Hello fellow Christians. Emily and I have been ill and have spent little time keeping up with the forum. Our health is stabilizing, and so, we’re back. We’ve missed you all! Anyhow, we just saw this thread, haven’t read all the responses, but, had to jump in. Emily and I, we highly honor The Holy Mother Mary. There are many respondents of varying faiths that believe Mary was just “a young female that filled a purpose”. Well, let’s see now! SHE WAS HAILED BY THE ANGEL AS "FULL OF GRACE", BEING PURELY CONCEIVED! SHE WAS CALLED TO BECOME “THE BRIDE OF THE HOLY SPIRIT” AND TO GIVE BIRTH TO “OUR LORD AND SAVIOR JESUS CHRIST”. THE APOSTLE PAUL CALLS HER “THE NEW EVE”. Let’s see now, did we miss anything? Yeah a few things, you can read about them in Scripture. It’s all there. OUR HOLY MOTHER, SHE NEVER DIVORCED HERSELF FROM ANY OF THESE BLESSED “THINGS”. She held true to her Callings! She never wavered! SHE WAS INDEED “THEOTOKOS, THE MOTHER OF GOD”! Yes, Emily and I dearly Love and Honor THE HOLY LIVING MOTHER OF MY LORD GOD, BLESSED MARY, EVER VIRGIN!
It’s good to be back. Our Love To All; Jim and Emily…
The bolded reminded me of the Catechism of St. Thomas Aquinas, that I like to post in these threads, as it does a nice job of putting the Angelic Salutation into proper historic, biblical perspective:
*THE ANGELIC SALUTATION
This salutation has three parts. The Angel gave one part, namely: “H
ail, full of grace, the Lord is with thee, blessed art thou among women.”[1] The other part was given by Elizabeth, the mother of John the Baptist, namely: “
Blessed is the fruit of thy womb.”[2] The Church adds the third part, that is, “
Mary,” because the Angel did not say, “Hail, Mary,” but “
Hail, full of grace.” But, as we shall see, this name, “Mary,” according to its meaning agrees with the words of the Angels.[3]
“HAIL MARY”
We must now consider concerning the first part of this prayer that
in ancient times it was no small event when Angels appeared to men; and that man should show them reverence was especially praiseworthy. Thus, it is written to the praise of Abraham that he received the Angels with all courtesy and showed them reverence.
But that an Angel should show reverence to a man was never heard of until the Angel reverently greeted the Blessed Virgin saying: “Hail.”
THE ANGEL’S DIGNITY
In olden time an Angel would not show reverence to a man, but a
man would deeply revere an Angel. This is because Angels are greater than men, and indeed in three ways. First, they are** greater than men in dignity**. This is because the Angel is of a spiritual nature: “Who makest Thy angels spirits.”[4] But, on the other hand, man is of a corruptible nature, for Abraham said: “I will speak to my Lord, whereas I am dust and ashes.”[5]
It was not fitting, therefore, that a spiritual and incorruptible creature should show reverence to one that is corruptible as is a man. Secondly, an Angel is closer to God. The Angel, indeed, is of the family of God, and as it were stands ever by Him: “Thousands of thousands ministered to Him, and ten thousand times a hundred thousand stood before Him.”[6] Man, on the other hand, is rather a stranger and afar off from God because of sin: “I have gone afar off.”[7] Therefore,
it is fitting that man should reverence an Angel who is an intimate and one of the household of the King.
Then, thirdly, the Angels far exceed men in the fullness of the splendor of divine grace. For Angels participate in the highest degree in the divine light: “Is there any numbering of His soldiers? And upon whom shall not His light arise?”[8]
Hence, the Angels always appear among men clothed in light, hut men on the contrary, although they partake somewhat of the light of grace, nevertheless do so in a much slighter degree and with a certain obscurity.
It was, therefore, not fitting that an Angel should show reverence to a man until it should come to pass that one would be found in human nature who exceeded the Angels in these three points in which we have seen that they excel over men–and this was the Blessed Virgin. To show that she excelled the Angels in these, the Angel desired to show her reverence, and so he said: “Ave (Hail).”
“FULL OF GRACE”
The Blessed Virgin was superior to any of the Angels in the fullness of grace, and as an indication of this the Angel showed reverence to her by saying: "Full of grace." This is as if he said: “I show thee reverence because thou dost excel me in the fullness of grace.”
The Blessed Virgin is said to be full of grace in three ways. First, as regards her soul she was full of grace. The grace of God is given for two chief purposes, namely, to do good and to avoid evil.
The Blessed Virgin, then, received grace in the most perfect degree, because she had avoided every sin more than any other Saint after Christ. Thus it is said: “Thou art fair, My beloved, and there is not a spot in thee.”[9]
St. Augustine says: “If we could bring together all the Saints and ask them if they were entirely without sin, all of them, with the exception of the Blessed Virgin, would say with one voice: '
If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us.’[10] I except, however, this holy Virgin of whom, because of the honor of God, I wish to omit all mention of sin.”[11] For we know that to her was granted grace to overcome every kind of sin by Him whom she merited to conceive and bring forth, and He certainly was wholly without sin.
…*
Direct link:
cin.org/users/james/ebooks/master/aquinas/apray-hm.htm
Primary portal:
cin.org/users/james/ebooks/master/aquinas/aindex.htm
Of course that means that you are willing to ignore the fact that your stated position has been shown to be in error.