My soul magnifies the Lord,
And my spirit rejoices in God my Savior.
For He has regarded the low estate of His handmaiden,
For behold, henceforth all generations shall call me blessed.
For He who is mighty has done great things for me, and holy is His name. And His mercy is on those who fear Him from generation to generation.
He has shown strength with His arm:
He has scattered the proud in the imagination of their hearts.
He has put down the mighty from their thrones,
and exalted those of low degree.
He has filled the hungry with good things;
and the rich He has sent empty away.
He has helped His servant Israel, in remembrance of His mercy;
As He spoke to our fathers, to Abraham and to His posterity forever.
Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit.
As it was in the beginning, is now and ever shall be, world without end. Amen
Magníficat ánima mea Dóminum,
et exsultávit spíritus meus
in Deo salvatóre meo,
quia respéxit humilitátem
ancíllæ suæ.
Ecce enim ex hoc beátam
me dicent omnes generatiónes,
quia fecit mihi magna,
qui potens est,
et sanctum nomen eius,
et misericórdia eius in progénies
et progénies timéntibus eum.
Fecit poténtiam in bráchio suo,
dispérsit supérbos mente cordis sui;
depósuit poténtes de sede
et exaltávit húmiles.
Esuriéntes implévit bonis
et dívites dimísit inánes.
Suscépit Ísrael púerum suum,
recordátus misericórdiæ,
sicut locútus est ad patres nostros,
Ábraham et sémini eius in sæcula.
Glória Patri et Fílio
et Spirítui Sancto.
Sicut erat in princípio,
et nunc et semper,
et in sæcula sæculórum.
Amen.
She became the Mother of God, in which work so many and such great good things are bestowed on her as pass man’s understanding. For on this there follows all honor, all blessedness, and her unique place in the whole of mankind, among which she has no equal, namely, that she had a child by the Father in heaven, and such a Child . . . Hence men have crowded all her glory into a single word, calling her the Mother of God . . . None can say of her nor announce to her greater things, even though he had as many tongues as the earth possesses flowers and blades of grass: the sky, stars; and the sea, grains of sand. It needs to be pondered in the heart what it means to be the Mother of God.
(Commentary on the Magnificat, 1521; in Luther’s Works, Pelikan et al, vol. 21, 326)
Father Martin Luther was an amazing man.
I had a chance some years ago to visit the famous castle where he threw his ink jar at Satan...and duly saw the ink stain on the wall.
I will go with Thetans before all this man made bull.
But the key difference is that Luther did not consider her to be a co redemptrix.
The fact that the RC Church gives Mary the title, ‘Mother of God’ makes Protestants believe that it considers Mary to be divine.
That misunderstanding will never be resolved.
There is a Jewish perspective to Mary but I shall hold my own council on it.
you guys are something else. back luther when you like him, and anathematize him when you don’t.
you guys are the very same that will start talking about his later years to discredit him.
you can’t use your own prior discredited source to then back up your points.
Thankfully, God used dear Luther to recover His Gospel of Grace!
For this, every true believer should be thankful for Luther... And overlook his many failures.
Prior to Vatican I, many Lutheran synods had a greater focus on St. Mary. After the new dogma of the immaculate conception, most down played Mary
I grew up in a Lutheran family and later became Catholic. The Mariology might not be “as strong” in the Lutheran church as in the Catholic Church, but most of these views held by Luther aren’t exactly new to me, and the one’s that are, aren’t particularly shocking. Even as a kid, I was always more shocked by the things members of other Protestants denominations said about Mary, than anything I read or heard about Catholic teaching. I’d say that even today Mary is held in high regard in the Lutheran church even if it isn’t nearly as apparent as it is in Catholicism.
You know the Blessed Virgin has her own book in the Qu’ran as well? I know that surprised me, a lot. She is literally the only woman mentioned by name, but she’s mentioned frequently.
There is something about the ideal of a pure and chaste and good woman that seems to resonate in people.
Thankfully, God used dear Luther to recover His Gospel of Grace!
For this, every true believer should be thankful for Luther... And overlook his many failures.
Its one thing to say that Mary is not God. Its another thing entirely to say Mary is the mother of god. Similarly that God would die on a cross, or become man.
The posters on this forum deny the profound and necessary communication, either the divinity of Christ or the humanity of Christ.
That or assume as the Sabellians, Jesus was only a modalistic man who was only a mask of God denies the trinity. God is a trinity and therefore the second person Jesus is God and a person.
And there are some ancient Christian and Catholic conclusions which are inescapable based on the reality of what Jesus came to this world to accomplish. God was born to a woman because God must have died on the cross. Yet, though he was God had the power to take up life again.
God is both man and God in the second person of the trinity. If he is man he was born to a woman, who because she gave birth to the second person of the trinity, is also the mother of God.
She is Queen of heaven because Jesus is the king of Jerusalem, and the king of heaven and earth, which makes her the mother of Jesus and also the mother of God the Queen of heaven and earth.
If God truly became man and then choose to save humanity through his humanity, he did not at the same time choose to save through humanity by means of a non-humanity.
God is man and God and man in the second person in the trinity.... One would think Christian people would get that this actually means something. To say it doesn’t is to be a heretic, and an unbeliever in Jesus.
To imply some artificial and extra-biblical belief that somehow Mary is not the mother of God, when they believe that God had also decided to die a humiliation on the cross in order to save humanity is would be inconsistent. Why is one position so much more difficult than another?
What is not assumed is not saved. God assumed our humanity completely in order to save it. The instrument of salvation God had chosen to use for mankind was his very self-taking on human flesh by being born into this world as a man. Both natures are present in one person such that realities of one are realities in another. Jesus is a man, and a man is Jesus. Jesus is God and God is a man.
Are there distinctions? From the beginning of time did God intend to be born into this world to save it? Does God change? Or have no beginning and no end?
There is a whole lot of ignorance on display in this thread. I’d advise many step back, and do their homework, to understand that there are extremely good biblical and understandable reasons for why Catholics and many Eastern and Orthodox Christians believe what the believe about Mary.
Isn’t God worth more to you than arguing on some message board without having understood the other side?
Was a BIG waste of time.
The lady is DEAD!
Leave her alone...
You can't fool me!
Everything Luther touched is tainted; as I've read it here many times from pious Catholics.
Darn it Joe!
When are you gonna get it through your thick skull that I HAVE A HEADACHE every NIGHT???
When people start to get to know God’s Word for themselves, they for the most part realize that the Catholic Church got far away from it. Even just knowing the Gospel and getting a sense of what it promises tends to turn people away from the Catholic Church in droves. There are some who turn to it for reasons like pride in that they believe there’s something good in themselves, or that they like how much the Catholic Church embraces the wisdom of the world and beliefs like evolution. But overall, if you have once and for all surrendered all you are to the Lord, understanding that there’s nothing to trust about your own nature and that He wants you to live in continual dependence on Him, then you understand that if you have completely given up on yourself, He is all you need and will take care of you, and He will bring you into fellowship with those who also have given up on themselves and surrendered to Him.
It wasn’t until the last 200 years that Mary was announced to be immaculate. And it was until 1965 that Mary was proclaimed the Mother of the Church.
This was well after Martin Luther’s time who I’m sure would have disagreed with both views.