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."
Some FRoman Catholics have been poorly catechized.
Not in the Catholic cult.
“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??”
No, that’s all the more proof of Mary’s intercession. You really don’t understand the principles involved do you? It always amazes me how often the anti-Catholics attacks things that they end up tacitly admitting they don’t even understand.
I quoted back to you from the ESV. Then I proceeded to answer your accusation that I rejected the KJV. Show me where I used the word rejected.
Covered above
Then, I attempted to explain that I like the KJV as well as the ESV and why I use the ESV.
Rather pathetic
I'd appreciate a little accuracy here.
That is rich.
Now. Can you, instead of deflecting, answer my question to you as to why the Roman Catholic Church refutes God in CCC 969 my claiming Mary as "medatrix" when God's inspired word in 1 Timothy 2:5 states there is ONE mediator between God and men, the man Jesus Christ?
I did not deflect. I presented scripture from Acts which shows that people can worship God in ignorance, which you gainsaid, and now you are trying to deflect and change the subject to some other antiCatholic polemic.
“If I had a statue of the Easter Bunny in my garden and I planted flowers around it and went there every day, kneeling before it and praying to it...”
We don’t pray TO statues. See, even your own attempt at analogy is ground in the typical erroneous understanding of the anti-Catholic.
“What is YOUR answer?”
What is your answer? Do you profess to worship the God of Abraham even though Muslims say they do too?
“Does the Catholic Church adore and acknowledge the same god as Muslims?”
Do anti-Catholic bigots profess to worship the God of Abraham even though Muslims say they do too?
6. I declare with the saints: Mary is the earthly paradise of Jesus Christ the new Adam, where he became man by the power of the Holy Spirit, in order to accomplish in her wonders beyond our understanding. She is the vast and divine world of God where unutterable marvels and beauties are to be found. She is the magnificence of the Almighty where he hid his only Son, as in his own bosom, and with him everything that is most excellent and precious. What great and hidden things the all- powerful God has done for this wonderful creature, as she herself had to confess in spite of her great humility, “The Almighty has done great things for me.” The world does not know these things because it is incapable and unworthy of knowing them.
7. The saints have said wonderful things of Mary, the holy City of God, and, as they themselves admit, they were never more eloquent and more pleased than when they spoke of her. And yet they maintain that the height of her merits rising up to the throne of the Godhead cannot be perceived; the breadth of her love which is wider than the earth cannot be measured; the greatness of the power which she wields over one who is God cannot be conceived; and the depths of her profound humility and all her virtues and graces cannot be sounded. What incomprehensible height! What indescribable breadth! What immeasurable greatness! What an impenetrable abyss!
“And, yeah, it WOULD be a cop-out to say anyone who worships Mary isn’t a “true” Catholic.”
Nope. can’t be a true Catholic if you’re a Collyridian.
I asked you first. Why the deflection?
I worship the one, true living God — but the Muslims don’t.”Allah” is not the one, true living God. And your CCC says Catholics worship the same god as Muslims. So... do YOU?
Uncomfy, isn’t it? Your Church tells you you worship the same god as Muslims.. and Muslims don’t worship the God of Christianity — Yahweh, or if you prefer, Jehovah, or if you prefer, the Great I AM — so that leaves Catholics in a bit of a pickle, doesn’t it?
And that’s why no one will give me a straight answer to this question. For, to answer as one’s heart would tell one (if one is Christian), would be to assent to worshipping the one, true living God; but that would mean forsaking Mother Church and accepting that Catholicism teaches gross error.
But, to answer with one’s Catholic heart is to forsake the truth of the Gospel, reject God Almighty, and accept the flawed teaching that makes the God of the Bible, and “Allah” — a false god — equivalent.
Hoss
Yep! Catholics will obfuscate on that subject because they can never answer it truthfully without consequences. The dodging is painful to watch.
I did gainsay it - but what was gainsaid was not the KJV of scripture: it was the Catholic twisting of it. Read the whole passage. Know a little history.
How can you worship God in ignorance? We are created to worship God, but as we are fallen, we do not; we set up idols of various kinds UNTIL GOD CHANGES OUR HEARTS.
We're dead in trespasses and sins BEFORE we are justified. So how do we worship God when before we're converted, we don't KNOW God at all?
That altar was to "the unknown god." Pretty plain and simple. The Athenians were covering all bets. But they did not know God.
To worship God wouldn't one need to know HOW to worship him? If they worshipped in ignorance, what happened if the sacrificed people to him? Wouldn't that be upsetting to God since he outlined how he is to be worshipped?
That's why Paul took the opportunity to tell them the Good News so that the might actually KNOW God.
The only thing "rich" here is the Catholic pap that's being spread. Try reading the whole book of Romans with an open mind, prayerfully and completely. It's amazing what you'll learn.
If there was anything beyond Strike 3, you would have earned it.
Hoss
I love the way DeMontfort really spells it all out. There are no terms of “adoration” that he is shy about using.
Oh, Louis-Marie de Montfort. You’ve become a devotee?
I posted the scripture, which clearly states they were ignorantly worshipping God. You then try to add to, or take away from, the scripture by asking questions, to gainsay what you admitted was inspired by the Holy Spirit. You have thus rejected the KJV.
He really shows what is going on with the adoration of Mary in the Catholic Church. Sure most don't know about him. To me the Catholic Church saying it doesn't push Mary worship is like Obama saying he is not a Muslim. Obama praises and protects Islam while criticizing Christianity. Obama persecutes Israel while protecting Muslim countries but his words are always the same. He denies being a Muslim.
The RCC denies Mary worship every step of the way but then there is:
8. Every day, from one end of the earth to the other, in the highest heaven and in the lowest abyss, all things preach, all things proclaim the wondrous Virgin Mary. The nine choirs of angels, men and women of every age, rank and religion, both good and evil, even the very devils themselves are compelled by the force of truth, willingly or unwillingly, to call her blessed.
According to St. Bonaventure, all the angels in heaven unceasingly call out to her: "Holy, holy, holy Mary, Virgin Mother of God." They greet her countless times each day with the angelic greeting, "Hail, Mary", while prostrating themselves before her, begging her as a favour to honour them with one of her requests. According to St. Augustine, even St. Michael, though prince of all the heavenly court, is the most eager of all the angels to honour her and lead others to honour her. At all times he awaits the privilege of going at her word to the aid of one of her servants.
False; you rejected the KJV "Whom" in Whom therefore ye ignorantly worship, him declare I unto you. and replaced it with "What," blaming your choice on the Catholic. 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
Consider the style of this poetic genre. It is ardent and courtly -- effusive love, not a manual of doctrine --- and it follows the literary form comparable to 19th century romanticism, as in Elizabeth Barrett to Robert Browning:
How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.Devotion comprising all "depth and breadth and height" must refer to God the infinite, not man the finite; and "the ends of being and ideal grace" are terms divine, not human.
I love thee to the depth and breadth and height
My soul can reach, when feeling out of sight
For the ends of being and ideal grace.
....
I love thee with a love I seemed to lose
With my lost saints. I love thee with the breath,
Smiles, tears, of all my life; and, if God choose,
I shall but love thee better after death.
Yet I'm fairly confident that Miss Barrett did not think Mr. Browning was actually Almighty God. That's the way people wrote in letters to each other! Everyone, even casually, signed off as the other's "Obedient and humble servant" and pledged their "ne'er dying devotion!"
And not just 19th century Romantics. You even have the greatest of Calvinist Puritan poetesses, Anne Bradstreet, to her husband Simon who was far absent from her:
My head, my heart, mine eyes, my life, nay more,"My head, my heart, mine eyes, my life"?
My joy, my magazine of earthly store,
If two be one, as surely thou and I,
How stayest thou there, whilst I at Ipswich lie?
.....
My chilled limbs now numbed lie forlorn;
Return; return, sweet Sol, from Capricorn.
Here lies the pride of Queens, pattern of Kings:Another on Queen Elizabeth I:
So blaze it fame, here’s feathers for thy wings.
Here lies the envy’d, yet unparallel’d Prince,
Whose living virtues speak (though dead long since).
If many worlds, as that fantastic framed,
In every one, be her great glory famed.
Although great Queen, thou now in silence lie,Now. Do you honestly think this 17th century New England Puritan thought that Elizabeth I was the "pattern of Kings," and that if there were "many worlds" she would be famed in all of them?
Yet thy loud Herald Fame, doth to the sky
Thy wondrous worth proclaim, in every clime,
And so has vow’d, whilst there is world or time.
So great’s thy glory, and thine excellence,
The sound thereof raps every human sense
That men account it no impiety
To say thou wert a fleshly Deity.
Or that she, a daughter and matron of the radical Reformation, really thought it were "no impiety" to say Queen Elizabeth I was "a fleshly deity"?
So we're dealing with a fervent, florid devotional style that people offered to sovereigns and spouses. Similarly over-the-top--- to us --- are the extravagant hyperboles and obsequies found in Shakespeare and Michelangelo's sonnets. They strike the modern ear as embellishment in the Liberace range--- overheated flourish: but this was the devotional style of the courtly and the romantic age.
The Louis Marie de Montfort style of Marian prayer is never used liturgically (official public prayer); it is never a source of doctrine; and no, it is not part of my personal prayer life --- though I do love the Litany of Loreto.
However, keep in mind that pious Christian people were motivated to reach heights of devotional rhetoric which would exceed what people were shoveling on the jeweled head of Elizabeth I of England. They felt strongly that whatever was highest of the high in human honor should go, not to that "red-haired Welsh harridan," Queen Elizabeth presiding in Westminster, but to Christ's fair and humble mother, the maid of Nazareth.
Many today may not read this with sympathy or even comprehension. But so few in our age have any comprehension of the language love and devotion of ages past, no culture beyond the Kardashians.
Now, doctrine is a separate thing, and we will surely have plenty of straightforward disagreements there. That's OK by me. But I am simply advising you that an antique style seems excessive because, by our dim cultural lights, they are like a ton and a half of winky-twinklers on a 10-pound Christmas tree. But to the authors of Marian devotionals, it pertained to the honor of Christ that His sweet mother should be more greatly magnified than any proud Bess in London or any Empress of Byzantium.
I've heard that argument before but I reject it.
DeMontfort is highly honored by the Catholic Church but...
But what?
Obama said the most beautiful sound in the world is the muslim call to prayer but he's not a muslim. He went to an America hating Black Liberation Theology church but he is a "Christian".
The Catholic church honors a man who continues with:
9. The whole world is filled with her glory, and this is especially true of Christian peoples, who have chosen her as guardian and protectress of kingdoms, provinces, dioceses, and towns. Many cathedrals are consecrated to God in her name. There is no church without an altar dedicated to her, no country or region without at least one of her miraculous images where all kinds of afflictions are cured and all sorts of benefits received. Many are the confraternities and associations honouring her as patron; many are the orders under her name and protection; many are the members of sodalities and religious of all congregations who voice her praises and make known her compassion. There is not a child who does not praise her by lisping a Hail Mary. There is scarcely a sinner, however hardened, who does not possess some spark of confidence in her. The very devils in hell, while fearing her, show her respect.
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