In saying that Mary is “a mother to us in the order of grace” (cf. ibid.), the Council stresses that her spiritual motherhood is not limited to the disciples alone, as though the words spoken by Jesus on Calvary: “Woman, behold your son” (Jn 19:26), required a restrictive interpretation. Indeed, with these words the Crucified One established an intimate relationship between Mary and his beloved disciple, a typological figure of universal scope, intending to offer his Mother as Mother to all mankind.
On the other hand, the universal efficacy of the redeeming sacrifice and Mary’s conscious co-operation with Christ’s sacrificial offering does not allow any limitation of her motherly love.
Mary’s universal mission is exercised in the context of her unique relationship with the Church. With her concern for every Christian, and indeed for every human creature, she guides the faith of the Church towards an ever deeper acceptance of God’s Word, sustains her hope, enlivens her charity and fraternal communion and encourages her apostolic dynamism.
3. During her earthly life, Mary showed her spiritual motherhood to the Church for a very short time. Nonetheless, the full value of her role appeared after the Assumption and is destined to extend down the centuries to the end of the world. The Council expressly states: “This motherhood of Mary in the order of grace continues uninterruptedly from the consent which she gave in faith at the Annunciation and which she sustained without wavering beneath the Cross, until the eternal fulfilment of all the elect” (Lumen gentium, n. 62).
Having entered the Father’s eternal kingdom, closer to her divine Son and thus closer to us all, she can more effectively exercise in the Spirit the role of maternal intercession entrusted to her by divine Providence.
Not scriptural. Where in scripture do we receive instruction to pray to, worship, admire, venerate ANYONE other than God???
Where?
Where?
Hoss
John 1:5 And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not.
The Bible does not teach Mary is our mother, Paul writes in Gal. 4:24-27 “for this Hagar is Mount Sinai in Arabia, and corresponds to Jerusalem which now is, and is in bondage with her children— but the Jerusalem above is free, which is the mother of us all. For it is written: “Rejoice, O barren, You who do not bear! Break forth and shout, You who are not in labor! For the desolate has many more children Than she who has a husband.”
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/religion/2644059/posts?page=460#460
To: BenKenobi
We've already got it. We already know that all history to you must be revised to prop up the Vatican's system. If necessary, to prop up the system, you would say that the Roman Catholic Church was in Britain in 300 B.C., because of the longing anticipation of the British to be Roman Catholic.
We already realize that you absolutely must revise all history to prop up the false notion that Jesus was creating a papacy in Matthew 16, and that a church as you want to believe exists there, actually exists there.
You even want to revise our words as we type them on this forum. We never said anything about what people in 100 A.D. called themselves. We are not concerned what they CALLED themselves.
We know that nice folks like you can't think any differently -- only what the Vatican says is truth, can be truth to you, even if they lie to you. So we are not first interested in changing your minds. We write firmly so that others will realize that the whole world need not succumb to the same mental traps.
Hey, other folks out there reading this, there are libraries, full---literal libraries of historical materials that have been written and compiled without either deference to the Roman Catholic Church or prejudice against the Roman Catholic Church. Read RCC-approved stuff. You're free to do so, and the comparison will help you understand some important things.
But histories, too, that were not written to prop up any religious system exist. The authors were not sitting around saying, "How can we destroy the views of the RCC." They were written by legitimate historians who were not bound to any church or its hierarchy to produce a product or create a particular mind set.
Don't simply swallow the Roman Catholic view of Roman, European, or American history. There is plenty of material out there.