“Then the tribes of Israel heard that Anna had conceived the immaculate
one. So everyone took part in the rejoicing. Joachim gave a banquet, and
great was the merriment in the garden. He invited the priests and Levites to
prayer: then he called Mary into the center of the crowd, that she might be
magnified.”
St. Andrew of Crete, Homilies on Mary’s Nativity 4 (ante 740 AD)
“This is Mary the Theotokos, the common refuge of all Christians, the first
to be liberated from the original fall of our first parents.”
Catechism of the Council of Trent (1566)
Pt. I, Ch. IV: This immaculate and perpetual virginity forms, therefore,
the just theme of our eulogy. Such was the work of the Holy Ghost, who at
the Conception and birth of the Son so favored the Virgin Mother as to
impart to her fecundity while preserving inviolate her perpetual virginity.
…The Virgin Mother we may also compare to Eve, making the second
Eve, that is, Mary, correspond to the first, as we have already shown that
the second Adam, that is, Christ, corresponds to the first Adam. By
believing the serpent, Eve brought malediction and death on mankind, and
Mary, by believing the Angel, became the instrument of the divine
goodness in bringing life and benediction to the human race. From Eve we
are born children of wrath; from Mary we have received Jesus Christ, and
through Him are regenerated children of grace.
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