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The Catechism explains that Mary, the all-holy and ever-virgin mother of God, is “the masterwork of the mission of the Son and the Spirit in the fullness of time” (721). She was a “first” in God’s plan of salvation.
Because the Holy Spirit had prepared her, the Father found Mary a fitting dwelling place where his Son and his Spirit could dwell among human beings. The teaching of the Scripture and the church’s tradition about the abode of wisdom are now understood more fully in relation to Mary. Mary is acclaimed and represented in the liturgy as the Seat of Wisdom (721).
In his role as the Sanctifier, the one who makes people holy, the Holy Spirit was present to fully sanctify Mary at the moment of her own immaculate conception. What happens to Christians at baptism—being cleansed from sin by the living water of the Spirit and being filled with God’s new, abundant life—must have happened to Mary when she was conceived. How else would she have been sanctified as a spotless vessel prepared to bear and…
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