Tuesday, January 12, 2010

Our Blessed Mother ever virgin

Venerate: To look upon with feelings of deep respect
Immaculate: Perfectly clean without a flaw or error pure: innocent: sinless
Blessed: Holy; sacred; clean; fortunate; blissful; beatified
Holy: Dedicated to religious use; sacred, spiritually pure; sinless, deserving deep respect
Righteous: Acting in a just, upright manner, virtuous, morally right or justifiable

All these words describe our Blessed Mother. We worship God, our Lord, Jesus; and, we venerate our Blessed Mother.  The words Immaculate Conception are not in the Bible, and neither is the word Trinity, but yet, we all believe in the Holy Trinity. Let me ask you all a question, could God have made Mary without sin?  See again how not everything is in the Bible itself.  As I've stated before in the first letter, as Catholics we go with Sacred Scripture and Sacred Tradition which as the Bible says is important. There are no false traditions that work with the Holy Spirit. “I praise you because you remember me in everything and hold fast to the traditions, just as I handed them on to you.” (1 Cor. 11:2) But the word of the LORD remains forever… This is the word that has been proclaimed to you” (1 Peter 1:25). The Holy Spirit is at work with every teaching of the Catholic Church through the unity with the will of the Father through our LORD Jesus Christ. Now with saying this, I can say that Mary being immaculate is not going against Sacred Scripture. Let’s start with (Luke 1: 6, 15, 28, 37, 48)
6: Both were righteous in the eyes of God, observing all the commandments and ordinances of the LORD blamelessly. (Zechariah & Elizabeth)
15: for he will be great in the sight of [the] LORD. He will drink neither wine nor strong drink. He will be filled with the Holy Spirit even from his mother's womb, (John)
28: And coming to her, he said, “Hail, favored one! The LORD is with you. (Mary)
37: For nothing will be impossible for God.”
48: For he has looked upon his handmaid's lowliness; behold, from now on will all ages call me blessed.
And in (Gen 3:15) they are talking about Mary mother of God.
I will make you and the woman hate each other; her offspring and yours will always be enemies. Her offspring will crush your head, and you will bite her offspring's heel.”
Adam and Eve were also sinless before Eve ate out of the forbidden tree. If they can be sinless why can't Mary be immaculate? I ask because it would be befitting her to be so as she is the God Barer.  Immaculate, Blessed, Holy and, Righteous are all perfect words to describe our Mother in heaven.  She is a spiritual Mother for all Christians. She is there guiding us straight to our LORD Jesus Christ. Her Immaculate Heart is the garden in which ones faith can grow with the her guardianship of a mother loving her child.
Perpetual Virginity,
Okay, the first thing I'd like to say here is that In Aramaric (which is the language our LORD Jesus spoke.) there is no translation for, uncle, aunt, cousin, nice or nephew. All they had was brother and sister. [Oh, and I would just like to put this in which has nothing to do with any of this. But I found it cool. In the native American language they too called their aunt, uncle, cousin, nice, and nephew by brother and sister.  I just thought this was a cool thing to now.] Okay back to the issue, second thing at the death of our LORD Jesus looking down at his mother he said to her “Woman behold, your son. Then he looked at the disciple how he loved and sad, behold, your mother.”(John 19: 26-27).  At this time, if Jesus had any brothers or sisters he would have handed over guardianship of his mother to them, but he did not, he entrusted her to John.  If you were in the alleged brother’s stead before the cross, and you heard Jesus entrusting your mother to the care of non-family member, how would you feel?  Insulted?
Here let’s look at what the founding fathers of Protestantism said concerning our Blessed Mother:
Luther: “It is an article of faith that Mary is mother of the LORD and still a virgin... Christ we believe,, came forth from a womb left perfectly intact.” (work of Luther, vol. II, 319-320;vol.6,510)
Calvin: “There have been certain folk who have wished to suggest from this passage [Matt. 1:25] that the Virgin Mary had other children that the Son of God, and that Joseph had then dwelt with her later; but what folly this is! For the gospel writer did not wish to record what happened after wards; he simply wished to make clear Joseph's obedience and to show also that Joseph had been well and truly assured that it was God who had sent His angel to Mary. He had therefore never dwelt with her nor had he shared her company... and besides this our LORD Jesus Christ is called the first-born. This is not because there was a second or third, but because the gospel writer is paying regard to the precedence. Scripture speaks thus of naming the first-born whether or no there was any question of the second.”(Sermon on Matthew 1:22-25,published 1562)
Zwingli: I firmly believe that Mary, according to the words of the gospel as a pure Virgin brought forth for us the us the Son of God and in childbirth and after childbirth forever remained a pure, intact Virgin.”(Zwingli Opera, Vol. I,424.)
These are the fathers of Protestantism speaking on our Blessed Mother's everlasting Virginity. I think of our Blessed Mother as one of God's most prefect creatures on earth and in heaven. A masterpiece of God's work--clean from sin not a taint of sin so that Satan will not be able to possess her.
As we can read in Gen. 3:15, “I will make you and the woman hate each other; her offspring and your will always be enemies. Her offspring will crush your head, and you will bite her offspring's heel.” Our blessed Mother was preserved from original sin at her conception. Our Lady was immaculately conceived, hence the Title “Immaculate Conception.”  Protestants always confuse the issue of conception.  We use the words “conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit” to try and give understanding to the Incarnation, but Christ was not conceived in the literally manner as in man and woman having relations.  Christ was begotten, Mary was conceived.  Now specifically speaking, we are talking about the point when the soul is infused into the body.  At that moment, God Our Father preserved her from the stain of Original Sin in order that she might bear Our Lord and Savior, Jesus. Mary clean of heart and soul bared a son that would and still rules over men. She is the ark of the new Covenant. These here are parallel verses that are very interesting. It looks like Mary almost took the same path as the Ark of the Covenant did in the Old Testament. You can find this in a book called Catholics for a risen by Tim Gray. Will be looking at (2 Samuel 6 and Luke 1).

(2 Sam 6:2)
and led them to Baalah in Judah, in order to bring from there God's Covenant Box, bearing the name of the LORD Almighty, whose throne is above the winged creatures.
(Luke 1:39)
Soon afterward Mary got ready and hurried off to a town in the hill county of Judea.
(2 Sam 6:9)
Then David was afraid of the LORD and said, “How can I take the Covenant Box with me now?
(Luke 1:43)
Why should this great thing happen to me, that my LORD's mother comes to visit me?
(2 Sam 6:10)
So he decided not to take it with him to Jerusalem; instead, he turned off the read and took it to the house of Obed Edom, a native of the city of Gath.
(Luke 1:40)
She went into Zechariah's house and greeted Elizabeth.
(2 Sam 6:11)
It stayed there three months, and the LORD blessed Obed Edom and his family.
(Luke 1:56)
Mary stayed about three months with Elizabeth and then went back home.
(2 Sam 6:2)
and led them to Baalah in Judah, in order to bring from there God's Ark of the Covenant, bearing the name of the LORD almighty, whose throne is above the winged creatures.
(Luke 1:47)
My soul is glad because of God my Savior,
(2 Sam 6:15)
And so he and all the Israelites took the Covenant Box up to Jerusalem with shouts of joy and sounds of trumpets.
(Luke 1:42)
and said in a loud voice, “You are the most blessed of all women and blessed is the child you will bear!
(2 Sam 6:16)
As the Ark was being brought into the city, and saw King David dancing and jumping around in the scared dance, and she was disgusted with him.
(Luke 1:41)
When Elizabeth hard Mary's greeting, the baby moved within her. Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit
Well I think that this here was very interesting. Like I've before, it looks like the Mary took the same path as the Ark of the Covenant does. Just something to think about and pray over. Now lets look at the Queen of heaven and earth, where do we get this idea from? Okay I think most of you all know that when reading Revelation it's open to time. So we cant read past , present, and future in these books.
Here for example in book 12 we are looking at the verses 1,5,9,13.  These here are past tense.
(Revelation 12:1)
Then a great and mysterious sight appeared in the sky. There was a woman, whose dress was the sun and who had the moon under her feet and a crow of twelve stars on her head.
(Revelation 12:5)
Then she gave birth to a son, who will rule over all nation with an iron rod. But the child was snatched away and taken to Gog and his throne
(Revelation 12:9)
The huge dragon was thrown out-that ancient serpent, named the devil, or satan, that deceived the whole world. He was thrown down to earth, and all his angels with him.
(Revelation 12:13)
When the dragon realized that he had been thrown down to the earth, he began to pursue the woman who had given birth to the boy.
Now lets look at a little part in Genesis 3:15.  Here we are looking at the future : “I will make you and the woman hate each other; her offspring and yours will always be enemies. Her offspring will crush your head, and you will bite her offspring's heel.”
Who is the person who they might be talking about here in Genesis 3:15?  It's about Mary and Jesus her only son. And so by the power of the Holy Spirit in Unity with God the Father, And so by Grace of her divine Motherhood, Our Lady, is Queen of Heaven and Earth. Our hearts belong to God the Father himself and because of His Grace we as one in His one body we all share this bound to help, pray, and love one and other. Thomas Howard put it beautifully this way:
What King surrounds himself with warped, dwarfish, worthless creatures? The more glorious the king, the more glorious are the titles and honors he bestows. The plumes, cockades, coronets, diadems, mantles, and rosettes that deck his retinue testify to one thing alone: his own majesty and munificence. He is a very great king, to have figures of such immense in his train, or even better, to have raised them to such dignity. These great lords and ladies, mantled and crowned with the highest possible honor and rank, are precisely his vassals. This glittering array is his court! All glory to him and, in him, glory and honor to these others. Thomas Howard, Evangelical is Not Enough (Nashville, Tenn.: Thomas Nelson, 1984), 87.
We worship the King our LORD God,  and because of his grace we venerate our Blessed Mother who is of great importance to all of mankind. She gave birth to Jesus not just in her womb, but in her heart too. Mary was the first disciple of God,  Mary accepted God in mind, heart, and soul, and because of this honor God gave Mary, we as Catholic honor her as well.

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