She is our Mother. It is sad and frustrating that those outside of the church have failed to understand the gift God gives us in our spiritual mother. She is the most attacked characteristic of the Catholic faith. Why is she so attacked? Because it is through humility that we follow her son in honoring her as He did, and in doing so we are open to receive the gift of the fruit of the deepest mysteries of Christ which Satan tries to keep humanity from. This wisdom and love solidifies our faith in the mystical body of Christ. Without being able to seek, you will never find, without having the ability to nock, it will not be open to you. While you are attacking Gods church you can never understand it. Without being able to see love and nurturing in your own mother it is hard to contemplate it in our spiritual mother, therefore Satan destroys the image of family. The disciples of the apostles through tradition handed down by the apostles taught that Satan created paganism to keep humanity from Catholic truth; why did he create Isis? One who says that we worship Mary is by proxy playing god. Only God and the individual knows the intent of the heart and we are judged through the intent of our hearts. Many think they know our intent better than we do. This lack of perspective of reason harnessed to arrogance and fear blocks true wisdom which only comes from God. It would be a sacrilege and grave sin for any body to worship Mary who is a created being in the way only God should be worshipped. In order to understand why Catholic’s love the Mother of God, our spiritual mother, we have to understand three principle effects. First, is how to understand scripture. Second is what is the church? Third is, what our relationship with God is? When we understand these things then we can see the Mystery of Theotokos. SCRIPTURE: The early church fathers saw scripture as a triune mystery. Any human can write a book and express a linear progression of events. God writes in a fugue or an entire sonata all at once across time and space. In the Old Testament the Patriarchs and the Israelites and the prophets were his letters. The Father the Son and the Spirit are present through the human authors, even the soul of Gods church Christ’s spouse and bride is expressed by the holy Spirit in the psalms. At the same time God sees the meeting tent he sees the church, at the same time he sees the Israelites placing the blood of the sacrificial Lamb on the wood of the lentil and doorposts he sees the redemption of Baptism in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit in the mystical blood of Christ; the mark of the Christian and each home as a church. At the same time he sees the Israelites consuming the Passover Lamb in their church and the showbread in front of the veil he sees the Mass and the Eucharist and those who have by transmutation united with the Lamb in order for the angel of death to Passover. At the same time he sees the priesthood of Aaron he sees the priesthood of Melchizedek the priesthood of the Gentiles. At the same time he sees Moses standing in the form of a cross while the Israelites cross the RED sea with the cloud of fire behind, he sees his church Baptized in the water, the spirit and the BLOOD which are ONE that flows from the side of the true Adam on the cross of our redemption the true tree of life. (1 Jn 5:8) At the same time he sees the Kingdom of David in the Old Testament and its trials and triumphs he sees the church the Kingdom of David in the new united to heaven itself (Acts 15, Heb 12) and its trials and triumphs. At the same time he sees Moses seal the Israelites in covenant, sprinkling them with the blood of the Lamb he sees the true covenant in the Mass in which we are mystically sprinkled with the blood of the Lamb from the rising of the sun until its setting. “This is the blood of the new and everlasting covenant”.At the same time he sees the ark of the covenant that could not be touched by human hands because it could not be touched by sin; the ark that carried the staff that budded, the manna and the commandments, he sees in the immaculate virgin womb of Mary, His son the life giving cross the tree of life, the word, and the Eucharist. When a protestant looks at scripture they look at it first as words that apply to them personally in order to find a message from God directed to them. This idea of a personal relationship with Christ in the way Protestants understand it blocks the image of the church and union in the mystical body the mystery of the spiritual family. Their hermeneutics comes after which in turn solidifies the image of the traditions they have lived for 500 years. When a Catholic first looks at scripture there is much more involved in the process of interpretation. First we take the Bible as a whole and each epistle as having a main context. Second the epistles were written to those who were already baptized into the church and already had a basic understanding of the salvific nature of baptism and original sin and were participating in the breaking of the bread, the Mass as evidenced by the images in the catacombs and the confirmation of the church fathers. Third, we must understand that although God inspired the words, he used individuals who had different styles of writing who were also fallible human beings. Fourth for almost every physical event there is a spiritual message. “Focus on what you cannot see, everything else passes away.” Paul was a lawyer of the Mosaic Law and his writing for even those in his day was not easy to interpret. His letters sometimes were like reading lawyers briefs to the courts. This is obvious because it was Peter who said that his letters were hard to understand, (2 Pt. 3:16) therefore, even in the apostolic church people needed to go to the church authority to get the correct interpretation of Paul’s letters. (1 Tim. 3:15) We also need to consider what was going on in the minds of the authors at the time. They were all having human experiences, frustrations, and battles just like we do. Paul carried the scars of those who beat him because he taught that the Gentiles did not need to follow Mosaic Law. The apostles dealt with different people who had different levels of understanding and different customs and traditions and took this into consideration when they wrote to them. When Paul talks to Jews he writes as a family member would write to another family member. They shared the same beliefs and practices in the past therefore they in many cases wrote incomplete descriptions that were perfectly understood by those who already had the full understanding of the topic being discussed. On another note, If you were to visit me for a week and teach me your faith and I later wrote a letter to you, would I rehash everything that was explained or simply the things that were pressing at the time? This is one of the reasons besides persecution why the fullness of the faith cannot be present without the traditions of the church. The scriptures have to be humanized. This is why God says the church is the pillar and foundation of truth and not and individuals interpretation of scripture. If you want to get correct and intimate detail about the life of someone then you go to another member the family. Also we must be careful when we define words. One example is the word “all”. All have sinned all have fell short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23) Have newborn babies committed active, sin? What about the severely mental retarded? “John was in the desert baptizing, and preaching the baptism of penance, unto remission of sins. 5AND THERE WENT OUT TO HIM “ALL” THE COUNTRY OF JUDEA, and “ALL” they of Jerusalem, and were baptized by him in the river of Jordan, confessing their sins.” (Mark 1) Did the procurators let the prisoners out? Where the woman who were in labor to go? Did everyone shut down their shops and leave their place of work? Of course not. In fact Paul is simply quoting David and Chastising Judaizers for attacking the “Just generation”, those who were baptized into the church and living the faith. “They are all gone aside, they are become unprofitable together: there is none that doth good, no not one. Their throat is an open sepulchre: with their tongues they acted deceitfully; the poison of asps is under their lips. Their mouth is full of cursing and bitterness; their feet are swift to shed blood. Destruction and unhappiness in their ways: and the way of peace they have not known: there is no fear of God before their eyes. 4Shall not all they know that work iniquity, who devour my people as they eat bread ? 5They have not called upon the Lord: there have they trembled for fear, where there was no fear. 6For THE LORD IS IN THE JUST GENERATION: (Psalms14) Paul’s letters can lead to your own demise unless you learn them from the pillar and foundation of truth and those who have the authority to be sent.(Romans 10:15) When Paul says to Timothy: “All scripture, inspired of God, is profitable to teach, to reprove, to correct, to instruct in justice,…”(Tim 3:16) Paul is talking to a bishop of the church which God calls the pillar and foundation of truth (1 Tim 3:15) taught by the church and who would teach profitable scripture, and use it to reprove and instruct. Concerning the Bareans: “Now these were more noble than those in Thessalonica, WHO RECEIVED THE WORD WITH ALL EAGERNESS, daily searching the scriptures, WHETHER THESE THINGS WERE SO.”(Acts 17:1) They were instructed by a member of the church (Sent by the church) about Christ then searched the scriptures confirming their understanding that they were enlightened with through the church that would even teach the angels: “That the manifold wisdom of God may be made known to the principalities and powers in heavenly places through the church, (Eph 3:10) Also take into consideration the fact that the New Testament was written during persecution and it was God who told the apostles to be very careful with the mysteries of their religion and who they express them to. “Give not that which is holy to dogs; neither cast ye your pearls before swine, lest perhaps they trample them under their feet, and turning upon you, they tear you.” (Matt 7:6) Due to this proclamation from God it appears that the apostles were obedient to Gods words, they were cautious about what they wrote down and how they wrote it. “And after the second veil, the tabernacle, which is called the holy of holies:4 Having a golden censer, and the ark of the testament covered about on every part with gold, in which was a golden pot that had manna, and the rod of Aaron, that had blossomed, and the tables of the testament.5 And over it were the cherubims of glory overshadowing the propitiatory: OF WHICH IT IS NOT NEEDFUL TO SPEAK NOW PARTICULARLY.(Heb 9:3) What they chose not to write down at all they passed on through the traditions of the church. “Now I praise you, brethren, that in all things you are mindful of me: and KEEP MY ORDINANCES AS I HAVE DELIVERED THEM TO YOU.” (1 Corinthians 11:2) “Therefore, brethren, stand fast; and hold the traditions which you have learned, whether by WORD, OR BY OUR EPISTLE.” (2 Thess 2:15) In Acts 15 an epistle was written more appropriately called dogmata or decree that explained to the church that the Gentiles did not need to follow Mosaic Law. We do not know the specifics written down in this decree. It most likely included no longer following the Sabbath because Ignatius a disciple of John said that the Jews no longer followed the Sabbath but celebrated the Lords day. The images of the fish and the three legged table in the catacombs were created as a result of persecution. The three legged table represented the sacrifice of the Mass. The most prevalent image in the catacombs is the multiplication of the loaves and fishes which represents the mystical body of Christ perpetuated through time by the sacraments. Paul tells us “WE have an altar at which those who serve the tabernacle have no right to eat of.” How is this altar prepared? What sacrifice is offered on this altar? WHAT IS THE CHURCH? The Church is many mysteries. To sum them all up, the church is Emanuel, God with us. Catholics know this to be true because through grace and faith they understand the implications of the sacraments. “The sacraments perpetuate the mystical body of Christ through time.” The sacraments bond the church triumphant in heaven with the church militant on earth mediating through the blood of Christ. Christ gives an analogy of a vine. The blood of the grape (Christ’s own glorified and eternal blood) flows through the entire vine flowing from heaven to earth and back again uniting us with the souls of the departed who constantly pray for us: “And another angel came, and stood before the altar, having a golden censer; and there was given to him much incense, that he should offer of the prayers of all saints upon the golden altar, which is before the throne of God. 4And the smoke of the incense of the prayers of the saints ascended up before God from the hand of the angel”. (Revelations 8:3) ‘And therefore we also having so great a cloud of witnesses over our head, laying aside every weight and sin which surrounds us, let us run by patience to the fight proposed to us:”(Hebrews 12:1) “But you are come to mount Sion, and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to the company of many thousands of angels, 23AND TO THE CHURCH OF THE FIRSTBORN, who are written in the heavens, and to God the judge of all, and to the SPIRITS OF THE JUST MADE PERFECT”. (Hebrews 12:22) We are in their presence especially at every Mass like the Israelites were in type when they renewed their covenant with God and were sprinkled in the blood of the sacrifice. Accept in our case it is Christ himself who mediates in the presence of the saints and angels at every mass and renews us in his mystical eternal essence, his blood. “The life’s force is in the blood.” “And to Jesus the mediator of the New Testament, (Blood of the New Covenant) and to the sprinkling of blood which speaketh better than that of Abel.” 9(Washed in the blood of the Lamb at every Holy Mass) This is what Paul was referring to when he said, “Howbeit we speak wisdom among the perfect: yet not the wisdom of this world, neither of the princes of this world that come to nought; 7But we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, a wisdom which is hidden, which God ordained before the world, unto our glory : 8Which none of the princes of this world knew; for if they had known it, they would never have crucified the Lord of glory. 9But, as it is written: That eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither hath it entered into the heart of man, what things God hath prepared for them that love him.” (1 Corinthians 2) At every Mass in the presence of Christ and in union with the angels and saints including the most perfect saint our spiritual mother, we are called to pray for the world because there is more than one mediator and God is one. “Now a mediator is not of one: but God is one.” (Galatians 3:20) We mediate through Christ Jesus as his bride and flesh which is the veil before the Holy of Holies, Heaven, which the Father sees through before he sees the sins of the world. “For no man ever hated his own flesh; but nourisheth and cherisheth it, as also Christ doth the church: 30Because we are members of his body, of his flesh, and of his bones. 31For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife, and they shall be two in one flesh. 32THIS IS A GREAT SACRAMENT; but I speak in Christ and in the church.”(Ephesians 5:29) “Having therefore, brethren, a confidence in the entering into the holies by the blood of Christ; 20A new and living way which he hath dedicated for us THROUGH THE VEIL, THAT IS TO SAY, HIS FLESH.” (Hebrews 10:19)And we pray for the salvation of the world. “I desire therefore, first of all, that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for all men: 2For kings, and for all that are in high station: that we may lead a quiet and a peaceable life in all piety and chastity. 3For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Saviour, “ (1 Timothy 2) The church is the flesh of Christ His bride the new and living way to enter heaven. God designed the Israelites meeting tent and everything that was in it with very specific details in order to show many this mystery. The Holy of Holies was placed in the center and could only be accessed by one entrance. At the entrance was the laver of washing. No one entered the meeting tent without washing; baptism; no one entered the Holy of Holies unless they first entered the meeting tent. “Truly truly unless you are born of water and spirit you shall not enter the kingdom of heaven.” God created the Passover feast which is a sign of being released from the bondage of sin and union with God through the Lamb and 1500 years later God came and celebrated the Passover feast saying “I strongly desire to celebrate this Passover with you”. This is true union with the Lamb. This IS my body this IS my blood. Do this in memory of me. In Greek “Anamnesis” Offer this memorial sacrifice. The Passover is fulfilled in the Mass which was fully put in place when Christ said “It is finished” When he drank the last cup of the fulfillment of the Seder feast. “I have not come to abolish the law but to fulfill the law”. (Christ our true Passover has been sacrificed let us keep the feast) In order for this mystery and sacrifice to be perpetuated through all time it was necessary for God to create a physical authoritative Kingdom on earth that would always without fail teach his truths to humanity. The Kingdom of David was a type for this authority which included Kings, queen mothers, and princes of the court and priests who offer sacrifice in the Jerusalem temple for the people. Christ told David that his Kingdom would last forever and the Jews waited for this promise to be fulfilled. They not even comprehending their own scriptures did not see that it was fulfilled in Christ and his church the true Jerusalem in which the true sacrifice is offered as James in Acts 15 confirms. We are in the New Zion, the New Jerusalem and we have come to the mountain of the Lord. “And after they had held their peace, James answered, saying, Men and brethren, hearken unto me: 14Simeon hath declared how God at the first did visit the Gentiles, to take out of them a people for his name. 15And to this agree the words of the prophets; as it is written,16After this I will return, and will build again the tabernacle of David, which is fallen down; and I will build again the ruins thereof, and I will set it up:17That the residue of men might seek after the Lord, and all the Gentiles, upon whom my name is called, saith the Lord, who doeth all these things.18Known unto God are all his works from the beginning of the world.” “And many people shall go, and say: Come and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, and to the house of the God of Jacob, and he will teach us his ways, and we will walk in his paths: for the law shall come forth from Sion, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. “(Isaiah 2) The old covenant waxed old during the lives of the apostles and in 70 AD the temple was destroyed and John saw the image of the church the true Jerusalem descending from heaven like a bride prepared for a groom in the same vicinity the Passover was fulfilled in the Mass. Our relationship with God. Our relationship with God is a Family relationship. A family shares a table together and a family shares flesh and blood. Through Baptism we are redeemed to Christ, we die with Him and rise with him as a member of his spiritual family. In entering this eternal family and in celebrating the true Passover we become a Holy Nation a Royal priesthood sharing in Christ’s royalty and heirs to the promise of Abraham. “For you are all the children of God by faith, in Christ Jesus. 27For as many of you as have been BAPTIZED IN CHRIST, have put on Christ. 28There is neither Jew nor Greek: there is neither bond nor free: there is neither male nor female. For you are all one in Christ Jesus. 29And if you be Christs, then are you the seed of Abraham, HEIRS ACCORDING TO THE PROMISE.” (Galatians 3) and as a member of the family of God Christ the second person of the trinity who is fully God and fully glorified man has given us his mother who he as perfect love had in his mind since the beginning of time. What would perfect loves mother look like? “Woman behold your son”. Mary As God sees Eve being visited by a fallen angel, being tempted and falling to temptation, He at the same time sees Mary being asked by God through an Arch Angel to start the salvation process which may mean her own death through stoning yet she consents to Gods will as the true Eve and the mother of all the living. Abraham was about to sacrifice Isaac, Mary was willing to sacrifice herself. “Be it done according to your word”. “And the Lord God said to the serpent: Because thou hast done this thing, thou art cursed among all cattle, and the beasts of the earth: upon thy breast shalt thou go, and earth shalt thou eat all the days of thy life. 15I WILL PUT ENMITIES BETWEEN THEE AND THE WOMAN, AND THY SEED AND HER SEED:( Repent and be baptized and your sins will be forgiven) she shall crush thy head, and thou shalt lie in wait for her heel.”(Genesis 3) “And a sword will pierce your heart so that the thoughts of many may be revealed.” As God sees the ark that could not be touched by sin, that carried the staff that budded, the commandments and the manna, which are Christ, he applies the salvation of the cross in a specially way to Mary who has enmity against sin as the true ark which will not be touched by sin in order for Christ to be a perfect sacrifice without the stain of sin. As the prophet declares the miraculous birth the birth is heralded by the angels who in wonder sing Gods praises that a savior is born. “Therefore the Lord himself shall give you a sign. Behold a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and his name shall be called Emmanuel.”( Isaiah 7) Emmanuel, God with us who is born of a virgin. Persecution had a major effect on what was written down by the apostles and what was not, and how it was written. Christ also warned the apostles to be cautious and not to give what is holy to the dogs and not to cast pearls before the swine. It is sin which corrupts the body and sin that separates us from God. If Mary the mother of Emanuel was without sin then she may have lived for a very long time. We have much evidence that Mary was under the care of John and even have evidence of a home in Ephesus where she lived. If the apostles ever wrote anything about Mary that the Judaizers “Who secretly entered into the church” could use against them then unspeakable things could have happened to Mary. This is most likely the reason why she was hidden in scripture that could only be understood through the church. Luke placed the mystery of the graces of Mary cryptically in scripture and by the end of the second century the entire church wrote about Mary and shared the same belief the Catholic church does today. Some of the earliest images in the catacombs are images of Mary. In 150AD only 60 years after the death of John, the church at Gaul wrote a letter about its martyrs who were welcomed into heaven by our virgin mother. (Eusebius Book V) Mary the Ark · Mary arose and went to the hill country of Judea (where Elizabeth lived) and Abu Ghosh (where the ark resided), and they are only a short walk apart. Mary and the ark were both on a journey to the same hill country of Judea. · When David saw the ark he rejoiced and said, How can the ark of the Lord come to me? Elizabeth uses almost the same words: Why is this granted me, that the mother of my Lord should come to me? · When David approached the ark he shouted out and danced and leapt in front of the ark. He was wearing an ephod, the clothing of a priest. When Mary, the Ark of the New Covenant, approached Elizabeth, John the Baptist leapt in his mother’s womb—and John was from the priestly line of Aaron. Both leapt and danced in the presence of the ark. The Ark of the Old Covenant remained in the house of Obed-edom for three months, and Mary remained in the house of Elizabeth for three months. The place that housed the ark for three months was blessed, and in the short paragraph in Luke, Elizabeth uses the word blessed three times. Her home was certainly blessed by the presence of the ark and the Lord within. · When the Old Testament ark arrived—as when Mary arrived—they were both greeted with shouts of joy. · The ark returns to its home and ends up in Jerusalem, where God’s presence and glory is revealed in the temple (2 Sm 6:12; 1 Kgs 8:9-11). Mary returns home and eventually ends up in Jerusalem, where she presents God incarnate in the temple (Lk 1:56; 2:21-22). · The angel told Mary that the Holy Spirit would “Overshadow her” The ark of the covenant was overshadowed by the shekinah cloud the glory of God. · When the ark was touched by human hands those who touched it died. God protected His ark. The ark could not be touched by sin. The angel’s greeting to Mary exclaimed that Mary is full of grace, where a cup is full there is no room for anything more. To be full of grace leaves no room for sin where grace does not abide. ARISE, O Lord, into thy resting place: thou AND THE ARK, WHICH THOU HAST SANCTIFIED.9Let thy priests be clothed with justice: and let thy saints rejoice. (Psalms 132 MARY THE QUEEN And the temple of God was opened in heaven: AND THE ARK OF HIS TESTAMENT WAS SEEN IN HIS TEMPLE, and there were lightnings, and voices, and an earthquake, and great hail. And a great sign appeared in heaven: A woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars. The true the Queen Mother of the Davidic/ heavenly Kingdom who has the King as her son. “Hearken, O daughter, and see, and incline thy ear: and forget thy people and thy fathers house. 11And the king shall greatly desire thy beauty; for he is the Lord thy God, and him they shall adore.12And the daughters of Tyre with gifts, yea, all the rich among the people, shall entreat thy countenance.13All the glory of the kings daughter is within in golden borders,14clothed round about with varieties. AFTER HER SHALL VIRGINS BE BROUGHT TO THE KING: her neighbours shall be brought to thee.15They shall be brought with gladness and rejoicing: THEY SHALL BE BROUGHT INTO THE TEMPLE OF THE KING.16Instead of thy fathers, SONS ARE BORN TO THEE: THOU SHALT MAKE THEM PRINCES OVER ALL THE EARTH.17THEY SHALL REMEMBER THY NAME THROUGHOUT ALL GENERATIONS. THEREFORE SHALL PEOPLE PRAISE THEE FOR EVER; YEA, FOR EVER AND EVER. (Psalms 45) HE HAS DONE GREAT THINGS TO ME. ALL GENERATIONS SHALL CALL ME BLESSED. St. Hippolytus (c. 170-c. 236) “At that time, the Savior coming from the Virgin, the Ark, brought forth His own Body into the world from that Ark, which was gilded with pure gold within by the Word, and without by the Holy Ghost; so that the truth was shown forth, and the Ark was manifested....And the Savior came into the world bearing the incorruptible Ark, that is to say His own body” (S. Hippolytus, In Dan.vi., Patr. Gr., Tom. 10, p. 648) (Blessed Virgin, p. 77). Ireneaus Disciple of Polycarp who was a disciple of John the apostle. The Lord, coming into his own creation in visible form, was sustained by his own creation which he himself sustains in being. His obedience on the tree of the cross reversed the disobedience at the tree in Eden; the good news of the truth announced by an angel to Mary, a virgin subject to a husband, undid the evil lie that seduced Eve, a virgin espoused to a husband. As Eve was seduced by the word of an angel and so fled from God after disobeying his word, Mary in her turn was given the good news by the word of an angel, and bore God in obedience to his word. As Eve was seduced into disobedience to God, so Mary was persuaded into obedience to God; thus the Virgin Mary became the advocate of the virgin Eve. Christ gathered all things into one, by gathering them into himself. He declared war against our enemy, crushed him who at the beginning had taken us captive in Adam, and trampled on his head, in accordance with God’s words to the serpent in Genesis: I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed; he shall lie in wait for your head, and you shall lie in wait for his heel. The one lying in wait for the serpent’s head is the one who was born in the likeness of Adam from the woman, the Virgin. This is the seed spoken of by Paul in the letter to the Galatians: The law of works was in force until the seed should come to whom the- promise was made. He shows this even more clearly in the same letter when he says: When the fullness of time had come, God sent his Son, born of a woman. The enemy would not have been defeated fairly if his vanquisher had not been born of a woman, because it was through a woman that he had gained mastery over man in the beginning, and set himself up as man’s adversary. That is why the Lord proclaims himself the Son of Man, the one who renews in himself that first man from whom the race born of woman was formed; as by a man’s defeat our race fell into the bondage of death, so by a man’s victory we were to rise again to life. Mary is the true Eve perfect humanity who overcame the trial and did not fall and was given the glory of God in perfect equity to the effect her fiat put in place. “Be it done according to your word”. “My soul doth magnify the Lord.”
Posted on: Sat, 31 May 2014 20:27:57 +0000
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