Marian Apparitions in China

Thank you for the link in your post #18 I think it was. I'll read up on that and hope that it makes sense as a lot of things that I once thought made sense because I wanted them to make sense no longer make sense even though I want them to. How's that for confusion?

I'm engaged in some spiritual housecleaning and trying to cast off what is not essential and try to retain what is essential.

You make so much sense sometimes Sinkspur! :-)

Wrong. Nice Protestant reply ignorant of Catholic belief. How did Jesus, who existed forever, decide to come down to save us? That’s right, by being born of a woman, the purest one to have ever lived (see Luke: “Hail Mary, full of Grace” — that’s FULL as in no room for sin — and “From now on, all ages will call me blessed”). By the way, if you understood the passage you quoted (Mk 3:35), you would realize that he was praising Mary for having done the will of God (”Let it be done to me according to your word”), just as is quoted in Lk 11:27-28:

“While he was speaking, a woman from the crowd called out and said to him, ‘Blessed is the womb that carried you and the breasts at which you nursed.’ He replied, ‘Rather, blessed are those who hear the word of God and observe it.’”

Apparently, you have never asked for anyone’s prayers. That’s too bad. If I can ask for your prayers, how much more can I ask for the prayers of Mary, who is more blessed than anyone and very close to God in Heaven? And no one is saying that Mary died for us. Sheesh! You need to read the Bible and the Catechism and get with it if you are going to critique Catholics. You’ve been blinded by your own miseducation.

Jesus was present at Knock as the Lamb on the altar.

Thank you Maeo for that reminder about Jesus at Knock as the Lamb Who was sacrificed for us.

With all due respect to you protestants: I don’t understand how you can reduce the Mother of God to nothing more than a borrowed womb who was then cast aside by Jesus as though she had no more importance whatsoever! Do you really think Jesus Christ (Who is GOD) is pleased with your degrading treatment of the Woman He PERSONALLY DESIGNED to be His Mother? To be YOUR Mother???

While Mary did not create God in His Divinity, for she is mortal, did not exist from all eternity, and can never be Divine, and He is Uncreated, She nonetheless gave him HIS FLESH AND HIS BLOOD (Galatians 4:4) That means the PRECIOUS BLOOD OF CHRIST that redeemed us WAS TAKEN DIRECTLY FROM THE BLOOD OF MARY... which means that since God cannot be tainted by sin, the Woman whose blood He chose to flow through His veins had to be completely PURE and immaculate...WITHOUT SIN FROM THE 1ST MOMENT OF HER CONCEPTION...Now if YOU were God, and YOU were going to create YOUR OWN MOTHER are you going to deliberately make her with ORIGINAL SIN or are you going to make her FLAWLESS IN EVERY WAY? If you say you would NOT make your own mother FLAWLESS IN EVERY WAY YOU WOULD NOT BE TELLING THE TRUTH, so don’t try to fool yourself (or us) for the sake of maintaining your UNCHRISTIAN position in this debate. Yes, Mary needed a Savior, just like She admitted in the Gospel of Luke (1:47), but as God it was nothing for Him to keep her from being touched by any stain of sin from the moment of her conception. This is why in Job we are told that incorruptible seed CANNOT BE BORN of CORRUPTIBLE seed. That means the incorruptible Christ could NOT have come from a CORRUPTIBLE Woman. This is why Mary said in Luke: “He that is Mighty hath done great thingS to me...” Notice she said “things” PLURAL, and not “a great thing to me”. If she was talking just about her miraculous pregnancy, that would only be ONE thing. But in order for that pregnancy to occur, other THINGS had to happen to prepare her for that moment, and these things obviously were revealed to her at the same time, although the Bible does not go into all that IN THIS PARTICULAR PLACE. It can be found in other parts of the Bible, and not in the “apocryphal” books that you protestants erroneously reject.
As for Mary’s intercession, she intercedes for us almost every time she appears in Scripture. Most importantly, She intercedes for us when Gabriel announces her destiny to be the Mother of God by selflessly agreeing to accept this role and all the suffering it will bring with it, thereby INITIATING our salvation...Eve initiated our downfall by refusing God and putting herself first...Mary, the New Eve, initiated our redemption by accepting God and putting herself last...And yes, Mary was the Mother of GOD, not just of Jesus’ humanity, because to say that Mary was the Mother of Jesus in His human nature only, is to make Jesus TWO persons in one body (one Divine and one human, but separated, like oil and water in a glass) when in fact His Divine and Human natures FUSED together into ONE NATURE. Furthermore, all throughout the Old Testament, beginning with Genesis, God is referred to as “the LORD God” long before Jesus took on any humanity. Therefore, SPEAKING BY THE HOLY SPIRIT, Mary’s cousin Elizabeth cried out in Luke 1:43: “Who am I that the Mother of my LORD should come to me?” Mary was the Mother of BOTH of Jesus’ natures at this point, BECAUSE THOSE TWO NATURES WERE NOW FOREVER INSEPERABLE.
Mary interceded again in John Chapter 2 at the Wedding at Cana. Why does it say first; “There was a wedding in Cana, AND THE MOTHER OF JESUS WAS THERE”, and then, secondary, it says, “Jesus and His disciples were also invited to the wedding.” Why didn’t John say: “There was a wedding in Cana, and Jesus, His Mother, and His disciples were invited.” ? Because John is about to tell us something important about MARY and her relationship to her Divine Son. When the wine ran out Mary told Jesus there was no more wine. Did Jesus need His Mother to tell Him this? No, as God, He already knew the wine ran out. But He also knew if He didn’t act on this, His Mother would bring it to His attention anyway, so He deliberately waited for Her to come to him about it, and Mary did so because She knew that as GOD, Jesus COULD do something about it. And He said to Her, “Woman, what is this to Me and to Thee, My hour has not yet come?” Was this really a rebuke? First of all, Jesus always refers to His Mother as “Woman” in key parts of salvation history. The term “Woman” is that mystical term used in Genesis 3:15 when God put enmity between the “Woman” and the “Serpent” (Satan). Mary is the WOMAN, the Second Eve, who would undo the damage caused by the first Eve. Jesus is identifying His Mother as the prophesied Woman of Genesis, the Second Eve. Now, according to you protestants, Mary is allegedly scarlet with humiliation from this “rebuke” by Her Son at Cana and turns to those present and says: “Do whatever He tells you.” In other words, according to YOU, she is admitting she is a helpless failure as an intercessor, and that only JESUS should be followed, NOT HER (as if this was even hinted at in this story, which it is NOT). You are WRONG. Read these passages again. Mary KNOWS that Jesus is going to work the miracle (even though His hour has not yet come) and that’s why she turns and tells the servants “Do whatever He tells you” because She is telling them that, no matter how odd it may sound, Jesus is going to give them instructions, and they are to follow Jesus’ instructions to the letter because He is going to make new wine for them. And they follow His instructions, and the miracle occurs. Remember: 1. Jesus didn’t need Mary to tell Him the wine ran out. 2. He waited for Mary to ask Him to make more wine. 3. He called her by that mystical Title reserved specifically for HER from the time of the Fall. 4. Mary knew He would do it for her and told the servants to follow whatever instructions He was going to give them. 5. He worked the Miracle - because HIS MOTHER ASKED HIM TO - even though the time for Him to begin working miracles HAD NOT ARRIVED YET.
Numerous other Biblically-based incidents that completely support Catholic teaching about Mary abound, but there is not space to cover them all now, but I will finish with one more thing you protestants have such a problem with: Mary as Queen of Heaven. Is this Biblical? According to you, the only “queen of Heaven” mentioned in the Bible is the false goddess Ashteroth (Jeremiah 7:18, Jeremiah 44:17-19, etc) In Revelation 19:16 Our Lord God Jesus is called “King of Kings and Lord of Lords”. Now the Holy Spirit in Luke 1:43 already called His Bride “Mother of the Lord” which we know throughout the Old Testament LORD is the exact same thing as GOD. Now, on THIS planet, where ALL THIS TOOK PLACE, the Mother of a King is ALWAYS AUTOMATICALLY A QUEEN. And if Jesus Christ is the KING of Kings, and the LORD of Lords, then His Mother Mary is not an ordinary queen, She is the QUEEN of queens! And as the Queen, She rules over the very same kingdom that Her Son rules over, (which is ALL CREATION, HEAVEN, EARTH, THE UNIVERSE) and while He is the Primary Ruler, She nevertheless has the right to rule over His subjects (YOU AND ME, HER CHILDREN, AS IDENTIFIED IN REVELATIONS 12:17) but in a SUBORDINATE manner. Furthermore, Psalms 44:10 (in the original HEBREW texts, and the Latin Vulgate of St. Jerome (before the protestants got to the Bible and changed the texts and made it Psalms 45:9) we are clearly told that ON GOD’S RIGHT HAND STANDS THE QUEEN, dressed in finest GOLD. Now, since you protestants relegate the great Mother of GOD, (who is YOUR MOTHER ALSO according to Rev. 12:17) to nothing more than a borrowed womb that is afterward discarded like a used vessel that has no further importance, we Catholics can only conclude (based on your faulty LITERAL interpretation of the Scriptures) that since the only “queen of Heaven” specifically mentioned in the Bible is the false goddess Ashteroth, it can only be this false goddess that God loathes so egregiously who nonetheless stands at His Right Hand dressed in finest gold. Or do you now dare not go THAT FAR with your bold anti-Marian biblical misrenderings? Enough now! Discard the satanic and foolish pride of Adam and Eve that blinds you too and HUMBLE yourself to accept that if the Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of CHRIST IN BOTH OF HIS NATURES, DIVINE AND HUMAN, WAS GOOD ENOUGH FOR JESUS, SHE SHOULD BE MORE THAN GOOD ENOUGH FOR YOU! Or are you better than Jesus??? How can you say you have any love and respect for your Lord and Savior Jesus Christ when you blaspheme, belittle, and strip of all her RIGHTLY DESERVED PREROGATIVES, HIS OWN BELOVED MOTHER? Even Satan and all the abominable demons of Hell regard Her with more honor and respect than you do, as has been demonstrated repeatedly throughout history in exorcisms! Exorcists tell us that while God, the angels and saints, the Pope, and all other beings are insulted through and through, the Devil and his horde always refrain from blaspheming and insulting the Blessed Virgin Mary...Do you know why?? Because they are intelligent enough to know that they will get mercilessly CLOBBERED by Her Divine Son, the LORD GOD Jesus Christ above and beyond what they already suffer in their eternal damnation! And yet you don’t hesitate to reduce her to nothing more than a common sinner who went back to being nobody special after she gave birth to the Savior of the world, and no doubt you sleep peacefully at night on top of it! Amazing! Absolutely Amazing! You truly have no fear of GOD, to be so bold and haughty in your degradation of His Mother, and to teach and prejudice your children against Her as well, to grow and teach THEIR children to do the same thing! What a strange and deformed Christianity you have crafted for yourselves! Truly, not everyone who says “Lord, Lord” will enter the Kingdom of Heaven, but only those who follow ALL of Christ’s teachings, not just the select few that make you comfortable!
Hail Mary, Full of Grace, the Lord is with Thee (Luke 1:28) blessed art Thou amongst women (Luke 1:42) and blessed is the Fruit of Thy womb (Luke 1:42) Jesus! Holy Mary, Mother of God (Luke 1:43) pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death, AMEN!