“Because He has looked upon the humiliation of His servant. Yes, from now onwards all generations will call me blessed.” (Luke 1:48)

There are four dogmas of the Catholic Church concerning the Blessed Virgin Mary:

1. The Divine Motherhood of Mary
2. The Perpetural Virginity of Mary
3. The Immaculate Conception of Mary
4. The Assumption of Mary into Heaven

The Divine Motherhood of Mary

“Why should this great thing happen to me, that the Mother of my Lord should come to visit me?” (Luke 1:43)

In AD 431, the Council of Ephesus declared Mary to be ‘Theotokos’ or ‘the Mother of God’. This was in response to false views which claimed that Mary could not be called the Mother of God. The Holy Spirit Himself, speaking through Elizabeth calls Mary, ‘Mother of my Lord’.

The Perpetual Virginity of Mary

“How can this come about, since I do not know man?” (Luke 1:31)

Mary conceived “without any detriment to her virginity, which remained inviolate even after his birth” (Council of the Lateran, 649).

In the first decades of the Protestant Reformation, the Catholic Church asserted her belief that the Blessed Virgin was a virgin before, during and after the birth of Christ, Her Most Holy Son. From her question to the angel, Mary makes it very clear about the Virginity she prized above all her gifts. It is clear from her question that she had vowed her virginity to God. The Angel explains that the birth of Christ her Son would not occur through natural means, but by the working of the Holy Spirit.

The Immaculate Conception of Mary

‘Hail, full of grace, the Lord is with you’ (Luke 1:28)

The Immaculate Conception of the Virgin Mary was solemnly defined and proclaimed by Pope Pius IX on the 8th December, 1854: “The most Blessed Virgin Mary was, from the first moment of her conception, by a singular grace and privilege of almighty God and by virtue of the merits of Jesus Christ, Saviour of the human race, preserved immune from all stain of original sin.”

The Words of the Angel Gebriel - ‘Hail, full of grace’ - are very unique. We do not find such an address anywhere else in the Bible. These words have been addressed only to one individual throughout the whole of history, and that was the Blessed Virgin Mary. These words reveal the fullness of grace in our Blessed Mother. Further, her being stained by sin would not have befitted her to be the Tabernacle of the Most High.

The Assumption of Mary into Heaven

‘And I saw a great sign in Heaven, a woman, robed with the Sun, and the moon under her feet; and on her head, a Crown of Twelve stars.’ (Revelation 12:1)

Pope Pius XII infallibly proclaimed and defined the Dogma of the Virgin Mary’s assumption on November 1, 1950: “The Immaculate Mother of God, Mary Ever-Virgin, after her life on earth, was assumed, body and soul, into heavenly glory.”

There are Biblical narratives of holy people assumed into Heaven, the first being Enoch (Genesis 5:24) and the second being the Prophet Elijah (2Kings 2:1-10). In like manner, the Blessed Virgin Mary, after her earthly pilgrimage, was borne up into the heavens and her body transformed in an instant into the glorified body resembling her Son’s. (Philippians 3:20-21; 1Corinthians 15:50-58)