I Love that Woman! My Unworthy Reflections on The Immaculate Conception

Fighting Irish Thomas ^ | 12-8-06 | Tom O'Toole

[mlizzy]

...a doctrine revealed by God and therefore to be believed firmly and constantly by all the faithful that the Blessed Virgin Mary, in the first instant of her conception, was, by a unique grace and privilege of Almighty God in view of the merits of Jesus Christ, the Saviour of the human race, preserved exempt from all stain of original sin. –Ineffabilis Deus

Today's feast day is more than Pope Pius IX's 1854 infallible proclamation, as important as that Dogma was and is. Today's feast day, which issues not only from the Papal Bull Ineffabilis Deus but its echo at the Grotto in Lourdes four years later, demonstrates that the Virgin Mary, with all her wonderful titles, wants to be known by that name. And the reason is not so much that she was conceived without sin, but that through her humility before God she continued without sin until the day she was assumed into heaven. It is for this reason her prayer is so powerful, her intercession so necessary.

While salvation is assured to anyone who lives a Christ-like life and is baptized in the name of the Father and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, to reach sainthood two further questions must be asked. First, can "The Word" become "Flesh" without the Eucharist? And second, can we truly know (and then, follow) Christ if we don't love Mary?

As a Catholic, who has come to know Jesus "in the Breaking of the Bread" (Luke 24:35), I believe one's knowledge (and thus belief) in Christ can never be fully realized without the Eucharist, and without it one instead develops a sort of two-dimensional faith that allows errors to infiltrate the spaces in the soul that grace has not filled in. Similarly, one cannot have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ without Mary. A person can attempt to be friends with another without sharing in the lives of this person's close friends, but that relationship is always doomed to be flawed or incomplete. Plus, Christ chose Mary as THE friend of any Christian, when He gave her to John as His mother (John 19:26-27). And the reason Mary was named first among a Christian's friends is because she finished the Salvation Race first in humility. Being the first and only person who followed God completely, she is the only person God calls "Full of Grace" (Luke 1:28).

Of course, a charismatic Christian will correctly claim one can appeal for God's grace without the sacraments and go directly through the Holy Spirit. But without perfect humility, these appeals are always open to deception (i.e. the devil), which is obvious to anyone who observes two or more Christian leaders claiming the Holy Spirit's inspiration on a subject when their doctrines flatly contradict each other. And, of course, this need heads us directly back to Our Lady. One needs perfect humility to correctly invoke the Holy Spirit, and that is available only through the prayers of the perfectly humble one, Mary The Immaculate Conception. And Mary never fails to lead those who seek her Intercession back to her Son, especially in His humblest form, under the Appearance of Bread and Wine.

Mary conceived without sin, pray for us who have recourse to thee!

[mlizzy]

The irony here is that Ambrose would be spinning in his grave if a pope told him that he must accept the dogma of the IC.

What a joke! He's already in heaven; he knows the truth. And if you can't take Mary's word for it ... what can I say? Nothing!

Finally, it is also interesting that in several apparitions of our Blessed Mother, she herself has attested to her Immaculate Conception: On December 9 (the date for the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception in the Spanish Empire) in 1531 at Guadalupe, Mary said to Juan Diego, "I am the perfect and perpetual Virgin Mary, Mother of the true God, through whom everything lives...." In 1830, Mary told St. Catherine Laboure to have the Miraculous Medal struck with the inscription, "Mary conceived free from sin, pray for us who have recourse to thee." Lastly, when she appeared to St. Bernadette at Lourdes in 1858, Mary said, "I am the Immaculate Conception." --Link.

[topcat54]

Uh, if you can’t tell me who EXACTLY said it, then I don’t see why I should take the quote at face value to begin with.

This is the way it was reported by the Jansenist Launoy as quoted in various sources.

[topcat54]

And if you can't take Mary's word for it ... what can I say? Nothing!

You’re joking, right? Think of the sensibilities of those of us who do not believe in apparitions of Mary on pieces of toast. Mary said no such thing. Mary does not appear to people. These are the imaginative notions of a superstitious lot, sanctioned by a hierarchy willing to give the people what they want in order to keep them in line at all cost.

[topcat54]

Virgin not only undefiled but a Virgin whom grace had made inviolate, free of every stain of sin

Being free from the stain of sin is the condition of all the righteous.

“Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; Wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.” (Ps. 51:7)

Mary is nothing special in this regard. Given what Ambrose said elsewhere it’s hard to take his comment about Mary as supporting the IC theory.

So, then, no one is without sin except God alone, for no one is without sin except God. (On the Holy Spirit)

[mlizzy]

On the Feast of The Immaculate Conception, your commentary is making Mary very sad. While you might be too smart to figure it all out, remember Bobby Jindal eventually did, and he's a Rhodes Scholar. Post #11

[mlizzy]

Great News!!

• Virgin Mary apparitions near Green Bay shrine recognized as first in U.S.
  
  
• Light a candle at the Shrine

[defconw]

Great story! LOL.

[mlizzy]

Yes, funny! The book has a lot of humor in it.

[defconw]

My communist library probably does not have it.

[topcat54]

Mary’s a Packers fan?

[mlizzy]

She’s an ND fan, of course! But the Packers will adopt her I think.

[topcat54]

On the Feast of The Immaculate Conception, your commentary is making Mary very sad.

I'm sure she'll get over it. I'm not opposed to Mary. I'm just can't fathom what her worshipers have done to transform the woman of Scripture into the myth of the RCC.

While you might be too smart to figure it all out, remember Bobby Jindal eventually did, and he's a Rhodes Scholar. Post #11

The apostle Paul taught that the wisdom of Christ did not sync up with the wisdom of this age. Men may place great emphasis in human education, but it doesn't mean much to God.

For Jews request a sign, and Greeks seek after wisdom; but we preach Christ crucified, to the Jews a stumbling block and to the Greeks foolishness, but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. (1 Cor. 1:22-24)

[mlizzy]

The apostle Paul taught that the wisdom of Christ did not sync up with the wisdom of this age. Men may place great emphasis in human education, but it doesn't mean much to God.

Exactly! But it *does* get in the way for many people. It's the child who can better understand the love of Jesus (and the love He has for His mother).

[vladimir998]

You wrote:

“This is the way it was reported by the Jansenist Launoy as quoted in various sources.”

So you’re relying on a Jansenists for what you believe to be proof of Pelagianism? Hilarious. You keep undercutting your own evidence and you don’t even seem to realize how you’re doing it.

[vladimir998]

You wrote:

“Given what Ambrose said elsewhere it’s hard to take his comment about Mary as supporting the IC theory.”

Ambrose apparently didn’t think it was a “theory”. Your inability to deal with what he said doesn’t help your case.

[topcat54]

So you’re relying on a Jansenists for what you believe to be proof of Pelagianism?

You're confused. Your question to which I was responding had nothing to do with Pelagianism.

[topcat54]

Ambrose apparently didn’t think it was a “theory”. Your inability to deal with what he said doesn’t help your case.

There's no objective evidence that Ambrose thought about the post-medieval IC theory at all. I do not suffer from the acute RC propensity to read their modern theology back in into the ancient authors.

[topcat54]

the love of Jesus (and the love He has for His mother).

Jesus loved His mother. He didn't worship her, or venerate her, or beatify her, or pray to her. Neither should we.

[vladimir998]

You wrote:

“You’re confused.”

Not in the least.

“Your question to which I was responding had nothing to do with Pelagianism.”

Your earlier comment did. You said: “Clearly it is. Augustine would not teach a Pelagian doctrine like the IC.”

Thus, according to you, the Immaculate Conception as a doctrine is Pelagian. You then relied upon a Jansenist for your information to attempt to refute the Immaculate Conception. Thus, you relied upon a Jansenist for what you believe to be proof of Pelagianism. I clearly am not confused in the least. You apparently are.

[vladimir998]

You wrote:

“There’s no objective evidence that Ambrose thought about the post-medieval IC theory at all.”

What’s your evidence that the Immaculate Conception was “post-medieval”? If Pope Sixtus IV was defending it in the 15th century, then it is clearly not “post-medieval”.

“I do not suffer from the acute RC propensity to read their modern theology back in into the ancient authors.”

No, you suffer from something much worse. You suffer from teh acute and peculiar Protestant tendency to imagine Protestant doctrines are biblical and were embraced in the early Church. We, on the other hand, are the early Church and always will be. Your johnny-come-lately sect will always be a johnny-come-lately sect.