Posted on 03/25/2015 10:46:15 PM PDT by Steelfish
Because Mary Said “Yes…” — A Reflection For The Solemnity of the Annunciation of Our Lord
March 25, 2011 by Fr. Thomas Rosica
Standing in the middle of the present day city of Nazareth is the mammoth Basilica of the Annunciation, built around what is believed to be the dwelling of Mary. In a grotto-like room at the heart of the basilica is a small inscription on an altar. It reads, “verbum caro hic factum est,” here the Word became flesh. There, it is believed, the angel Gabriel appeared to Mary, and her response changed the world forever.
Imagine yourself in Mary’s place, asked to say “yes” to a divine plan so vast, so profound and so seemingly impossible that you cannot comprehend it. “How can this be?” she asks, bewildered. She is rooted in the faith of her ancestors, and yet now an angel has appeared in the midst of everyday life, extending a startling invitation. “You have found favor with God,” the angel says, “and you will conceive and bear His Son.” Will she accept?
It is Mary above all others who can teach us what it means to live by faith, and how to respond when God’s providence disrupts the daily course of our lives, overturning its rhythms and expectations. Despite her fears and uncertainty over how this promise could be fulfilled, she still answered “Yes.” Are we able to respond to God this way?
When we reflect on the Annunciation to Mary, and her acceptance of the angel’s message, we also reflect on our own vocation — our own calling from God. In the Lord’s Prayer, we pray, “Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven” — an echo of Mary’s “Be it done unto me according to your word.”
Each time we commit ourselves to embracing God’s call and accepting His will, we mark a new point on the path of our relationship with Him. For the rest of her life, Mary pondered her extraordinary encounter with God, turning the weight of the angel’s message over and over again in her heart. From the manger to the cross, Mary’s life was radically changed — her relationship with God profoundly deepened — the moment she said “Yes.”
Mary received and welcomed God’s Word in the fullest sense — becoming impregnated with it, and bearing it to the world. Angels might not appear in our doorsteps, but we do encounter God in each of our daily prayers, and he whispers to us a similar invitation: Will we accept His love and bring it joyously to those around us? Will we trust in His providence, even when we can’t see the path ahead? Amid the noise of everyday life, will we listen for and embrace his call?
When making his pilgrimage to the Basilica of the Annunciation, Pope Benedict XVI offered this prayer to the humble Virgin of Nazareth. It speaks for all of us who likewise seek to accept God’s will with joy:
Mary, Mother of the “Yes,” you listened to Jesus, and know the tone of his voice and the beating of his heart. Morning Star, speak to us of him, and tell us about your journey of following him on the path of faith."
Oh what a tangled web they weave.
And still they deny that they worship Mary. They have eyes but they cannot see, and ears but they cannot hear.
LOL, very interesting.
Will do! :)
“And still they deny that they worship Mary.”
Because we DON’T. Just because a Protestant falsely claims we do doesn’t make it so.
“They have eyes but they cannot see, and ears but they cannot hear.”
No, our eyes just see things as they are - in none of those sculptures is Mary portrayed as ON THE CROSS, OR NAILED TO THE CROSS, OR TIED TO THE CROSS. None of them. Thus, to say Mary is portrayed as “on the cross” is simply a lie - a typical, Protestant, anti-Catholic, and OBVIOUS lie.
Yesterday I spent an hour on the phone with a friend who is leaving behind Protestantism and his whole family is coming with him. As he has gone through RCIA he has become aware of the fact that he was sold a bill of goods by Protestantism that simply isn’t valid. He has become aware that the truth about history, scripture, and doctrines was hidden from him by Protestants.
Still in Ca. ?
Refuting the lies and apostasy of Rome is not "Catholic [B]ashing" any more than Christ's refuting the Pharisees was "Pharisee Bashing."
Hoss
“And they don’t have her sitting on the mercy seat of the ark in the place of God either do they?”
No, they don’t. Notice there are no legs? She is not sitting on the mercy seat. She is above the moon OVER the seat. It is a visual analogy to Mary as the New Ark of the Covenant because she holds the Word made Flesh within her (shown as the Eucharist). Yeah, we all have eyes, but clearly some of us can see when a figure is shown ABOVE the mercy seat RATHER THAN SITTING ON IT.
Mary’s seat is not the Mercy Seat, but this one: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seat_of_Wisdom
“Refuting the lies and apostasy of Rome is not “Catholic [B]ashing””
Except that the lies and apostasy are coming from the Catholic bashers.
Survey says?
X
Was it your will to be born? Was it your parents' will? Did they "make" you?
We exist because GOD WILLS IT. We are responsible for our sins because of Adam's fall -- because we are born, we are sinners. Every one of us. Including Mary and her mother as well.
From Romans 3:
"9 What then? Are we Jews any better off?2 No, not at all. For we have already charged that all, both kJews and Greeks, are under sin, 10 as it is written:
“None is righteous, no, not one;
11 no one understands;
no one seeks for God.
12 All have turned aside; together they have become worthless;
no one does good,
not even one.”
13 “Their throat is an open grave;
they use their tongues to deceive.”
“The venom of asps is under their lips.”
14 “Their mouth is full of curses and bitterness.”
15 “Their feet are swift to shed blood;
16 in their paths are ruin and misery,
17 and the way of peace they have not known.”
18 “There is no fear of God before their eyes.”
19 Now we know that whatever the law says it speaks to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be stopped, and the whole world may be held accountable to God. 20 For by works of the law no human being will be justified in his sight, since through the law comes knowledge of sin.
The Righteousness of God Through Faith
21 But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it—22 the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction: 23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 24 and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, 25 whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God's righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins. 26 It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.
27 Then what becomes of our boasting? It is excluded. By what kind of law? By a law of works? No, but by the law of faith. 28 For we hold that one is justified by faith apart from works of the law. 29 Or is God the God of Jews only? Is he not the God of Gentiles also? Yes, of Gentiles also, 30 since God is one—who will justify the circumcised by faith and the uncircumcised through faith. 31 Do we then overthrow the law by this faith? By no means! On the contrary, we uphold the law."
We are guilty of sin because without the salvation provided by God's grace through faith in his only begotten son Jesus Christ, we will ALWAYSchoose sin. Unless God saves us, we are enmity with him.
Remember Genesis?
Hoss
Exodus 25:22 And there I will meet with thee, and I will commune with thee from above the mercy seat, from between the two cherubims which are upon the ark of the testimony, of all things which I will give thee in commandment unto the children of Israel.
Like I said. Catholics put Mary in the place of God.
**He has become aware that the truth about history, scripture, and doctrines was hidden from him by Protestants.**
I don’t know if he’s learning more truth by joining the RCC. But he’s certainly learning more man-made tradition. A LOT more.
Like bowing to statues, and praying to those asleep in Christ. Learning fables, such as Mary being sinless, and not having other children after the birth of Jesus.
You folks toss out more proofs of the scripture than Obama does of the Constitution. But y’all put on a real big show of pagentry.
That worked for a vain protestant friend of my wife over 30 yrs ago. She had no spiritual desire in her change of church, she was just so impressed by “the pagentry of it all”. No profound love of God. No changed life. Just a love of vanity, and she remains the same vain person to this day.
“Was it your will to be born?”
Nope. But, of course, that has nothing to do with free will since my conception happened before I had consciousness.
“Was it your parents’ will?”
Yes. But their will does not supersede God’s. Still they were not forced to will me by God. They had freedom to do so and did.
“Did they “make” you?”
Yes. But their will does not supersede God’s who must be given ultimate credit for anything or anyone coming into existence. Still they were not forced to make me by God. They had freedom to do so and did.
“Exodus 25:22”
Typical Protestant bait and switch on scripture:
1) This is ONE piece of art and thus cannot be rationally used as indicative of anything or used as a foil to any Biblical verse - except by an unscrupulous Protestant anti-Catholic of course.
2) Mary is portrayed as ABOVE the MOON which is above the Mercy Seat. Thus, if this art were proof or idolatry - which is a logical impossibility since no one worships IT - then it would be the moon that is ABOVE the Mercy Seat and Mary is only ABOVE THE MOON. If that sounds ridiculous to you, then believe me saying Mary is worshipped because she is shown containing God in her womb above the moon above the Mercy Seat makes any Protestant anti-Catholic saying it look like a mad hatter.
3) Mary - as the New Ark of the Covenant - has God within her as is shown with the Eucharist in Mary’s womb. Thus, God is manifested above the Mercy Seat if anyone is in a way similar to a pillar of smoke. The symbolism is even stronger when one realizes that manna was contained in the Ark and given by God to the Hebrews in the Sinai.
All of the true symbolism is lost on Protestant anti-Catholics. They, not really seeing things because they are blinded by their bigotry, must distort what is there. Lying and deception are all they have. They will even resort to twisting the scriptures.
“Like I said. Catholics put Mary in the place of God.”
Like I said, God is there (the Eucharist).
You can always rely on Protestant anti-Catholics to just get it wrong.
“I don’t know if he’s learning more truth by joining the RCC. But he’s certainly learning more man-made tradition. A LOT more.”
No, he realizes that Protestantism is a man-made tradition. That’s why it only came about in the 16th century.
“Like bowing to statues, and praying to those asleep in Christ. Learning fables, such as Mary being sinless, and not having other children after the birth of Jesus.”
Wow, a little laundry list of things Protestants often get wrong. By the way, do you know that many Protestants used to believe Jesus was an only child? http://socrates58.blogspot.com/2010/06/john-calvins-belief-in-perpetual.html
“You folks toss out more proofs of the scripture than Obama does of the Constitution. But y’all put on a real big show of pagentry.”
Well, at least we can spell the word pageantry. Products of Government Schools often struggle with such basics.
“That worked for a vain protestant friend of my wife over 30 yrs ago. She had no spiritual desire in her change of church, she was just so impressed by “the pagentry of it all”. No profound love of God. No changed life. Just a love of vanity, and she remains the same vain person to this day.”
Well, that’s not the case with my friend.
God told us it was He that would be above the mercy seat NOT Mary. Catholics put Mary there instead. You said so yourself.
“God told us it was He that would be above the mercy seat NOT Mary.”
And He was. But the Mercy Seat is no longer seen. This is merely an art work more than 3,000 years later - and it still shows God above the Mercy Seat - in the Eucharist.
“Catholics put Mary there instead.”
Not instead. God is there - in the Eucharist.
“You said so yourself.”
No, I did not. I said IN EXACTLY THE POST YOU ARE RESPONDING TO:
- “Mary - as the New Ark of the Covenant - has God within her as is shown with the Eucharist in Mary’s womb.
- “Thus, God is manifested above the Mercy Seat if anyone is in a way similar to a pillar of smoke.”
And even in the previous post you erroneously said:
“Like I said. Catholics put Mary in the place of God.”
And I corrected you: “Like I said, God is there (the Eucharist).”
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