Posted on 05/11/2014 8:13:59 AM PDT by NKP_Vet
Why do we call Mary the Mother of Mercy?
With both the Marian month of May and Mother’s Day on the horizon, it’s an appropriate time to reflect on this title.
St. Faustina Kowalska tells us she heard Mary refer to herself by this name: "I am not only the Queen of Heaven, but also the Mother of Mercy and your mother" (Diary of St. Maria Faustina Kowalska: Divine Mercy in My Soul, 330).
And Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI spoke of Mary using this title during his Angelus message shortly after celebrating Mass at Amman International Stadium during his Holy Land trip in May 2009.
"During the Mass, I spoke about the prophetic charism of women as bearers of love, teachers of mercy and artisans of peace," Benedict said. "The supreme model of womanly virtue is the Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of Mercy and Queen of Peace."
A Model for Mothers
The Mother of Mercy is the ultimate motherly model to follow, according to Catholic mothers.
(Excerpt) Read more at ncregister.com ...
Let's put this verse in it's proper context shall we and not attempt to use one verse out of context to support a non-biblical position.
For those playing at home here is Psalm 103. I have bolded the text where David says to offer praise to God, which is quite different than praying to God.
Praise the Lord, my soul; all my inmost being, praise his holy name. 2Praise the Lord, my soul, and forget not all his benefits— 3who forgives all your sins and heals all your diseases, 4who redeems your life from the pit and crowns you with love and compassion, 5who satisfies your desires with good things so that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s. 6The Lord works righteousness and justice for all the oppressed. 7He made known his ways to Moses, his deeds to the people of Israel: 8The Lord is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in love. 9He will not always accuse, nor will he harbor his anger forever; 10he does not treat us as our sins deserve or repay us according to our iniquities. 11For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his love for those who fear him; 12as far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us. 13As a father has compassion on his children, so the Lord has compassion on those who fear him; 14for he knows how we are formed, he remembers that we are dust. 15The life of mortals is like grass, they flourish like a flower of the field; 16the wind blows over it and it is gone, and its place remembers it no more. 17But from everlasting to everlasting the Lord’s love is with those who fear him, and his righteousness with their children’s children— 18with those who keep his covenant and remember to obey his precepts. 19The Lord has established his throne in heaven, and his kingdom rules over all. 20Praise the Lord, you his angels, you mighty ones who do his bidding, who obey his word. 21Praise the Lord, all his heavenly hosts, you his servants who do his will. 22Praise the Lord, all his works everywhere in his dominion.
I believe we can conclude from this perspective that David is saying we and everything should be offering praise to God and God alone.
"False attributes have been attributed to her regarding her perpetual virginity, conception, her intercession, etc." A statement which begs the retort "says you."
Not one of which can be supported Biblically unless you do some really crazy twisting of a very few verses and take them out of context.
"Icons/relics are maintained in houses" And...? So what?
The Bible makes it clear we are not to have false idols or worship false idols.
Say what????
Your two examples of Jesus being unrecognized at first, after His Resurrection were compared to the woman in Revelation. In both cases, Christ made Himself known, Mary was ‘mom’ to John at Calvary and was known as Mary the Mother of Jesus to all the brethren. There is no instance in Scripture of Mary being unrecognizable to those that knew her. Why the silence on all things Marian by the Apostles?
“God brought it forth via His Holy Spirit thru His servants”
God brought it forth via the Catholic Church. Every last one of the Christians that compiled the Bible and listened to God’s Word were Catholics.
Those who wrote the Word of God (including the Old Testament which was already in existence long before there was a Pope) were simply believers. Nowhere do they refer to themselves as catholic.
The Scriptures (Old and New Testaments) were inspired by the Holy Spirit. Thus they are the Word of God. Nothing else is as authoritative including the catholic pronouncements about Mary.
I don't see much hyperbole in the first Matt passage, it shows the seriousness of sin. The Luke passage is hard only for the use of hate. The last Matt is going to happen just like Jesus said.
All Christians were Catholics (I am including Orthodox with the Catholics because they the same sacraments), before protestants came along over 1,500 years after Christ died. The Catholic Church canonized the New Testament and the OLD TESTAMENT. The Catholic Church determined what books were divinely inspired and what books were not. The same Bible that protestants claim Catholics don’t know was compiled by Catholics. It is a Catholic document. Without the Catholic Church it wouldn’t exist. Sacred tradition goes hand in hand with scripture. Only protestants have a hard time figuring that out.
There was nothing to protest until Constantine founded the catholic apostasy in the 4th century, so the followers of Yeshua’s Way were not called “protestant” at first.
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When Yeshua referenced the “Scriptures” he meant the “Old Testament” only.
When Paul and Peter said “scripture” they also only meant the old testament.
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No, the catholic church did NOT canonize the Old Testament.
Jesus and the apostles referred to the Old Testament as the Word of God and as authoritative BEFORE the catholic church canonized anything.
Old Testament saints like David, Daniel, Isaiah, etc.part of the invisible church long before Peter, Paul, James and John much less Pope Leo.
Yes, true because the New Testament had not yet been written.
In actuality, it is only the RCC that translates the term κεχαριτωμένη in Luke 1:28 as 'full of grace.' Not even the New Jerusalem Bible translates it that way.
The title “full of grace” comes from the Greek word kecharitomene, which describes a “perfection” and “abundance” of grace. ... Luke 1:28 happens to be the only place in the Bible where anyone is addressed with the important title of “full of grace.”
κεχαριτωμένη is the passive participle form of χαριτόω which means 'to bestow favor on,' or 'to favor highly' ...
The claim that κεχαριτωμένη is a title is simply nonsense, this is not a title ... its a participle, used as an adjective to describe Mary ... and you would have already missed points on a 1st semester Greek midterm for this misstep.
Mary was proclaimed by the angel to be with a perfection of grace, which was a very powerful statement.
That's not what Gabriel said at all ... again, the meaning of the verb is "to bestow favor upon."
How can Mary be completely and perfectly with God’s grace, yet still have sin left in her?
And so now your error begins to build upon itself ...
Christians Roman Catholics eventually came to recognize that it was extremely possible for Mary to be without sin
Whereas the text of the Bible says no such thing ... but you have incorrectly understood the Greek text and have fancied yourself into a corner where now the error must be compounded.
Luke 1:28 happens to be the only place in the Bible where anyone is addressed with the important title of “full of grace.”
Again, its not a title ... and btw ... there is only one person and one place in the Bible where someone is said to be FULL OF GRACE ...
John 1:14 ... ὁ λόγος ... πλήρης χάριτος καὶ ἀληθείας.
The Word ... full of grace and truth.
Here endeth the lesson.
The apostle Paul sure didn't.
Luke 11:27 And it happened, as He spoke these things, that a certain woman from the crowd raised her voice and said to Him, “Blessed is the womb that bore You, and the breasts which nursed You!”
28 But He said, “More than that, blessed are those who hear the word of God and keep it!”
Matt 12:46 While He was still talking to the multitudes, behold, His mother and brothers stood outside, seeking to speak with Him. 47 Then one said to Him, “Look, Your mother and Your brothers are standing outside, seeking to speak with You.”
48 But He answered and said to the one who told Him, “Who is My mother and who are My brothers?” 49 And He stretched out His hand toward His disciples and said, “Here are My mother and My brothers! 50 For whoever does the will of My Father in heaven is My brother and sister and mother.”
I'm not a rosary expert and I'm not sure where you obtained what you obtained if you are not either. You can switch here to see the prayers and steps that newadvent.org provides for free distribution.
Do you have an alternative holy catholic apostolic Church that is on this planet in a real physical presence ? It cannot be any of the churches that came out of the Re-formation; they cannot unify and continually fragment into new denominations, sub-denominations, sects, etc. Church history is a great mystery. It seems to me if one denies the historical Church one denies Yeshua was the Messiah. He appointed the Apostles and founded the Church upon them, himself being the chief cornerstone. He delegated his authority to them. He prophesied And I say also unto thee, That thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. And I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.
The book of Acts ends with Paul in Rome. John wrote Revelation but LORD knows the mystery of these last 19 centuries of history.
Name ANY church father who was alive while Mary was alive and then demonstrate both that he knew her and revered her as the Queen of Heaven and not merely as she who bore Jesus.
Let me help you ... as Catholic history is a unique point of view ...
Clement of Rome ... yes, he may have known her ... but in his letter to the Corinthians he mentions her exactly ZERO times ... and its a huge letter. Clement mentions Paul several times ... but not Mary at all.
Ignatius was a disciple of John who may have known Mary ... but the timing makes it very unlikely. He does mention Mary in his epistles but only that Jesus was born of the virgin Mary. Nothing about revering any more than that ... nothing about her being the Queen of Heaven. The letter to Mary, and her response is known to be pseudonymous.
Polycarp was also a disciple of John but lived too late to have known Mary unless she lived well into the final years of the first century AD. He mentions Mary exactly ZERO times in his letters.
So now where does that leave us?
Only with the fasle assertion that the early church fathers both knew and revered Mary.
Those that lived in the same century as the apostles make no case for your statement.
A Catholic gave me two sets of rosary beads..it was in the packet.
Each set of beads had the instruction manual..
Those 15 promises are in that booklet and they were in the form that I posted ( without the parenthesis).. it included also the mysteries and how to...
and they actually had I,ME and My in them so I take that the publication is quoting our lady.. you made need to look up the Fatima folks as I don’t have the exact manual handy now..
But http://www.fatimacrusader.com/praytherosary/prayrosary1.asp
Appears to be the best duplicate I have seen..
And number one on that list is all I needed to read and contradict with her own son when He was tempted by satan..
A believer in the Word that became flesh has to reject those.. we can’t square serve Mary with only our Elohim will you serve..
The church may be sending out different ones to maybe change the promises from a ‘first person’ narrative with the My, Me, I..
If that is the case, that is man made deceit on top of this angel and light and her whoppers...
And the lie gets mixed with scripture,so hey, it’s all good and ‘biblical’! Provides cover...almost like political calculations..
And to think that little children get these beads from authority figures and believe it as truth like they believe 2+2=4...
As for the true church which you asked about.. it is not a human organization you can belong to in the sense that one can belong to a church or sit in a pew at a particular church and be assured of the kingdom when we die.
the true church practices no lawlessness...
There are maybe hundreds(thousands?) of denominations because everyone has a subjective view of Truth and maybe even lawlessness..
And when they get into doctrinal disputes they splinter - hello reformation like you said..
We dont get to have disputes with our High Priest.. It’s His Way, His Truth,His Life..
We are bondservants from the slavery of sin.. He has redeemed us- no church,pastor, pope redeems..
He is the Son of the Living Elohim and upon that rock of Truth- The Son of the Living Elohim did build His church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it..
And the body of believers in the one true church, we have the Holy Spirit in us.
the kingdom should be reflected in each of our lives... We should be able to declare victory and walk in that victory over lawlessness every day.. we have the power to bind and loose today...
We have the mighty hand and outstretched arm of Our heavenly father as our defense.. His mercy and loving kindness for His beloved son, Joshua, as our salvation.
His true and Holy word as our instruction. And His grace and Holy Spirit as our comfort and support until the end, and in the end...
We have been given the same gifts the original apostles were given..
And they were never members of a roman catholic or protestant church..they only had Torah, and that Torah became flesh, and dwelt with them.
And none of them had beads and were told that their promises lie in reciting words or wearing them or holding them while praying..their hope was in the Son of the Living Elohim. Upon that rock of Truth His church is built. Not on his ‘mother’ and her promises..
You answered your own question.
http://www.catholic.com/video/how-did-the-church-fathers-explain-the-perpetual-virginity-of-mary
More information for you.
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