[Rank] Fifth Day Within the Octave of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary;;Semiduplex;;2.5;;vide Sancti/12-08 [Lectio4] !From the Dogmatic Bull of Pope Pius IX. The language used in public worship is the necessary offspring of the teaching which it expresseth, and the former can have no safety unless the latter be settled. Wherefore Our Predecessors the Roman Pontiffs, while encouraging the pious love of the faithful for the Conception of the Blessed Virgin, have taken care ceaselessly to inculcate the sinlessness of the same. They have always particularly insisted that the Feast should be observed not in honour of Mary's sanctification, a false opinion, most foreign to the mind of the Church (but which hath nevertheless been maintained by some,) but in honour of her Conception itself. [Lectio6] It hath always been one of the most weighty cares of Our said Predecessors the Roman Pontiffs to protect the doctrine of the sinlessness of Mary's Conception from any sort of attack or corruption. Not only have they suffered no one to condemn and traduce it, but they have gone much further, and in public and repeated declarations have averred That that doctrine which holdeth that the Virgin was conceived without sin is a doctrine, the arguments in support of which are strong enough to enable the the time of public worship, which is ancient, which is almost universal, which is one of those which the Church of Rome encourageth and protecteth, and which is worthy even to be expressed in the Liturgy itself, and in the most solemn prayers of the Church. Our said Predecessors did not stop even here, but in order to preserve the doctrine of the Virgin's sinless Conception from an injury they strictly forbade that the opposite opinion should be maintained either in publie or in private, to the end that it might at length die out under disapprobation. [Lectio7] From the Holy Gospel according to Luke !Luke 1:26-28 At that time the angel Gabriel was sent from God into a city of Galilee, called Nazareth, to a virgin espoused to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David; and the virgin's name was Mary. And so on. _ Homily by St. Tarasius, Patriarch (of Constantinople.) !On the Presentation of the Mother of God. O Mary, where shall I find words to praise thee? Maiden undefiled, virgin unstained, exaltation of women, glory of daughters! Holy Maiden Mother, blessed art thou among women, thy glory is in thy guilelessness, and thy name is a name of purity. In thee the curse of Adam is done away, and the debt of Eve paid. Thou art the clean offering of Abel, chosen out of the firstlings profession thereof to be made at of the flock, a pure sacrifice. Thou art the hope of Enoch, that firm hope that he had in God, and was not ashamed. Thou art the grace that was in Enoch in this life, and his transit to a better. Thou art the Holy Ark of Noah, and the bond of reconciliation with God in a new regeneration. Thou art the exceeding glory of the kingdom and Priesthood of Melchisedech. Thou art the unshaken trust of Abraham, and his faith in the promise of children that were to-be. Thou art the renewed oblation and the reasonable burntoffering of Isaac. Thou art the ladder that Jacob saw going up to heaven, and the most noble of all his children throughout the twelve tribes of Israel. According to the flesh thou art the daughter of Judah. Thou art the modesty of Joseph, and the overthrow of the old Egypt, yea, and of the Synagogue of the Jews. O purest! Thou art the book of Moses the Lawgiver, whereon the new covenant is written with the finger of God, for the new Israel, fleeing from the spiritual Egypt, even as the old law was written upon Sinai, for the old Israel, that Israel which was fed in the wilderness upon manna and water from the rock, whereof both were types of Christ, which was yet to come from thy womb, as a bridegroom from his chamber. Thou art Aaron's rod that budded. Thou art David's daughter, all glorious within, clothed in a vesture of gold, wrought about with diverse colours. [Lectio9] And now we, the people of God, a holy generation, an acceptable congregation, the nestlings of the dove of peace, children of grace, do with purified minds and unpolluted lips, praise God in the tongues of all nations in this joyful solemnity of the Virgin. This is a noble Feast wherein the Angels keep holiday and men do most fitly offer praise, even a feast wherein we echo with reverence and joy that salutation first spoken by Gabriel. Hail Mary! Hail, thou Paradise of God the Father, whence the knowledge of Him floweth in broad rivers to the ends of the earth! Hail, Dwelling-place of God the Son, whence He came forth clothed in flesh! Hail, mysterious Tabernacle of God the Holy Ghost! Hail, thou that art holier than the Cherubim! Hail, thou that art more glorious than the Seraphim! Hail, thou that art nobler than the heavens! Hail, thou that art brighter than the sun! Hail, thou that art fairer than the moon! Hail, manifold splendour of the stars! Hail, light cloud, dropping the dew of heaven! Hail, holy breeze, clearing the air of the vapours of sin! Hail, royal theme of the Prophets! Hail, sound of the Apostles gone out into all the earth! Hail, most excellent confession of the Martyrs! Hail, just hope of the Patriarchs! Hail, peculiar honour of all the Saints! Hail, source of health to dying creatures! Hail, O Queen, ambassadress of peace! Hail, stainless crown of motherhood! Hail, advocate of all under heaven! Hail, restoration of the whole world! Hail, thou that art full of grace, the Lord is with thee, even the Lord that is before thee, and from thee, and that is with us. To Him, with the Father, and the most holy and Life-giving Spirit, be ascribed all praise, now and ever, world without end. Amen. &teDeum