Ping for a little Jonathan Edwards
Beautiful
Thanks for the thread.
ha ha ha, nice little poke this time of year. The Angel Gabriel saluted her as “full of grace”. Are you arrogant enough to think you were ever filled with grace as she was or is? Protestant-ism...heretics
47 Then one said to Him, "Look, Your mother and Your brothers are standing outside, seeking to speak with You." 48 But He answered and said to the one who told Him, "Who is My mother and who are My brothers?" 49 And He stretched out His hand toward His disciples and said, "Here are My mother and My brothers! 50 For whoever does the will of My Father in heaven is My brother and sister and mother." (Matthew 12)
Yawn. More protestant heresy. Sad.
Not a Catholic, but I will say that it is insanely stupid to even worry about this. Mary is where she is in God’s heart. We are where we are.
I presume we are equally blessed. But only God knows, and our peabrained attempts to speculate are mere vanity. For shame.
“The Virgin Mary remains in the middle between Christ and humankind. For in the very moment he was conceived and lived, he was full of grace. All other human beings are without grace, both in the first and second conception. But the Virgin Mary, though without grace in the first conception, was full of grace in the second ... whereas other human beings are conceived in sin, in soul as well as in body, and Christ was conceived without sin in soul as well as in body, the Virgin Mary was conceived in body without grace but in soul full of grace.”
~ Martin Luther
(in The One Mediator, the Saints, and Mary, Lutherans and Catholics in Dialogue VIII, edited by H. George Anderson, J. Francis Stafford, Joseph A. Burgess, Minneapolis: Augsburg Fortress Press, 1992, p. 238. He gives further references in his footnote 22 on page 381: “Sermon on the Feast of the Immaculate Conception (December 8?) 1527. Festival Postil (Festpostille). WA 17/2:288.17-34.”)
"But God, who is rich in mercy, for His great love wherewith He loved us, even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved:) and hath raised us up together and made us sit together in Heavenly places IN CHRIST JESUS." (Eph. 2:4-6).
We are IN CHRIST. He is IN US.
"Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath BLESSED US WITH ALL spiritual blessings in heavenly places IN CHRIST." (Eph. 1:3)
AND we have been blessed with ALL spiritual blessings IN CHRIST.
SO, am I more blessed than the Virgin Mary? According to the RCC, she is standing at the right hand of Jesus Christ, dispensing grace right now. I am IN CHRIST right now. He is IN ME right now. The RCC would take great offense, and say no, Mary is much more blessed than me. God's word of truth says yes, my life is so melded into Christ that I "am dead, and my life is hid with Christ in God." (Col. 3:3). As usual, there is a difference of opinion between the RCC and God's word. And, as usual, God's Word prevails once again.
Yup.
Mary is dead.
I'm alive in 21st century America.
No greater blessing has yet been revealed.
Thank you Jesus for putting me here and now.
Give me the strength, wisdom, and ability to do Your will without hesitation or failure.
Amen!
**Are You More Blessed Than the Virgin Mary?**
Heaven sakes, no.
SOUNDS VERY BIBLICAL, TO ME.
THX.
Enjoy yourselves.
I just gave a brief talk on Truth which I concluded thus
This "always Yes", this affirmation of Suffering and Redeeming Love, this constant Champion of Truth, came to us by the loving gift, and self-gift, of his mother. So I would like to close in prayer to our Patroness, Mary, Mother of God, Truth bearer.To be mocked and slandered, to be barraged with ignorant sophistries and with all the evidences of the debilitating effect of heresy on the intellect, the proof of the accuracy of Dante's description of those who, preferring strife to peace, have rejected salvation: [loro] che hanno perduto il ben del intelleto, these stripes are like balm.Oremus:
Dearest Virgin Mary, Mother of the Truth of God: It was as at this time that you were heavy with the Truth of God. Holding nothing back, you committed yourself to that Truth in utter obedience, and by the Holy Spirit Truth was planted deep within you, there to grow until the time of His disclosure.You contemplated the Truth and all that took place around His birth. You loved and nurtured that Truth, you sought Him in anxiety and followed Him into the world and even to the foot of the Cross.
You rejoiced in the triumph of the Truth and were bathed in the wind and fire of the Spirit of Truth.
We beg you to accept our devotion to you and to your Son.
We ask that we too by your intercession may follow and care for the truth, may seek Him with anxiety, and rejoice in His triumph. May we also disclose him at the proper time.
In service and love of that Truth, we commit our lives, our hearts, our minds, ourselves to you, oh calm, gentle, and sweet, oh Blessed mother.
Amen.
Yes. Mary was alive at the time Jesus was alive, just like Thomas was. Both saw and believed. We believe without having physically seen, thus invoking the blessing of Jesus Himself.
John 20:24-29 24 Now Thomas, one of the Twelve, called the Twin, was not with them when Jesus came. 25So the other disciples told him, "We have seen the Lord." But he said to them, "Unless I see in his hands the mark of the nails, and place my finger into the mark of the nails, and place my hand into his side, I will never believe."
26Eight days later, his disciples were inside again, and Thomas was with them. Although the doors were locked, Jesus came and stood among them and said, "Peace be with you." 27Then he said to Thomas, "Put your finger here, and see my hands; and put out your hand, and place it in my side. Do not disbelieve, but believe." 28Thomas answered him, "My Lord and my God!" 29Jesus said to him, "Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed."
John 20:29
Then Jesus told him, “Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.”
Mary spent the “talent” of her life in obedience to God. She said ‘yes’ to God and lived that ‘yes’ through to the end of her days - we see her in Acts and the Gospels right there from the Annunciation to the Visitation to her son's side at the crucifixion to her presence in the company of the Apostles in the early church and at Pentecost. All we know about her is good - exceptionally good - blessed (as the Gospel tells us, as Elizabeth tells her, as the angel tells her).
So she lived her ‘yes’ to God her whole life whereas the end of my story on earth is still ahead of me, and I am not in heaven yet, so no, I am not “as blessed” (as if there were degrees of proximity to God requiring different levels of sunscreen). I am no where close. Anyone who says he is a saint - aint. We all have thorns in the flesh and any one of them could derail us in this life's pilgrimage - counting ourselves as “blessed” when our race aint over among them. Let God sort that out and bestow that title on you.
Remember inthe gospels when James and John were jostling to get to be counted foremast among Jesus' followers? It was a dumb argument but the gospel records it precisely to be instructive - to show that the apostles did not understand who they were really dealing with yet or what He was about.
I have a question. Thank-you for your responses.
As I get ready to celibrate the birth of the Savior, I came upon this video of the beautiful song, “Breath of Heaven, (Mary’s Song), which was done by Amy Grant. I blog and for my Christmas eve blog entry, am looking for a video that tells why we have the Christmas holy day. Here is the video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kPbV_HTpyx0
Sorry.
Wow, I’ll say a rosary for you.