Posted on 12/13/2017 8:39:26 AM PST by Salvation
Wedding at Cana, “Do whatever he tells you.”
During Advent we are reminded to look to Christ and ask for His presence in our life so that we can become deeper, brighter, and richer by His grace. One of our unfortunate tendencies is to be dismayed by the world around us. We must be soberly aware of both the events and conditions in our world—sober, not drunk with excessive attention on 24/7 news feeds.
In our spiritual lives, too, we ought to be careful not to become consumed with lesser things and end up “majoring in all the minors.” We should be soberly grateful for signs and wonders such as the Shroud of Turin, the miraculous Tilma of Guadalupe, and the approved apparitions of our Lady. Special appreciation was given this past year to Our Lady of Fatima and to how presciently she set forth the struggles of our current age. Our Lady of Akita (Japan) also spoke very accurately to the current travails in the Church.
Here, too, sober gratefulness does not mean being drunk with an excessive preoccupation with the details of apparitions, miracles, and messages. Indeed, our Lady’s most basic message always boils down to this: Listen to my Son and do whatever He tells you. The basic meat and potatoes, the pure wine of the Christian, is the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. We are to look to Him, listen to Him, and judge everything by what He has taught us through His apostles in the New Testament and the teachings of the Church.
St. John of the Cross gives the following advice in a passage we read in this week’s Office of Readings:
Under the ancient law prophets and priests sought from God revelations and visions which indeed they needed, for faith had as yet no firm foundation and the gospel law had not yet been established. Their seeking and God’s responses were necessary. He spoke to them at one time through words and visions and revelations, at another in signs and symbols. But [these] were either partial glimpses of the whole or sure movements toward it.
But now that faith is rooted in Christ, and the law of the gospel has been proclaimed in this time of grace, there is no need to seek him in the former manner, nor for him so to respond. By giving us, as he did, his Son, his only Word, he has in that one Word said everything. There is no need for any further revelation.
This is the true meaning of Paul’s words to the Hebrews when he urged them to abandon their earlier ways of conversing with God, as laid down in the law of Moses, and set their eyes on Christ alone: In the past God spoke to our fathers through the prophets in various ways and manners; but now in our times, the last days, he has spoken to us in his Son. In effect, Paul is saying that God has spoken so completely through his own Word that he chooses to add nothing … he has now said everything in Christ.
Therefore, [to] anyone who wished to question God or to seek some new vision … God could then answer: This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased; hear him. In my Word I have already said everything. Fix your eyes on him alone for in him I have revealed all and in him you will find more than you could ever ask for or desire (St John of the Cross, the Ascent of Mount Carmel Lib 2, cap. 22).
This, then, is the substantial food of teaching and understanding: Jesus Christ, crucified and risen, ascended and reigning; the Lord of history and of all that is.
This, too, is the truest message of our Lady: Listen to my Son if you seek blessings; if you fail to listen to Him, expect nothing but disaster—one you bring upon yourself.
During Advent this salutary reminder continues: Look to Christ. Let Him be born into your life. Listen to Him and allow Him to grow within you. Although He may come to you as an infant, He seeks to draw you to maturity. Be sober but not dismayed by the roaring and raging of this world. Christ has already conquered.
Monsignor Pope Ping!
It should be called “INVENT” since it was made up by man.
Christ should be celebrated, advent should be eliminated. It’s nothing more than religiosity.
Worshiping a ceremony using wax candle idols.
Is Christ alone, not ENOUGH?
Problem is...Roman Catholicism teaches in contradiction to the New Testament we can only come to Him through Mary.
Do you know the meaning of the word “Advent?”
I’m sorry that you do not believe in preparing for the COMING of Christ.
ADVENT
Definition
A period of prayer in preparation for Christmas, including four Sundays, the first nearest the feast of St. Andrew, November 30. It is the beginning of the Church’s liturgical year. The use of the organ and other musical instruments is restricted in liturgical functions. However, it is allowed 1. in extraliturgical functions, 2. for exposition of the Blessed Sacrament, 3. to support singing, and 4. on Gaudete Sunday, feasts and solemnities, and in any extraordinary celebration. Altars may not be decorated with flowers. In the celebration of matrimony, the nuptial blessing is always imparted. But the spouses are advised to take into account the special character of the liturgical season. Masses for various needs and votive Masses for the dead are not allowed unless there is a special need. (Etym. Latin adventus, a coming, approach, arrival.)
Untrue!
It’s a good sign that you read these posts.
What is so wrong about following a calendar, rather than picking topics willynilly? Does your church celebrate X-mas on 12/25? Does your church use the Catholic Church’s calendar for Easter or the Orthodox calendar? Or do you pick any date and make it Easter?
Do you believe in baptism by the Holy Spirit?
You may be closer than you think. The Holy Spirit gets my attention with anger and intolerance.
It might almost be time to say Welcome Home.
Flat out, the best advice ever given by one human person to another.
What was Jesus doing during the last supper before his crucifixion and sacrifice? Was He not conducting the pass over ceremony and using all of the ceremonies utensils and symbols? Did he not replace those symbols with the new pass over and provided His body and His blood and told His disciples to do this is remembrance of Me?
Advent is a period of preparation for the coming of the Lord. We mark it by lighting candles as the time approaches and praying. Much like His parable about the maidens waiting for the bride groom and keeping watch and keeping their lamps lit. Much like the Jews of His time lighting the menorah which they still do to this day. Nobody worships a candle but we do make the effort to help us remember Christ and wait for His second coming. Amen.
“The Catholic Church has always and with justice put all her hope and trust in the Mother of God.” (Leo XIII: Encyclical, Supreme Apostolatus, September 1, 1883.) — [p. 32, no. 104]
If it is impossible to separate what God has united, it is also certain that you cannot find Jesus except with Mary and through Mary.” (St. Pius X: Allocution to the Franciscans, November 12, 1910.) — [p. 14, no. 20]
“… it is evident that she cannot do other than help most devotedly her dearest adopted sons at an hour at which it is necessary to secure for them salvation and sanctity for all eternity.” (Benedict XV: Letter, Inter sodalicia, May 22, 1918.) [p. 46; no. 171]
“God has committed to her the treasury of all good things, in order that everyone may know that through her are obtained every hope, every grace, and all salvation. For this is his will, that we obtain everything through Mary.” and “God has committed to the Blessed Virgin Mary the treasury of all good things in order that everyone may know that through her are obtained every hope, every grace and all salvation.” (Pius IX: Encycl., Ubi primum, February 2, 1849.) — [p. 12, number 12; p. 18, no. 38]
“O Virgin most holy, none abounds in the knowledge of God except through thee; none, O Mother of God, obtains salvation except through thee, none receives a gift from the throne of mercy except through thee.” (Leo XIII: Encycl., Adiutricem populi, September 5, 1895.) — [p. 12, no. 13]
“None, O Mother of God, obtains salvation except through thee, none receives a gift from the throne of mercy except through thee.” (Leo XIII: Adiutricem populi, September 5, 1895) — [p. 19, no. 44]
https://stpeterslist.com/18-quotes-by-roman-pontiffs-on-mary-as-mediatrix
"Hail, full of grace, the Lord is with you" (Lk 1:28)
"Blessed are you among women,
and blessed is the fruit of your womb"
(Lk 1:42).
That sure is a far cry from what Jesus indicated was necessary.
Luke 18:9-14 He also told this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and treated others with contempt: “Two men went up into the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee, standing by himself, prayed thus: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I get.’
But the tax collector, standing far off, would not even lift up his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me, a sinner!’ I tell you, this man went down to his house justified, rather than the other. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted.”
He demonstrated that what he stated was true.
If he's wrong, then show us.
God's same grace that was with Mary is with all born again/born from above believers.
Mary and Grace
The word grace used in this passage in Luke is used in one other place in the Bible and that is Ephesians 1 where Paul tells us that with this same grace, God has blessed us (believers) in the Beloved. IOW, we all have access to that grace and it has been bestowed on us all.
http://biblehub.com/greek/5487.htm
Luke 1:28 And he came to her and said, “Greetings, O favored one, the Lord is with you!”
Ephesians 1:4-6 In love he predestined us for adoption as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved.
Greek word “grace”
charitoó: to make graceful, endow with grace
Original Word: χαριτόω
Part of Speech: Verb
Transliteration: charitoó
Phonetic Spelling: (khar-ee-to'-o)
Short Definition: I favor, bestow freely on
Definition: I favor, bestow freely on.
HELPS Word-studies
Cognate: 5487 xaritóō (from 5486 /xárisma, "grace," see there) – properly, highly-favored because receptive to God's grace. 5487 (xaritóō) is used twice in the NT (Lk 1:28 and Eph 1:6), both times of God extending Himself to freely bestow grace (favor).
Word Origin: from charis
Definition: to make graceful, endow with grace
NASB Translation: favored (1), freely bestowed (1).
Also, we are all blessed with the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit.
1 Corinthians 3:16-17Do you not know that you are God's temple and that God's Spirit dwells in you? If anyone destroys God's temple, God will destroy him. For God's temple is holy and you are that temple.
1 Corinthians 6:19-20 Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body.
How does one receive salvation except through the Passion and Cross of the incarnate God-man, Jesus Christ?
How does the Second Person of the Blessed Trinity become the incarnate God-man except through Mary?
Yes...I have those. Except the DR rendering of LK 1:28 is incorrect. It should more correctly read as Greetings, you favored with grace.
All that said does nothing to support the Roman Catholic claim that we have to go through Mary to have Christ...as I've more than adequately demonstrated is a Roman Catholic teaching of which you previously said was "Untrue!".
You will note the quotes are all Roman Catholic.
One has to believe that Jesus is the way, the truth and the life and that no one comes to the Father but through Him. The Greek of this statement, and others, makes no allowance for anyone else. It is only through faith in Him that we gain salvation.
How does the Second Person of the Blessed Trinity become the incarnate God-man except through Mary?
False logic. You presume God had to have Mary. He could have chosen any of the Hebrew girls to work through.
But He chose Mary because as the text notes, she was favored by God.
However, no where in the NT are we ever told we have to go through Mary to get to Christ. None of the positions outlined in the quotes I provided are supported by the NT....except if one reads into the text what they want (eisegesis...not exegesis).
You keep forgetting that you got the KJV from the Catholic Vulgate.
You may note I don't use the KJV.
But the KJV rendering of Luke 1:28 is here: And the angel came in unto her, and said, Hail, thou that art highly favoured, the Lord is with thee: blessed art thou among women.
Of the major translations only the DR translates the passage as Hail, full of grace, the Lord is with thee: blessed art thou among women.
Other Bibles translate the phrase as Full of Grace.
More homework?
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