

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I know the Catholic church teaches Mary had no original sin. However, does this also necessarily mean that she was sinless her entire life? Is there an infallible church document that says that Mary was sinless?

Adam and eve were both created without original sin, yet they sinned during their life and were not sinless. So, I think No Original sin does not necessarily equal a sinless life. I am asking this because their is a discussion in a protestant forum about whether or not the Catholic church officially teaches “sinlessness of Mary” and I thought I would pose the question on the Catholic forum to see what you all have to say.
Thanks 👍
 
System said:
I know the Catholic church teaches Mary had no original sin. However, does this also necessarily mean that she was sinless her entire life? Is there an infallible church document that says that Mary was sinless?

Adam and eve were both created without original sin, yet they sinned during their life and were not sinless. So, I think No Original sin does not necessarily equal a sinless life. I am asking this because their is a discussion in a protestant forum about whether or not the Catholic church officially teaches “sinlessness of Mary” and I thought I would pose the question on the Catholic forum to see what you all have to say.
Thanks 👍
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The dogma of the Immaculate Conception is about more than just Mary being conceived free from Original Sin, but also refers to her being sinless throughout life. It’s right there in the opening paragraph of Ineffabilis Deus (the Papal Encyclical which promulgates this dogma) -

“Therefore … so wondrously did God endow her [Mary] with the abundance of all heavenly gifts poured from the treasury of his divinity that this mother, ever absolutely free of all stain of sin, all fair and perfect, would possess that fullness of holy innocence and sanctity than which, under God, one cannot even imagine anything greater, and which, outside of God, no mind can succeed in comprehending fully.”

True it is that Eve had no original sin and yet sinned. So it wasn’t a matter of course that Mary would be sinless throughout life.

True it is also that Mary was destined to undo this sin of Eve, as Christ undid the sin of Adam, by perfect obedience to God’s law and will where Adam and Eve were disobedient.

If Mary had sinned in any particular, ever, she would have failed in her task, and certainly would not have been a fitting mother of the ‘new Adam’.
 
When I was struggling with this issue my boyfriend asked me: “Since God cannot be near sin, how could Jesus be carried in the womb of a woman who sinned?”

That, and much prayer on the matter for God’s answer, helped me.

Just thought I’d throw that in. Cause I know it was hard for me to understand for a long time.
 
…and having carried the Child Jesus could she have even considered doing anything to distress that relationship…it is unthinkable
 
homewardbound said:
When I was struggling with this issue my boyfriend asked me: “Since God cannot be near sin, how could Jesus be carried in the womb of a woman who sinned?”

That, and much prayer on the matter for God’s answer, helped me.

Just thought I’d throw that in. Cause I know it was hard for me to understand for a long time.
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Rom 8:9 But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his.

See the Holy Spirit lives in born again belivers and they still can sin.

Hbr 4:15 For we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as [we are, yet] without sin.

Hbr 9:14 How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?

1Pe 1:19 But with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot:

**Hbr 1:3 Who being the brightness of [his] glory, and the express image of his person, and upholding all things by the word of his power, when he had by himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high; **
 
homewardbound said:
When I was struggling with this issue my boyfriend asked me: “Since God cannot be near sin, how could Jesus be carried in the womb of a woman who sinned?”
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I don’t think this is the right explanation, but I think it is close. This is my opinion only, since the Church does not teach why God chose for Mary to be without sin.

What is the Incarnation? It is the full and perfect union of God and Man (and through Man, all of creation). So what Man would be suitable for such a union? Man as originally made by God, perfect and without sin? Or fallen Man? Would it make sense for the Incarnation to join perfect divinity with corrupt humanity? Or would it make sense for the Incarnation to join perfect divinity with perfect humanity?

If the latter makes more sense to you then you can see why God chose for Mary to be without sin.
 
Council of Trent, 23rd Canon on Justification (Denzinger 833)
833 Can. 23. If anyone shall say that a man once justified can sin no more, nor lose grace, and that therefore he who falls and sins was never truly justified; or, on the contrary, that throughout his whole life he can avoid all sins even venial sins, except by a special privilege of God, as the Church holds in regard to the Blessed Virgin: let him be anathema.
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The Blessed Virgin Mary was preserved from any stain of sin starting from her passive conception onward to evermore. It’s a singular privilege no one else has ever had. So in a practical sense “no original sin” is consistent with or “does equal” a sinless life because our Blessed Mother is the only human example we have “with no original sin” and will always be the only one without original sin.

When a man and woman engage in the marriage act, at the moment of conception, God gives the soul. The woman conceives by the man.

Mary conceived by the Holy Spirit. She had to be without sin… and she was overflowing with grace Luke 1:28]…there was no room for sin.

However Jesus is Mary’s Saviour, as Mary says herself in the Magnificat [Luke 1:46-47] “My soul doth magnify the Lord and my spirit rejoices in God my saviour” ; but this, in the sense that Jesus saved her from sin at the moment of her conception and for always.
 
However, does this also necessarily mean that she was sinless her entire life? Is there an infallible church document that says that Mary was sinless?

A given point does not have to be “infallibly defined” for it to be the faith of the Church.
 
You might try having a look at this link System:

campus.udayton.edu/mary/resources/kimmac.html

It actually happened in a way the reverse of the way you ( I could add we and many of us) tend to look at it. The saints were proclaiming the Blessed Mother’s sinlessness centuries before the dogma of the Immaculate Conception was established.

I don’t know if you’re Catholic, but if you are System, here’s one of many ways to view it : Mary was continually with her Son, both constantly loving Him as her Son and adoring Him as her God. We can’t really understand that because we’re not God’s Mother; this would easily go beyond being in a perpetual state of receiving Holy Communion 24 hours a day…at which point there would be no space for sin.

If you’re concerned about debating with a non Catholic whether Mary was sinless and someone becomes insistent with you, try asking what sin they’re thinking Mary committed. At that point, if the person is honest enough, they will usually have trouble continuing.
 
Here is a simple way someone explained Mary’s sinless nature. God, being perfection, made his own mother. Would you think for one moment God would allow Satan to overcome his own mother? NO…

God Bless
 
Mary was Immaculately conceived. This means she was conceived without original sin. This is because Jesus took flesh from Mary (the Incarnation) when he was in the womb. i.e., he did not take on sinful flesh. Our sinning, yours and mine are the result of being born with original sin. Mary, having no original sin, had the preternatural gifts, save death. As such, had no propensity to sin.
Prayers & blessings
Deacon Ed B
 
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