Mary

I have not written anything here since I became Catholic, I don’t think. Maybe some of the things I wrote about Mary in the writings of the Reformers was after Easter Vigil.

I cleaned up my blogs quite a bit, which I often do anyway. See, this is kind of where I write out what I am thinking about at the time. After awhile, I am done with a lot of it. So I go through and keep a few things that I still like.

What do I think about Mary now? I am Catholic. What can I say?  Why was the teaching of the Church about Mary suppressed by Protestants?  I can only speculate as to why.

Especially the teaching of the Church about Mary being like the Ark of the Covenant, and Mary being the 2nd Eve.

The parallels are impossible to miss, yet those teachings were pretty much written out of Protestantism.

Yes, and praying the Rosary has become an important part of my devotional life. My understanding of the life of Christ has grown.

Many times I have taught the life of Christ to children. I have read the Gospels too many times to even count.

Praying the Rosary kind of slows one's thoughts down, helping a person to contemplate the wonder, the mystery of Christ’s life. A person is invited to see the life of Jesus through the eyes of His mother.  The artwork that is used to help in this exercise is filled with meaning, telling a story. Each detail is packed with little symbols and signs that point to the reality of Christ’s Incarnation and the role that Mary played in that. Without her, there would have been no Jesus.

Think about it. No, that doesn’t mean she is more important than Christ. Catholics do not worship Mary. However, Mary is what makes Jesus Christ human. That is a huge deal.

I know that Protestants will take offense at this.  Not long ago I would have taken offense, so I can’t blame anyone for that.

Mary, the Free - 3

Children create a mother out of an ordinary woman.
- Janice M. Van Dyck in Finding Frances


I hope I can put into words what I believe about motherhood, and then make a connection to Mary, the mother of our Lord. This subject is probably way beyond me, but is it such a bad thing for a woman's reach to exceed her grasp?

What I think and believe is pretty archaic, really. It is old wisdom. In fact, I believe it is as old as Creation itself, eternal wisdom, even. At this point in my life, I want to sink down further into that Wisdom, into God Himself. Okay, so, I just took a leap, there, but isn't  life about Him, since He is Life itself? Sooner or later the leap has to be made. The alternative is death and deep darkness. So much more could and should be said. I'll just throw that idea out there.

John 14:6
Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.

So, I'll wrap this up for now and say that if you look at Mary, she was a pretty ordinary woman, a woman of her time and circumstance. Here is what she said about herself.:

Luke 1:52

He has brought down the mighty from their thrones

and exalted those of humble estate;


She was talking about all of Israel, and including herself in the category of "those of humble estate."


So, she had no special status in society. Her fiance, and later husband, Joseph, was a construction worker. Now, the idea that Joseph was a construction worker has an historical basis. Sure, maybe he also worked in wood, so he could be called a carpenter. But Galilee where he and Mary lived is not a forested area. What they have are rocks, lots of them. The ruins of the buildings around the Sea of Galilee are made from rocks, not wood. I will try to document what I say, here, but for now, I'll just throw that out there. He was indeed, just an average Joe.  Yes, there is more to their background than what their outward appearance at the time of Roman occupation demonstrated, but outwardly, they were what we might call  humble,  small-town folk, working hard to make a living.

In fact we would not have known anything about her 2,000 years later if it had not been for her Child. It is that Child which made her not just a mother, but the mother and that woman. What woman?

So, I think that Van Dyck's observation about motherhood is right in the sweet spot of capturing the essence of motherhood. A Child turned an ordinary woman into the most important mother of all mothers after Eve, who was the mother of all living.

Mary, the Free - 2

Okay, so just because I think that Evangelicals like me need to talk more about Mary, the mother of our Lord, doesn't mean that I know how to. It is not part of my faith tradition. Yes, we learn facts about her, just like we learn facts about other Bible characters, but we don't know what to do with her otherwise.

I'll start by saying that Mary is probably the exact opposite of evil, Lilith that I have written about. While Lilith is the anti-wife and anti-mother, Mary is an ideal wife and mother who gave herself to the mission God had for her - and she did so beautifully.

Now, I'm going to say something that may be a little controversial. We Evangelicals may think of Mary as a demon, so that's why we don't even talk about the Mary of the Bible.  We accuse Catholics of Mariolatry, and are so smug and Biblical about it. Online, there is website after website, article after article written to expose the dangers of Mary. Well, they may not mean it that way, but that is the way it comes across.

No wonder we don't even want to talk about the Biblical Mary.  Maybe cowardice is part of it. Maybe we don't want to be branded Maryolatrous. So we avoid her, at least for the most part.

I think that is unfortunate. We may be missing out on an important part of our Christian heritage. Read my first post where I gave 3 links to legit Catholic sources where what their Church teaches about Mary is explained. No, I am not in agreement with everything, but I at least owe it to Catholics to acknowledge what they really believe, avoiding straw men arguments.  Anyone can beat the stuffing out of a straw man.


I can talk about the Mary of the Bible without insulting my Catholic friends and loved ones, at least I hope I can. Maybe I can say something that will help someone else, or maybe something that will help me as I look for my mother - which sounds odd to me, too, if anyone reads that and thinks it's odd for me to talk like that.

If anyone is offended, I am truly sorry. That is not my intention at all. If anyone is encouraged to go back to the Bible and take a look at the example our sister, Mary, left for us, then that's a good thing.

More later...

Mary, the Free - 1

Intro.
I think that the traditional Catholic understanding of Mary has some serious flaws, but they get many things  right. What they get right may very well outweigh or at least balance out in both faith and practice what, IMO, they get wrong.  We Evangelicals tend to look at the Virgin Mary as a kind of usurper, even a cover for demonic spirits who would lead us away from pure faith in Christ. We rarely mention her, except when we have to - like at Christmastime when we talk about the Virgin Birth in passing.

The rest of the year, she doesn't get airtime in our churches, except maybe to say that we do not venerate her - whatever that means to us. For all practical purposes, Mary does not exist for us. We are proud of that fact, even. We do not tolerate Mariolatry!  I suspect that Catholics would not tolerate it, either.

I think that we Evangelicals are losing out by ignoring Mary. A proper Biblical understanding of this most blessed of women  may very well be a kind of prophylactic, a protection from demonic spirits - and I am not sure I have that proper understanding. I am just one woman sitting at my dining room table, trying to gain and then put into words a greater understanding of what being a woman in Christ means and how I am supposed to live that out in my life. Maybe someone else reading this will be encouraged to get  to know the Biblical Mary as well. She is not a nobody, after all.

I won't try to explain Catholic dogma, since I am not qualified to do that, obviously. However, here are some links that explain quite clearly what Mary means and does not mean in the Catholic system. Again, I am not in full agreement with what is presented at these websites, but neither am I in agreement with what I will call the standard Evangelical understanding of what Catholicism teaches! Anyway...  I will put my Evangelicalism eyeglasses on and try to explain why I think that we as Evangelicals need Mary more than ever before. If anyone wants to study the Catholic Church's teaching about Mary, these resources are reliable.

Mary is Our Mother

The Blessed Virgin Mary

The following blog post kind of got me thinking about how in our Evangelical faith, Mary doesn't even exist, not even when we talk about motherhood. Ann Voskamp is not more guilty of this kind of oversight than the rest of us. At least Ann spoke beautifully about motherhood, even if she left out the woman, as Elizabeth Scalia gently pointed out.  How did we Evangelicals allow this to happen?

No, I cannot be a Catholic...

Dear Ann Voskamp: Which Mama First Modeled Fluid Beauty?


I am not sure that I can keep calling myself Evangelical, either. Yes, I have no problem identifying with the Evangelicalism of even a couple of decades ago. However, what she is becoming terrifies me.

Some are opting for just plain Christian, but that can mean anything and nothing.

More later...

Magnificat Challenge

Magnificat Challenge

Magnificat Challenge:

Why not take some time to memorize Mary's Song, the Magnificat, in Luke 1:46-56? As you memorize, meditate on all of the qualities of God that Mary mentions in this passage. Notice, too, that Mary focuses her  praise and her attention on God and what He was doing for her. We tend to focus on Mary and what she was thinking and going through at that time in her life. Mary's focus was Godward.

Mary was a great woman of faith. All generations have called her blessed, just as she prophesied in her song. At her young age - some say that she may have been as young as 13 years old - God revealed Himself to her in a spectacular way. Even though she was probably illiterate, she knew about God, and she knew God. That does not mean that Mary was a perfect woman, as some teach. She was also a sinner who rejoiced in God, her Savior. However, in spite of the fact that she shared in the same fallen nature as all mankind, God showed Himself to be correct in the choice He made of a mother for His Son. She is a wonderful example of faith for all believers. She was also a woman of great integrity.  She is my sister in Christ, and I hope someday to meet her face to face in Glory.

Women in our society and in our time have a very different kind of life than the one Mary lived. It is now common for women to get a formal education even beyond the high school level. Many now go to university, when in times past, women were denied such opportunities. I am not against women going to university, though I believe that a college education is way over priced and over rated. Notice, though, that the most blessed of all women who have ever lived did not have any formal education.

Notice that I did not say she was uneducated. Obviously Mary had a deep knowledge of what was  most important. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge, and she feared God.

Proverbs 1:7

English Standard Version (ESV)

7 The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge;

    fools despise wisdom and instruction.

If a Christian woman does not fear the Lord, then all the education in the world will not give her true knowledge. Besides, if in the pursuit of knowledge on a college campus, a woman forgets who she is and what she was made for, then her time and her money have been wasted.  As women, we were created for a purpose.  If we forget that, and just serve the purposes of a secular society, we are in danger of losing ourselves.

Imagine what would have happened if Mary had told God that she was not interested in being the mother of His Son. What if Mary had thought that raising children was not enough of a challenge for women? What if she had decided that motherhood was not for her, and that she wanted to do something greater with her life, even thought God was calling her to be a special mother?

I know that not all women are called to get married, or even to have children of their own.  One of my spiritual mothers was a single woman who believed she was called by God to teach.  I wrote about Miss Harrison awhile back. 

So, God used this wise, yet uneducated young woman, as the mother of our Lord.  In that way she blessed all of us. In a day such as ours that downplays the child-bearing role, and gives a woman effective ways to avoid or curtail pregnancy, where would Mary have fit in? She would not have been elected to public office. She would not have been the CEO of a corporation. She would not have gotten into college, let alone grad school. She would not have been any of the things that post-modern women aspire to. She might be called a baby machine or trailer trash if she were alive today.

So, I think that it would be good for every Christian to memorize this short passage of Scripture. Her wisdom, knowledge of God, faith expressed in simple trust of the One she already knew so well, and her integrity speak to all of us. Take some time to meditate on the lessons learned from Mary's example, too.

I am not saying that a woman should not  get a formal education.  I am not saying that only mothers can be used of God. I am just pointing out that the woman most blessed by God did not have any of the opportunities that we women have in our day, yet she was greatly used by God.  I also think that we Christian women need to make sure that our values are informed by Scripture and the fear of the Lord.

Proverbs 1:7

The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge: but fools despise wisdom and instruction.

Luke 1

Mary’s Song of Praise: The Magnificat (English Standard Version)

46And Mary said,

"My soul magnifies the Lord,

47 and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior,

48for he has looked on the humble estate of his servant.

For behold, from now on all generations will call me blessed;

49for he who is mighty has done great things for me,

and holy is his name.

50And his mercy is for those who fear him

from generation to generation.

51 He has shown strength with his arm;

he has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts;

52 he has brought down the mighty from their thrones

and exalted those of humble estate;

53he has filled the hungry with good things,

and the rich he has sent away empty.

54He has helped his servant Israel,

in remembrance of his mercy,

55 as he spoke to our fathers,

to Abraham and to his offspring forever."

56And Mary remained with her about three months and returned to her home.

The organ at St. Mary's church, Rochester, NY.