Posted on 05/31/2011 11:53:33 AM PDT by marshmallow
The Protoevangelium of James
“And behold, an angel of the Lord stood by [St. Anne], saying, ‘Anne! Anne! The Lord has heard your prayer, and you shall conceive and shall bring forth, and your seed shall be spoken of in all the world.’ And Anne said, ‘As the Lord my God lives, if I beget either male or female, I will bring it as a gift to the Lord my God, and it shall minister to him in the holy things all the days of its life.’ . . . And [from the time she was three] Mary was in the temple of the Lord as if she were a dove that dwelt there” (Protoevangelium of James 4, 7 [A.D. 120]).
“And when she was twelve years old there was held a council of priests, saying, ‘Behold, Mary has reached the age of twelve years in the temple of the Lord. What then shall we do with her, lest perchance she defile the sanctuary of the Lord?’ And they said to the high priest, ‘You stand by the altar of the Lord; go in and pray concerning her, and whatever the Lord shall manifest to you, that also will we do.’ . . . [A]nd he prayed concerning her, and behold, an angel of the Lord stood by him saying, ‘Zechariah! Zechariah! Go out and assemble the widowers of the people and let them bring each his rod, and to whomsoever the Lord shall show a sign, his wife shall she be. . . . And Joseph [was chosen]. . . . And the priest said to Joseph, ‘You have been chosen by lot to take into your keeping the Virgin of the Lord.’ But Joseph refused, saying, ‘I have children, and I am an old man, and she is a young girl’” (ibid., 8–9).
“And Annas the scribe came to him [Joseph] . . . and saw that Mary was with child. And he ran away to the priest and said to him, ‘Joseph, whom you did vouch for, has committed a grievous crime.’ And the priest said, ‘How so?’ And he said, ‘He has defiled the virgin whom he received out of the temple of the Lord and has married her by stealth’” (ibid., 15).
“And the priest said, ‘Mary, why have you done this? And why have you brought your soul low and forgotten the Lord your God?’ . . . And she wept bitterly saying, ‘As the Lord my God lives, I am pure before him, and know not man’” (ibid.).
Origen
“The Book [the Protoevangelium] of James [records] that the brethren of Jesus were sons of Joseph by a former wife, whom he married before Mary. Now those who say so wish to preserve the honor of Mary in virginity to the end, so that body of hers which was appointed to minister to the Word . . . might not know intercourse with a man after the Holy Spirit came into her and the power from on high overshadowed her. And I think it in harmony with reason that Jesus was the firstfruit among men of the purity which consists in [perpetual] chastity, and Mary was among women. For it were not pious to ascribe to any other than to her the firstfruit of virginity” (Commentary on Matthew 2:17 [A.D. 248]).
Hilary of Poitiers
“If they [the brethren of the Lord] had been Mary’s sons and not those taken from Joseph’s former marriage, she would never have been given over in the moment of the passion [crucifixion] to the apostle John as his mother, the Lord saying to each, ‘Woman, behold your son,’ and to John, ‘Behold your mother’ [John 19:26–27), as he bequeathed filial love to a disciple as a consolation to the one desolate" (Commentary on Matthew 1:4 [A.D. 354]).
Athanasius
“Let those, therefore, who deny that the Son is by nature from the Father and proper to his essence deny also that he took true human flesh from the ever-virgin Mary” (Discourses Against the Arians 2:70 [A.D. 360]).
Epiphanius of Salamis
“We believe in one God, the Father almighty, maker of all things, both visible and invisible; and in one Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God . . . who for us men and for our salvation came down and took flesh, that is, was born perfectly of the holy ever-virgin Mary by the Holy Spirit” (The Man Well-Anchored 120 [A.D. 374]).
“And to holy Mary, [the title] ‘Virgin’ is invariably added, for that holy woman remains undefiled” (Medicine Chest Against All Heresies 78:6 [A.D. 375]).
Jerome
“[Helvidius] produces Tertullian as a witness [to his view] and quotes Victorinus, bishop of Petavium. Of Tertullian, I say no more than that he did not belong to the Church. But as regards Victorinus, I assert what has already been proven from the gospel—that he [Victorinus] spoke of the brethren of the Lord not as being sons of Mary but brethren in the sense I have explained, that is to say, brethren in point of kinship, not by nature. [By discussing such things we] are . . . following the tiny streams of opinion. Might I not array against you the whole series of ancient writers? Ignatius, Polycarp, Irenaeus, Justin Martyr, and many other apostolic and eloquent men, who against [the heretics] Ebion, Theodotus of Byzantium, and Valentinus, held these same views and wrote volumes replete with wisdom. If you had ever read what they wrote, you would be a wiser man” (Against Helvidius: The Perpetual Virginity of Mary 19 [A.D. 383]).
“We believe that God was born of a virgin, because we read it. We do not believe that Mary was married after she brought forth her Son, because we do not read it. . . . You [Helvidius] say that Mary did not remain a virgin. As for myself, I claim that Joseph himself was a virgin, through Mary, so that a virgin Son might be born of a virginal wedlock” (ibid., 21).
Didymus the Blind
“It helps us to understand the terms ‘first-born’ and ‘only-begotten’ when the Evangelist tells that Mary remained a virgin ‘until she brought forth her first-born son’ [Matt. 1:25]; for neither did Mary, who is to be honored and praised above all others, marry anyone else, nor did she ever become the Mother of anyone else, but even after childbirth she remained always and forever an immaculate virgin” (The Trinity 3:4 [A.D. 386]).
Ambrose of Milan
“Imitate her [Mary], holy mothers, who in her only dearly beloved Son set forth so great an example of material virtue; for neither have you sweeter children [than Jesus], nor did the Virgin seek the consolation of being able to bear another son” (Letters 63:111 [A.D. 388]).
Pope Siricius I
“You had good reason to be horrified at the thought that another birth might issue from the same virginal womb from which Christ was born according to the flesh. For the Lord Jesus would never have chosen to be born of a virgin if he had ever judged that she would be so incontinent as to contaminate with the seed of human intercourse the birthplace of the Lord’s body, that court of the eternal king” (Letter to Bishop Anysius [A.D. 392]).
Augustine
“In being born of a Virgin who chose to remain a Virgin even before she knew who was to be born of her, Christ wanted to approve virginity rather than to impose it. And he wanted virginity to be of free choice even in that woman in whom he took upon himself the form of a slave” (Holy Virginity 4:4 [A.D. 401]).
“It was not the visible sun, but its invisible Creator who consecrated this day for us, when the Virgin Mother, fertile of womb and integral in her virginity, brought him forth, made visible for us, by whom, when he was invisible, she too was created. A Virgin conceiving, a Virgin bearing, a Virgin pregnant, a Virgin bringing forth, a Virgin perpetual. Why do you wonder at this, O man?” (Sermons 186:1 [A.D. 411]).
“Heretics called Antidicomarites are those who contradict the perpetual virginity of Mary and affirm that after Christ was born she was joined as one with her husband” (Heresies 56 [A.D. 428]).
Leporius
“We confess, therefore, that our Lord and God, Jesus Christ, the only Son of God, born of the Father before the ages, and in times most recent, made man of the Holy Spirit and the ever-virgin Mary” (Document of Amendment 3 [A.D. 426]).
Cyril of Alexandria
“[T]he Word himself, coming into the Blessed Virgin herself, assumed for himself his own temple from the substance of the Virgin and came forth from her a man in all that could be externally discerned, while interiorly he was true God. Therefore he kept his Mother a virgin even after her childbearing” (Against Those Who Do Not Wish to Confess That the Holy Virgin is the Mother of God 4 [A.D. 430]).
Pope Leo I
“His [Christ’s] origin is different, but his [human] nature is the same. Human usage and custom were lacking, but by divine power a Virgin conceived, a Virgin bore, and Virgin she remained” (Sermons 22:2 [A.D. 450]).
Amen
We should ask Mary and the saints to pray with us to eliminate the evils affecting our nation -- especially as 2012 comes close.
The communion of Saints is alive — alive in Christ....
AMEN! AMEN! AMEN!
THX THX.
Bed is a good solution to some Ortho/RC badgering and harrassment. It can be chronically intense for long periods. Thankfully, it keeps some off the streets and out of the way of big trucks.
When something grates in the Spirit I am compelled to react. But how I react depends on the type of grating. To varying degrees the above quotes and a lot of other material on this forum grates in those three categories as follows.
1. Top Spiritual Priority: When a testimony denies a Name of God, i.e. Who He IS.
And the above excerpt which is a clutched fist raised to God demanding He submit or be rejected is a case in point. Who knowing God and taking Him seriously could possibly say such words?
Technically it is a lie because surely she must know that it isn't possible for her to have said that phrase a million times. What she meant might have been "Johnny, I'm exhausted from having to tell you to put your bike in the garage."
Now, the hearer might be outraged and correctly so that she lied to her son. And she might correctly feel justified in that God knows the thoughts and intents of her heart.
But it cuts both ways. On a more serious matter, if her heart is not so clean then His knowing does not help her. Indeed, it might condemn her.
But the tongue can no man tame; [it is] an unruly evil, full of deadly poison. - James 3:8
God's Name is I AM.
Sorry. I guess I keep forgetting that not everyone is on broadband.
Will try and post less as a group, at least.
LUB
YEAH, LAUGHTER IS A PRIORITY.
Thanks for your touching, beautiful narrative.
I’m not near as bothered by those metaphors . . . even including Mary . . . as I am by the
deification and prayers to Mary stuff.
INDEED.
AMEN! AMEN! AMEN!
THX THX.
Truly, I believe intercessory prayer is one of the most important ways we “work out” the “talents” God has given.
In my view, as a Christian it would be burying the talent to be mute in the face of suffering.
INDEED.
Certainly it is God who answers the prayers.
However, that is NOT
the reality depicted in the dozens of Ferraro’s quotes from centuries of Roman Catholicism’s most cherished institutional ‘stars.’
PRAISE GOD!
ANOTHER ANOINTED “KEEPER.”
THANKS IMMEASURABLY.
There’s GREAT GODLY WISDOM in that.
I knew you were up to it in Him but I didn’t know if you’d ever get around to bothering about it.
I sure couldn’t have said it 1/4th as well.
WONDERFUL.
PRASIE GOD.
Am starting a new page on my blog:
ALAMO-GIRL
ANGEL-GAL
TREASURES
That will be the first installment. Will take me a while to get the others from my home page copied/transferred.
Here:
http://daaixin.wordpress.com/alamo-girl-angel-gal-treasures/
I dont’ know why the indentations didn’t hold.
“the reality depicted in the dozens of Ferraro’s quotes from centuries of Roman Catholicism’s most cherished institutional ‘stars.’”
Those are private revelations. One can follow them or not. I don’t follow most of them.
In your thinking, visions from Pentes are vetted by fellow worshipers. That’s private revelation. You always affirm a certain poster’s “visions” that I consider simply stream of conscience. Same thing, Quix.
What you consider biblical about those “stream of conscience” posts I consider butkus, but we do have our differences, don’t we.
You can believe it or not. My example to you is faulty on many levels simply because the investigation into visions is very carefully done in the Church and not simply “confirmed” by another.
But, that is the gist of it. Private revelation is up to the individual.
Joh 20:31 But these are written, that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing ye might have life through his name.Catholics feel differently about the verse and the explanation is here.
As the verse tells us, every thing we need to know to attain salvation has been written...Those other things that Jesus did would not contribute one iota of knowledge to our ability to get saved...
But after that would be Dominic's joyfulness, courage, faith, and focus. It still amazes me that when his order was young, small, and poor, he scattered the friars, two-by-two, and sent them off to preach and to study. Everyone thought that would kill the order as it was coming to life.
Now you have given me the "Singing Nun" ear worm. LOL!
Thank you for that post.
This is only part of the biblical basis of the Communion of the Saints.
It’s a good idea to post the links to Catholic teaching
http://socrates58.blogspot.com/2007/02/communion-of-saints-biblical-overview.html
http://www.catholic.com/thisrock/1992/9209fea1.asp
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