K
KathleenGee
Guest
In reference to a past post that there was alot of Marian devotion in the Middle Ages…these were times that led up to the Protestant Reformation. The Church was a mess when St. Francis was then called to rebuild Christ’s Church…then came as well the Dominicans and the Carmelites who left the Holy Land and came to Europe.
When the Church goes through trevail, the laity call upon the help of the Blessed Mother to help them persevere in the faith and to draw on a deep fraternal communion between faithful clerics and lay.
St Ambrose lived a several generations after the death of Mary, but wrote a treatise drawing on her modesty. There was a tradition about her that was passed on, she was an advisor to the apostles, she worked among the elderly…she was meant to be hidden until later times. There is a piece in Revelations about ‘the great sign appearing in the sign’ and some think it is Mary. The late 1800’s to present times are called the Age of Mary.
It is in that century that her immaculate conception was defined after almost 2,000 years following Christ’s death and resurrection. So I would not say Catholicism is rushed into making Mary more than she is.
It is God Himself Who is the author of Mary’s conception…she was formed with the assent to God, her entire being inclined to the will of God. She has a different constitution than us. When I spoke earlier of Bernadette and the corruptibles…somebody projected wax, etc…but reading Bernadette’s story, one would find a most humble and pure soul, and Mary picked the best person to proclaim her name as Immaculate Conception. Her corpus today expresses a message.
We cannot fathom how much the smallest sin can distort the beauty of our own being.
Purity is a virtue people have set aside.
I have questioned myself the assumption of Mary into heaven. But by the time that question came up, I learned that in time the Church will answer all my questions and they always reflect that the Church is not an organization of men, of rules and regulations…these are imperfect in themselves…but they are trying to teach us something of the mystical and divine that is incarnated with us, God and us through the Eucharist…words and concepts are very limiting themselves.
It was in the study of spiritual perfection according to the spiritual doctors of the Church – Catherine, Theresa, and John that I came to understand this spiritual walk…and as Mary was sinless, she followed Jesus…she was already saved at her conception.
So to enter into the faith of the Catholic Church there is only so much you can contend, or protest or object to…but those manners of thinking are not of a faithful mind…to live faith in the church with all the broken humanity in yourself and around you, it is more of taking one step into the mystical and God taking 9 steps back to you to carry you and immerse you. You become part of the mystical and go forward with the church…the love covers the sins…a faith with certitude.
It is faith and certitude that is required to be able to accept the authority, to let the past go --seeing yourself no better…but our focus more as Catholics is God, not men. I think the Protestants here look too much at humanity in the Church and not God, His Word and Sacraments. Looking at people too much can drag anybody down.
When the Church goes through trevail, the laity call upon the help of the Blessed Mother to help them persevere in the faith and to draw on a deep fraternal communion between faithful clerics and lay.
St Ambrose lived a several generations after the death of Mary, but wrote a treatise drawing on her modesty. There was a tradition about her that was passed on, she was an advisor to the apostles, she worked among the elderly…she was meant to be hidden until later times. There is a piece in Revelations about ‘the great sign appearing in the sign’ and some think it is Mary. The late 1800’s to present times are called the Age of Mary.
It is in that century that her immaculate conception was defined after almost 2,000 years following Christ’s death and resurrection. So I would not say Catholicism is rushed into making Mary more than she is.
It is God Himself Who is the author of Mary’s conception…she was formed with the assent to God, her entire being inclined to the will of God. She has a different constitution than us. When I spoke earlier of Bernadette and the corruptibles…somebody projected wax, etc…but reading Bernadette’s story, one would find a most humble and pure soul, and Mary picked the best person to proclaim her name as Immaculate Conception. Her corpus today expresses a message.
We cannot fathom how much the smallest sin can distort the beauty of our own being.
Purity is a virtue people have set aside.
I have questioned myself the assumption of Mary into heaven. But by the time that question came up, I learned that in time the Church will answer all my questions and they always reflect that the Church is not an organization of men, of rules and regulations…these are imperfect in themselves…but they are trying to teach us something of the mystical and divine that is incarnated with us, God and us through the Eucharist…words and concepts are very limiting themselves.
It was in the study of spiritual perfection according to the spiritual doctors of the Church – Catherine, Theresa, and John that I came to understand this spiritual walk…and as Mary was sinless, she followed Jesus…she was already saved at her conception.
So to enter into the faith of the Catholic Church there is only so much you can contend, or protest or object to…but those manners of thinking are not of a faithful mind…to live faith in the church with all the broken humanity in yourself and around you, it is more of taking one step into the mystical and God taking 9 steps back to you to carry you and immerse you. You become part of the mystical and go forward with the church…the love covers the sins…a faith with certitude.
It is faith and certitude that is required to be able to accept the authority, to let the past go --seeing yourself no better…but our focus more as Catholics is God, not men. I think the Protestants here look too much at humanity in the Church and not God, His Word and Sacraments. Looking at people too much can drag anybody down.
