This blog will be the last (4th) blog about why I am a Catholic. Over the past two years I have been studying and searching for the truth in Christianity. I have been praying for Jesus to guide and direct my paths and lead me to the truth and a deep relationship with him. I was born and raised a Catholic but decided that I was not going to just be Catholic because that's how I was brought up, I need to find the truth and own it for myself. I started reading the writings of Early Christians, the reformers, Protestant apologetics, Catholic apologetics, and visiting/attending different Christian Church's. With that being said I think my search is over, I think the Catholic faith is the true Church founded by Jesus himself, and below is why.
The great writer and Christian apologetic GK Chesterton (convert to the Catholic faith) once said "The difficulty of explaining "why I am a Catholic" is that there are ten thousand reasons all amounting to one reason: that Catholicism is true." I will not cover here all the beliefs and doctrine of the Catholic faith, that would take forever. But I will tackle four of the biggest issues, The Eucharist (is it symbolic or is it Christ's actual flesh and blood), the protestant belief of Sola-Scriptura (that the bible alone is our sole authority), protestant belief in Sola-fide (Faith Alone) and the Catholic Church's teaching on Mary.
After studying and researching what the Catholic Church truly teaches I have come to see that Archbishop Fulton Sheen was completely correct when he said "There are not one hundred people in the United States who hate the Catholic Church, but there are millions who hate what they wrongly perceive the Catholic Church to be." I saw a blog titled “Almost not Catholic” and laughed because I came very close to buying into some of the anti-catholic beliefs and propaganda and was myself “almost not Catholic.” Even more so, after reading in depth about why the Church teaches what it teaches I have realized that Sheen was also speaking truly when he said "The Catholic Church is like a lion in a cage. You don't need to defend it, you simply need to open the door." With all this being said I would like to be very clear hear, I am not trying to attack or be negative towards any Christian denominations, I am simply stating why it is that I have come to believe in the Catholic faith. I have a great respect for my brothers and sisters in Christ that are not a part of the Catholic Church. I just think there are a lot of misconstrued views of Catholicism and many people don't understand why we believe what we believe. "There are not one hundred people in the United States who hate The Catholic Church, but there are millions who hate what they wrongly perceive the Catholic Church to be." I will use scripture, the writings of the first Christians, and quotes from converts to the Catholic faith to make my case. It is my prayer that this will at least allow those who are not Catholic to come to a better understanding and respect for the Catholic faith. The fourth blog is about Mary.
Start off by watching this video on the Catholic Churches teaching on Mary. It sums it up and says it in such a simple way and in such a short span of time.
(You may want to click on the Youtube button on the bottom right to enlarge it so you can read it)
What’s the deal with the Hail Mary prayer?
Well let’s break down the prayer.
The first part: “Hail Mary, full of grace the Lord is with you.” Is simply the Bible verse Luke 1:28.
The second part: “Blessed are thou among women and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus.” Is simply the Bible verse Luke 1:42
The third part: “Holy Mary mother of God pray for us sinners now and at the hour of our death.” Is simply stating who Mary is, and asking her to pray for us.
As Catholics we believe in the communion of saints and that we can ask saints and Mary to pray for us, just like I could go to one of my friends and ask him or her to pray for me. This does not take away from Christ, it unites us in Christ.
Mary says in Luke 1:14 that “For behold, from henceforth all generations shall call me blessed.” That’s what praying the Hail Mary does, it calls Mary blessed and fulfills this prophecy she makes in scripture.
What about Mary’s Perpetual Virginity? Doesn’t the Bible say Jesus had brothers?
I mean after all there are numerous times in the Gospels where the brothers of the Lord are mentioned…well let’s examine the facts.
The well-known Protestant linguistic reference An Expository Dictionary of New Testament Words, by W.E. Vine, defines Adelphos as follows:
Adelphos: denotes a brother, or near kinsman; in the plural, a community based on identity of origin or life. It is used of: 1) male children of the same parents . . . ; 2) male descendants of the same parents, Acts 7:23,26; Hebrews 7:5; 3) people of the same nationality, Acts 3:17,22; Romans 9:3 . . . ; 4) any man, a neighbour, Luke 10:29; Matthew 5:22, 7:3; 5) persons united by a common interest, Matthew 5:47; 6) persons united by a common calling, Revelation 22:9; 7) mankind, Matthew 25:40; Hebrews 2:17; 8) the disciples, and so, by implication, all believers, Matthew 28:10; John 20:17; 9) believers, apart from sex, Matthew 23:8; Acts 1:15; Romans 1:13; 1 Thessalonians 1:4; Revelation 19:10 (the word 'sisters' is used of believers, only in 1 Timothy 5:2).
John 19: 26-27
This passage, where Jesus says to John at the foot of the cross “behold your mother” also points to the fact that Mary remained a virgin. What Jesus was essentially doing here is giving his mother into the care of his beloved disciple. If Jesus had other siblings they would assume the role of taking care of the mother. Jesus was the “first born” thus after His death, the next eldest would be assigned to take care of the Mother. This is a fact of how Jewish families worked.
What did the Reformers believe about Mary’s perpetual virginity?
Martin Luther:
When Matthew [1:25] says that Joseph did not know Mary carnally until she had brought forth her son, it does not follow that he knew her subsequently; on the contrary, it means that he never did know her . . . This babble . . . is without justification . . . he has neither noticed nor paid any attention to either Scripture or the common idiom.
{Pelikan, ibid.,v.45:206,212-3 / That Jesus Christ was Born a Jew (1523) }
“Christ . . . was the only Son of Mary, and the Virgin Mary bore no children besides Him . . . I am inclined to agree with those who declare that 'brothers' really mean 'cousins' here, for Holy Writ and the Jews always call cousins brothers.”
{Pelikan, ibid., v.22:214-15 / Sermons on John, chaps. 1-4 (1539) }
John Calvin:
“[On Matt 1:25:] The inference he [Helvidius] drew from it was, that Mary remained a virgin no longer than till her first birth, and that afterwards she had other children by her husband . . . No just and well-grounded inference can be drawn from these words . . . as to what took place after the birth of Christ. He is called 'first-born'; but it is for the sole purpose of informing us that he was born of a virgin . . . What took place afterwards the historian does not inform us . . . No man will obstinately keep up the argument, except from an extreme fondness for disputation.”
{Pringle, ibid., vol. I, p. 107}
“Under the word 'brethren' the Hebrews include all cousins and other relations, whatever may be the degree of affinity.”
{Pringle, ibid., vol. I, p. 283 / Commentary on John, (7:3) }
Zwingli:
“I firmly believe that Mary, according to the words of the gospel as a pure Virgin brought forth for us the Son of God and in childbirth and after childbirth forever remained a pure, intact Virgin.” (Zwingli Opera, Corpus Reformatorum, Berlin, 1905, v. 1, p. 424
Heinrich Bullinger:
'The Virgin Mary . . . completely sanctified by the grace and blood of her only Son and abundantly endowed by the gift of the Holy Spirit and preferred to all . . . now lives happily with Christ in heaven and is called and remains ever-Virgin and Mother of God.'
{In Hilda Graef, Mary: A history of Doctrine and Devotion, combined ed. of vols. 1 & 2, London: Sheed & Ward, 1965, vol.2, pp.14-5
John Wesley:
“The Blessed Virgin Mary, who, as well after as when she brought him forth, continued a pure and unspotted virgin.”
{"Letter to a Roman Catholic" / In This Rock, Nov. 1990, p.25}
Protestants find that even the reformers themselves up held this belief.
What did the First Christians believe about Mary’s perpetual virginity?
Hilary of Poitiers: If they [the brethren of the Lord] had been Mary's sons and not those taken from Joseph's former marriage, she would never have been given over in the moment of the passion [crucifixion] to the apostle John as his mother, the Lord saying to each, "Woman, behold your son," and to John, "Behold your mother" [John 19:26-27], as he bequeathed filial love to a disciple as a consolation to the one desolate (Commentary on Matthew 1:4 [A.D. 354]).
Athanasius: "Let those, therefore, who deny that the Son is by nature from the Father and proper to his essence deny also that he took true human flesh from the ever-virgin Mary" (Discourses Against the Arians 2:70 [A.D. 360]).
Epiphanius: “We believe in one God, the Father almighty, maker of all things, both visible and invisible; and in one Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God . . . who for us men and for our salvation came down and took flesh, that is, was born perfectly of the holy ever-virgin Mary by the Holy Spirit” (The Man Well-Anchored 120 [A.D. 374]).
Jerome: "But as regards Victorinus, I assert what has already been proven from the gospel—that he [Victorinus] spoke of the brethren of the Lord not as being sons of Mary but brethren in the sense I have explained, that is to say, brethren in point of kinship, not by nature." (Against Helvidius: The Perpetual Virginity of Mary 19 [A.D. 383])]
St. Augustine: "It is written (Ezekiel 44, 2): ‘This gate shall be shut, it shall not be opened, and no man shall pass through it. Because the Lord the God of Israel hath entered in by it...’ What means this closed gate in the house of the Lord, except that Mary is to be ever inviolate? What does it mean that ‘no man shall pass through it,’ save that Joseph shall not know her? And what is this - ‘The Lord alone enters in and goeth out by it,’ except that the Holy Ghost shall impregnate her, and that the Lord of Angels shall be born of her? And what means this - ‘It shall be shut for evermore,’ but that Mary is a Virgin before His birth, a Virgin in His birth, and a Virgin after His birth."
Protestants have very little historical precedent for the belief that Mary was not ever virgin besides a handful of 4th century teachers who were generally rejected as heretics.
So what’s the deal with the rosary?
I mean ten Hail Mary’s for every Our Father prayer…seems disproportional! I admit that Mary was a big issue for me for the longest time. And the rosary scared me a little. But that’s because I failed to recognize its purpose and how the entire prayer was centered on Christ.
The Rosary is completely centered on the life of Christ. Depending on which day of the week or what time of year, you say one particular set of mysteries.
The five sets of mysteries are:
The Joyful Mysteries
The sorrowful mysteries
The Luminous mysteries
The glorious mysteries
In each set there are five mysteries for five decades of the rosary. I will paste the sorrowful mysteries below.
The Sorrowful Mysteries
- The Agony in the Garden
Jesus prays in the Garden of Gethsemane on the night before he dies. - The Scourging at the Pillar
Jesus is lashed with whips. - The Crowning With Thorns
Jesus is mocked and crowned with thorns. - The Carrying of the Cross
Jesus carries the cross that will be used to crucify him. - The Crucifixion
Jesus is nailed to the cross and dies.
So for each decade (10 Hail Mary’s) you are meditating on one of the mysteries. Well where does this concept of meditating on the life of Christ through the eyes of Mary come from?
“But Mary kept all these things, and pondered them in her heart.” – Luke 2:19
When you pray the rosary you are simply meditation on the Life of Christ through the eyes of Mary. You are “keeping all these things, and pondering them in your heart” just as she did.
My personal favorite way
to pray it is by scripture. Basically in between each hail Mary in a decade you
read a line of scripture from that mystery. This way you can actually meditate
on one verse per Hail Mary from that mystery. For example, below would be the
set of scripture for the 5th sorrowful mystery, the crucifixion.
THE CRUCIFIXION
Our Father...
1. Jesus said, Father, forgive them, they do not know what they are doing. (Lk. 23:34)
Hail Mary...
Hail Mary...
2. One of the criminals said, "Jesus, remember me You enter upon Your reign". And Jesus replied, "I say unto you; this day you will be with Me in paradise." (Lk 23:42-43)
Hail Mary...
Hail Mary...
3. Seeing His Mother there with the disciple whom He loved, Jesus said to His Mother, "Woman, there is your son." (Jn. 19:26)
Hail Mary...
Hail Mary...
4. In turn, He said to the disciple, "There is your Mother." From that hour onward, the disciple took her into his care. (Jn. 19:27)
Hail Mary....
Hail Mary....
5. Then toward midafternoon, Jesus cried out in a loud tone, "My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?" (Mt. 27:46)
Hail Mary....
Hail Mary....
6. Jesus realizing that everything was now finished, said to fulfill the Scriptures, "I am thirsty." There was a jar there, full of common wine They stuck a sponge soaked in this wine on a stick, and raised it to His lips. (Jn. 19:28)
Hail Mary....
Hail Mary....
7. When Jesus took the wine, He said, "Now it is finished." (Jn. 19:30)
Hail Mary....
Hail Mary....
8. Jesus uttered a loud cry and said, "Father; into Your hands I commend My spirit". After He said this, He expired. (Lk. 23:46)
Hail Mary....
Hail Mary....
9. Darkness came over the whole land until midafternoon with an eclipse of the sun. The curtain in the sanctuary was torn in two. (Lk. 23:44-45)
Hail Mary....
Hail Mary....
10. They took Jesus' body, and in accordance with Jewish burial custom, bound it up in wrappings of cloth with perfumed oils. (Jn. 19:40)
Hail Mary....
Hail Mary....
Glory be to the Father...
0 My Jesus, forgive us our sins...
0 My Jesus, forgive us our sins...
"The Rosary is a way of contemplating the face of Christ, seeing him – we may say – with the eyes of Mary." - John Paul II
Kind of like this song does.
Further Reading:
I highly recommend you read this link below. It is to the first chapter of The Worlds First Love by Archbishop Fulton Sheen. It paints an incredibly beautiful picture of Mary and her role in God's Plan.
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