Saint Anne conceiving the Virgin Mary
Jean Bellegambe
Douai, Musée de la Chartreuse
Posted on 12/08/2005 8:27:21 AM PST by Salvation
From the Akathist, 4th Stasis:
"Priest: Extolling your birth-giving, we all praise you as a living temple, 0 Theotokos. For the Lord whose hand sustains the world, having dwelt in your womb, sanctified and glorified you, and instructed all people to cry to you:
Rejoice, tabernacle of God the Logos;
rejoice, holy one, holier than the holies.
Rejoice, ark that was gilt by the Spirit;
rejoice, inexhaustible treasure of life.
Rejoice, precious diadem of godly kings;
rejoice, honored pride of the pious priests.
Rejoice, the Church's unshakable tower;
rejoice, the kingdom's unassailable fortress.
Rejoice, through whom trophies of victory are raised;
rejoice, through whom enemies are defeated.
Rejoice, healing of my body;
rejoice, my soul's salvation.
Rejoice, 0 Bride unwedded.
People: Rejoice, 0 Bride unwedded."
Rom 3:23 For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God;
Mar 10:18 And Jesus said unto him, Why callest thou me good? [there is] none good but one, [that is], God.
1Jo 1:8 If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.
Luk 1:46 And Mary said, My soul doth magnify the Lord,
Luk 1:47 And my spirit hath rejoiced in God my Saviour.
Scripture never teaches that Mary was "sinless" she was the HUMAN half of Jesus genealogy and the Catholic church keeps making his mother a sinless goddess.
You diminish Christ and his sinless nature with your beliefs. Maybe she could have been crucified for our sins in her sinless state, Jesus was unnecessary
| Lk 1:26-38 | ||
|---|---|---|
| # | Douay-Rheims | Vulgate |
| 26 | And in the sixth month, the angel Gabriel was sent from God into a city of Galilee, called Nazareth, | in mense autem sexto missus est angelus Gabrihel a Deo in civitatem Galilaeae cui nomen Nazareth |
| 27 | To a virgin espoused to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David: and the virgin's name was Mary. | ad virginem desponsatam viro cui nomen erat Ioseph de domo David et nomen virginis Maria |
| 28 | And the angel being come in, said unto her: Hail, full of grace, the Lord is with thee: blessed art thou among women. | et ingressus angelus ad eam dixit have gratia plena Dominus tecum benedicta tu in mulieribus |
| 29 | Who having heard, was troubled at his saying and thought with herself what manner of salutation this should be. | quae cum vidisset turbata est in sermone eius et cogitabat qualis esset ista salutatio |
| 30 | And the angel said to her: Fear not, Mary, for thou hast found grace with God. | et ait angelus ei ne timeas Maria invenisti enim gratiam apud Deum |
| 31 | Behold thou shalt conceive in thy womb and shalt bring forth a son: and thou shalt call his name Jesus. | ecce concipies in utero et paries filium et vocabis nomen eius Iesum |
| 32 | He shall be great and shall be called the Son of the Most High. And the Lord God shall give unto him the throne of David his father: and he shall reign in the house of Jacob for ever. | hic erit magnus et Filius Altissimi vocabitur et dabit illi Dominus Deus sedem David patris eius |
| 33 | And of his kingdom there shall be no end. | et regnabit in domo Iacob in aeternum et regni eius non erit finis |
| 34 | And Mary said to the angel: How shall this be done, because I know not man? | dixit autem Maria ad angelum quomodo fiet istud quoniam virum non cognosco |
| 35 | And the angel answering, said to her: The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee and the power of the Most High shall overshadow thee. And therefore also the Holy which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God. | et respondens angelus dixit ei Spiritus Sanctus superveniet in te et virtus Altissimi obumbrabit tibi ideoque et quod nascetur sanctum vocabitur Filius Dei |
| 36 | And behold thy cousin Elizabeth, she also hath conceived a son in her old age: and this is the sixth month with her that is called barren. | et ecce Elisabeth cognata tua et ipsa concepit filium in senecta sua et hic mensis est sextus illi quae vocatur sterilis |
| 37 | Because no word shall be impossible with God. | quia non erit inpossibile apud Deum omne verbum |
| 38 | And Mary said: Behold the handmaid of the Lord: be it done to me according to thy word. And the angel departed from her. | dixit autem Maria ecce ancilla Domini fiat mihi secundum verbum tuum et discessit ab illa angelus |
(*) vv 32-33 breakdown differs.
“Hail, full of grace!” In the history of the world, these words have been addressed to only one person. She is a woman. Mary of Nazareth. The angel Gabriel speaks this greeting to announce the Incarnation. At that precise moment, and with Mary’s divinely ordained consent, the eternal Son of God became man for our salvation. Heaven and earth rejoice.
The Incarnation of the Son of God touches the whole human race. No wonder that the Church encourages us to guard and cherish this great mystery: “The doctrine of faith must be firmly believed which proclaims that Jesus of Nazareth, Son of Mary, and he alone, is the Son and the Word of the Father.”
The message of the angel also tells us about the Mother of Jesus Christ. “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God.” God saved Mary in a way that remains unique to the Mother of the Redeemer. In view of the foreseen merits of her Son, Mary is preserved from contracting original sin. What Christ offers effectively to each person on earth, Mary receives fully at her conception. That Mary is conceived without sin enhances her freedom. She is able to love God more. Those who follow Jesus of Nazareth also cling to his Mother Mary. They recognize in her Immaculate Conception a source of hope.
Reflection based on Luke 1:26-38
Father Romanus Cessario
Let us look at these scriptures:
Gen 1:15 I will put enmities between thee and the woman, and thy seed and her seed: she shall crush thy head, and thou shalt lie in wait for her heel.
("she shall crush" is more often translated from Hebrew as "he shall crush", meaning that not Eve directly but her seed, Jesus, will crush Satan)
Luke 1:28 And the angel being come in, said unto her: Hail, full of grace, the Lord is with thee: blessed art thou among women.
(Here the usual since King James translation, "most favoured one" instead of "full of grace" inaccurately translates the Greek "kecharitomene"; only rarely is "charis", -- "grace" translated as "favor" by King James, making "most favoured" inconsistent and forced).
The immaculate conception of Mary is derived from these two verses: in Genesis 3 we learn that the enmity will be put between Mary and Satan; in Luke 1 we learn that Mary is full of grace. In both instances, Mary is cast by the inspired authors as wholly opposite of Satan or his work, sin. The doctrine was formalized late, in 1854 by Pius IX. It was, however, among the beleifs of the early Church. The symmetry between Mary and Eve was developed by Justin Martyr in his Dialog With Tryphone in AD 100.
Excellent teachings there!
Thursday December 8, 2005 The Immaculate Conception
Reading I (Genesis 3:9-15, 20) Reading II (Ephesians 1:3-6, 11-12)
Gospel (St. Luke 1:26-38)
In the second reading today from Saint Paul’s Letter to the Ephesians, Saint Paul, talking about each one of us who is a member of Christ, says, In Him we also were chosen, destined in accord with the purpose of the One Who accomplishes all things according to the intentions of His Will. As we celebrate today the solemnity of Our Blessed Lady’s Immaculate Conception, meaning, of course, the day that the Blessed Virgin Mary was conceived in the womb of her mother, Saint Anne, without the stain of Original Sin, we then have to ask ourselves: Why? This was not something Mary did for herself; she had not yet been conceived. It was from the very moment of her creation, of her conception, that she is without sin. This is purely a gift from God, not something she earned, not something she deserved, but it was a singular grace given to her. And so if all of us have been chosen by God, destined in accord with the purpose of the One Who accomplishes all things according to the intentions of His Will, then the obvious question is: Why? Why is Our Lady conceived without sin?
In the other two readings that we have today, it is very clearly laid out for us. In the first reading from the Book of Genesis, we hear the words spoken by God Himself to Satan: I will put enmity between you and the woman, and that ultimately it is the woman who is to crush the head of Satan. If we look at the rest of the reading, we hear about Adam and Eve. They were without sin, yet the devil in his wiles was able to topple them without too much difficulty. And we all know from our own lives, being affected by Original Sin, how tragically easy it is for the devil to cause us untold problems. So there is no possible way, on a human level, that Our Lady would have been able to overcome Satan’s wiles if she had been tainted by sin.
Sin, we recognize, even Original Sin itself that we all inherit, darkens the mind and it weakens the will. So it is not even that we want to do things that are wrong; it is in our weakness that we are already leaning in the wrong direction. Therefore, if Our Lady was going to overcome Satan completely, she had to be without sin. It was the extraordinary grace of God that kept her from sinning throughout her entire life; consequently, it is God’s grace that allowed her to crush Satan’s head. Yet, at the same time, we all know that even though we have God’s grace we do not always cooperate very well, and that even in the state of sanctifying grace–where we have every grace necessary to stay away from sin–we do not do it. Our Lady would not have been able to either if she had been affected by sin at all.
Now we also see the second reason, which is really the primary reason, why Our Lady was without sin, and that is in the Gospel reading. The angel Gabriel appears to Our Blessed Lady, and says to her that the child she is to conceive will be called holy, the Son of God. Our Lady is without sin so that she could be the worthy mother of the Son of God. When we stop to ponder the idea of what it means to be the Mother of God, I think any one of us could easily reason to the fact that the Mother of God Himself needs to be without sin. Jesus came to free us from our sins, and so what happened with Our Lady is that the grace of salvation, the grace that was achieved for us on the Cross by the shedding of His precious Blood, was applied to Our Blessed Lady at the moment of her conception.
Now this might seem illogical to us because how can the grace be given to Our Lady some forty or fifty years before Our Lord was actually crucified? But recall that even the people of the Old Testament times were saved by the grace of Christ, that the grace of Christ had to be applied to them so they could be saved; and so it was with Our Lady, in a singular and extraordinary way. She is the only human person ever to be conceived without Original Sin. She is the only one who ever will be conceived without Original Sin. She should have been with sin; she was conceived through the normal marital relations of her parents, Saint Anne and Saint Joachim, and she should have had sin like the rest of us. But because of these two reasons that we have seen, God spared her that specifically so she could fulfill the purpose for which He had created her.
And if, as Saint Paul tells us, each one of us was chosen from all eternity by God, so it is with Our Blessed Lady. In fact, some of the saints tell us that the very first thought in the mind of God (after Himself, that is) was the thought of Our Lady, that from all eternity He had decreed that she would come into this world to be the mother of His Son and that was the very first thing on His mind. So we see the mercy of God being extended to all of us in the very person of Our Blessed Lady; that, in one of our own, we have one who is without sin; in one of our own, we have the one who has crushed the head of Satan; in one of our own, we have something which is humanly impossible–but completely possible for God–that is, that a human creature would be the mother of the Eternal God. It is for these reasons that she needed to be without sin, specifically so she could fulfill the purpose for which God created her.
Now as Saint Paul tells us, each one of us, called and chosen by God, also is made for the purpose for which God chose to create us. We have an example, on of our own, who is placed before us, who did the Will of God in all things and stands as the example for each of us to live holy lives without blemish, as Saint Paul tells us, so that we too can exist for the praise of the glory of God. And learning from Our Lady’s example, not able to do it as perfectly, obviously, as she was, but with the grace of God we too can crush the head of Satan–in Our Lady and with Our Lady–and we too are able to glorify God in our actions and in the way that we live so that in all things we will be able to fulfill the purpose of the One Who created us to fulfill His intentions.
* This text was transcribed from the audio recording with minimal editing.
God bless you and thank you for these posts.
CHAPTER LXXXIV -- THAT PROPHECY, "BEHOLD, A VIRGIN," ETC., SUITS CHRIST ALONE."Moreover, the prophecy, 'Behold, the virgin shall conceive, and bear a son,' was uttered respecting Him. For if He to whom Isaiah referred was not to be begotten of a virgin, of whom did the Holy Spirit declare, 'Behold, the Lord Himself shall give us a sign: behold, the virgin shall conceive, and bear a son?' For if He also were to be begotten of sexual intercourse, like all other first-born sons, why did God say that He would give a sign which is not common to all the first-born sons? But that which is truly a sign, and which was to be made trustworthy to mankind,--namely, that the first-begotten of all creation should become incarnate by the Virgin's womb, and be a child,--this he anticipated by the Spirit of prophecy, and predicted it, as I have repeated to you, in various ways; in order that, when the event should take place, it might be known as the operation of the power and will of the Maker of all things; just as Eve was made from one of Adam's ribs, and as all living beings were created in the beginning by the word of God. But you in these matters venture to pervert the expositions which your elders that were with Ptolemy king of Egypt gave forth, since you assert that the Scripture is not so as they have expounded it, but says, 'Behold, the young woman shall conceive,' as if great events were to be inferred if a woman should beget from sexual intercourse: which indeed all young women, with the exception of the barren, do; but even these, God, if He wills, is able to cause[to bear]. For Samuel's mother, who was barren, brought forth by l the will of God; and so also the wife of the holy patriarch Abraham; and Elisabeth, who bore John the Baptist, and other such. So that you must not suppose that it is impossible for God to do anything He wills. And especially when it was predicted that this would take place, do not venture to pervert or misinterpret the prophecies, since you will injure yourselves alone, and will not harm God.
[...]
CHAPTER C -- IN WHAT SENSE CHRIST IS [CALLED] JACOB, AND ISRAEL, AND SON OF MAN.
"Then what follows--'But Thou, the praise of Israel, inhabitest the holy place'--declared that He is to do something worthy of praise and wonderment, being about to rise again from the dead on the third day after the crucifixion; and this He has obtained from the Father. For I have showed already that Christ is called both Jacob and Israel; and I have proved that it is not in the blessing of Joseph and Judah alone that what relates to Him was proclaimed mysteriously, but also in the Gospel it is written that He said: 'All things are delivered unto me by My Father;' and, 'No man knoweth the Father but the Son; nor the Son but the Father, and they to whom the Son will reveal Him.' Accordingly He revealed to us all that we have perceived by His grace out of the Scriptures, so that we know Him to be the first-begotten of God, and to be before all creatures; likewise to be the Son of the patriarchs, since He assumed flesh by the Virgin of their family, and submitted to become a man without comeliness, dishonoured, and subject to suffering. Hence, also, among His words He said, when He was discoursing about His future sufferings: "The Son of man must suffer many things, and be rejected by the Pharisees and Scribes, and be crucified, and on the third day rise again.' He said then that He was the Son of man, either because of His birth by the Virgin, who was, as I said, of the family of David and Jacob, and Isaac, and Abraham; or because Adam was the father both of Himself and of those who have been first enumerated from whom Mary derives her descent. For we know that the fathers of women are the fathers likewise of those children whom their daughters bear. For [Christ] called one of His disciples--previously known by the name of Simon--Peter; since he recognised Him to be Christ the Son. of God, by the revelation of His Father: and since we find it recorded in the memoirs of His apostles that He is the Son of God, and since we call Him the Son, we have understood that He proceeded before all creatures from the Father by His power and will (for He is addressed in the writings of the prophets in one way or another as Wisdom, and the Day, and the East, and a Sword, and a Stone, and a Rod, and Jacob, and Israel); and that He became man by the Virgin, in order that the disobedience which proceeded from the serpent might receive its destruction in the same manner in which it derived its origin. For Eve, who was a virgin and undefiled, having conceived the word of the serpent, brought forth disobedience and death. But the Virgin Mary received faith and joy, when the angel Gabriel announced the good tidings to her that the Spirit of the Lord would come upon her, and the power of the Highest would overshadow her: wherefore also the Holy Thing begotten of her is the Son of God; and she replied, 'Be it unto me according to thy word.' And by her has He been born, to whom we have proved so many Scriptures refer, and by whom God destroys both the serpent and those angels and men who are like him; but works deliverance from death to those who repent of their wickedness and believe upon Him.
I hadn't thought about her being addressed by title. Excellent observation. (Yet all along I knew it, I just took it for granted.) But what you say makes so much sense.
Indeed she is in a rare company: I can only think of Jesus being called "the Christ".
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Thursday, December 08, 2005 Meditation Ephesians 1:3-6,11-12 The Immaculate Conception? What do you think of when you hear the words “Immaculate Conception?” You may already know what the church teaches: Mary is called immaculate because she was conceived without original sin. But what does that actually mean? A good way to think about Mary is to think of a beautiful cathedral. A cathedral is a place that is especially dedicated to worship. It’s filled with God’s presence and reminds us of heavenly things. As soon as we enter it, we feel like getting on our knees and giving praise to the Lord. This is really why we honor Mary today. She is like that cathedral, but much more so. She was so full of God and his grace that she was able to bear his divine Son in her womb. When she told her cousin Elizabeth, “My soul magnifies the Lord” (Luke 1:46), she was saying that she was like a “magnifying glass.” Why? Because when we look at her total surrender to God’s will, we see a perfect model for living the Christian life. But that’s not all. Because of Mary’s “yes” to God, we have received all the “spiritual blessings” that come from Christ. We should never take for granted the incredible fact that we have Jesus living within us. Even though we don’t carry him as Mary did, we do have his Spirit—-who is God himself—within us. If we are in Christ, we are truly alive: We have become “members of the household of God” (Ephesians 2:19), right alongside Mary. And so we can proclaim as Mary did, “My spirit rejoices in God my savior,” for he has truly done wondrous things for us! Do you want to know the best way to honor Mary? Become a model for your brothers and sisters, just as she is a model for all of us. Walk in holiness as Mary did, and let your light shine to those around you. Show the world that it is a privilege to be part of the body of Christ—to be united with Mary, all the great saints, and even Jesus himself! Remember: No one is saved by their own activities, but through the grace and power of God made manifest in his people, his church, his body here on earth. “Lord, purify my heart! I want nothing to stand between you and me. Help me to be like Mary, yielded completely to your will.” Genesis 3:9-15,20; Psalm 98:1-4; Luke 1:26-38
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Thanks.
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