Thoughts from the Saints:

“Mary, a virgin not only undefiled but a virgin whom grace has made inviolate, free of every stain of sin.”

 St. Ambrose (388) 

“Today humanity, in all the radiance of her immaculate nobility, receives its ancient beauty.  The shame of sin had darkened the splendor and attraction of human nature; but when the Mother of the Fair One par excellence is born, this nature again regains in her person its ancient privileges and is fashioned according to a perfect model truly worthy of God…. The reform of our nature begins today, and the aged world, subjected to a wholly divine transformation, receives the first fruits of the second creation.”

 Andrew of Crete (733)

“Thou alone and Thy Mother are in all things fair; there is no flaw in Thee and no stain in Thy Mother.”

 St. Ephraim (370)