This, then, is the feeling of all Catholics the world over concerning the absolute sinlessness of Mary—a feeling which, as it is a pleasure to acknowledge, is shared by Greeks, Copts, Nestorians, Armenians, by all Christians—Schismatics as well as Catholics—throughout the East. All confess that the Blessed Mother of God lived a life on earth free from the slightest taint of sin or imperfection. We all, whether we be Orientals or Latins, believe that within her beautiful soul every passion was regulated according to the Mind of her Son, her will perfectly conformed to His Will, her heart in all its affections united to His Most Sacred Heart. On this subject Catholics are sensitive in a way that Protestants often fail to understand—sensitive in the first place, because we know that the honour of Mary's Divine Son is at stake, but sensitive also for her own sake, who is our Mother. We know that our Lord Jesus Christ is the Creator who has assumed our nature, and that therefore in the Human Nature of the Word made Flesh, we may find the example of all conceivable perfection in Humanity; we know also that Mary the Virgin is the perfect creature — God's ideal of perfect womanhood, without flaw or blemish, in its exquisite realisation in the Most Holy Mother of our Lord. We know that when Wisdom deigned to build for Himself a House, He fashioned a living Temple peerless and incomparable, worthy of its builder.
Mary is the great Gift of God to a sin-laden world, prepared by His Hand from all Eternity—responsive in her life to every inspiration of His grace—thus to be made the shrine in which His Son should delight to dwell when He would visit His people—the most pure Throne upon which His Son should rejoice to be seated, that He might show Himself to His chosen ones, and reign as King over the hearts of men.
