December 7th Excerpt:
"After the Gospel — of the Mass on December 8, 1854, at which the dogma of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary was solemnly defined as an article of our holy faith, by His Holiness Pope Pius IX — had been chanted in Latin and Greek, Cardinal Macchi, dean of the sacred college, accompanied by the dean of the archbishops and the dean of the bishops present, as well as by an archbishop of the Greek and of the Armenian rite, proceeded to the extremity of the choir, to the foot of the pontifical throne, and in the name of the Universal Church besought the Vicar of Christ to pronounce by His Apostolic authority the dogmatic decree of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary, the Mother of God. But before performing this august act, the Holy Father would again invoke the light of the Holy Spirit; and, joining him, all present chanted with heart and voice, on bended knees, the Veni Creator Spiritus. When the last notes of the chant had died away, Pius IX, standing before his throne, with that sweet and powerful voice, which no one who was ever privileged to hear it could forget, pronounced the decree for which heaven had been besieged and had suffered violence for centuries." Abp. Dixon, in The Immaculate Conception.
December 8th Excerpt:
"O Mary Conceived without Sin, Spouse of the Holy Ghost, Patroness of the United States, Pray for Us!
The following are the words of the decree which gave such joy to angels and men: Wherefore, after we had unceasingly, in humility and fasting, offered our own prayers and the public prayers of the Church to God the Father, through His Son, that He would deign to direct and confirm our mind by the power of the Holy Ghost, and having implored the aid of the entire heavenly host, and invoked the Paraclete with sighs, and He thus inspiring, to the honor of the holy and undivided Trinity, to the glory and adornment of the Virgin Mother of God, to the exaltation of the Catholic faith and the increase of the Catholic religion, by the authority of Jesus Christ our Lord, of the blessed Apostles Peter and Paul, and our own: We declare, pronounce, and define, that the doctrine which holds that the Blessed Virgin Mary, at the first instant of her conception, by a singular privilege and grace of the Omnipotent God, in virtue of the merits of Jesus Christ, the Saviour of mankind, was preserved immaculate from the stain of original sin, has been revealed by God, and therefore should firmly and constantly be believed by all the faithful." Bull of Pope Pius IX. Ineffabilis Deus. December 8, 1854.
Source of quotations: "Fountain of Living Water" by Rev. A. A. Lambing LL.D., pages 291-292; Fr. Pustet & Co. Publishers and Booksellers (copyright 1907); Nihil Obstat: Remigius Lafort, S.T.L., Censor; Imprimatur: John M. Farley, Archbishop of New York
Photo by Grant Whitty