Posted on 03/25/2015 10:46:15 PM PDT by Steelfish
Because Mary Said “Yes…” — A Reflection For The Solemnity of the Annunciation of Our Lord
March 25, 2011 by Fr. Thomas Rosica
Standing in the middle of the present day city of Nazareth is the mammoth Basilica of the Annunciation, built around what is believed to be the dwelling of Mary. In a grotto-like room at the heart of the basilica is a small inscription on an altar. It reads, “verbum caro hic factum est,” here the Word became flesh. There, it is believed, the angel Gabriel appeared to Mary, and her response changed the world forever.
Imagine yourself in Mary’s place, asked to say “yes” to a divine plan so vast, so profound and so seemingly impossible that you cannot comprehend it. “How can this be?” she asks, bewildered. She is rooted in the faith of her ancestors, and yet now an angel has appeared in the midst of everyday life, extending a startling invitation. “You have found favor with God,” the angel says, “and you will conceive and bear His Son.” Will she accept?
It is Mary above all others who can teach us what it means to live by faith, and how to respond when God’s providence disrupts the daily course of our lives, overturning its rhythms and expectations. Despite her fears and uncertainty over how this promise could be fulfilled, she still answered “Yes.” Are we able to respond to God this way?
When we reflect on the Annunciation to Mary, and her acceptance of the angel’s message, we also reflect on our own vocation — our own calling from God. In the Lord’s Prayer, we pray, “Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven” — an echo of Mary’s “Be it done unto me according to your word.”
Each time we commit ourselves to embracing God’s call and accepting His will, we mark a new point on the path of our relationship with Him. For the rest of her life, Mary pondered her extraordinary encounter with God, turning the weight of the angel’s message over and over again in her heart. From the manger to the cross, Mary’s life was radically changed — her relationship with God profoundly deepened — the moment she said “Yes.”
Mary received and welcomed God’s Word in the fullest sense — becoming impregnated with it, and bearing it to the world. Angels might not appear in our doorsteps, but we do encounter God in each of our daily prayers, and he whispers to us a similar invitation: Will we accept His love and bring it joyously to those around us? Will we trust in His providence, even when we can’t see the path ahead? Amid the noise of everyday life, will we listen for and embrace his call?
When making his pilgrimage to the Basilica of the Annunciation, Pope Benedict XVI offered this prayer to the humble Virgin of Nazareth. It speaks for all of us who likewise seek to accept God’s will with joy:
Mary, Mother of the “Yes,” you listened to Jesus, and know the tone of his voice and the beating of his heart. Morning Star, speak to us of him, and tell us about your journey of following him on the path of faith."
No. Do it yourself. It’s not hard.
“Please show proof of the statement that “some Protestants” say they serve the same god as Muslims.”
Use google. I did it this morning. It wasn’t hard.
You know, I always thought if someone made a claim, it was up the person MAKING the claim to show the documentation and support. Funny now that it's the responsibility of the audience.
It's up to you to show the documentation... otherwise, for all I or anyone else knows, there is NO proof.
Except, I suppose, for you.
Hoss
RaceBannon, you keep digging a hole: You mischaracterize. Catholicism is not based SOLELY on the Bible. After all, its the Catholic Church that infallibly assembled the books in the Bible in the Synod of Rome AD 328. This is the written word.
But as John 21:25 states there were so many thing Christ said and did that all of it could not be reduced to writing. So we have the great oral tradition of the Church, its interpretation and liturgical practice are part of one. This is so for 2000 years and until the end of time. It is the Church founded by Christ. This is why pre-eminent Lutheran theologians after a lifetime scholarship and inquiry converted to Catholicism as have atheists, agnostics, and converts from every other faith including Israel Zolli, a former brilliant chief rabbi of Rome.
CynicalBear offers us what a third grader would say that Christ is sitting in heaven and no need for the Eucharistic Mass. This is the legendary stuff of shallow Bible Christians. How about a little primer? Pay close attention to the dates. Many were the early Church Fathers (theologians)
The Eucharist is a true sacrifice, not just a commemorative meal, as “Bible Christians” insist. The first Christians knew that it was a sacrifice and proclaimed this in their writings. They recognized the sacrificial character of Jesus’ instruction, “Do this in remembrance of me” (Touto poieite tan eman anamnasin; Luke 22:19, 1 Cor. 11:24–25) which is better translated “Offer this as my memorial offering.”
Thus, Protestant early Church historian J. N. D. Kelly writes that in the early Church “the Eucharist was regarded as the distinctively Christian sacrifice. . . . Malachi’s prediction (1:10–11) that the Lord would reject Jewish sacrifices and instead would have “a pure offering” made to him by the Gentiles in every place was seized upon by Christians as a prophecy of the Eucharist. TheDidache indeed actually applies the term thusia, or sacrifice, to the Eucharist. . . .
“It was natural for early Christians to think of the Eucharist as a sacrifice. The fulfillment of prophecy demanded a solemn Christian offering, and the rite itself was wrapped in the sacrificial atmosphere with which our Lord invested the Last Supper. The words of institution, ‘Do this’ (touto poieite), must have been charged with sacrificial overtones for second-century ears; Justin at any rate understood them to mean, ‘Offer this.’ . . . The bread and wine, moreover, are offered ‘for a memorial (eis anamnasin) of the passion,’ a phrase which in view of his identification of them with the Lord’s body and blood implies much more than an act of purely spiritual recollection” (J. N. D. Kelly, Early Christian Doctrines [Full Reference], 196–7).
The Didache
“Assemble on the Lord’s day, and break bread and offer the Eucharist; but first make confession of your faults, so that your sacrifice may be a pure one. Anyone who has a difference with his fellow is not to take part with you until he has been reconciled, so as to avoid any profanation of your sacrifice [Matt. 5:23–24]. For this is the offering of which the Lord has said, ‘Everywhere and always bring me a sacrifice that is undefiled, for I am a great king, says the Lord, and my name is the wonder of nations’ [Mal. 1:11, 14]” (Didache 14 [A.D. 70]).
Pope Clement I
“Our sin will not be small if we eject from the episcopate those who blamelessly and holily have offered its sacrifices. Blessed are those presbyters who have already finished their course, and who have obtained a fruitful and perfect release” (Letter to the Corinthians 44:4–5 [A.D. 80]).
Ignatius of Antioch
“Make certain, therefore, that you all observe one common Eucharist; for there is but one Body of our Lord Jesus Christ, and but one cup of union with his Blood, and one single altar of sacrifice—even as there is also but one bishop, with his clergy and my own fellow servitors, the deacons. This will ensure that all your doings are in full accord with the will of God” (Letter to the Philadelphians 4 [A.D. 110]).
By the way folks, note that St. Ignatius was a contemporary of John the Evangelist. All this PRE-DATED the Bible. The Church existed BEFORE the canonical texts of the Bible.
Justin Martyr
“God speaks by the mouth of Malachi, one of the twelve [minor prophets], as I said before, about the sacrifices at that time presented by you: ‘I have no pleasure in you, says the Lord, and I will not accept your sacrifices at your hands; for from the rising of the sun to the going down of the same, my name has been glorified among the Gentiles, and in every place incense is offered to my name, and a pure offering, for my name is great among the Gentiles . . . [Mal. 1:10–11]. He then speaks of those Gentiles, namely us [Christians] who in every place offer sacrifices to him, that is, the bread of the Eucharist and also the cup of the Eucharist” (Dialogue with Trypho the Jew 41 [A.D. 155]).
Irenaeus
“He took from among creation that which is bread, and gave thanks, saying, ‘This is my body.’ The cup likewise, which is from among the creation to which we belong, he confessed to be his blood. He taught the new sacrifice of the new covenant, of which Malachi, one of the twelve [minor] prophets, had signified beforehand: ‘You do not do my will, says the Lord Almighty, and I will not accept a sacrifice at your hands. For from the rising of the sun to its setting my name is glorified among the Gentiles, and in every place incense is offered to my name, and a pure sacrifice; for great is my name among the Gentiles, says the Lord Almighty’ [Mal. 1:10–11]. By these words he makes it plain that the former people will cease to make offerings to God; but that in every place sacrifice will be offered to him, and indeed, a pure one, for his name is glorified among the Gentiles” (Against Heresies 4:17:5 [A.D. 189]).
Cyprian of Carthage
“If Christ Jesus, our Lord and God, is himself the high priest of God the Father; and if he offered himself as a sacrifice to the Father; and if he commanded that this be done in commemoration of himself, then certainly the priest, who imitates that which Christ did, truly functions in place of Christ” (Letters 63:14 [A.D. 253]).
Serapion
“Accept therewith our hallowing too, as we say, ‘Holy, holy, holy Lord Sabaoth, heaven and earth is full of your glory.’ Heaven is full, and full is the earth, with your magnificent glory, Lord of virtues. Full also is this sacrifice, with your strength and your communion; for to you we offer this living sacrifice, this unbloody oblation” (Prayer of the Eucharistic Sacrifice 13:12–16 [A.D. 350]).
Cyril of Jerusalem
“Then, having sanctified ourselves by these spiritual hymns, we beseech the merciful God to send forth his Holy Spirit upon the gifts lying before him, that he may make the bread the Body of Christ and the wine the Blood of Christ, for whatsoever the Holy Spirit has touched is surely sanctified and changed. Then, upon the completion of the spiritual sacrifice, the bloodless worship, over that propitiatory victim we call upon God for the common peace of the churches, for the welfare of the world, for kings, for soldiers and allies, for the sick, for the afflicted; and in summary, we all pray and offer this sacrifice for all who are in need” (Catechetical Lectures 23:7–8 [A.D. 350]).
Gregory Nazianzen
“Cease not to pray and plead for me when you draw down the Word by your word, when in an unbloody cutting you cut the Body and Blood of the Lord, using your voice for a sword” (Letter to Amphilochius 171 [A.D. 383]).
Ambrose of Milan
“We saw the prince of priests coming to us, we saw and heard him offering his blood for us. We follow, inasmuch as we are able, being priests, and we offer the sacrifice on behalf of the people. Even if we are of but little merit, still, in the sacrifice, we are honorable. Even if Christ is not now seen as the one who offers the sacrifice, nevertheless it is he himself that is offered in sacrifice here on Earth when the body of Christ is offered. Indeed, to offer himself he is made visible in us, he whose word makes holy the sacrifice that is offered” (Commentaries on Twelve Psalms of David 38:25 [A.D. 389]).
John Chrysostom
“When you see the Lord immolated and lying upon the altar, and the priest bent over that sacrifice praying, and all the people empurpled by that precious blood, can you think that you are still among men and on earth? Or are you not lifted up to heaven?” (The Priesthood 3:4:177 [A.D. 387]).
“Reverence, therefore, reverence this table, of which we are all communicants! Christ, slain for us, the sacrificial victim who is placed thereon!” (Homilies on Romans 8:8 [A.D. 391]).
“‘The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not communion of the blood of Christ?’ Very trustworthy and awesomely does he [Paul] say it. For what he is saying is this: What is in the cup is that which flowed from his side, and we partake of it. He called it a cup of blessing because when we hold it in our hands that is how we praise him in song, wondering and astonished at his indescribable gift, blessing him because of his having poured out this very gift so that we might not remain in error; and not only for his having poured it out, but also for his sharing it with all of us. ‘If therefore you desire blood,’ he [the Lord] says, ‘do not redden the platform of idols with the slaughter of dumb beasts, but my altar of sacrifice with my blood.’ What is more awesome than this? What, pray tell, more tenderly loving?” (Homilies on First Corinthians 24:1(3) [A.D. 392]).
“In ancient times, because men were very imperfect, God did not scorn to receive the blood which they were offering . . . to draw them away from those idols; and this very thing again was because of his indescribable, tender affection. But now he has transferred the priestly action to what is most awesome and magnificent. He has changed the sacrifice itself, and instead of the butchering of dumb beasts, he commands the offering up of himself” (ibid., 24:2).
“What then? Do we not offer daily? Yes, we offer, but making remembrance of his death; and this remembrance is one and not many. How is it one and not many? Because this sacrifice is offered once, like that in the Holy of Holies. This sacrifice is a type of that, and this remembrance a type of that. We offer always the same, not one sheep now and another tomorrow, but the same thing always. Thus there is one sacrifice. By this reasoning, since the sacrifice is offered everywhere, are there, then, a multiplicity of Christs? By no means! Christ is one everywhere. He is complete here, complete there, one body. And just as he is one body and not many though offered everywhere, so too is there one sacrifice” (Homilies on Hebrews 17:3(6) [A.D. 403]).
Augustine
“In the sacrament he is immolated for the people not only on every Easter Solemnity but on every day; and a man would not be lying if, when asked, he were to reply that Christ is being immolated. For if sacraments had not a likeness to those things of which they are sacraments, they would not be sacraments at all; and they generally take the names of those same things by reason of this likeness” (Letters 98:9 [A.D. 412]).
“For when he says in another book, which is called Ecclesiastes, ‘There is no good for a man except that he should eat and drink’ [Eccles. 2:24], what can he be more credibly understood to say [prophetically] than what belongs to the participation of this table which the Mediator of the New Testament himself, the priest after the order of Melchizedek, furnishes with his own body and blood? For that sacrifice has succeeded all the sacrifices of the Old Testament, which were slain as a shadow of what was to come. . . . Because, instead of all these sacrifices and oblations, his body is offered and is served up to the partakers of it” (The City of God 17:20 [A.D. 419]).
Sechnall of Ireland
“[St. Patrick] proclaims boldly to the [Irish] tribes the name of the Lord, to whom he gives the eternal grace of the laver of salvation; for their offenses he prays daily unto God; for them also he offers up to God worthy sacrifices” (Hymn in Praise of St. Patrick 13 [A.D. 444]).
Fulgentius of Ruspe
“Hold most firmly and never doubt in the least that the only-begotten God the Word himself became flesh [and] offered himself in an odor of sweetness as a sacrifice and victim to God on our behalf; to whom . . . in the time of the Old Testament animals were sacrificed by the patriarchs and prophets and priests; and to whom now, I mean in the time of the New Testament . . . the holy Catholic Church does not cease in faith and love to offer throughout all the lands of the world a sacrifice of bread and wine. In those former sacrifices what would be given us in the future was signified figuratively, but in this sacrifice which has now been given us is shown plainly. In those former sacrifices it was fore-announced that the Son of God would be killed for the impious, but in the present sacrifice it is announced that he has been killed for the impious” (The Rule of Faith 62 [A.D. 524]).
“google the term CHRISLAM”
‘
Yeah, I heard about that years ago. It’s idiotic.
Excellent points. The chrislam thing should send Catholics especially fleeing that cult.
I'm shocked! Shocked I tell you!. But Paul wrote:
Galatians 1:8 But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed.
Do you have any infallible source that shows the apostles taught exactly what the Catholic Church teaches other than scripture?
wow , you just keep proving my point, especially the thread I started on the apostasy of the church fathers
keep going...
“You know, I always thought if someone made a claim, it was up the person MAKING the claim to show the documentation and support.”
You know, I have always known that anti-Catholics are generally intellectually lazy. If I state a fact - and I know it is a fact - and I just checked this fact on the internet this morning using google, then I expect the average lazy anti-Catholic can rouse himself from his intellectual laziness and use google just as easily as I did. Perhaps I’m mistaken. Each and every time an anti-Catholic has said, “No way, that ain’t true” about something that exists, I have shown it does. I am tired at how incredibly ignorant and lazy anti-Catholics. Why don’t they read books? I don’t know. Why don’t they actually effectively study the Bible? I don’t know. Why don’t they read more of the internet than just anti-Catholic websites? I don’t know. All I know is that google works pretty well and I’ sure I am not the only one who knows how to use it.
“Funny now that it’s the responsibility of the audience.”
Funny how you seem to think that an anti-Catholic posting to me is an “audience” rather than a participant.
“It’s up to you to show the documentation... otherwise, for all I or anyone else knows, there is NO proof.”
Believe what you want. Anyone can use google. If you are so dependent upon me for information, then go ahead and say that you need me to find basic information for you.
“Except, I suppose, for you.”
I think it’s better that anti-Catholics stop being intellectually lazy.
Oh my goodness, the “apostasy of the Church fathers”! This is a riot. Maybe you Protestants should also get your own Bible (like the Jefferson Bible) and also not follow the Catholic calendar of when to celebrate Christmas and Easter.
Yes, the Gospels try Jn. 21:25.
“But there are also many other things which Jesus did; which, if they were written every one, the world itself, I think, would not be able to contain the books that should be written.”
Still shocked? The early Church fathers spent hundreds of years assembling what they infallibly pronounced under Petrine authority to be the true written word of God by cross-checking with the sacred and received oral tradition of the time of God’s unwritten but spoken Word.
Maybe Protestant ought to try getting a different Bible than what was authoritative assembled in the Synod of Rome in AD 382. Perhaps the “Thomas Jefferson Bible”?
once again, you prove you arent a Bible Believing Christian, your own words remember:
Acts 20:27 For I have not shunned to declare unto you all the counsel of God.
Acts 20:28 Take heed therefore unto yourselves, and to all the flock, over the which the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers, to feed the church of God, which he hath purchased with his own blood.
Acts 20:29 For I know this, that after my departing shall grievous wolves enter in among you, not sparing the flock.
Acts 20:30 Also of your own selves shall men arise, speaking perverse things, to draw away disciples after them.
Acts 20:31 Therefore watch, and remember, that by the space of three years I ceased not to warn every one night and day with tears.
If I state a fact - and I know it is a fact - and I just checked this fact on the internet this morning using google, then I expect the average lazy anti-Catholic can rouse himself from his intellectual laziness and use google just as easily as I did.
Really. You state a fact. Okay. Well, what terms did you use to search for in Google? What didn't you exclude or include? How is he "average lazy anti-catholic" supposed to do if he doesn't know WHAT you searched for of HOW you searched for it? I suppose we lazy anti-catholics are going to have to learn to read your mind so that we can then go out, and satisfy you by searching for the "facts" on Google.
You see, if you attribute the source, one can see that the fact is actually, a fact.
Or not.
Until mind reading becomes a commonplace event, it's going to be mighty hard to satisfy your request. But, If you want to actually appear to be using trustworthy "facts," it's up to you to provide it to us lazy anti-cathoics. Otherwise, we could just assume your "facts" are made up from whole cloth.
Hoss
as for celebrating Easter, dont you know EASTER is a PAGAN name and not a Christian one?
Jesus was crucified on PASSOVER, not a pagan holiday
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-religion/1114327/posts
Playing internet theologian gets you nowhere. Having had your comments effectively rebutted you now-post another thread! Why not do what Bible Christians seldom do- Take up some serious reading as did those eminent Lutheran theologians who converted to Catholicism. I’d be happy to provide you a list of them. But that’s only if you wish to wade into the deeper end of the theological pool.
Not apparently to the Roman Catholic Cult:
841 The Church's relationship with the Muslims. "The plan of salvation also includes those who acknowledge the Creator, in the first place amongst whom are the Muslims; these profess to hold the faith of Abraham, and together with us they adore the one, merciful God, mankind's judge on the last day."
Looks like your "church" aligns itself with Muslims and Islam.
Hoss
Really? I saw no evidence of that.
Hoss
but, you havent refuted anything, and it was YOU who changed the subject
that is why this is so fun, you guys keep getting caught contradicting yourselves :)
Here is a BIBLICAL answer to why Dec 25 is NOT the right day for Christmas, as romanism teaches:
http://www.jewishroots.net/library/messianic/was-the-birth-of-christ-during-tabernacles.html
after all, YOU brought this up, not me.
Again, quoting swatches of scripture out of context is what shallow Bible Christians do while blissfully ignoring the fact that they are quoting from books put together as the true Word of Christ based on Petrine authority by the early Church fathers in the Synod of Rome in AD 382, ELEVEN centuries before the curse of Protestantism. It is then and now the Church of its illustrious saints and martyrs.
We have ONE Church, and ONE truth. We don’t forum shop at every Foursquare corner street church until we find one compatible with “our” view of Scripture. Each one gets to crack open the pages of the canonical texts authenticated as God’ Word by the Catholic Church and offer us, as you are doing here, his/her authoritative interpretation from David Koresh to the rubbish of the Billy Grahams and Jimmy Swaggarts.
Can’t you see the absurdity of all this? Those mainline Protestant and Episcopalian Churches too quote scripture to defend their admission of gay and lesbian married pastors!!!
Perhaps it helps for Protestants to get there own Bible- like the “Jefferson Bible” At least Jefferson was honest.
OK so get your own day for Christmas and Easter? And while at it, maybe even the New Year following the change to the Gregorian calendar where instead of the prior historical New Year that began on April 1 and later changed to January 1.
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