de Maria numquam satis <http://reasoningrepaired.blogspot.com/2006/07/de-maria-numquam-satis.html>http://reasoningrepaired.blogspot.com/2006/07/de-maria-numquam-satis.html <http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/6927/2356/1600/BVM.jpg> [] More honorable than the Cherubim, and more glorious beyond compare than the Seraphim, thou who without stain barest God the Word, and art truly Theotokos, we magnify thee. (from the Song of the Theotokos prayer) Hail, O Reproof of foolish philosophers! (from the Akathist Hymn to the Blessed Virgin Mary) If it troubles someone to join with their Savior in praising His mother for her unique and irreplaceable role in our salvation, then that person strikes an axe at the very root of His Incarnation. If they deny her perpetual Virginity, they deny His perfection. C.S. Lewis noted that many who deny the Virgin Birth of Jesus “see in this miracle a slur upon sexual intercourse, which is rapidly becoming the one thing venerated in a world without veneration.” The Blessed Virgin Mary is a creature, and hence she needs her Savior just as we all do (“I rejoice in God my Savior!” Luke 1:47) In fact, it is credibly argued based on Scripture and centuries of prayer and reflection that Mary needs her Savior more than the rest of us because of the incredible role she plays in our salvation. If the Old Testament ark had to be pure, how much more the New Testament Ark (II Samuel 6:9, Luke 1:43)? If John the Baptist was “filled with the Holy Spirit, even from his mother’s womb” (Luke 1:15) to prepare him to prepare the way of the Lord, how much more would Mary need grace to prepare her body and soul for the task of carrying God himself within her! Not only does the reference to her being the ark of God imply her sinlessness from the moment of her conception, but the Angel Gabriel names he “one who has been perfected in grace (Luke 1:28). Even Martin Luther recognized that there was, is, or ever will be a woman quite like unto Mary the Mother of God: “No woman is like unto thee! Thou are more than an empress or a queen… blessed above all nobility, wisdom, or saintliness!” She is the Virgin of virgins, the Mother of God and our Mother; the august Queen of the universe, the sorrowful Dolorosa and the mighty Help of Christians. She is the Gentle Woman, the Terror of demons and Destroyer of heresies; the Mystical Rose, the Seat of Wisdom, and so many other things. Meditate upon the names given to her in the various Litanies. Pray them. Do you not get a strong sense of Mary pointing way beyond herself to Christ our Savior? Does all this run counter to Romans 3:23? No, of course not. First, this passage refers to our natures as sinners because we have all contracted the results of the original sin (Unborn children, for example, are sinners in this sense, not in the sense that they are “actively sinning” in the womb.) Second, by a special intervention of Godundertaken at the instant she was conceivedthe Blessed Virgin Mary was preserved from the stain of original sin and its consequences. She was redeemed by the Grace of Christ, but in a special wayby anticipation. Christians have for centuries used the following analogy by which to entertain a glimpse into the deep truth underlying our Savior’s mother’s immaculate conception: Imagine that a person falls into a deep, quicksand-filled pit, and that subsequently someone throws a rope down to pull this person out, i.e., this person was “saved” from the quicksand and pulled from the pit. Now, imagine a woman walking along, and she too is about to topple into the pit, but at the very moment that she is to fall in, someone holds her back and prevents her. She too has been saved from the pit, but in another way: She was not simply taken out of the pit, but prevented (hence the “anticipation”) from being stained by the quicksand in the first place. This analogy provides us a limited insight into the mystery behind the Immaculate Conception: by receiving Christ’s Grace at her conception, the Blessed Virgin had His saving grace (hence, He is her Savior as well!) applied before she toppled into the pit and drawn down into the quicksandmired in muck of original sin. From the first hour to the last, Jesus’ life is enfolded in the nearness of his mother. She believed, and at a time when in the fullest sense of the word probably no one believed. Perseverance in faith even on Calvarythis was Mary’s inimitable greatness. What is demanded of us, as of her, is a constant wrestling in fide with the mystery of God and with the evil resistance of the world… one never knows where prayer ends and the rest of life begins. <http://www.motherofallpeoples.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=764&Itemid=40>Here is a wonderful reflection on why Mary the Mother of God is different from all mothers. It’s well worth the time to read these few pages... <*}}}>< <http://www.holypostage.com/>Custom Faith-based U.S. Postage <*}}}>< + <*}}}>< <http://astore.amazon.com/halthekin-20>Catholic on Amazon <*}}}>< <*}}}>< <http://www.halfthekingdom.org/on+allposters+today.html>on AllPosters today <*}}}>< + <*}}}>< <http://www.holypostage.com/>Holy Postage <*}}}>< <*}}}><<http://www.halfthekingdom.org/>Half the <http://www.halfthekingdom.org/>Kingdom!<*}}}>< + "A person is a person, no matter how small." 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