Posted on 12/31/2007 11:46:28 AM PST by NYer
"Grace", we are taught by Holy Mother Church, "is a participation in the life of God" (Catechism of the Catholic Church, §1997) – and Mary, the Angel Gabriel declares, is filled with it! Filled with the life of God, participating in the life of God as no other human being in history. She alone is full of grace, she alone participates consummately in the life of God – even before she bore His Son.
Why?
Because she was to bear His Son. It was from Mary that Jesus took His Sacred Humanity. It was from Mary that He took His flesh, becoming like unto us in every way but sin.
How much closer can a human being be to God ... than to have given Him His very flesh ... enabling, yes, enabling God to become man!
Jesus' flesh was not different from Mary's – it was Mary's! ... just as his Divinity was not different from God's, but was, is, God's.
Ponder that a while ... and look at Mary anew, and her place in the scheme of things, in what theologians call, "the economy of Salvation."
She was not just "highly favored" as many current translations inexplicably corrupt the text ,"gratia plena".
Abraham was highly favored by God. Moses was highly favored by God. David was highly favored by God. But neither Abraham nor Isaac, neither Jacob nor David, and not even Moses, were "full of grace" --- that is to say, fully possessed of that participation in the very life of God with which Mary was endowed through her Immaculate Conception in the womb of her mother, St. Anne. She was to bear, to give flesh that was untainted by sin, to the Son of God
Who can possibly be closer to Jesus Christ both in Heaven and on Earth? Who is, ever will be, more one with Him ... than Mary, whose flesh is one flesh with Him since the moment of His conception in her womb, His Incarnation --- and will be for all eternity?
Who is like unto Mary? No man. No other woman. Only her Son.
That we should love her, who loved Him most, is loving Christ Himself in His Sacred Humanity, a humanity inseparable from His Divinity. In Him is Mary as she is in no other; in Mary is Christ as He is in no other!
We cannot love Mary enough. Nor can we separate her from her Son any more than we can separate from Jesus his Divinity from His Humanity.
Look at Mary anew! And if you do not stand back in stupefaction, you are a stone.
Hail Mary! She is full of Grace!
Ite ad Mariam! Go to Mary!
How like unto the Son, the Mother, and like unto the Mother, the Son!
How tragic for Mary to be so misrepresented as to become an idol to many.
Anything to take the focus away from what Jesus did.
Ave, Maria!
How it must break Jesus' heart that people fail to honor his most beautiful mother.
SOLEMNITY OF MARY, MOTHER OF GOD LIVE 90 min
Pope Benedict XVI celebrates the Mass of the Solemnity of Mary, Mother of God and the 41st World Day of Peace, live from St. Peter's Basilica in Rome.
Tue,01/01/08 4:00 AM Live
Tue,01/01/08 12:00 PM & 6:30 PM Encore
Catholics honor Mary. They do not worship anyone but God.
Like everything besides the Gospels?
What’s tragic is Mary becoming a stalking horse for those who use “righteous indignation” as a substitute for the grace of God.
Thanks for naming it for me, I have always also thought it was exceptionally beautiful.
Happy Mother's Day to Mary - the Mother of God
Catholic beliefs about Mary, the Mother of God
The Early Church Fathers on The Mother of God - Catholic/Orthodox Caucus
Mary in Feminist Theology: Mother of God or Domesticated Goddess?
Feast of Mary, Mother of God (not a Holy Day of Obligation this year)
MARIAN DEVOTION - Akathist Hymn to the Mother of God
A Homily on the Dormition of Our Supremely Pure Lady Theotokos and Ever-Virgin Mary
Thank you-— so very beautiful. It is a balm which heals our hearts and shields us from the ugliness in this world.
Blessed be God in His angels and in His saints.
Mary is certainly a singularily unique human. Daughter of the Father, Mother of the Son, and Spouse of the Holy Spirit. The only one in the Holy Scripture who has been described as “Full of Grace”.
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John 19:26-27 “When Jesus therefore saw his mother, and the disciple standing by, whom he loved, he saith unto his mother, Woman, behold thy son! (27) Then saith he to the disciple, Behold thy mother! And from that hour that disciple took her unto his own {home}.”
And most importantly, Mary accepted that honor with the utmost humility.
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