Posted on 08/15/2013 7:03:11 PM PDT by annalex
Once a woman in the crowd surrounding Christ and His disciples cries out to Him:
Blessed is the womb that bore thee, and the paps that gave thee suck. (Luke 11:27)
What is it? We have, clearly, an act of venerating Mary. Note that the Blessed Virgin is venerated properly: not on her own but as the mother of Christ. Yet the reason for venerating is indeed concerning: it is her physiological and physiologically unique relationship with Jesus that is emphasized. That is not yet paganism with its crude theories of gods giving birth to other gods, but it is lacking proper focus and Jesus corrects it:
Yea rather, blessed are they who hear the word of God, and keep it. (Luke 11:28)
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| The Virgin with the Child on her knees and a prophet pointing at the star. Catacomb of Priscilla, late 2nd c. Source |
Having gotten past this linguistic hurdle, we can understand clearly what this passage, Luke 11:27-28, does: it establishes veneration of saints based not on their blood relation to Christ but on their obedience to God. It is in that sense that we venerate Our Lady: given that Christ is the Word of God personified, she heard and kept both Him in person as her Child and His teaching, figuratively. In Mary the essence of sainthood is seen in the flesh as well as in the mind. We could say that by the late second century at the latest, when we find evidence of the veneration of both the prophets and the Mother of God in the catacombs, the two reasons to venerate a saint: his martyrdom as in the case of Polycarp, or his obedience to the Word, as in Mary, -- unite into a single practice.
Hotter than Hades, huh?? And HUMID!
Gotta love Texas...the heat is bigger, the wet is bigger, everything is bigger.
I like San Antonio and the Riverwalk. Did you get to see the dinky Alamo? Not quite as impressive in person. lol
“Yuh spelled BUM wrong!”
Huh?
Well; SOME 'saints' have a bit different take on this...
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/religion/2742620/posts
Why do you have such intimate knowledge of your aunt’s fanny?
“I am the church and anyone else who is born-again and filled with the Holy Spirit is the church.
There in lies the problem...They admit that they are not filled with the Holy Spirit, only their clergy are...The only time Jesus is inside them is when they eat the wafer...
As a result, they can not belong to the same church we belong to...
Their new pope teaches them that they don’t even have to have faith in Jesus to achieve salvation; just good works...”
Really? Then it is much worse than I thought and I thought it was pretty bad to start with. I feel like I am beating a dead horse with these people though, and a dead cow, and a dead donkey, and on and on. No wonder they can’t comprehend what we are telling them...they do not have the Spirit to discern truth. Eye-opening!
LOL!!!
Wimp!
I've been on THIS thread for three hours now, and am almost caught up.
You are hysterical, Elsie! roflmbehindoff :)
Ooh, I am beginning to see some things besides Post Reply.
Duh, takes me awhile to catch on.
placemarker.
Back later....
The Hound of Heaven can track Anyone down!
I feel like I am hacking up a furball, or choking on one, every time one of them shows their ignorance.
Oh Lord, please help these Catholics!
Would be a heckuva lot easier to understand.
I LIKE that name for jodyel! It FITS! What do you think, jody?
Oh yeah.
I was there about 14 years ago.
I was SHOCKED! when I found it right in the middle of town, with bustling businesses all ‘round.
I’d been led to believe all these years it was still out in the cactusland somewhere.
(I imagine a trip to the Holy Land would give me the same shock...)
Si senor! Apologies for my mistake. I did write that sometime sooner or later, I forget which.
Not asked, that is.
Oh... the CROWDS are bigger, too!
‘specially on LABOR Day weekend!
They did thin on Tuesday and being by the river was then a treat instead of a worry of whether you’d end up in the drink from all the jostling!
You are just DA BOMB, Elsie!
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