Replies

1. The death of Jesus Christ is sufficient for the salvation of our sins. This is Church teaching

2. God willed that this work of salvation be accomplished through the collaboration of a woman, while respecting her free will (Gal. 4:4) But when the time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under law

3. All God's creatures -- Mary included, need to accept Christ/God. This us co-operating (in the sense of only saying "yes") with God's plan and His work and His grace in our salvation. We do NOTHING to save oursevels except to accept HIM. Do you agree with this?

4. 1 Peter 2:5 5you also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. and Phil 3:10 10I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death,

5. We are to proclaim Christ crucified. We are to spread the gospel and share the saving work of Christ with the world. We are called to prayer, holiness, and evangelism. We hence co-operate or rather are tools in God's plan of salvation.

6. Just as Moses and Abraham interceded with God, we too intercede with God for others.

7. These and the evangelists spread the Word of God to the Word and we as minor evangelisers TOO must spread the Word of God

8. Mary BORE the Word of God, she was a tool, an evangelizer in bringing the Word of God to the World

9. Just as our co-operation as tools is just an addition to Christ's death that saves the world, so too is Mary's role as a tool, a co-operator (in the sense that she bore Christ, our God and our Lord)with God.

10. Col 1:24 24Now I rejoice in what was suffered for you, and I fill up in my flesh what is still lacking in regard to Christ's afflictions, for the sake of his body, which is the church. is St. Paul implying that Christ’s death on the cross was inadequate? Not at all. Instead, he is teaching that the all-sufficient sacrifice has to be completed by being preached, accepted, and embraced by our cooperation and that our suffering plays a mysterious part in this action. In that way the Redemption of Christ is applied and brought alive in the present moment by our own cooperation in that one, full, final sacrifice. No one says we are equal to Christ; instead, by grace, our cooperation becomes a part of Christ’s all sufficient sacrifice.

11. Mary too co-operated, yet as Simeon said in Luke 2:35 35so that the thoughts of many hearts will be revealed. And a sword will pierce your own soul too."

12. Acts 1:14 14They all joined together constantly in prayer, along with the women and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with his brothers.

15. Mary was not discarded by God once her purpose was completed. Instead, God installs her into an eternal relationship with God as a tool for God's plan for salvation of the world.

16. By her maternal charity, she cares for the brethren of her Son, who still journey on earth surrounded by dangers and difficulties, until they are led into their blessed home

Bishop, Priest, and Deacon

The sacrament of holy orders is conferred in three ranks of clergy: bishops, priests, and deacons.

Bishops (episcopoi) have the care of multiple congregations and appoint, ordain, and discipline priests and deacons. They sometimes appear to be called "evangelists" in the New Testament. Examples of first-century bishops include Timothy and Titus (1 Tim. 5:19–22; 2 Tim. 4:5; Titus 1:5).

Priests (presbuteroi) are also known as "presbyters" or "elders." In fact, the English term "priest" is simply a contraction of the Greek word presbuteros. They have the responsibility of teaching, governing, and providing the sacraments in a given congregation (1 Tim. 5:17; Jas. 5:14–15).

Deacons (diakonoi) are the assistants of the bishops and are responsible for teaching and administering certain Church tasks, such as the distribution of food (Acts 6:1–6).

In the apostolic age, the terms for these offices were still somewhat fluid. Sometimes a term would be used in a technical sense as the title for an office, sometimes not. This non-technical use of the terms even exists today, as when the term is used in many churches (both Protestant and Catholic) to refer to either ordained ministers (as in “My minister visited him”) or non-ordained individuals. (In a Protestant church one might hear “He is a worship minister,” while in a Catholic church one might hear “He is an extraordinary minister of Holy Communion.”)

Thus, in the apostolic age Paul sometimes described himself as a diakonos ("servant" or "minister"; cf. 2 Cor. 3:6, 6:4, 11:23; Eph. 3:7), even though he held an office much higher than that of a deacon, that of apostle.

Similarly, on one occasion Peter described himself as a "fellow elder," [1 Pet. 5:1] even though he, being an apostle, also had a much higher office than that of an ordinary elder.

The term for bishop, episcopos ("overseer"), was also fluid in meaning. Sometimes it designated the overseer of an individual congregation (the priest), sometimes the person who was the overseer of all the congregations in a city or area (the bishop or evangelist), and sometimes simply the highest-ranking clergyman in the local church—who could be an apostle, if one were staying there at the time.

Although the terms "bishop," "priest," and "deacon" were somewhat fluid in the apostolic age, by the beginning of the second century they had achieved the fixed form in which they are used today to designate the three offices whose functions are clearly distinct in the New Testament.

the cognate verb hierourgeo (to act as a priest) is used in Romans 15:16. There Paul speaks of himself in these words: "to be a minister of Christ Jesus to the Gentiles in the priestly service of the gospel of God, so that the offering of the Gentiles may be acceptable, sanctified by the Holy Spirit."

the Catechism of the Catholic Church says clearly that all of God’s faithful people share in the priesthood of Christ by virtue of their baptism: "Christ, high priest and unique mediator, has made of the Church ‘a kingdom, priests for his God and Father’" (CCC 1546, cf. Rev. 1:6, 5:9–10). Further, it says, "The whole Church is a priestly people. Through baptism all the faithful share in the priesthood of Christ. This participation is called the ‘common priesthood of all the faithful.’ Based on this common priesthood and ordered to its service, there exists another participation in the mission of Christ: the ministry conferred by the sacrament of holy orders, where the task is to serve in the name and in the person of Christ the head in the midst of the community" (1591). In other words, the existence of a common priesthood for all God’s people does not exclude a special calling for the pastors of the Church to be priests.

Peter speaks of priesthood, he applies it to the "common priesthood of all the faithful" of which the Catechism spoke "But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s own people, that you may declare the wonderful deeds of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light" (1 Pet. 2:9).

This does NOT exclude a special role for those men chosen by God to serve as minister-priests for and to God’s people

1 Peter 2:9 is quoting from a number of Old Testament texts. One of them is Exodus 19:6, where the people of Israel are called "a kingdom of priests." Isaiah 61:6 says that in the New Covenant times, the restored people of God will be called "priests of the Lord."

Now this where the people as a whole in the Old Covenant played a priestly role, it did not exclude a special calling for the Levites as priests

Christ’s priesthood fulfills and supersedes the Aaronic priesthood.

Christ called some men to be his special representatives, such as in Matthew 4:19, Luke 6:13, and John 15:16.

the whole purpose of the eternal Word (Logos) becoming flesh was to reconcile us to God. Now, in order to have a ministry of reconciliation, Christ had to be a priest as well as a prophet and king. In fact, his act of reconciling death highlighted his priestly office more than anything else. Paul tells us in 2 Corinthians 5:18–23 that the same God "who through Christ reconciled us to himself" is also the one who "gave us the ministry of reconciliation" (2 Cor. 5:18). "The message of reconciliation" in verse 19 is that God does not hold men’s transgressions against them. That is the ministry of the priests in the Catholic Church: They are to be agents of reconciliation by carrying Christ the Reconciler to others. That ultimately is why God chooses some men from among his people to be his priests. Priests help people to reconcile with God.

There is the common or universal priesthood of all Israelites at the bottom (cf. Ex. 19:6), a ministerial priesthood above them (cf. Ex. 19:22, 24; Lev. 1:5), and a high priest at the top (cf. Num. 35: 25). We thus should expect to find a similar three-fold priesthood under the New Covenant, and we do. There is the common or universal priesthood of all Christians (cf. 1 Pet. 2:5, 9), a ministerial priesthood above them (cf. Rom. 15:16), and a high priest at the top (cf. Heb. 3:1). Rather than varying from the biblical model of priesthood, the Catholic understanding copies it exactly where Christ is the High Priests,we have a ministerial priesthood and a universal priesthood of all believers. It is the two-fold model that departs from what we see in the Bible

ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH PUTS MARY ON THE CROSS

"...“As St. Irenaeus says, she being obedient, became the cause of salvation for herself and for the whole human race. Hence not a few of the early Fathers gladly assert with him in their preaching ... ‘death through Eve, LIFE THROUGH MARY.’ This UNION OF THE MOTHER WITH THE SON IN THE WORK OF SALVATION is made manifest from the time of Christ’s virginal conception up to his death” (Dogmatic Constitution on the Church, chap. 8, II, 56, pp. 380-381).
“Taken up to heaven she did not lay aside this saving office but BY HER MANIFOLD INTERCESSION CONTINUES TO BRING US THE GIFTS OF ETERNAL SALVATION. By her maternal charity, she cares for the brethren of her Son, who still journey on earth surrounded by dangers and difficulties, until they are led into their blessed home. Therefore the Blessed Virgin is invoked in the Church under the titles of ADVOCATE, HELPER, BENEFACTRESS, and MEDIATRIX” (Dogmatic Constitution on the Church, chap. 8, II, 62, pp. 382-383).
A plaque in the Chapel of the Virgin of the Grace at Saints Vincent and Anastasius Church in Rome says, “Cardinal Benedetto Odescalchi, who became the pope with the name of Innocent XI, initiated THE WORSHIP OF THE IMAGE, placed on the altar in 1677, and wanted his heart to be buried here, not in the main chapel.”...

Mary is not a co-mediator between God and men. Mary did not nor does she today "collaborate" with Christ in His role as Savior. Mary does not bring us "the gifts of eternal salvation."

Rome preaches another Gospel. Rome believes a lie. Rome makes the Son subservient to the mother. Rome teaches idolatry. Flee from it.

1. The death of Jesus Christ is sufficient for the salvation of our sins. This is Church teaching

I thought the cooperation of baptised catholic is also necessary.

2. God willed that this work of salvation be accomplished through the collaboration of a woman, while respecting her free will (Gal. 4:4) But when the time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under law.

How is that any more special than any servant who has obeyed Gods call? Scripture says no one born of woman was greater than John the Baptist.

3. All God's creatures -- Mary included, need to accept Christ/God. This us co-operating (in the sense of only saying "yes") with God's plan and His work and His grace in our salvation. We do NOTHING to save oursevels except to accept HIM. Do you agree with this?

No, we are given Faith as a gift. Belief is not cooperation. If i dont believe in something, I wont co-operate.

Do you mean to imply that we have eternal life the moment we "accept" Him?

Do you mean to say that accepting Him implies that we will continute to cooperate to gain heaven and then find out at death whether we cooperated enough?

he is teaching that the all-sufficient sacrifice has to be completed by being preached, accepted, and embraced by our cooperation and that our suffering plays a mysterious part in this action. In that way the Redemption of Christ is applied and brought alive in the present moment by our own cooperation in that one, full, final sacrifice. No one says we are equal to Christ; instead, by grace, our cooperation becomes a part of Christ’s all sufficient sacrifice.

If Christ's sacrifice is all sufficient how can our cooperation be come a part of it? It is either ALL sufficient or its not.

How much cooperation is necessary?

How can this "cooperation" not be the basis of boasting?