Was Ann Virgin?

[irom]

Was Ann, Mother of Mary a virgin ? How to explain immaculate conception of Mary, that she was conceived without original sin ? Her Mother, Ann inherited original sin, how did Mary not ?

 

[puzzleannie]

no she was married to Joachim, tradition has preserved their names, which are not in scripture, and the fact that they were elderly and she conceived in her old age. Mary was immaculately conceived, which refers to the state of her soul being preserved from original sin, not to the physical process by which conception occurred, which happened in the natural way. Mary never inherited original sin from her ancestors because she benefited from Christ’s saving grace since He was still outside earth time, yet made his grace available to her for the purpose of endowing her with the grace and favor she would need to become his mother in the fullness of earthly time.

 

[Tantum_ergo]

When Jesus died for us on the Cross, that was 2000 years or so ago, right? Yet all those years later, we are saved through Him at our Baptism, though we are still conceived with original sin.

So when Mary was conceived, by normal parents, and in the normal scheme of things would have been conceived with original sin, God worked ‘backward’. She was, in a sense, at the moment of her conception "baptized’ (and that through the passion, death and resurrection of her son which would occur years later), ‘saved’, and thus, conceived without original sin.

 

[ljubim]

If Ann had to be virgin as well, then we would need a whole line of thousands of virgin conceptions from the beginning of time. Ann gave birth to a sinless child, while Mary gave birth to Our Lord himself… I guess the qualifications are different

It almost sounds like you’re implying that original sin comes from the men

 

[irom]

Yes, that was my point, had to be a whole line of virgins… But , yes original sin comes from Adam, he didn’t protect his garden

If Ann had to be virgin as well, then we would need a whole line of thousands of virgin conceptions from the beginning of time. Ann gave birth to a sinless child, while Mary gave birth to Our Lord himself… I guess the qualifications are different

It almost sounds like you’re implying that original sin comes from the men

 

[puzzleannie]

you are speaking of two different things and confusing them, the Immaculate Conception of Mary, free from original sin, in her mother’s womb from the moment of her conception in the natural way through the normal marital relations of her parents. The second thing is the virgin birth of the Lord, whereby Mary remained a virgin before, during and after the conception–through the power of the Holy Spirit not through the marital act with a human man–pregnancy and birth of her Son. To imply that Anne and her maternal ancestors would need to be virgins is to imply that it is solely human action, not God’s through which Mary was preserved free from sin, and to deny that Christ can bestow the grace of His saving act upon anyone at anytime it so pleases him, and moreover that his salvific act was a purely human one, limited in terrestrial time, not a divine one.

 

[ljubim]

Yes, that was my point, had to be a whole line of virgins… But , yes original sin comes from Adam, he didn’t protect his garden

Too funny! I would actually say it was both of them, but Eve more so than Adam. Just like when you speak to exorcists, they say that there tend to be more women possessed than men, and they think that is the reason, because Eve was more culpable than Adam in this. Crazy stuff, huh?

Puzzleannie: Good point about the human action vs God’s action! Best answer yet, thank you