from the Dogmatic Bull of Pope Pius IX
The ineffable God, whose ways are mercy and truth, whose will is omnipotence, and whose wisdom 'reacheth from end to end mightily, and ordereth all things sweetly' (Wisdom 8:1), foreseeing from all eternity the most woeful ruin of all the human race which would follow on Adam's transgression, and decreeing in His mysterious purpose before the worlds were that the primal work of His bounty should be completed by the still more hidden mystery of the Incarnation of the Word, and that man who, through the wicked wiles of the devil and despite His own merciful designs, had fallen into sin, should not perish, but that what had fallen in the first Adam should be still more happily re-established in the second, from the beginning and before all ages elected and ordained for His only-begotten Son a Mother, from whom, in the blessed fullness of time, taking flesh, He should be born; and with so great a love did He love her beyond all creatures that in her His will was wholly and well pleased.
To which end He bestowed upon her from the treasure of the Divinity so marvellous an abundance of all the heavenly gifts of grace, and so far exceeding anything bestowed on any Angel or Saint, that, always absolutely free from every stain of sin, she showed forth in herself such a plenitude of innocence and sanctity, that short of God no greater can at all be imagined and only the thought of God Himself can comprehend. And, in sooth, it was most fitting that this most worshipful Mother should always be bright with the brightness of the most perfect holiness, and that, by her absolute freedom from even the stain of original sin, she should gain so complete a victory over the ancient serpent, since to her God the Father designed to give His only Son - whom, begotten in His own bosom and equal to Himself, as His own self He loves - that He, one and the same, might be by nature both the Son of God the Father and the Virgin's Son. . . .
The Fathers and ecclesiastical writers, learned in celestial lore, have made it their first care in their books explanatory of Scripture, or written in defense of dogma and for the instruction of the faithful, eagerly and in many and divers ways to preach and to set forth the Virgin's supreme sanctity and dignity, and her freedom from every stain of sin and glorious victory over the most dreadful enemy of the human race. And thus, when commenting on the words, 'I will put enmities between thee and the woman, and thy seed and her seed' (Genesis 3:15), by which God, fore-announcing in the beginning of the world the remedies prepared in His mercy for the restoration of mortal man, repelled the audacity of the wily serpent, and marvellously raised up a hope for our human kind, they taught that, by His divine pronouncement, the merciful Redeemer of the human race - namely, the only-begotten Son of God, Christ Jesus - was clearly and openly pointed out, that His most Blessed Mother, the Virgin Mary, was also indicated, and that by these words signal expression was given to the enmity against the devil which is common to both of them. And thus as Christ, the Mediator between God and man in our human nature which He had assumed, blotting out the handwriting of the decree that was against us, fastened it like a victor to the Cross, so the most holy Virgin - bound up with Him in the most close and indissoluble bond, and together with Him and through Him giving vent to her sempiternal enmity against the venomous serpent - triumphing fully over him, has crushed his head beneath her immaculate foot. . . .
Wherefore having, in all lowliness and in fasting, offered up without intermission our own private prayers and the public prayers of the Church to God the Father through His Son, that He would deign to guide and strengthen our mind by the power of His Holy Spirit, having implored the aid of all the court of heaven, and having with groans called upon the Holy Ghost the Paraclete - now We, inspired by Him, to the honour of the Holy and Undivided Trinity, for the praise and glory of the Virgin-Mother of God, and for the exaltation of the Catholic faith and the increase of the Christian religion, by the authority of our Lord Jesus Christ, of the blessed Apostles Peter and Paul, and of our own authority, declare, pronounce, and define that: The doctrine which maintains that the most Blessed Virgin Mary, in the first moment of her Conception, by a singular grace and privilege of Almighty God, in virtue of the merits of Jesus Christ, the Saviour of mankind, was preserved free from all stain of original sin, is a doctrine revealed of God, and therefore to be firmly and constantly believed by all the faithful. Wherefore, if any shall dare - which God forbid! - to think in their heart anything other than that which we have defined, let them know and understand that they are condemned by their own judgment, have suffered shipwreck of the faith, and have fallen away from the unity of the Church.
Let us pray
O God! who, by the Immaculate Conception of the Virgin, didst prepare a worthy dwelling for Thy Son, and by the foreseen death of the same, Thy Son, didst preserve her from every stain, grant, we beseech Thee, that, by her intercession, we also made pure may come unto Thee. Through the same our Lord Jesus Christ, Thy Son, who liveth and reigneth with Thee, in the unity of the Holy Ghost, God, world without end. Amen.
Magnificat
My soul doth magnify the Lord. And my spirit hath rejoiced in God my Saviour. Because He hath regarded the humility of His handmaid; for, behold, from henceforth all generations shall call me blessed. Because He that is mighty hath done great things to me; and holy is His name. And His mercy is, from generation unto generations, to them that fear Him. He hath showed might in His arm: He hath scattered the proud in the conceit of their heart. He hath put down the mighty from their seat, and hath exalted the humble. He hath filled the hungry with good things, and the rich He hath sent empty away. He hath received Israel, His servant, being mindful of His mercy. As He spoke to our fathers - to Abraham and to His seed, for ever. Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost. As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.
Salve Regina!
Hail, holy Queen, Mother of Mercy! Hail, our life, our sweetness, and our hope! To thee do we cry, poor banished children of Eve; to thee do we send up our sighs, mourning and weeping in this vale of tears. Turn, then, most gracious Advocate! thine eyes of mercy towards us, and, after this our exile, show unto us the blessed fruit of thy womb, Jesus. O clement, O loving, O sweet Virgin Mary!
Pray for us, O holy Mother of God! That we may be made worthy of the promises of Christ.
Petition
We fly to thy patronage, O holy Mother of God! despise not our petitions in our necessities, but deliver us always from all dangers, O glorious and blessed Virgin!
- from The May-Book of the Breviary, by Father John Fitzpatrick