Note: I am cross-posting (actually, emailing) this to  bit.listserv.catholic while main posting goes to  soc.religion.christian.  [Quotations omitted.  This is in response to a question about the Immaculate Conception.  I explained it, but left justification up to our Catholic readers.  --clh]  There is no direct reference in the Holy Scripture except for the mention of Mary's _blessedness_/full of grace in the "Annunciation" by Angel Gabriel in Luke 1:26-28   And in the 6th month the angel Gabriel was sent from God unto  a city of Galilee, named Nazareth.  To a virgin espoused to a  man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David; and the virgin's  name was Mary.  And the angel came unto her and said, _"Hail,  thou that art highly favoured, the Lord is with thee: blessed  art thou among women."_  Now, now, hold that line of thought - "the Lord is with Mary & blessed art thou among women" - while you read on....  In the book, "First Lady of the World, A Popular History of Devotion to Mary" by Peter Lappin:  The _Immaculate Conception_ matter is really far more complicated than the _Assumption_.  This arose in 430 AD.  It is quite possible that the feast of _Mary's Conception_ under the title "The Conception of Saint Anne", originally commemorated the _physical miracle_ of a woman _beyond the age_ of child bearing, conceiving a daughter, just as Elizabeth had conceived John the Baptist.  A transfer in emphasis from the physical miracle wrought in Anne to the miracle of grace wrought by God in the soul of Mary was _logical_.  Mary is the incorruptible timber "out of which was hewn the _tabernacle_ of Christ's sinless body"; she is "God's Eden, in whom there is no tree of knowledge, and no serpent that harms."  Her perfect beauty and spotlessness find their exemplar in Christ, her purity in that of the Father.  At the time of the Council of Ephesus, she was hailed as "innocent, without blemish, immaculate, inviolate, spotless, holy in soul and body, who was blessed as a lily from among thorns, unlearned in the evil ways of Eve". ... At the end of the thirteenth century, an Irish Franciscan, John Duns Scotus (1266-1308),...God maintained that it was a  greater thing for Him to preserve His (the Son) mother from all sin _than to use His power to clease her from it later_. ...  Now let's go to the discussion of baptism and original sin. From "Pocket Catholic Cathechism" by John A. Hardon:  Baptism - Concupiscence Remains after Baptism. Concupiscence or the tendency to sin remains in the baptized but since it is left to provide trial, it has no power to injure those who do not consent and who by the grace of Christ Jesus, manfully resist (Canon 5).  Original gifts of Adam and Eve before their fall: In the light of the foregoing, we see that our first parents were originally gifted three times over: -They had the natural gifts of human beings especially the  power to think and to choose freely. -The had the _preternatural_ gifts of bodily immortality  and of integrity, or the internal power to control desires. -They had the _supernatural_ gifts of sanctifying grace,  the virtues of faith, hope, and charity and the corresponding  title to enter heaven. By their disobedience, they lost the _supernatural and preternatural_ gifts entirely, and were weakened (without losing) their natural capacity to reason and to choose freely.  Baptism restores the _supernatural_ life lost by Adam's sin.  It _does not_ restore the _preternatural_ gifts but gifts as a title to a glorified restoration of our bodies on the last day...  Going back to _Immaculate Conception_ (I am not sure if this interpretation is in any other books but it may be another contribution to the 'puzzle'):  Given the miracle of St. Anne bearing a child at a non-childbearing age, AND Christ was not yet born  AND _there was no baptism yet_ on Mary's birth but STILL, the Angel Gabriel's greetings was: "Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with you. Blessed art thou amongst women".  Even Mary was confused about this greeting.  Mary could very well have possessed all of the _treefold original gifts above_ given to our first parents (Adam and Eve before their sin):     Hail Mary (Example of praise given by the Angel Gabriel)     Full of grace (natural, preternatural, supernatural)     The Lord is with you (At those times, God would                 definitely want to be with those He                 has made _blessed_)     Blessed art thou amongst women (that says it all)  At the conception, God made Mary _full of grace and blessed_ as the 'tabernacle' for the coming body of Christ and so,  Immaculate Conception of Mary is true and Mary still has maintained her Immaculate Heart.