Posted on 03/30/2002 7:53:37 PM PST by malakhi
| Statesmen may plan and speculate for liberty, but it is religion and morality alone which can establish the principles upon which freedom can securely stand. The only foundation of a free constitution is pure virtue. - John Adams |
Right. I'm probably not going to tell you something that you haven't throught of, but I find that Bible criticism fails because it accepts Descartes' premise that knowledge begins with doubt rather than Augustine's's premise that knowledge begins with faith. Especially when unfettered by a faith community's authority, Biblical scholars tend to treat Scripture like other ancient documents. This won't do. I seem to recall a story about Maimonides. that he almost reasoned himself out of faith. This seems to happen to Bible scholars. I once talked to Father Raymond Collins and he seemed to find some GLEE in telling me that "Mark" probably didn't exist!
I disagree. There is no reason Isaiah can't be studied using the same methods one would use to study the Iliad. But we need to understand that the conclusions of any such analysis are speculative, and that they don't change the meaning or significance of the scripture.
Thanks
10. And yet in truth we must still say with the saints: De Maria numquam satis : We have still not praised, exalted, honoured, loved and served Mary adequately. She is worthy of even more praise, respect, love and service.
11. Moreover, we should repeat after the Holy Spirit, "All the glory of the king's daughter is within", meaning that all the external glory which heaven and earth vie with each other to give her is nothing compared to what she has received interiorly from her Creator, namely, a glory unknown to insignificant creatures like us, who cannot penetrate into the secrets of the king.
12. Finally, we must say in the words of the apostle Paul, "Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor has the heart of man understood" the beauty, the grandeur, the excellence of Mary, who is indeed a miracle of miracles of grace, nature and glory. "If you wish to understand the Mother," says a saint, "then understand the Son. She is a worthy Mother of God." Hic taceat omnis lingua : Here let every tongue be silent.
13. My heart has dictated with special joy all that I have written to show that Mary has been unknown up till now, and that that is one of the reasons why Jesus Christ is not known as he should be. If then, as is certain, the knowledge and the kingdom of Jesus Christ must come into the world, it can only be as a necessary consequence of the knowledge and reign of Mary. She who first gave him to the world will establish his kingdom in the world.
Making DeMontfort a special messenger of new scripture!
PART I: TRUE DEVOTION TO OUR LADY IN GENERAL
CHAPTER ONE NECESSITY OF DEVOTION TO OUR LADY
1. Mary's part in the Incarnation
14. With the whole Church I acknowledge that Mary, being a mere creature fashioned by the hands of God is, compared to his infinite majesty, less than an atom, or rather is simply nothing, since he alone can say, "I am he who is". Consequently, this great Lord, who is ever independent and self-sufficient, never had and does not now have any absolute need of the Blessed Virgin for the accomplishment of his will and the manifestation of his glory. To do all things he has only to will them.
15. However, I declare that, considering things as they are, because God has decided to begin and accomplish his greatest works through the Blessed Virgin ever since he created her, we can safely believe that he will not change his plan in the time to come, for he is God and therefore does not change in his thoughts or his way of acting.
There it is, the worlds biggest however!
16. God the Father gave his only Son to the world only through Mary. Whatever desires the patriarchs may have cherished, whatever entreaties the prophets and saints of the Old Law may have had for 4,000 years to obtain that treasure, it was Mary alone who merited it and found grace before God by the power of her prayers and the perfection of her virtues. "The world being unworthy," said Saint Augustine, "to receive the Son of God directly from the hands of the Father, he gave his Son to Mary for the world to receive him from her." The Son of God became man for our salvation but only in Mary and through Mary. God the Holy Spirit formed Jesus Christ in Mary but only after having asked her consent through one of the chief ministers of his court.
17. God the Father imparted to Mary his fruitfulness as far as a mere creature was capable of receiving it, to enable her to bring forth his Son and all the members of his mystical body.
18. God the Son came into her virginal womb as a new Adam into his earthly paradise, to take his delight there and produce hidden wonders of grace. God-made-man found freedom in imprisoning himself in her womb. He displayed power in allowing himself to be borne by this young maiden. He found his glory and that of his Father in hiding his splendours from all creatures here below and revealing them only to Mary. He glorified his independence and his majesty in depending upon this lovable virgin in his conception, his birth, his presentation in the temple, and in the thirty years of his hidden life. Even at his death she had to be present so that he might be united with her in one sacrifice and be immolated with her consent to the eternal Father, just as formerly Isaac was offered in sacrifice by Abraham when he accepted the will of God. It was Mary who nursed him, fed him, cared for him, reared him, and sacrificed him for us. The Holy Spirit could not leave such wonderful and inconceivable dependence of God unmentioned in the Gospel, though he concealed almost all the wonderful things that Wisdom Incarnate did during his hidden life in order to bring home to us its infinite value and glory. Jesus gave more glory to God his Father by submitting to his Mother for thirty years than he would have given him had he converted the whole world by working the greatest miracles. How highly then do we glorify God when to please him we submit ourselves to Mary, taking Jesus as our sole model.
19. If we examine closely the remainder of the life of Jesus Christ, we see that he chose to begin his miracles through Mary. It was by her word that he sanctified Saint John the Baptist in the womb of his mother, Saint Elizabeth; no sooner had Mary spoken than John was sanctified. This was his first and greatest miracle of grace. At the wedding in Cana he changed water into wine at her humble prayer, and this was his first miracle in the order of nature. He began and continued his miracles through Mary and he will continue them through her until the end of time.
20. God the Holy Spirit, who does not produce any divine person, became fruitful through Mary whom he espoused. It was with her, in her and of her that he produced his masterpiece, God-made-man, and that he produces every day until the end of the world the members of the body of this adorable Head. For this reason the more he finds Mary his dear and inseparable spouse in a soul the more powerful and effective he becomes in producing Jesus Christ in that soul and that soul in Jesus Christ. 21. This does not mean that the Blessed Virgin confers on the Holy Spirit a fruitfulness which he does not already possess. Being God, he has the ability to produce just like the Father and the Son, although he does not use this power and so does not produce another divine person. But it does mean that the Holy Spirit chose to make use of our Blessed Lady, although he had no absolute need of her, in order to become actively fruitful in producing Jesus Christ and his members in her and by her. This is a mystery of grace unknown even to many of the most learned and spiritual of Christians.
. Dave, I think you need to think this thru. If Steven was pregnant, I think he would definately ask how can this be?.
If you and Eddie are coming to the Clearwater area on the west coast, let us know, or are you heading for the east coast and the Orlando area?
JH :-)
Ooohh, since there would be no redemption without the Fall, which was helped along by Satan, does that mean he gets to be a co-redeemer as well?
If you guys are incapable of telling the protagonists from the antagonists, then this is where logic leads you.
SD
Now, to prove you are not lying, why don't you dig up the post in question. I have to run now and won't be back until tomorrow. If you haven't straightened it out by then, I will do so.
You keep repeating the same words from Scripture, I would think you would be open open to discuss what they mean.
I would be wrong, however. You don't seem to view words as conveyors of meaning, just as a cudgel. And since you answer only with "stupid" I won't bother you further.
SD
It sounds to me like Dave's both behooved & beheaved. :-)
JH (sad) :-(
Nah, just trying to stay in the top ten :')
but if you recognize that someoneled you to Christ, helped you to understand, etc. and that person can rightly be said to have "participated" in your salvation. Of course, that person is only doing such things in union with Christ becuae of their own salvation, but the point remains. People still have a will.</>
So Mary led you to Christ? My grandmother was the one who did that for me. I miss her a lot but I don't pray to her.
LOL!!!
Good. I'm tired of the Clintonesque treatment of scripture.
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