Posted on 02/26/2013 4:03:26 PM PST by Salvation
Featured Term (selected at random):
The belief that the Mother of Jesus was always a virgin. Three stages of virginity are professed in this belief: "mary's conception of her Son without the co-operation of man, giving birth to Christ without violating her integrity, and remaining a virgin after Jesus was born.
The Church's faith in Mary's virginal conception of Jesus found its way into all the ancient professions of belief. In a text dating from the early second century, the Apostles' creed speaks of "Jesus Christ . . . who was born by the Holy Spirit of the Virgin Mary." The biblical basis was traceable to the prophecy or Isaiah (7:14), which the first Evangelist applies to Mary: "Therefore the Lord Himself shall give a sign. Behold a virgin [halmah] shall conceive and bear a son and his name shall be called Emmanuel [God with us]." From the beginning, Christians understood the passage to refer to the Messiah, since the sign had been fulfilled. Matthew thus interpreted the term in recalling the Isaian prophecy (Matthew 1:23).
All the Fathers affirm Christ's virginal conception by Mary. At the turn of the first century, Ignatius of Antioch spoke of Jesus as "truly born of a virgin." Starting with Just the Martyr (c. 100-65), ecclesiastical writers uniformly defended the Messianic interpretation of Isaiah, as given by Matthew and confirmed in the Gospel by St. Luke.
Christian tradition went a step further. Not only did Mary conceive without carnal intercourse, but her physical virginity was also no violated in giving birth to Christ. When the monk Jovinian (d. 405) began to teach that "A virgin conceived, but a virgin did not bring forth," he was promptly condemned by a synod at Milan (390), presided over by St. Ambrose. Her integrity during the birth of Jesus is included in the title "perpetual virgin," given to Mary by the fifth general council held at Constantinople (553). Without going into physiological details, ancient writers such as Ambrose, Augustine, and Jerome employ various analogies--the emergence of Christ from the sealed tomb, his going through closed doors, penetration of light through glass, the going out of human thought from the mind.
Mary remained a virgin after Christ was born, Denied in the early Church by Tertullian and Jovinian, the doctrine of virginity post partum (after birth) was strenuously defended by the orthodox Fathers and crystallized in the term aeiparthenos (ever virgin) coined by the fifth ecumenical council (second of Constantinople). From the fourth century on, such formulas as that of St. Augustine became common: "A Virgin conceived, a virgin gave birth, a virgin remained."
Essays for Lent: Mary Ever-Virgin
Why is the perpetual virginity of Mary so important to Catholics? [Ecumenical Vanity]
Is the Perpetual Virginity of Mary a Biblical View?
Aeiparthenos (An Anglo-Catholic Priest on Mary's Perpetual Virginity)
The Heõs Hou polemic is over: Radio Debate Matatics VS White & Svendsen on Perpetual Virginity Mary
The Early Church Fathers on Mary’s Perpetual Virginity - Catholic/Orthodox Caucus
The Heõs Hou polemic is over: Radio Debate Matatics VS White & Svendsen on Perpetual Virginity Mary
Luther, Calvin, and Other Early Protestants on the Perpetual Virginity of Mary
Luther, Calvin, and Other Early Protestants on the Perpetual Virginity of Mary
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Being married to a Catholic and having consented to raising our children Catholic, I’ve always found it disturbing and a bit disgusting that people dwell on Mary’s post-partum hymen (or lack thereof).
What’s demeaning to women is that the virgin birth doctrine has its roots in the idea that sex is unclean, and women who have had sex are unclean.
Well I’m pregnant with number three so what does that make me lol!
The virgin birth doctrine relates to the need for Jesus to be sinless from the time of conception, otherwise His sacrifice would not have atoned for all sin. He was the perfect Lamb sacrificed for us. In Jewish thought, sin comes from the father, therefore not having a human father assured that Jesus was conceived without sin. Instead, His father was God the Father!
Talking about being "conceived without sin",another Catholic non-Scriptural dogma is that Mary herself was conceived without sin. Basically, it says that it was ok for God to become a man, live in our dirty world, go to the cross... but somehow it was not ok for him to be incarnated in the womb of a sinner. It figures!
People don’t understand that Mary was the Ark of the New Covenant.
People who touched the Ark of the Old Covenant were zapped.
Christ is the fulfillment of the New Covenant — and like you said needed a clean place to stay from his conception through the Holy Spirit until his birth.
God the Father and Jesus (remember John 1 — In the beginning was the Word — that’s Jesus! — chose Mary ahead of time since God’s time is not our time. She was cleansed of original sin before her birth through the power of God......the Immaculate Conception.
Always remember
Incarnation — about Christ’s conception
Immaculate Conception — about Mary’s conception
I imagine many people "touched" Mary, just not the way we were talking in this thread. I think you are stretching things a wee bit here