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."
And someone let them prey in the National Cathedral; too.
https://www.google.com/search?q=muslim+prayer+in+the+National+Cathedral&rls=com.microsoft:en-US:IE-Address&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&sourceid=ie7&rlz=1I7ADRA_enUS475&gws_rd=ssl
Please, the Church existed before the Bible. This is the typical shallow rot we hear from Bible Christians.
“Christians are not determined by their denomination or church; they’re determined by God Almighty himself. By their faith and trust in Christ alone for salvation. Not Mary. Not baptism. Not works. Faith. By the grace of God.”
So it was utterly pointless for Christ to have established His Church and utterly ridiculous for Him to tell Peter and His Apostles to “Go forth and teach...”
No need for a teaching authority, Anyone can teach by “faith and trust in God..” This is what Creflo Dollar, the Moonies, Jimmy Swaggart, Benny Hinn, Tammy Faye Baker, Billy Graham, David Koresh, Jim Jones etc would say.
They all learn stuff by the grace of God.
Perhaps no need either for the early Church fathers to have spent hundreds of years checking and cross-checking and sifting out the hundreds of texts and writing before pronouncing in the Synod of Rome AD 382 what is the true written “Word of God.” And the unwritten word of God (Jonn 21:25) gets scattered into the dust. Paul great instruction to hold fast to the traditions of the followers of Christ is a meaningless testament too.
And for eleven centuries before the Reformation, the Church was pointless in all its teaching. Heck the saints and martyrs all got it wrong, and so were the great theologians from Augustine, to Aquinas to Newman to Benedict.
Now we have the corner street Foursquare Church self-appointed pastor telling his congregation, no worry, be happy, just rely on the grace of God.
Forget all of this, just sit at home, open the pages of the Bible , do some yoga, and the grace of God’s is enough. No need to believe in the ONE true Church and the doctrine it propounded for eleven centuries before Protestantism and the five hundred years hence.
indeeds, all the prominent Lutheran and Episcopalians theologians who converted to Catholicism should simply have been content with their false beliefs. It does not occur to you that precisely by their honest inquiry by placing “their faith and trust in God,” that they found their Protestant beliefs completely false ands converted to Catholicism.
See y'all elsewhere.
This is a hoot taking stuff from anti-Catholic websites that have altered Catholic writings and context.
1) As you normally do you are trying to deflect from the OP and make and issue out of a non issue. I never said nor indicated in any form or fashion that Jesus was putting his Mother down! He wouldn’t nor couldn’t and perfectly obey the law to be the perfect sacrifice for us. I posted Holy Scripture and if you interpret it or take offense to it that’s on you. You commented that all generations would call her blessed and that is a true statement, but every human is also blessed because of Jesus Christ to include her. Your elevation is not according to Holy Scripture and no matter how you try to change the subject it still stands the same.
2) There you go again trying to change the subject. As a member of the Body of Jesus Christ I/we are to lean on each other per Holy Scripture, but everyone knows that wasn’t what you meant in your post or I meant in rebuttal. Now back to your post.
“She” as you put it which means Mary isn’t answering you or anyone else. Show me in the Holy Scripture where any Heavenly Host talks to humans other than God, Jesus, The Holy Spirit, Angels, or Demons. “She” isn’t any of the above, so she’s not talking to you. If a Heavenly Host is speaking to you and claims to be Mary you are conversing with a Demon or Demons. Galatians 1:8
You can try to change the subject all you want, but the Holy Scripture still remains and it is condemning you.
Post Holy Scripture to refute my answer or it’s just you trying reason something you don’t understand.
“What HAS been said is that the ‘GOD of Abraham’ means a different thing to Muslims than it does Christians.”
That is not all that was said.
“But, as always, you refuse.”
You refuse to use google.
“So. Does the Roman Catholic Church teach that Catholics and Muslims believe in the same god?”
Where does it say “god”?
“CCC 841 does.”
Where does 841 say “god”?
“Do you agree?”
Do you agree that it doesn’t say “god”?
““So do you worship the same god as Muslims or not?” A simple Yes or No will do.”
What “god”?
“Ok...Please Vlad; could you enlighten us as to whether you worship the same god as Muslims or not?”
What “god”?
“Post Holy Scripture to refute my answer or it’s just you trying reason something you don’t understand.”
No, you post scripture that says all Jews who believe they are worshiping Yahweh are actually worshiping demons. Go ahead. And that was your claim because the Bible says no such thing and none of the verses you posted claim that either.
No answer is an answer.
Discuss the issues all you want, but do not make it personal.
Your comments are not only at odds with the Catechism of the Catholic Church but with the scriptures as well. Paul, the Apostle to the Gentiles, wrote that even the Athenians were worshiping God, though ignorantly. It can be said of the Moslems that they worship the God of Abraham in ignorance as well. Any semantic difference between "worship" and "adore" is insignificant for they surely are zealous for the God of Abraham in their ignorance. Then Paul stood in the midst of Mars' hill, and said, Ye men of Athens, I perceive that in all things ye are too superstitious. For as I passed by, and beheld your devotions, I found an altar with this inscription, TO THE UNKNOWN GOD. Whom therefore ye ignorantly worship, him declare I unto you. God that made the world and all things therein, seeing that he is Lord of heaven and earth, dwelleth not in temples made with hands; Neither is worshipped with men's hands, as though he needed any thing, seeing he giveth to all life, and breath, and all things; And hath made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth, and hath determined the times before appointed, and the bounds of their habitation; That they should seek the Lord, if haply they might feel after him, and find him, though he be not far from every one of us: For in him we live, and move, and have our being; as certain also of your own poets have said, For we are also his offspring. Forasmuch then as we are the offspring of God, we ought not to think that the Godhead is like unto gold, or silver, or stone, graven by art and man's device.
Acts, Catholic chapter seventeen, Protestant verses twenty two to twenty nine,
as authorized, but not authored, by King James
Thank you great post.
Really?
I think YOUR comments are spot on with your own church. The problem is your church doesn't hold the scriptures in enough esteem to use them as the prime source for truth. Sadly, it seems more and more I hear from adherents to the Catholic faith that CCC 841 is actually correct: Catholics DO worship the same god as Mohammedans!
You need to spend some more time in the Bible and not listening to a bunch of RCC pap... er, "tradition."
And, just as an aside, the Athenians weren't quite in the same league as Mohammedans. Plus, Islam wasn't around in Paul's day... and the Athenians were polytheists. They worshipped many gods. Mohammedans? Allah. Not Yahweh.
Read your Bible. It'll do you good.
Hoss
**He learned it from scripture. Just because your understanding of scripture might be limited doesn’t mean his is as limited as yours apparently is........Maybe you can show us by your upcoming actions.**
That from a FReeper, who in a five post each, back and forth, had a 27-0 deficit in scriptural references. Of course you claim that you settled that without scripture. Why not, it works every time.
**The wedding of Cana has always been thought of as an example and foreshadowing of Mary’s intercession. http://home.earthlink.net/~mysticalrose/marian11.html**
Intercession?....do you really think that Christ (who had seen Nathanael under the fig tree, before physically seeing him) strolled into Cana not knowing what was waiting for him, and how he would handle it??
Further, not only was there not wine for the wedding party, there was no wine for Mary, Jesus’ brethern, or he and his disciples. Mary wasn’t going to have any wine, along with everybody else. That’s not exactly intercessing; it’s more like making “your requests be made known to God”. (Phil. 4:6)
Jesus taught often on prayer, such as the examples of asking a friend at midnight for loaves of bread (Lk. 11:5-8), and the widow petitioning the unjust judge (Luke 18:1-8).
Yet, you say that the Cana miracle is proof of Mary intercessing then and into the afterlife, when Jesus teaches us to ask God. And yes, James taught prayer, ‘one for another’ (5:14-18) to those believers still alive and living for God. He wasn’t writing to those that had already died in Christ, (in case you didn’t know that).
**She is not omniscient. She is not omnipotent.**
But she IS omnipresent???
**She is not divine. She is not innately holy. The holiness she has was given to her as gift (isn’t that how we all get it?).**
Not divine, but omnipresent..........(what a tangled web we....).
How can someone be omnipresent, and not be omniscient as well? If you could be omnipresent, you would know everyone’s life story, from the time you became omnipresent and forward. You would know all the facts of any circumstance, because you would have been there while it all unfolded. You would even know from those facts if that someone was asking sincerely or not, because you would know what’s in their heart. Only God knows the heart.
**So you’re objectively wrong.**
(just thought I’d print out the echo you’re hearing)
Scripture existed before Christ was born. He used it -- remember?:
"It is written...."
So please don't fling that tired Catholic canard.
So it was utterly pointless for Christ to have established His Church and utterly ridiculous for Him to tell Peter and His Apostles to “Go forth and teach...”
No. We do what Christ has charged us to do. As for teaching authority, that is with God. Through his word and his Holy Spirit. Not the Catholic Church. Besides... it teaches you worship the same God as Muslims, as well as contradicting Christ himself! How on earth can Catholicism claim ANY authority? Roman Catholicism is man-made. Catholics don't even hold God's very word ABOVE human tradition!
It does not occur to you that precisely by their honest inquiry by placing “their faith and trust in God,” that they found their Protestant beliefs completely false ands converted to Catholicism.
Matthew 24:11 comes to mind regarding the Catholic Church and its effect on others.
Sorry. Invective doesn't change the fact that Roman Catholicism is a cult.
Try reading the Bible. You make it sound like doing that is somehow bad! For shame. Try it. You'll find, if you're honest with yourself, that Rome has lied and continues to lie to you.
Hoss
What is YOUR answer? Does the Catholic Church adore and acknowledge the same god as Muslims?
Hoss
Hoss
Never mind, Vlad. Your lack of answer tells me your answer.
May the Lord have mercy upon you.
Take care. I'm done. Only God's grace can help.
Hoss
Please: NO STRAW MAN’S ARGUMENT
“Scripture existed before Christ was born. He used it — remember?:”
Yes, there were several written texts, but it took nearly 300 years for the early Church fathers to sort out and sift and cross check various texts against the received oral tradition to formally pronounce that THE texts chosen in the Synod of Rome in AD 382 is the AUTHENTIC Word of God. That authenticity was based on infallible Petrine authority that did not evaporate ELEVEN centuries later with the curse of the Reformation that triggered a mudslide of conflicting interpretations that has become a caricature in this day and age.
Speaking of canards, everyone and their grandmother apparently is now allowed to crack open the pages of the Bible and offer us his/her “authoritative” interpretation and done so we are told “by the grace of God.” Just ask the Rev. Jeremiah Wrights and Joel Osteens or the mainline Protestant denominations who now offer scriptural support for allowing married gays and lesbians as pastors and bishops.
Playing internet theologian by citing a quote from here and there is the stuff for shallow Bible Christians. The relevant question is why eminent Protestant theologians after a lifetime of study, scholarship, teaching, and preaching have converted to Catholicism.
Bible Christians show no interest in serious intellectual inquiry. Many of them are clueless on the works of Augustine, Aquinas, Newman or Benedict whose works are standard fare in the theological curricula of major colleges and universities around the world and indeed after whom universities have been named. But this is the deep end of the theological pool in which Bible Christian cannot comfortably swim in.
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