Posted on 08/18/2019 7:05:12 PM PDT by Al Hitan
Today the Church remembers with thanksgiving the Blessed Virgin Mary, the Mother of God. Historically, this day was understood to mark her dormition, or "falling asleep," which was most anciently regarded as her natural death and burial. From early on, however, the Church considered that she who conceived and gave birth to the very God of very God, by His Word and Holy Spirit, was also resurrected and ascended into heaven, in both body and soul, soon after her death. There is no word of Holy Scripture to teach these traditions as doctrine, but we should not be too quick to dismiss them as merely pious devotion. Such piety, at its heart, is a confession of that which is the Church's faith in Christ, the Blessed Virgin Mary's Son, our Savior and our God.
St. Mary is uniquely honored among all the saints of God in Christ, not only by the Church, but first of all by the Lord God Himself. He has had mercy upon her, blessed her with His grace and favor, and chosen her above all other women to bear the almighty and eternal Son of God. She is rightly called, and truly is, the Mother of God; for her own dear Son, the Fruit of her womb, is indeed the one true God, begotten of the Father from all eternity. It is from her flesh and blood that the Lord has taken for Himself a true and natural body, bone of her bone and flesh of her flesh, so that henceforth He is true Man, the perfect second Adam, our elder Brother, our kinsman Redeemer, the promised Seed of the Woman, by whom we are reconciled to God. As the ancient fathers of the Church confessed, God thus became like us, in order that we become like Him, by grace. It is that great salvation that we celebrate in commemorating any of the saints, and in particular the Blessed Virgin Mother of God, St. Mary.
She is an icon of the Church, a living Sacrament of Christ, and a beautiful example of faith, of all the true children of father Abraham. Her body was comprehended by the Word and Spirit of God to become the tangible means by which the Son of God became flesh and was given to us, and not only for us, but for the life of the world. It is His body, conceived and born of St. Mary, that our sins and sorrows did carry. It is a human body, like our own in every way, save without sin, because He was born of this woman (born under the Law to redeem us). Thus do we recognize in her an archetype of the Blessed Sacrament of our Lord's body and blood.
What is more, in conceiving and giving birth to the Son of God, she is a type of the Church, the holy mother who surely gives birth to the sons of God in Christ. We too have been conceived and given new birth by the same Word and Spirit of the same Holy Triune God that overshadowed the Blessed Virgin Mary and knit within her womb the incarnation of the only-begotten Son. Thus are we, like Him, "born not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God" (St. John 1:13).
Along with her vocation as the woman by whom the Son of God was given to and for the world, St. Mary also stands with us as a living member of the Church, the Body of Christ. When the Word of the Gospel was announced to her, she received that Word in faith, obtained in her by the mercies of God, and meekly bowed her head in humble trust: "Let it be to me according to Thy Word." Blessed is she who has heard the Word of God and kept it, who treasured it in her heart, who believed that there would surely be a fulfillment of all that God had spoken to her. In all of this, St. Mary is one of us, a faithful disciple of her own dear Son, and among that great cloud of witnesses with which we are surrounded, of that blest communion, fellowship divine.
When the Church in pious tradition has considered St. Mary to be resurrected and ascended to heaven, already in both body and soul, it is a confession of faith in that which Christ Jesus our Lord has accomplished for us and for all by His victorious Cross, Resurrection and Ascension. We may indeed contemplate that she by whom the Lord became like us, should exemplify the way in which we all become like Him, recreated in the glorious Image of the Man from heaven. Of course, we do not rest faith upon the tradition of St. Mary's dormition and assumption into heaven; faith clings to Jesus Christ alone and finds true peace and Sabbath rest forever in Him. But what we envision concering St. Mary, we understand to be the Church's hope precisely in Christ our Lord, our Savior and our God. For we know that He is the Resurrection and the Life, and that she who believes in Him will live even if she dies; yes, and everyone who lives and believes in Him will never die.
We believe, teach and confess with the absolute certainty of faith that St. Mary is the Mother of God; that the almighty and eternal Son of the living God was born of this woman, born under the Law, to redeem us who were under the Law. In celebrating that marvelous incarnation of God the Son, in which He died and rose again for us men and our salvation, we may also celebrate proleptically the resurrection of the body that all His saints share with Him by grace through faith in the Gospel. And in that glorious light, we sing: "O higher than the cherubim, more glorious than the seraphim, lead their praises: 'Alleluia!' Thou bearer of the eternal Word, most gracious magnify the Lord: 'Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia!"
I offer you a deal. You leave me alone and I’ll leave you alone.
I’m not generally nasty, so cut out the ‘dialogue’ and have a great afternoon.
For the discussion let's accept that half of Jesus's chromosomes are from Mary.When did the soul of the new HUMAN life become a tive, connected to the body of the NEW HUMAN Jesus? When did the Spirit of the Christ enter the soul of the Jesus?
Completely false. You’re literally making things up. I never wore a scapular because of any apparition.
It sounds like you're arguing semantics here. Did the apparition appear personally to you? That sounds like where you're coming from.
In either case, it really doesn't matter. You believed the message conveyed by the apparition. Whether you heard it from someone, read about it, however you got it, you believed it.
You believed the message of the apparition in some level of your mind or else you would not have worn the idol.
57So the Jews said to Him, “You are not yet fifty years old, and have You seen Abraham?”
58Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was born, I am.”
59Therefore they picked up stones to throw at Him, but Jesus hid Himself and went out of the temple.
John 8:56-59 NASB
Show that that did not happen with Jesus.
Show it did.
Yes he does, and I'm not kidding!!!!
So that’s a “no”?
LOL from terycarl no less. Faint praise indeed.
And you can’t even see the circular logic you’ve employed! Truly, the natural man is in a fog.
Checkmate!
You can’t fool everyone all the time.... catholics believe they have it... from what I’ve seen posted, where does your “truth” come from... not all from the bible.. which makes it suspect at best.
I don’t want to argue with a catholic.. they have ONE opinion... THEIRS! No time for it... when it’s just wasted time. I’m as sure as they are sure... so don’t bother.
They made it up...Unlike our scriptures, they have no source...And they just repeat it from one generation to the next...And then they tell each other their Church is infallible...Again, with no source...
They are no more legitimate than the Mormons...At least they have some gold plates to prove their source...
And then they tell us Peter was their first pope...Again, with no source...Peter would have scoffed at them and spit at them if someone would have accused him of being A Catholic pope to his face...He wouldn't be caught dead wearing a robe...And he wasn't going around boinking little boys...
And he claims to have a phd!
I just saw your note. I'm pleased you are looking into the ecumenical councils to see what the early Church had to deal with.
The link I posted is a discussion of the 4th council. I believe the author is the one using "ever-virgin" to refer to the Virgin Mary, and is not quoting the council.
With that said, "ever-virgin" is referenced in the council documents. And before this council "ever-virgin" was commonly used. Even in the 2nd council's documents you can find it. Also, "Mother of God" was commonly used before the 4th council and is referenced in pervious council records.
Of course. I've already said that.
But Kyrios is used as a substitute for God. In the Septuagint, the Old Testament version commonly used during the time of Christ, the Hebrew name for God, YHWH, is Kyrios - Lord. The Old Testament verses I posted are evidence of that. Look them up in the Greek and you'll see.
But this is from the NT that the words are different.
I see yet another example of Catholics adjusting the meanings of words in Scripture to suit their doctrine, instead of using Scripture to establish their doctrine.
Uh....no.
This is the blog of Martin Shields: some time lecturer in Old Testament, author, IT consultant, amateur photographer, and a few other things as well.
Martin’s tertiary education began with a degree in Physics and Pure Mathematics. He narrowly escaped spending a year down a mine in Broken Hill looking for solar neutrinos by studying Theology, completing a Masters Honours degree on Genesis 1–3 and then his PhD on Qohelet (Ecclesiastes).
I gave you one link that talked about the use of Kyrios in the New Testament for God. Did you read it? Here is another:
Even the shortened form of YHWH that appears in some Hebrew personal names (e.g. Jehoshaphat = "Yah has judged") disappeared in Greek. Thus the Hellenized Mattias for Mattithyah (Matthew), Elias for 'Eliyah (Elijah), Ēsaïas for Yĕsha`yah (Isaiah), and Iēsous for Yēšūă (Joshua). These examples demonstrate that English translators of the Greek often re-introduced the Hebrew 'yah' connection, though not, curiously, for Jesus himself.
The ‘yah’ connection is also lost, then found, with the apparent transliteration of the Hebrew ‘Hallelu Yah’ (literally, ‘Praise Yah’, e.g. Ps.105:45) into the Greek allēlouïä in Rev.19, and often re-transliterated into English as ‘hallelu-jah’! This single NT syllable likely originates in the Hebrew name of YHWH, though the NT writer likely didn't know it.
And I see yet another example that polemics are again more important than discussion for non-Catholics. None of the source I liked are Catholic as far as I know.
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