May 1st Thursday

The Truth and Beauty of Mary

Mary
Mary has a very important role given her by God to help us reach our God given potential and
become like Jesus and to protect us from evil and the temptation of the Devil.
Understand Gods plan by sharing his life with us through
Faith
Baptism
Gift of the Holy Spirit
We have become children of God in the family of God. Each member of this family has a
different role to play. Each is called to help the other.
Mary is our spiritual Mother, the Saints are our older brothers and sisters. They help us by
praying for us
interceding for us

Free Will vs. Predestination

Martin Luther and Jean Calvin denied this and rejected the truth that Mary and the saints help
us. Why?
Luthers mistaken idea that:
As a consequence of Original Sin our free will has been destroyed.
Book The Bondage of the Will
If we have no free will, then we cannot cooperate with God for our own good or for the
salvation of others.
God does it all Alone
God alone, Christ alone, Grace alone, Faith alone, Scripture alone
According to Luther there is no free will. Everything is Predetermined (Predestination). You
are either elect or damned. Neither Mary nor the saints nor you can do anything about it.
This idea is wrong.

Holy Family School of Faith

5-3-12

We were made in the Image of God

Intelligence
Freedom
These powers were weakened by Original Sin but not destroyed.
We have free will so we must cooperate with God and we are called to help each other.
Mary and the saints help us from Heaven. In fact, Marys role as our Spiritual Mother is one of
the most powerful gifts God has given us.
Sadly because of Luthers influence we dont study our faith.
Many people miss out on the Benefits of
The Maternal love and care of Mary
They dont reach their potential

5 Truths
5 truths
1. Immaculate Conception
2. Mother of God
3. Ever Virgin
4. Assumption
5. Mother in the Order of Grace

Immaculate Conception
As a consequence of Original Sin we are conceived and born without the Holy Spirit and
Gods Grace in our soul. This is why we need to be baptized.
Mary was preserved from Original Sin by a special Gift of God called the Immaculate
Conception.
First Creation - God began by placing the Holy Spirit in the soul of Eve from the first moment
of her existence.
(Genesis 2:7) God fashioned man from the dust of the earth then he breathed into him the
breath of life
Redemption is a New CreationBehold I make all things new. God begins the New Creation
in the same way, with a New Adam and New Eve.

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Just as God did with Eve God places the Holy Spirit in Mary, the New Eve, from the first
moment of her existence. This is the Immaculate Conception.
(Luke 1:28) Hail full of grace the Lord is with you.
Gabriel says, Mary is full of grace
This phrase full of grace is the English translation of Greek Kecharitomene. The root word
in Kecharitomene is Charis or charity = Gods grace.
Grace is a share in the life of God, you get it by possessing the Holy Spirit.
Full of grace = full of the Holy Spirit
The ke and the omene means it is a perfect passive participle form of Charis.
Perfect:
1. Mary was completely filled with the Holy Spirit
2. From the earliest possible moment
Passive:
1. God filled Mary with the Holy Spirit
2. It was done to her by God
Kecharitomene = God filled Mary with the Holy Spirit from the 1st moment of her existence.
This gift preserved her from Original sin and prepared her to be the Mother of God.

Mother of God
(Luke 1:43) Filled with the Holy Spirit Elizabeth proclaims how is it that the mother of my Lord
should come to me?
Mary is the Mother of Jesus, Jesus is God therefore Mary is the Mother of God. Declaring Mary
as the Mother of God protects the truth about Jesus.
Jesus is one Divine Person with two natures. The two natures are inseparably united in the
One Divine Person of Jesus who is the son of Mary.

Ever Virgin
Virgin before the birth of Christ, during the birth of Christ and always after the birth of Christ.
Why is this Important?

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Perpetual Virginity protects the truth. Jesus is the Son of God the Father not the son of a
human father. As Son of the Father Jesus has no human biological father. He was not
conceived by a man, but by the power of the Holy Spirit.
What about the brothers of Jesus?
(Matthew 12:53 and 13:55) Are not his brothers, James, Joseph, Simon and Jude
(John 19:25) But standing by the cross of Jesus were his mother (Mary), and his mothers
sister Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene.
(Matthew 27:55) There were also many women there, looking on from afar,
who had followed Jesus from Galilee, ministering to him; among them were Mary Magdalene,
and Mary the mother of James and Joseph, and the mother of the sons of Zebedee.
(Mark 15:40) There were also women looking on from afar, among whom were Mary
Magdalene, And Mary the mother of James the younger and of Joses, and Salome,
The mother of James, Joseph, Simon and Jude is Mary, the wife of Cleopas.
The Fathers say Clopas was the brother of Joseph, the adoptive father of Jesus, which would
make James and Joses, Simon and Jude the nephews of Joseph and cousins of Jesus.
In Aramaic and Hebrew there is no word for cousin, all extended family would be
considered a brother or sister.

Assumption
(CCC 966) The Immaculate Virgin, preserved free from all stain of original sin, when the
course of her earthly life was finished, was taken up body and soul into heavenly glory, and
exalted by the Lord as Queen over all things, so that she might be the more fully conformed
to her Son, the Lord of lords and conqueror of sin and death. The Assumption of the Blessed
Virgin is a singular participation in her Sons Resurrection and an anticipation of the
resurrection of all Christians.
The Catholic Church has celebrated the Feast of the Assumption on August 15 in Jerusalem
since the 400s
St. Germanus of Constantinople in a homily given in the year 720 states that Marys
Assumption into heaven was witnessed by the Apostles, who then could confirm the truth
with their authority.

Your departure did not lack witnessesHeaven tells the glory of those who ran to meet you
then; earth presents the truth about it; the clouds cry out the honor they paid you, and the
angels tell of the offering of gifts that was made to you then, when the Apostles were at your
side as you passed away above Jerusalem.
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Our Life, Our Sweetness and Our Hope

The Assumption of Mary should be a sign of great hope for all Christians because it proclaims
in a dramatic fashion what he wants to do for all of us.
Taken up into Heaven, she is not far from us.
John Damascene and the Three Hands
I have experienced her Maternal Care
Our Lady of the Pillar No more questions
Fr Thompson and the 3rd floor
Librarian to help me

Mary is Our Spiritual Mother

Mother in the Order of Grace. How do we know?
(John 19:27) Jesus saw Mary and John standing there
Woman Behold your son
Behold your mother
From that hour he took her for his own
Jesus was making sure John would take care of Mary. Mary the wife of Cleopas was right
there. Jesus was giving (entrusting) John to Mary.
John is called the beloved disciple because we are all the beloved disciple.
Jesus entrusted all of us to Mary Behold your mother
Devotion to Mary is
to live in imitation of Jesus relationship with Mary
That we may become more like him
The Annunciation Luke chapters 1 and 2
Jesus entrusted himself entirely to Mary
As an embryo in her womb
As a little child in her care
John Paul II

Before anyone else it was God himself, the Eternal Father, who entrusted himself to the Virgin
of Nazareth, giving her his own Son in the mystery of the Incarnation. (RM 39)

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Mary cooperated with the Holy Spirit in the birth and development, education and formation
of Jesus with the Holy Spirit, Mary formed Jesus.
Crucifixion (John 19:25-27) Mary becomes the Mother of the Church.
The self-emptying love of Christ poured out from the Cross is the source of the worlds
salvation. Yet, at the Cross Jesus, the New Adam is not alone. Mary, the New Eve, persevered
in union with Him, where she stood united perfectly to His self-emptying.
At the Cross, Mary united her total self-emptying in trust to the redemptive love of Jesus for
the life of the world.
Therefore, the life of grace that flows from the Cross is the fruit of two loves:
1. the all-sufficient redemptive love of Jesus
2. and the maternal love of Mary.
In this way Mary cooperated with Christ to give supernatural life to mankind, the same Life we
receive in the sacraments.
Just as a woman cooperates with God to give natural life to a child and becomes a mother in
the order of nature, likewise, at the Cross, Mary cooperated with God to give the divine life to
all mankind. For this reason she has become our mother in the order of grace.
Jesus proclaimed this fact from the Cross
Woman behold your son
Behold your mother
John represents all disciples of Jesus
At the Cross Jesus entrusts John to Mary
John took her for his own mother (his spiritual mother)
At the Cross Jesus entrusted all of humanity to Mary in the person of John
He extended the maternal role of Mary to all people
Mary is our Mother in the Order of Grace
What does Mary do for us?
What did Mary do for Jesus?
That is what she does for us.
With the Holy Spirit Mary forms us in the likeness of Jesus.
Mary acts as our spiritual mother in two key ways:
1. Interceding on our behalf with God
2. Disposing (influencing) us through her prayer to know and to do Gods will that we
may become like Jesus

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Cana (John 2:1-11)

What should we do? The Church recommends that we:
1. Entrust ourselves to Mary as Jesus did in the Incarnation
2. Live in union with Mary as a little child with his mother
3. Sit at the school of Mary each day in the Rosary
a. Begin meditation with a Hail Mary
b. Pray the Rosary each day
JPII Rosarium 15

The Rosary mystically transports us to Mary's side as she is busy watching over the human
growth of Christ in the home of Nazareth. This enables her to train us and to mold us with the
same care, until Christ is fully formed in us (cf. Gal 4:19).

Holy Family School of Faith

5-3-12