In defence of the Perpetual virginity of Mary Our Blessed Mother was no 'ordinary' or 'normal' girl. Mary was great because of her extraordinary humility. This is her defining feature, which raises her above all women and all men for her obedience to God undid the knot of the disobedience of Eve. Her humility is the heal by which the serpent is crushed and evil defeated. The first words recorded by the Angel Gabriel sum up the extraordinary nature of this woman, the new Eve. Hail Mary, Full of Grace The Lord is With Thee And this from an angel, a higher sentient being to one who was created in the lower orders yet the angel was in awe in the presence of the Virgin and conveyed the message that she was to be Theotokos, the God-bearer. The angel bowed before the spouse of the Holy Trinity. Mary transformed the ordinary into the extraordinary through her co-operation with the Holy Spirit and in complete conformity to the Divine Will. From the moment of conception and through to her adult life Mary was completely oriented towards God and the Blessed Trinity. She is like an arrow of love that was shot true and straight into the fire of Divine Love. Like is transformed into like and her womb became the tabernacle of the Divine presence and her Immaculate heart radiated the love of her Son. This heart was a heart pierced by the sword of suffering for the Love of God. Mary, ever virgin, always belonged to God. She was no dreamer or escapist. She was fixed and determined, dedicated to God in total self-giving through a silent vow of perpetual virginity. Mary's yes was always yes. “The patristic argument for the perpetual virginity of Mary is … based on the understanding of virginity as a total consecration to God in pure faith and undivided love. They interpret Lk 1:34 as expressing the firm intention (or vow) of Mary to dedicate herself to God as a virgin; such a dedication must be total and irrevocable. They also see in the womb of Mary the New Ark of God overshadowed by the Holy Spirit, the New Temple forever sanctified by God’s presence. No man may enter that sanctuary since God has made it his own.” Ezekiel, moreover, was given a vision of the future Temple in Jerusalem, a mystical temple containing an equally mystical “East Gate”: “Then he brought me back to the outer gate of the sanctuary, which faces east; and it was shut. And he said to me, “This gate shall remain shut; it shall not be opened and no one shall enter by it; for the Lord, the God of Israel, has entered by it; therefore it shall remain shut” (Eziekiel 44:1). Several Fathers of the Church saw the East Gate as a mystical allusion to the Virgin Mary – She is the virginal East Gate through whom only the Lord, Himself, could enter. This mystical gate was to “remain shut”, that is, virginal, never to open to any man. Significantly, in Mary’s apparitions, esp. at Fatima, she is always seen ascending to the east, to her place, toward the East Gate. It is through Mary alone that our Lord entered the world. She is the Ark of the Covenant containing the Holy of Holies, the incarnate Son of God. It is through her, and her alone, that the Lord entered humanity and took on human flesh as the “blessed fruit of her womb”. Mary was confused at the Angel Gabriel’s message. Luke tells us that Mary was “troubled at his (Gabriel’s) saying, and thought with herself what manner of salutation this should be.” How could she, a consecrated virgin, have a child? Thus, In this state of troubled confusion, she asked, “How shall this be done, (how can this be?) because I know not man? “ How can a virgin have a child? How can this be, I know not man nor shall I know man even though I am married to one. Her consent was conditional upon the ability to remain a virgin, a condition that Joseph was aware of and had consented to according to the Torah, according to Jewish marriage customs, and to the Gospel of St. Luke who derived his data directly from the Virgin Mary herself. Ave Maria.
It is my guess that ur post was not written by you. I do not have the time to do a www search to find the source. Could you kindly provide the link to the source please.
The first half was written by myself after praying the Rosary this morning so it is copyright free as I hope it was inspired by the Holy Spirit and by my devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary. In defence of the Perpetual virginity of Mary Our Blessed Mother was no 'ordinary' or 'normal' girl. Mary was great because of her extraordinary humility. This is her defining feature, which raises her above all women and all men for her obedience to God undid the knot of the disobedience of Eve. Her humility is the heal by which the serpent is crushed and evil defeated. The first words recorded by the Angel Gabriel sum up the extraordinary nature of this woman, the new Eve. Hail Mary, Full of Grace The Lord is With Thee And this from an angel, a higher sentient being to one who was created in the lower orders yet the angel was in awe in the presence of the Virgin and conveyed the message that she was to be Theotokos, the God-bearer. The angel bowed before the spouse of the Holy Trinity. Mary transformed the ordinary into the extraordinary through her co-operation with the Holy Spirit and in complete conformity to the Divine Will. From the moment of conception and through to her adult life Mary was completely oriented towards God and the Blessed Trinity. She is like an arrow of love that was shot true and straight into the fire of Divine Love. Like is transformed into like and her womb became the tabernacle of the Divine presence and her Immaculate heart radiated the love of her Son. This heart was a heart pierced by the sword of suffering for the Love of God. Mary, ever virgin, always belonged to God. She was no dreamer or escapist. She was fixed and determined, dedicated to God in total self-giving through a silent vow of perpetual virginity. Mary's yes was always yes.
The second half was taken from a fine article supporting the perpetual virginity of Mary from Holy Scriptures at the following URL: https://newera.news/marys-perpetual-virginity-proven-by-scripture/?print=pdf
Thank you I respectfully ask u to provide the original sources of material taken from elsewhere. Surely u as a teacher understand the importance of not using the work of others as your own.
What a beautiful meditation on Our Lady. I did not know if the East Gate. But reading it now it makes perfect sense. Thank you very much Garabandal. I am going to think on this when I pray the joyful mysteries. A beautiful tribute to Our Lady.
Why the snarky tone? Does this beautiful tribute to Our Lady offend you in some way? You certainly come across that way!
You are so right Garbandal, Our Lady is special she is particular and ............ It was on the 12th May, 1853 That a decree was pronounced at Rome, declaring that the now Saint St Louis Mary Grignion de Montfort‘s, ‘Treatise on the true devotion to the Blessed virgin’ are exempt from all error. In a letter to the Clergy by Herbert Vaughan, at the time Bishop of Salford, afterwards Cardinal-Archbishop of Westminster writes “There are expressions in this treatise that may sound strange to the ears of the educated in the cold, critical, controversial atmosphere of England.” The following emotive language are excerpts from the “Treatise on the true devotion to the Blessed virgin”. Montfort categorises The Treaties into 273 stanzas. In his treatise St Louis states.... Stanza (S) 5. Mary is the supreme masterpiece of Almighty God and he has reserved the knowledge and possession of her for himself. Mary is the sealed fountain and the faithful spouse of the Holy Spirit where only he may enter. She is the sanctuary and resting-place of the Blessed Trinity where God dwells in greater and more divine splendour than anywhere else in the universe, not excluding his dwelling above the cherubim and seraphim. No creature, however pure, may enter there without being specially privileged. (S) 6. Mary is the earthly paradise of Jesus Christ the new Adam. She is the vast and divine world of God where unutterable marvels and beauties are to be found. She is the magnificence of the Almighty where he hid his only Son, as in his own bosom, and with him everything that is most excellent and precious. (S) 11. Moreover, we should repeat after the Holy Spirit, "All the glory of the king's daughter is within", meaning that all the external glory which heaven and earth vie with each other to give her is nothing compared to what she has received interiorly from her Creator, namely, a glory unknown to insignificant creatures like us, who cannot penetrate into the secrets of the king. (S) 12. We must say in the words of the apostle Paul, "Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor has the heart of man understood" the beauty, the grandeur, the excellence of Mary, who is indeed a miracle of miracles of grace, nature and glory. She is a worthy Mother of God." Hic taceat omnis lingua: Here let every tongue be silent. (S) 16. The Son of God became man for our salvation but only in Mary and through Mary. (S) 18. God the Son came into her virginal womb as a new Adam into His earthly paradise, to take his delight there and produce hidden wonders of grace. (S) 20. God the Holy Spirit, who does not produce any divine person, became fruitful through Mary whom he espoused. (S) 23. God the Father gathered all the waters together and called them the seas. He gathered all his graces together and called them Mary. The great God has a treasury or storehouse full of riches in which he has enclosed all that is beautiful, resplendent, rare, and precious, even his own Son. This immense treasury is none other than Mary whom the saints call the "treasury of the Lord". From her fullness all men are made rich. (S) 24. Mary is Gods mystical channel, his aqueduct, through which he causes his mercies to flow gently and abundantly. (S) 27.When therefore we read in the writings of Saint Bernard, Saint Bernardine, Saint Bonaventure, and others that all in heaven and on earth, even God himself, is subject to the Blessed Virgin, they mean that the authority which God was pleased to give her is so great that she seems to have the same power as God. Her prayers and requests are so powerful with him that he accepts them as commands in the sense that he never resists his dear mother's prayer because it is always humble and conformed to his will. (S) 44. Mary alone found grace before God without the help of any other creature. (S) 45. To Mary alone God gave the keys of the cellars of divine love and the ability to enter the most sublime and secret ways of perfection, and lead others along them. (S) 50. God wishes therefore to reveal Mary, his masterpiece, and make her more known in these latter times: (S) 51. It is chiefly in reference to these last wicked persecutions of the devil, daily increasing until the advent of the reign of anti- Christ, that we should understand that first and well-known prophecy and curse of God uttered against the serpent in the garden of paradise. It is opportune to explain it here for the glory of the Blessed Virgin, the salvation of her children and the confusion of the devil. "I will place enmities between you and the woman, between your race and her race; she will crush your head and you will lie in wait for her heel" (Gen. 3:15). (S) 63. Mary is so completely transformed into Jesus by grace that she no longer lives, she no longer exists, because you alone, dear Jesus, live and reign in her more perfectly than in all the angels and saints. (S) 74. Jesus, in choosing Mary as his inseparable associate in his life, glory and power in heaven and on earth, has given her by grace in his kingdom all the same rights and privileges that he possesses by nature. "All that belongs to God by nature belongs to Mary by grace", say the saints, and, according to them Jesus and Mary have the same will. (S) 84. Our Lord is our Advocate and our Mediator of redemption with God the Father. It is through him that we must pray with the whole Church, triumphant and militant. (S) 85. Are we pure enough to be united directly to Christ without any help? Is Jesus not God, equal in every way to the Father? Therefore is he not the Holy of Holies, having a right to the same respect as his Father? Let us not be afraid to say with St. Bernard that we need a mediator with the Mediator himself and the divinely-honoured Mary is the one most able to fulfil this office of love. Through her, Jesus came to us; through her we should go to him. St. Augustine says, Mary has conquered the Almighty by her love! (S) 167. Since Mary alone has crushed all heresies, as we are told by the Church under the guidance of the Holy Spirit (Office of B.V.M.), a devoted servant of hers will never fall into formal heresy or error, though critics may contest this.
Taken from, "The Pope: “I’ll tell you about Mary, a normal girlˮ" Pope Francis ....emphasizes what the archangel Gabriel told Our Lady at the moment of the annunciation. “The angel does not say to Mary: “You are full of inteligence, you are full of virtue, you are an super-good woman”. No, he said, “You are full of graceˮ, that is, of gratuitousness, of beauty. Our Lady is the beauty par excellence. Beauty is one of the human dimensions that we too often neglect. We speak of truth, of goodness and leave beauty aside. Instead, it is as important as the others. It is important to find God in beauty”. There are many things to say about the above! Just one thing...........Beauty encompasses all virtue! And true beauty is found in Our Lady's spiritual attributes that the Holy Father seems to have discounted in the above. Let us consider the passion of Jesus! God the Father looked upon the passion of Jesus. [His sorrowful Son], who was abject in ascetic beauty during His sorrowful passion , but God the Father beheld the only true beauty that mattered! this true beauty encompasses goodness!, virtue!, grace!, and truth! And Our Lord Jesus' most sorrowful and Immaculate Mother reflects these true beauties perfectly! The following saints agree that Our Lady Beauty is in the above! Taken from the book “The glories of Mary”, The Abbot Franco says of our lady in ‘The Glories of Mary’, “why the Holy spirit praised the beauty of his spouse, so greatly , on account of her dove eyes “how beautiful art thou, my love ! How beautiful art thou! thine eyes are dove’s eyes “ for Mary looking at God with the eyes of a simple and humble dove , enamoured him to such a degree by her beauty , that with the bands of love she made him a prisoner in her chaste womb. The Abbot thus speaks: Where on earth could so beautiful a Virgin be found, who could allure the king of heaven by her eyes and by a holy violence lead him captive, bound in chains of Love? St Bernard with reason says “That for this the blessed virgin who was to be His mother, God created the whole world” and St Bonaventure states, that its existence depends on her will. He says addressing her, “the world which thou with God didst form from the beginnings continues to exist at thy will, O most Holy Virgin” the saint adhering in this to the words of proverbs applied by the church to Mary, “I was with Him forming all things “ St Bernardine adds that it was for the love of Mary that God did not destroy man after Adam’s sin; ‘He preserved it on account of his most singular love for the blessed Virgin’ St Bonaventure states that being the mother of God is the greatest grace that can be conferred on a creature. “It is such that God could make a greater world, a greater heaven, but that He cannot exalt a creature more than by making her his Mother” The Divine Mother said “He that is mighty hath done great things in me”. And why did not the Blessed Virgin make known what were the great things conferred on her by God? St Thomas of Villanova answers, that Mary did not explain them because they could not be expressed: “she did not explain them because they were inexplicable”: St Ephrem asserts ‘Mary’s glory is incomparably greater then that of all other celestial spirits “This is confirmed by St Andrew of Crete, saying “God excepted she is higher than all” St Anselm also says “no one is equal to thee, O lady, for all are either above or beneath thee; God alone is above thee and all that is not God is inferior to thee. In fine, says St Bernardine “the greatness and dignity of the blessed Virgin are such that God alone does and can comprehend it” Blessed Albert the great also asserts that “to be the mother of God is the highest dignity after that of being God” Hence he adds the “Mary could not have been more closely united to God than she was without becoming God’ Taken from the book “The glories of Mary” The catholic encyclopaedia states in the Nature and Attributes of God, that language used in description of God will always fall short as we have a natural tendency to think and speak of God as if God see’s or hears , as if He had physical organs, or to be angry or sorry, as if subject to human passions: but this is perfectly legitimate and more or less unavoidable use of metaphor which is often quite unfairly alleged to prove that the strictly Infinite is unthinkable and unknowable. Whatever truth there may be in this charge as applied to the Theistic beliefs of rude and uncultured minds, it is untrue and unjust when directed against philosophical Theism. The same reasons that justify and recommend the use of metaphorical language in other connections justify and recommended it here, but no Theist of average intelligence ever thinks of understanding literally the metaphors he applies, or hears applied by others, to God, any more than he means to speak literally when he calls a brave man a lion, or a cunning one a fox. The finite mind is not capable of comprehending the Infinite so as adequately to describe its essence by any single concept or term; but while using a multitude of terms, all of which are analogically true, we do not mean to imply that there is any kind of composition in God. Thus, as applied to creatures, goodness and justice, for example, are distinct from each other and from the nature or substance of the beings in whom they are found, and if finite limitations compel us to speak of such perfections in God as if they were similarly distinct, we know, nevertheless, and are ready, when needful, to explain, that this is not really so, but that all Divine attributes are really identical with one another and with the Divine essence. Therefore we know that The Blessed Virgin Mary is not just your normal girl next door! nor is she only beautiful in physical attributes but in fact her real beauty encommpases her virtues, her grace, her super goodness, her truth, she is the masterpiece! the exception! the particular!
I think those who enter heaven must be struck by the beauty of our Lady. She radiates beauty from within as she has a unique relationship with the Holy Trinity. She is of course, all humility.
Our Lord gave us his most pure, humble and gracious mother as our own. He who is our salvation, chose her and gave her the opportunity to refuse him, but gave her fiat to God on high. Her life was not normal and our Queen is most definitely not "normal."
Well you were most certainly guided by the Holy Spirit in writing this. I LOVE the quotation from Ezechial on The East Gate, I shall remember this forever. I must make a copy of this and print it off.
One of things I love about Deovtion to Our Lady is that the whole point of it is that we should ebcome like her and in becomming like her we should become more and more like her Son. In this this Mary is the Doorway to the holy Temple. Ezekiel 47:1 Waters from Under the Temple 1Then the man brought me back to the entrance of the temple, and I saw water flowing from under the threshold of the temple toward the east (for the temple faced east). The water was coming down from under the south side of the temple, south of the altar. 2Next he brought me out through the north gate and led me around the outside to the outer gate facing east, and there I saw the water trickling out from the south side.… Is then following and entering this Doroway a pthway to , 'Normality', or otherwise? I suppose each of us is different with our own spirituality, but I suppose as each of us follows a specifically Marian Path I expect amny of us might see a similiar landscape as we walk this Pilgrim Path. I think it is a path of Normality in that it is a huge healer of inner wounds. Following Mary is like a Hospital that heals. The Path of Mary is such a hidden way, like a sunken path overshdowed by great leaning trees . We alk a path unoticed by the world. Forgotten and happy to be so.
But in many, many ways it is not the least bit, 'Normal' at all. For we are, in following His Mother, become, 'Fools for Christ'; 1 Corinthians 3:19 Worldly Wisdom 18Let no one deceive himself. If any of you thinks he is wise in this age, he should become a fool, so that he may become wise. 19For the wisdom of this world is foolishness in God’s sight. As it is written: “He catches the wise in their craftiness.” 20And again, “The Lord knows that the thoughts of the wise are futile.”… ..and since Satan is the Lord of this World: 2 Corinthians 4:4 4 Satan, who is the god of this world, has blinded the minds of those who don’t believe. They are unable to see the glorious light of the Good News. They don’t understand this message about the glory of Christ, who is the exact likeness of God. We flee with the woman with child to the hidden places: Revelation 12 New International Version (NIV) The Woman and the Dragon 12 A great sign appeared in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet and a crown of twelve stars on her head. 2 She was pregnant and cried out in pain as she was about to give birth. 3 Then another sign appeared in heaven: an enormous red dragon with seven heads and ten horns and seven crowns on its heads. 4 Its tail swept a third of the stars out of the sky and flung them to the earth. The dragon stood in front of the woman who was about to give birth, so that it might devour her child the moment he was born. 5 She gave birth to a son, a male child, who “will rule all the nations with an iron scepter.”a]">[a] And her child was snatched up to God and to his throne. 6 The woman fled into the wilderness to a place prepared for her by God, where she might be taken care of for 1,260 days. 7 Then war broke out in heaven. Michael and his angels fought against the dragon, and the dragon and his angels fought back. 8 But he was not strong enough, and they lost their place in heaven. 9 The great dragon was hurled down—that ancient serpent called the devil, or Satan, who leads the whole world astray. He was hurled to the earth, and his angels with him. 10 Then I heard a loud voice in heaven say: “Now have come the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God, and the authority of his Messiah. For the accuser of our brothers and sisters, who accuses them before our God day and night, has been hurled down. 11 They triumphed over him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony; they did not love their lives so much as to shrink from death. 12 Therefore rejoice, you heavens and you who dwell in them! But woe to the earth and the sea, because the devil has gone down to you! He is filled with fury, because he knows that his time is short.” 13 When the dragon saw that he had been hurled to the earth, he pursued the woman who had given birth to the male child. 14 The woman was given the two wings of a great eagle, so that she might fly to the place prepared for her in the wilderness, where she would be taken care of for a time, times and half a time, out of the serpent’s reach. 15 Then from his mouth the serpent spewed water like a river, to overtake the woman and sweep her away with the torrent. 16 But the earth helped the woman by opening its mouth and swallowing the river that the dragon had spewed out of his mouth. 17 Then the dragon was enraged at the woman and went off to wage war against the rest of her offspring—those who keep God’s commands and hold fast their testimony about Jesus.
Did you ever notice in our catholic culture how, 'Otherworldy', and very , very beautiful Marian Spirituality is? In our art, our music, our poetry and writings? Beauitful certainly but pointing to higher realities, so in the sense not, 'Normal', at all. I have to say in talking to her and looking at her I did not find her , 'Nrmal', at all . Not the least bit, 'Normal'. Jaw dropping. THE VIRGIN Mother! whose virgin bosom was uncrost With the least shade of thought to sin allied; Woman! above all women glorified, Our tainted nature's solitary boast; Purer than foam on central ocean tost; Brighter than eastern skies at daybreak strewn With fancied roses, than the unblemished moon Before her wane begins on heaven's blue coast; Thy Image falls to earth. Yet some, I ween, Not unforgiven the suppliant knee might bend, As to a visible Power, in which did blend All that was mixed and reconciled in Thee Of mother's love with maiden purity, Of high with low, celestial with terrene! William Wordsworth
Several years ago I penned a letter to the Irish News (a local paper in N Ireland) defending our Lady from attack from an atheist who mocked Catholics for worshipping a mythical 'goddess'. I spent hours drafting and writing a response and when it was published it was one of the proudest days of my life. I told our Lady I will defend her honour and I mean it. I am prepared to shed my blood. We cannot honour her enough for in honouring her we honour her Son. "I am the Rose of Sharon, and the Lily of the valleys" -Song of Songs 2:1
