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29 Jul 08

Mary: Mother of God

Mary: Mother of God


Fundamentalists are sometimes horrified when the Virgin Mary is referred to as the Mother of God. However, their reaction often rests upon a misapprehension of not only what this particular title of Mary signifies but also who Jesus was, and what their own theological forebears, the Protestant Reformers, had to say regarding this doctrine.

A woman is a man’s mother either if she carried him in her womb or if she was the woman contributing half of his genetic matter or both. Mary was the mother of Jesus in both of these senses; because she not only carried Jesus in her womb but also supplied all of the genetic matter for his human body, since it was through her—not Joseph—that Jesus "was descended from David according to the flesh" (Rom. 1:3).

Since Mary is Jesus’ mother, it must be concluded that she is also the Mother of God: If Mary is the mother of Jesus, and if Jesus is God, then Mary is the Mother of God. There is no way out of this logical syllogism, the valid form of which has been recognized by classical logicians since before the time of Christ.

Although Mary is the Mother of God, she is not his mother in the sense that she is older than God or the source of her Son’s divinity, for she is neither. Rather, we say that she is the Mother of God in the sense that she carried in her womb a divine person—Jesus Christ, God "in the flesh" (2 John 7, cf. John 1:14)—and in the sense that she contributed the genetic matter to the human form God took in Jesus Christ.

To avoid this conclusion, Fundamentalists often assert that Mary did not carry God in her womb, but only carried Christ’s human nature. This assertion reinvents a heresy from the fifth century known as Nestorianism, which runs aground on the fact that a mother does not merely carry the human nature of her child in her womb. Rather, she carries the person of her child. Women do not give birth to human natures; they give birth to persons. Mary thus carried and gave birth to the person of Jesus Christ, and the person she gave birt

www.catholic.com/...Mary_Mother_of_God.asp - Preview

Mary Catholic apologetics

10 Jul 08

Behold Your Mother: A Bouquet of Love to Mary from Her Children

The first Mary Moments Carnival to be held in August!

beholdyourmotherbook.blogspot.com - Preview

catholic Mary

  • The first official Mary Moments Carnival will be here on August 15. The theme is "Great Books about Mary." Submit by August 10, using the online submission form (or, if that won't work for you, email me at peerybingle-at-gmail-dot-com).

    Mary Moments is going to be our chance to sit down together with a cup of tea and reflect on and with our Blessed Mother. You don't have to be Catholic to participate, and you don't even have to have a blog - if you have a post you'd like to submit and you don't have a blog, I would be happy to post them over at just another day of Catholic pondering and link to them there.

    If you have any questions, feel free to email me at peerybingle-at-gmail-dot-com.
01 May 08

Mary in the Early Church and Today

  • One of the oldest catacombs contains a drawing of the Madonna and Child
    dating back to the second century, and the oldest known request to Mary, the
    "Sub Tuum Praesidium", dates back to at least 300 AD!



    We fly to your patronage, O holy Theotokos2;

    despise not our petition in our necessities,

    but deliver us always from all dangers,

    O ever-glorious and blessed Virgin.



    2Means "Godbearer" or Mother of God. This title came into
    Christian use very early. It simply says that she gave birth to Jesus, who any
    Christian will agree is God.

  • There were also feasts in memory of the Assumption of Mary in Antioch dating
    back to 380 A.D.
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