Mary, Mother of God Dogmas of Our Lady 1. Her Title As Mother of God 2
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
Mary, Mother of God Dogmas of Our Lady 1. Her Title as Mother of God 2. Her Perpetual Virginity 3. Her Immaculate Conception 4. Her Assumption into Heaven The two truths which stand out like mountain peaks in the chain of revelation concerning Our Blessed Lady, and around which cluster all other truths we hold about her, are her divine maternity and her fullness of grace, both of which are affirmed in the Gospels and in the Councils of the Church. - Reginald Garrigou-Lagrange,OP - The Mother of the Savior Our Lady's greatest title is that of the "Mother of God" and, in view of that, she was created "full of grace". "To be the worthy Mother of God, Mary needed to receive fullness of grace", St Thomas (111a, q.27, a.5 corp. et ad2) The Privileges of the Mother of God 1. Mary was conceived without stain of original sin (Immaculate Conception). 2. From her conception Mary was free from all motions of concupiscence. 3. In consequence of a Special Privilege of Grace from God, Mary was free from every personal sin during her whole life. 4. Mary was a Virgin, before during and after the Birth of Jesus Christ. 5. Mary conceived by the Holy Spirit without the cooperation of man. 6. Mary bore her Son without any violation of her virginal integrity. 7. Also after the birth of Jesus, Mary remained a virgin. 8. Mary was assumed body and soul into heaven. from "Fundamentals of Catholic Dogma" by Ludwig Ott Mary's Splendor - from "The Mother of the Savior" by Reginald Garrigou-Lagrange,OP - Art IV "... theologians commonly hold that Mary's initial grace was greater than the final grace of the highest of angels and men ..." Again: "Since Mary's first grace prepared her to be the worthy Mother of God, it must have been proportionate, at least remotely, to the divine maternity. But the final consummated grace of all the saints together is not proportionate to the divine maternity, since it belongs to an inferior order. Hence the final consummated grace of all the saints united is less than the first grace received by Mary." Again: "... In short, from the time she could merit and pray, Mary could obtain more without the saints than they could without her. But merit corresponds in degree to charity and sanctifying grace. Hence Mary received from the beginning of her life a degree of grace superior to that which the saints and angels united had attained to before their entry into heaven." Even more amazingly: "... Thus Mary, in virtue of the first grace which disposed her for the divine maternity, was worth more in God's eyes that all the apostles, martyrs, confessors, and virgins united, more than all men and all angels created from the beginning." Our Mother, too "Mary's role in the sanctification of the Christian has been beautifully described in the writings of St. Louis Mary de Montfort. Here is a synthesis of his teaching: •all Christians are called to perfection and sanctity; •to reach perfection it is necessary to practice and perfect the virtues; •to practice the virtues we need the help of God's grace; •to obtain God's grace it is necessary to receive it through Mary. The reasons for the last statement are as follows: 1.of all God's creatures, only Mary found grace before God, both for herself and for others; 2.Mary gave birth to the Author of grace and is therefore called the Mother of grace; 3.in giving Mary his only begotten Son, the eternal Father gave Mary all graces; 4.God appointed Mary as dispenser of grace, and by reason of this office she gives grace to whom she wishes and when she wishes; 5.as in the natural order a child must have a father and a mother, so in the order of grace the Christian has God as the father and Mary as the mother; 6.since Mary formed the Head of the Mystical Body, she should also form the members; 7.Mary was and still remains the spouse of the Holy Spirit; 8.as in the natural order the child is nourished by its mother, in the supernatural order Mary nourishes and strengthens her children; and 9.he who finds Mary, finds Jesus, who is with her always." Jordan Aumann, OP - Spiritual Theology Source: http://www.catholictreasury.info/mary.php From: http://www.theworkofgod.org/Library/Apologtc/R_Haddad/4dg2Mary.htm Mother of God rests upon his shoulders; and he is named Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace" It is often the case that one would hear the title of "Mother of (Is. 9, 6); God" as applied to the Blessed Virgin Mary disparaged as "Mariolatry" or blasphemy. Such an attack is normally "And the angel being come in, said unto her: Hail, full of coupled with the opinion that Catholics give too much honour grace, the Lord is with thee: blessed art thou among women" to the Virgin Mary, and that She is not so important because (St. Luke 1, 28 [Douai]); little is said of Her in Sacred Scripture. What justification, therefore, can there be for such a title? "(St. Elizabeth to Our Lady) And why has this happened to me, that the mother of my Lord comes to me?" (St. Luke 1, In the first book of the Old Testament we read the following: 43); "I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he shall bruise your head, and you "...for he has regarded the low estate of his handmaiden. For shall bruise his heel" (Gen. 3, 15). This verse, called the behold, henceforth all generations will call me blessed" (St. "protoevangelion," is the first promise of the redeeming Luke 1, 48); Messiah. The woman in this verse is the Virgin Mary, Her offspring is, of course, Our Lord Jesus Christ. Despite the fact "...Woman, behold your son...(Son) behold your mother" (St. that there is distinct controversy among Biblical scholars as to John 19, 26-27); whether the text should read "she", "he" or "it shall bruise"(or crush), the meaning is the same, as it is through Her Son, Our "Then God's temple in heaven was opened, and the ark of his Lord Jesus Christ, that the Virgin Mary crushes Satan.1 covenant was seen within his temple; and there were flashes of lightning, rumblings, peals of thunder, an earthquake, and Genesis 3, 15, together with the following passages, form the heavy hail" (Rev. 11, 19). The Ark of the Covenant was a basis for venerating the Virgin Mary as Mother of God: symbolic type of the Virgin Mary. The original Ark was overladen with gold and contained within itself a pot of "Behold, a virgin shall conceive and bear a son, His name manna, Aaron's priestly rod, and the two tables of the Ten shall be called Emmanuel (i.e., God with us)" (Is. 7, 14 Commandments (Heb. 9, 4). It was overshadowed by a [Douai]); propitiatory, or mercy seat, upon which God Himself dwelt (the Shekinah) between two statues of Cherubim (Exod. 25). It "For a child has been born for us, a son given to us; authority was forbidden for anyone to touch the Ark on pain of death. The Virgin Mary, in comparison, was a greater Ark, being a Scriptures name Him God, as God having been made man and human creature immaculately conceived who carried within incarnate, He could not become Man in any other way than Her womb not simply the symbols of Christ, but Christ through birth from a woman: how then should she who bore Himself. God, likewise, overshadowed Her, when the Holy Him not be the Mother of God?"4 Spirit conceived Christ within Her. Being a perpetual virgin, no one could, or did, "touch" Her. Joshua prostrated himself For the past fifteen centuries the Church has steadfastly and venerated the Ark for hours (Josh. 7, 6). As "Joshua" continued to bestow the title "Mother of God" upon the Virgin means "Jesus" we have a type of Jesus venerating a type of Mary: Mary. Applying this to the New Testament figures themselves, it symbolically represents Jesus Christ paying veneration to "Glory to God in the highest; and on earth peace to men of His Mother.2 good will. Then began the fulfillment of the splendid promise made by God to Abraham, that in his seed all the nations of "A great portent appeared in heaven: a woman clothed with the earth should one day be blessed; for Mary, whom we truly the sun, with the moon under her feet, and on her head a proclaim and venerate as Mother of God, because she brought crown of twelve stars" (Rev. 12, 1); forth Him who is at once God and man, was descended from King David."5 "And she gave birth to a son, a male child, who is to rule all the nations with a rod of iron. But her child was snatched "The Virgin Mary…is acknowledged and honoured as being away and taken to God and to his throne" (Rev. 12, 5); truly the Mother of God and Mother of the Redeemer."6 "Then the dragon was angry with the woman, and went off to "Glorious Theotokos…"7 make war on the rest of her children, those who keep the commandments of God and hold the testimony of Jesus" (Rev. "Called in the ‘the mother of Jesus,’ Mary is acclaimed by 12, 17).