Posted on 12/09/2016 2:27:35 PM PST by NRx
Saint Anna, the mother of the Virgin Mary, was the youngest daughter of the priest Nathan from Bethlehem, descended from the tribe of Levi. She married Saint Joachim (September 9), who was a native of Galilee.
For a long time Saint Anna was childless, but after twenty years, through the fervent prayer of both spouses, an angel of the Lord announced to them that they would be the parents of a daughter, Who would bring blessings to the whole human race.
The Orthodox Church does not accept the teaching that the Mother of God was exempted from the consequences of ancestral sin (death, corruption, sin, etc.) at the moment of her conception by virtue of the future merits of Her Son. Only Christ was born perfectly holy and sinless, as Saint Ambrose of Milan teaches in Chapter Two of his Commentary on Luke. The Holy Virgin was like everyone else in Her mortality, and in being subject to temptation, although She committed no personal sins. She was not a deified creature removed from the rest of humanity. If this were the case, She would not have been truly human, and the nature that Christ took from Her would not have been truly human either. If Christ does not truly share our human nature, then the possibilty of our salvation is in doubt.
The Conception of the Virgin Mary by Saint Anna took place at Jerusalem. The many icons depicting the Conception by Saint Anna show the Most Holy Theotokos trampling the serpent underfoot.
“In the icon Saints Joachim and Anna are usually depicted with hands folded in prayer; their eyes are also directed upward and they contemplate the Mother of God, Who stands in the air with outstretched hands; under Her feet is an orb encircled by a serpent (symbolizing the devil), which strives to conquer all the universe by its power.”
There are also icons in which Saint Anna holds the Most Holy Virgin on her left arm as an infant. On Saint Anna’s face is a look of reverence. A large ancient icon, painted on canvas, is located in the village of Minkovetsa in the Dubensk district of Volhynia diocese. From ancient times this Feast was especially venerated by pregnant women in Russia.
In this scenario, Mary has to be ideal — not the normal saved sinner, but somehow brought into the world in a state like that in which other saints are brought into heaven.
This is going to get a lively conversation going among the Crazy Evangelicals.
The bible account, at least, doesn’t need Mary to have been brought into the world in such perfection. Mortal man’s guesses at theology, however, do.
Tastes great! Less filling!
Perfection of Mary! Humility of Christ!
I pays my money and takes my choice on the humility. He suffered whatever penalty of suffering was incurred in His contact in incompatibility with a sinful world, on the Cross. But others may differ.
God bless you every one, and merry Christmas.
Is this event recounted in the Bible?
Not in any of mine.
No, the Bible says nothing about Mary's history prior to the annunciation of the angel Gabriel. There are various apocryphal writings (i.e., the non-canonical The Gospel of James) and accounts of writers such as Hyppolitus of Thebes, Maximus the Confessor (7th century), John Damascene (c. 650─c. 750), artifacts found in Ephesus and various purported "visions". Read more at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary,_mother_of_Jesus.
The Nestorian heresy grew up over the controversy, Nestor believing and teaching that Jesus Christ was not merely possessed of two natures: human and divine but that Jesus Christ was actually two persons: one human and one divine.
As to Mary having been conceived without the stain and consequences of original sin on her soul (alone of all her race bjt for her Son). That suggests that she never died (the dormition or falling asleep of Mary when her time on earth was at an end) and did not suffer the pangs of childbirth. These were necessary positive consequences of being conceived without sin (original sin). I believe that these two benefits to Mary is more fully developed in the Eastern Orthodox Churches than in my own Roman Catholic Church.
I don't claim to be a Scriptural scholar and I will defer to anyone, Catholic or Orthodox who is possessed of superior learning on the matter.
God bless you and yours!
Romans 3:23 says "for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God". All includes everyone except Jesus Christ Himself...
My Bible seems to be missing these nuances...
“The Orthodox Church does not accept the teaching that the Mother of God was exempted from the consequences of ancestral sin (death, corruption, sin, etc.) at the moment of her conception by virtue of the future merits of Her Son. “
Is the OCA in line with the rest of the Orthodox in this matter of dogma? In the Roman Catholic Church, the doctrine of the Immaculate Conception is infallibly taught Ex Cathedra.
Yes. The Roman dogma of the IC is not generally accepted in Orthodoxy.
Never hear much about God’s grandma.
Must be a bummer, like missing the great contributions of Thomas Aquinas to sacred theology.
I was thinking the other day about the Dubia submitted to Pope Francis, asking for clarifications that require only a yes or no answer. The first reading for the feast of the Immaculate Conception includes this:
“And the Lord God said to the serpent: Because thou hast done this thing, thou art cursed among all cattle, and beasts of the earth: upon thy breast shalt thou go, and earth shalt thou eat all the days of thy life. [15] I will put enmities between thee and the woman, and thy seed and her seed: she shall crush thy head, and thou shalt lie in wait for her heel. “ [Douay Rheims tranx]
To me, this puts it rather bluntly, you are either of “her seed” or of the devils seed. We know most directly that “her seed” refers to Jesus Christ, but in a secondary sense, Christians are also of “her seed”. While the Orthodox do honor and reverence the Blessed Mother, as do Catholics, many of the man-made christian sects think there is a third way, that of dissing Mary while still being disciples of Christ. I don’t think the passage from Genesis admits of a third way.
No direct or categorical and stringent proof of the dogma can be brought forward from Scripture. But the first scriptural passage which contains the promise of the redemption, mentions also the Mother of the Redeemer. The sentence against the first parents was accompanied by the Earliest Gospel ( Proto-evangelium ), which put enmity between the serpent and the woman : "and I will put enmity between thee and the woman and her seed; she (he) shall crush thy head and thou shalt lie in wait for her (his) heel" ( Genesis 3:15 ). The translation "she" of the Vulgate is interpretative; it originated after the fourth century, and cannot be defended critically.
http://www.catholic.org/encyclopedia/view.php?id=6056
In spite of what the catholic encyclopedia says catholics continue in this false doctrine.
Bad translation leading to bad theology.
Where'd all the caps come from for Mary....Her mortality...She committed?
For that matter where does Holy Virgin come from? It's not a title accorded to Mary in the NT.
St Jerome is a friend of mine.
The Blessed Virgin is a friend of mine.
I don’t think she cares whether she gets credit for crushing the serpent’s head, the Grace all comes out of Jesus’ bank account. However, a woman’s heel is a better mental image because it can pack a 3,000psi punch.
Either you are a son of Mary or you are a spawn of satan, there is no middle ground spoken of in Genesis. Yet many modern christian sectarians think they can be a disciple of Jesus while dissing his mother. There is no conflict between loving and honoring God’s Mother while loving and adoring Her Son.
I love how catholics continue to believe their vulgate translations on this when even catholicism's own sources say it cannot be defended.
As I said before...bad translation leads to bad theology.
I love how catholics continue to believe their vulgate translations on this when even catholicism's own sources say it cannot be defended.
As I said before...bad translation leads to bad theology.
Kecharitomene is how the angel Gabriel addressed her.
Luke.
hard to define the word without knowing a little Greek.
(yes, Luke is written in Greek and the angel surely didn’t use Greek.)
Luke.
hard to define the word without knowing a little Greek. (yes, Luke is written in Greek and the angel surely didn’t use Greek.)
Yes...Luke is written in Greek.
Here is how Luke recorded his research.
καὶ εἰσελθὼν πρὸς αὐτὴν εἶπεν· Χαῖρε, κεχαριτωμένη, ὁ κύριος μετὰ σοῦ
The key words are translated into English as, "Greetings, favored one..."
Mary was favored as she had been selected to be the mother of Christ.
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