Mary has the same grace all Christians have. The angel said, "Hail, thou art highly favored...". The word "highly favored" is khä-rÄ-to'-ō in Greek and means to be highly favored, make accepted, peruse with grace, to honor with blessings. The same word, however, is used again in Ephesians 1:6 "To the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved.". So, we also are "highly favored". She is dead to THIS world, but is fully alive in heaven. So, I disagree, we are NOT screwed.
One more thing, if today is the Feast of the Immaculate Conception, I understand that it is NOT as some would think the special observance of when Jesus was conceived, but is instead the day Mary was supposedly conceived without sin and it is nine months before HER birth. so, why is there not a feast day for when we all agree that Jesus was immaculately conceived? Just curious. Pope Pius IX didn't get around to officially proclaiming her sinlessness until 1854 in his Ineffabilis Deus and before then, the feast day was to note when she was conceived only, not conceived immaculately.
I was being ironic - obviously we are not screwed because as you said Mary is fully alive in heaven - that is the point I was making because another poster stated that Mary is dead.
The Immaculate Conception is the feast day when we celebrate that Mary was conceived without original sin. Her grace is different from ours because we all have original sin and Mary did not.
How do we know? Mary is the ark of the new covenenant - the “ark” where Jesus lived for ninth months.