[stfassisi]

If Jesus was conceived and born into the world because of Mary, He also best reflects His virtues for us to imitate in the person of His Mother.

[stfassisi]

I think this needed to be posted,considering what,s being said on another thread.

[Salvation]

Excellent!

[ikka]

"I am the Way, The Truth, the Life. No one comes to the Father but by me." -- compare and contrast this statement with the beliefs expressed here concerning Mary.

[Always Right]

Through Mary’s intercession we obtain graces from Jesus.

Which is probably the biggest difference between most Christians and Catholics. Most Christians belive we obtain grace directly from Christ. But it is too bad such differences keeps the Church from being more united.

[AmericaUnited]

The closer a person is to Christ, the more certainly He hears that person’s prayer. And Mary could not have been closer to the One she carried for nine months, gave Him birth, and reared Him as man, for the Redemption of the world.

Ok, let's leave that stand as is for the moment. Why should someone pray to Mary, if they can pray directly to Jesus? Who's closer to Jesus than .... JESUS?

[BipolarBob]

"Through Mary’s voluntary consent we have received Jesus.

I doubt that abortion was that common in that era and therefore doubt this statement (and a lot of the other ideas in this as well). I receive Jesus through the Holy Spirit and I don't see Mary as part of my or anyones salvation.

[bornacatholic]

fantastic timing. I was just thinking how our seperated brothers and sisters could learn from Mary's example of humility and obedience.

When Saul was persecuting the Churh, Jesus didn't say "Saul, why are you persecuting the Church I established? No, he said, Saul, Saul, why perecuteth thou me?

Jesus also said;'...

Whoever hears you, hears me..rejects you, rejects me

* It takes a lot of humility to set aside our desire to be the one to make decisions about Doctrine. While humility and obedience are the qualities The Theotokos modeled as an example for all, that is an example which is quite against the American Spirit :)

I am greatly Blessed to have been Born a Catholic. I know my arrogance, pride, and combativeness would have made my conversion almost impossible. Praise God...

[Always Right]

Unlike Mary, we were not conceived without sin. But we may legitimately aspire to die without sin. Moreover, like Mary, we are to become holy. It must be possible. Why? Because what God did in Mary, He can also – though in lesser measure – do in us.

There is no Biblical support that Mary died without sin. Jesus is the only One who lived a sinless life. Even Mary required grace to be saved.

[Salvation]

A serious question for all you Protestants to follow up on the this article posted by stfassisi.

If all of you don't believe in Mary, than how is it that you believe in the birth of Jesus and Christmas?

[diamond6]

Beautiful post about Our Lady, thank you!!!

[Texas Eagle]

It's right there plain as day in The Bible if only people weren't too lazy to look it up. Jesus said, "None may come to The Father but through My Mama."

[Salvation]

My prayer for those on this thread who are so misled by their faulty Catholic bashing teachings as put forth by their churches:

Loving Father, change my plight of doubt, desolation, and defeat through the love and maternal mediation of Mary Immaculate.

[Graymatter]

It's too bad the mods allow threads about Mary to degenerate the way they do, into squabbling and pettiness.
However, since they do, maybe the offensive posts could be ignored or we could all just say "God bless you" if we must reply at all.
Or how about "Mary pray for you." :)

[franky]

It is a shame but while Protestant denominations have retreated in their critique and anti - Catholic perception it is the apostate priests and nuns who are now criticizing the Church.

[ScubieNuc]

"The Church in her teaching and the saints in their writings sometimes appear excessive in the power they attribute to Mary’s intercession with her Son. But her intercessory power is not exaggerated as Cardinal Newman so clearly explains."

It's probably already been brought out (I haven't read all the responses), but this idea of a mediatrix power clearly contradicts this....

1Tim. 2:5 For [there is] one God, and ONE mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus;

Where in scripture does it say that Mary, or anybody is needed to be a mediator between us and Jesus.

Sincerely

[TomSmedley]

It sure can be hard for the major families of Christianity to dance together to different time signatures. Protestants waltz along in 3/4 time praying to the Father in the Name of Jesus with the power of the Holy Spirit. Meanwhile, our dear Catholic friends have an additional partner in their dance, and try to convince us that the true waltz is done in 4/4 time! God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit, and goddess the Mother all want to dance with you!

[Proud2BeRight]

What's with all these "Mary" threads lately? I have deep Christian beliefs but they do not include prayer to mortal humans.

[Salvation]

Maybe this is why Protestants are starting to believe in Mary. The Scriptures tell them!! And Mary praises God the Father, no one else! (Emphasis added by me in the following Scripture passage.)

Lk 1:39-47

Mary set out
and traveled to the hill country in haste
to a town of Judah,
where she entered the house of Zechariah
and greeted Elizabeth.
When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting,
the infant leaped in her womb,
and Elizabeth, filled with the Holy Spirit,
cried out in a loud voice and said,
“Most blessed are you among women,
and blessed is the fruit of your womb.
And how does this happen to me,
that the mother of my Lord should come to me?
For at the moment the sound of your greeting reached my ears,
the infant in my womb leaped for joy.
Blessed are you who believed
that what was spoken to you by the Lord
would be fulfilled.”

And Mary said:

“My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord;
my spirit rejoices in God my savior.”

[Salvation]

Some interesting thoughts for all to ponder:

---

Reading	A treatise against the heresies, by St Irenaeus
Eve and Mary
The Lord, coming into his own creation in visible form, was sustained by his own creation which he himself sustains in being. His obedience on the tree of the cross reversed the disobedience at the tree in Eden; the good news of the truth announced by an angel to Mary, a virgin subject to a husband, undid the evil lie that seduced Eve, a virgin espoused to a husband. As Eve was seduced by the word of an angel and so fled from God after disobeying his word, Mary in her turn was given the good news by the word of an angel, and bore God in obedience to his word. As Eve was seduced into disobedience to God, so Mary was persuaded into obedience to God; thus the Virgin Mary became the advocate of the virgin Eve. Christ gathered all things into one, by gathering them into himself. He declared war against our enemy, crushed him who at the beginning had taken us captive in Adam, and trampled on his head, in accordance with God’s words to the serpent in Genesis: I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed; he shall lie in wait for your head, and you shall lie in wait for his heel. The one lying in wait for the serpent’s head is the one who was born in the likeness of Adam from the woman, the Virgin. This is the seed spoken of by Paul in the letter to the Galatians: The law of works was in force until the seed should come to whom the- promise was made. He shows this even more clearly in the same letter when he says: When the fullness of time had come, God sent his Son, born of a woman. The enemy would not have been defeated fairly if his vanquisher had not been born of a woman, because it was through a woman that he had gained mastery over man in the beginning, and set himself up as man’s adversary. That is why the Lord proclaims himself the Son of Man, the one who renews in himself that first man from whom the race born of woman was formed; as by a man’s defeat our race fell into the bondage of death, so by a man’s victory we were to rise again to life.

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