[stfassisi]

Bold words indeed! But, faced with the words Mary spoke at Lourdes: "I AM the Immaculate Conception," there is really nothing else to say, unless we wish to suppose that Mary was then giving herself only a symbolic name. Moreover, these bold words are those of an expert theologian; he uses the necessary restriction, "quasi incarnates," which forces the mind of the believer to open itself up to the mystery, while not disturbing its faith. He constantly maintains that the Son alone was truly made man, not the Holy Spirit. The task of the theologian is not to demonstrate the ineffable, but to try to express it if he can in terms, which will provoke the heart of the believer to go beyond what the mind can understand. The Holy Spirit is "quasi" (in some manner) incarnate, without being really and strictly incarnate; for Mary the Immaculata is, as such, taken up by the Holy Spirit in all her being, as a woman and a mother.

[stfassisi]

Furthermore, Kolbe says the Holy Spirit "produces [conceives] in an immaculate manner divine life itself in the depths of Mary's soul, thereby making her the human Immaculate Conception." For Kolbe, then, the Immaculate Conception (in Mary) refers to both the act of divine love by the Holy Spirit, which "conceives" the singular grace in Mary's soul, uniting her with him; and the singular grace itself, which Mary so clearly identifies with her very being that she can truly define herself by saying, "I am the Immaculate Conception." And because the Holy Spirit proceeds, or is conceived, in an immaculate manner from the love flowing eternally between the Father and the Son, he can be given the proper name of Uncreated, Eternal Immaculate Conception.

[PatriotGirl827]

bookmark for later read - right up my alley!

[TASMANIANRED]

Marking to re-read.