BIRTH OF MARY, September 8th

EWTN.com ^ | not giben | A. Valentini

[murphE]

The Anti-Catholics swarm to Marian posts like flies to a picnic, don't they?

And aren't we just so happy to see them? We just LUV them to pieces, God bless their hearts.

Yes we do love them. Let's show our love by making an act of reparation!

Reparation for Blasphemy Against the Blessed Virgin Mary

Most glorious Virgin Mary, Mother of God and our Mother, turn thine eyes in pity upon us, miserable sinners; we are sore afflicted by the many evils that surround us in this life, but especially do we feel our hearts break within us upon hearing the dreadful insults and blasphemies uttered against thee, O Virgin Immaculate. O how these impious sayings offend the infinite Majesty of God and of His only-begotten Son, Jesus Christ! How they provoke His indignation and give us cause to fear the terrible effects of His vengeance! Would that the sacrifice of our lives might avail to put an end to such outrages and blasphemies; were it so, how gladly we should make it, for we desire, O most holy Mother, to love thee and to honor thee with all our hearts, since this is the will of God. And just because we love thee, we will do all that is in our power to make thee honored and loved by all men. In the meantime do thou, our merciful Mother, the supreme comforter of the afflicted, accept this our act of reparation which we offer thee for ourselves and for all our families, as well as for all who impiously blaspheme thee, not knowing what they say. Do thou obtain for them from Almighty God the grace of conversion, and thus render more manifest and more glorious thy kindness, thy power and thy great mercy. May they join with us in proclaiming thee blessed among women, the Immaculate Virgin and most compassionate Mother of God.

Hail Mary three times.

Source: The Raccolta, 1950

[Gamecock]

***You say that "the Prophets in Scripture were able to perform miracles to validate their own position". I would say that God worked his miracles through the Prophets to validate HIS position.*** I would disagree (and I'm just an armchair theologian myself ;-))

If a prophet, called by God, marched into town, God worked miracles though Him to prove that the prophet was exactly who he said he was (representing God of course).

Anyway, thanks for the rest of the answer, I will mull it over.

[Salvation]

**Its interesing to see non catholics wiggle out of explaining that intercession is wrong but oh yeah,it happened in the bible....**

Plus they non-Catholic friends ask me to pray for them all the time. Go figure! Thanks for your post.

[wagglebee]

How is asking the Mother of God to pray for US construed as praying to Her? Haven't you ever asked someone to pray for you?

[Salvation]

**This one is really in bad taste. **

Please stick to discussing the subject of Mary's birth. I purposely made this an open thread, because I detest the misuse of it by some others on the Religion Forum. Just please, keep to the subject!!

Yes, Jesus will hold you to account for your actions concerning his mother. After all, in the Bible, she is called "Blessed" many times.

[Salvation]

**I don't recognize your authority to teach me, sorry.**

Excellent point. Thanks.

[wagglebee]

Perfect!!!

[armydoc]

"Luv" like a nest of hornets with sore legs. Post anything on the Pope or Mary and the hornets swarm like someone opened the jam jar.

Hornets usually keep to themselves, until their nest is whacked with a stick (see post #5).

[Iscool]

By the way, not that anybody else cares as much as I do - today is also my wife's birthday. Her middle name is Marie, the French/Czech form of the name Mary.

Depending on her age, give her congratulations, or condolences... :)

[armydoc]

I have a picture of my mother on the wall, and I talk to her. Have I turned her into a goddess?

Only if you ask her to do things that would require the characteristics of God (Omniscience, Omnipotence, Omnipresence)

[Iscool]

"There are two kinds of souls, those that are damned and those that go before Christ and say their names and Our Lord says, 'I have heard my mother speak of you'. And these enter the Kingdom of Heaven."

Well, I feel bad for Mr. Sheen...Jesus knows me personally...

[Iscool]

How is asking the Mother of God to pray for US construed as praying to Her? Haven't you ever asked someone to pray for you?

Nothing is construed...It's a fact...Look at post #51...

[wagglebee]

Only if you ask her to do things that would require the characteristics of God (Omniscience, Omnipotence, Omnipresence)

Please explain how the following request is "requiring" the "characteristics of God" of Mary:

Pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death.

[wagglebee]

I've looked; however, you still haven't answered my question. (Which I notice is commonplace when the anti-Catholics swarm these threads, continue to throw up the Jack Chick's comic strip arguements, but never answer any questions.)

[RobbyS]

Mary is fully human. She has none of these attributes. Any more than the saints will have after the Resurrection. The visions of Mary at Lourdes, La Sallette, and Fatima always have Mary as a messenger of the Lord, bringing warnings of what will happen to mankind if they do not return to the Him. She, like the saints, living and dead, act as His agents. But we reject the idea that the "saved" all have the same grace. Some are more gifted than others, with spiritual graces. Mary, as the mother of the Lord, as the graced one, is close to Jesus than any other human being.

[OLD REGGIE]

I find it fascinating how I am constantly ragged on by "fellow Christians" because I pray to Saints and to Mary...whom they (they being Baptists, Lutherans, Episcopalians etc..)say they are worthless to pray to because only God can answer our prayers...nobody else.

Wow, what kind of crowd do you hang with to be "...constantly ragged on..." about your beliefs? If I were you I'd stay away from those confrontational "raggers".

1 Timothy 2:5
For there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus,

[Salvation]

American Catholic’s Saint of the Day

God calls each one of us to be a saint.

September 8, 2006

Birth of Mary

The Church has celebrated Mary's birth since at least the sixth century. A September birth was chosen because the Eastern Church begins its Church year with September. The September 8 date helped determine the date for the feast of the Immaculate Conception on December 8 (nine months earlier).

Scripture does not give an account of Mary's birth. However, the apocryphal Protoevangelium of James fills in the gap. This work has no historical value, but it does reflect the development of Christian piety. According to this account, Anna and Joachim are infertile but pray for a child. They receive the promise of a child that will advance God's plan of salvation for the world. Such a story (like many biblical counterparts) stresses the special presence of God in Mary's life from the beginning.

St. Augustine connects Mary's birth with Jesus' saving work. He tells the earth to rejoice and shine forth in the light of her birth. "She is the flower of the field from whom bloomed the precious lily of the valley. Through her birth the nature inherited from our first parents is changed." The opening prayer at Mass speaks of the birth of Mary's Son as the dawn of our salvation and asks for an increase of peace.

Comment:

We can see every human birth as a call for new hope in the world. The love of two human beings has joined with God in his creative work. The loving parents have shown hope in a world filled with travail. The new child has the potential to be a channel of God's love and peace to the world.

This is all true in a magnificent way in Mary. If Jesus is the perfect expression of God's love, Mary is the foreshadowing of that love. If Jesus has brought the fullness of salvation, Mary is its dawning.

Birthday celebrations bring happiness to the celebrant as well as to family and friends. Next to the birth of Jesus, Mary's birth offers the greatest possible happiness to the world. Each time we celebrate her birth we can confidently hope for an increase of peace in our hearts and in the world at large.

Quote:

"Today the barren Anna claps her hands for joy, the earth radiates with light, kings sing their happiness, priests enjoy every blessing, the entire universe rejoices, for she who is queen and the Father's immaculate bride buds forth from the stem of Jesse" (adapted from Byzantine Daily Worship).

[ducdriver]

You can always count on someone to try to ruin a birthday party!

Pray the Rosary for a month and get back to us.

[marshmallow]

Belittling the role and importance of Mary is due fundamentally to a lack of appreciation of God's plan and a desire to put God in a box.

God...being God.... had no obligation to include a woman in his plan of salvation. He was not obliged to chose the path of being born of a Virgin, to come to us. Being Almighty, he had no requirement or necesity for the womb of a woman. Yet He chose her.

Why? For just as sin came to us through Eve, the first woman, so salvation would come to us through the new Eve.....Mary.

"I will make enemies of thee and the woman...".

So it's perfectly right that we honor and respect that place wherein God himself dwelt for 9 months and to whom he was subject, as the Gospel says.

What??? Is this heresy and blasphemy that I just said? God Himself was subject to Mary?? Well, yes. The Gospel tells us...."He was subject to them"

Well, I say what's good enough for Jesus, is good enough for me. Mary was, is and always will be the Mother of Jesus.

Happy birthday, Mother!!

[guinnessman]

As he said these things, a woman in the crowd raised her voice and said to him, "Blessed is the womb that bore you, and the breasts at which you nursed!" But he said, "Blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and keep it!" Luke 11:27-28

In other words, Jesus is saying that she's not blessed because, through some accident of history, she happened to be the one who was to give birth to the Messiah; she's blessed because she heard the word of God through the angel Gabriel, and accepted it, and took it to heart, and lived her life accordingly.

Headache, maybe you can ask your friend what would've happened to God's plan of salvation if Mary had said "no" to the angel Gabriel instead of "yes". That's why we catholics call Mary "the new Eve". Eve said "no" to the will of God. Mary said "yes".