Nevertheless she has an especially intimate relation to God, having been espoused and overshadowed by the Holy Spirit, by Whose engendering love and power she became the Mother of the Son. It's absolutely beautiful when you think of it: absolutely beautiful.
About the Ark of the Covenant: after it was lost (many presume captured) in 587 BC, when the Babylonians sacked Jerusalem, it is never to be seen again until Revelation 11:19, when it says:
Then God’s temple in heaven was opened, and the ark of his covenant was seen within his temple; and there were flashes of lightning, rumblings, peals of thunder, an earthquake, and heavy hail.
This introduces the following vision:
"A great portent appeared in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars. She was pregnant and was crying out in birthpangs, in the anguish of giving birth."This Woman, by way of sign or symbol, is the Woman spoken of way back in Genesis 3:15, when the Lord says to the Serpent: "I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers..." They are enemies. This is War!
In Revelation 11:9, this Enemy makes his reappearance ("the great dragon...that ancient serpent, who is called the Devil and Satan") and is facing off against the Woman and her offspring, and the Woman is the Mother of the Messiah ("... a son, a male child, who is to rule all the nations with a rod of iron").
Here we see different aspects of one image: enemy of the Ancient Serpent, mother of the Messiah, Ark of the Covenant.
How is she the Ark? The Ark carried sacred objects--- flakes of manna, the tablets of the Law, and Aron's rod--- associated with God's saving work toward the Hebrew people. For Mary carried not manna, but the Living Bread; not the Law, but the Lawgiver; she carried not just the saving of the Hebrew people, but the Savior of the World.
The Lord had made His dwelling in the Ark; now He made His dwelling in her, his His birthgiving Mother.
Excellent!
That was beautiful! Thank you for that post!
Yet, that is exactly what Roman Catholicism has declared in their writings.
A simple post from the Catechism of the Roman Catholic Church will illustrate this.
Therefore the Blessed Virgin is invoked in the Church under the titles of Advocate, Helper, Benefactress, and Mediatrix,” CCC 969
IF one compares this to Scripture one finds the following:
As Jesus is our Advocate, so is Mary per Rome.
As the Holy Spirit is our Advocate, so is Mary per Rome.
As the Spirit is our Helper, so is Mary per Rome.
As Jesus is our Mediator, so is Mary per Rome.
I'll explain.
She's attempting to read something into the text that isn't there. She is not a good handler of the Word.
She has selectively quoted a passage from Revelation 12:1-2 without giving a proper explanation of the passage or even telling you where the passage is from.
"A great portent appeared in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars. She was pregnant and was crying out in birthpangs, in the anguish of giving birth."
Roman Catholics like to claim this is Mary. However, they usually only quote Revelation 12:1 which reads as:
A great sign appeared in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars;
and leave out verse 2
and she was with child; and she cried out, being in labor and in pain to give birth.
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Why?
Because the second verse nullifies the false Roman Catholic teaching of the Immaculate Conception.
Notice in Rev 12:2 the woman cries out in pain during her labor.
Roman Catholics attempt to say this isn't Mary....but no sound grammatical rule will allow the subject to change mid-sentence. Yet that is what attempts to do.
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Now turn to Genesis 3:16.
To the woman He said, “I will greatly multiply Your pain in childbirth, In pain you will bring forth children; Yet your desire will be for your husband, And he will rule over you.”
Notice this verse indicates the woman will be in pain as part of the punishment for her sin in the Garden of Eden.
Notice also they claim Genesis 3:15 as being about Mary as well.
Roman Catholics see v15 as being about Mary due to a bad rendering of the Vulgate.
The Catholic Encyclopedia notes this regarding the Vulgate's translation:
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.newadvent.org/cathen/07674d.htm
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If Mary is in Revelation 12:1-2 as mrs.d is claiming then she is in Genesis 3:15-16. Her position is in contradiction.
There is no Scriptural support for Rome's reading into the text what they have about Mary.
Very beautifully said, Mrs. Don-o.