Great news!! Mary is not needed for anything to the believers walk with God and has NO bearing on salvation.
After giving birth shes pretty much a footnote and has nothing to add to the believers walk
Stop trying to take away from Jesus and add it to mary
Mary conceived and bore Jesus in her womb. He was formed from her genetic material. He derived his human nature from her. She not only carried Jesus in her womb for nine months and gave birth to him, but nurtured him to manhood. For 30 years she had a close, personal and loving relationship with her son, the Son of God as he grew to manhood. What a privilege! She must have helped form his character as he “advanced in wisdom and age and favour before God and man”.
We are told (rightly) to have a personal relationship with Jesus. What an amazing personal and intimate relationship with Jesus must Mary have had.
She carried him in her womb for 9 months
She gave birth to him
She fed him at her breasts.
She changed his nappies (diapers)
She bathed him.
As he grew up she cooked his food
She washed his clothes
She cleaned his grazed knees
She made his bed.
She gave him uncountable hugs and kisses
She instigated his first great sign (miracle) at Cana
She was there at his death.
“Blessed are you among women” said Elizabeth. “For behold, henceforth all generations will call me blessed”, said Mary, to which we can say Amen.
Marian doctrines and titles are not defined to glorify Mary but to protect our understanding of Jesus.
“What the Catholic faith believes about Mary is based on what it believes about Christ, and what it teaches about Mary illumines in turn its faith in Christ.” (Catechism of the Catholic Church, para 487)
1. We believe that Mary is the Mother of God because her son was truly God. We thereby affirm that Jesus one divine person with two natures, human and divine.
2. We believe that Mary was conceived without sin because the son she was to conceive was the all Holy God. The immaculate conception enabled her to be holy and perfect so that she would be a worthy mother to bear the all Holy Son of God. We then affirm that Jesus was conceived as perfect man and was the perfect Saviour.
3. The Virgin Birth shows God’s initiative and action in Mary conceiving Jesus by the power of the Holy Spirit. In turn it affirms that Jesus has both a human and a divine nature.
4. Mary was the second Eve because Jesus was the second Adam. It demonstrates the generosity of Christ in involving a woman in the redemption of mankind.
5. We describe Mary as the Ark of the new Covenant. We thereby affirm that Jesus in her womb was the Word made flesh, the great high priest, the bread of life, who established a new covenant.
6. She could be assumed into heaven only because Jesus rose from the dead. Her assumption was a demonstration of the resurrection he promised us.
7. She is the Queen of heaven because Jesus is the King of kings and her Queenship affirms that Jesus is of the royal line of David.
8. When we accept Mary as our mother we affirm that Jesus is our brother. and we are “one body” with him.
There is an old Catholic saying "Abandoning the Mother is one step from abandoning the Son".
Or as an Orthodox put it “To ignore the Mother means to misinterpret the Son”.
As long as we profess these truths about Mary, we are safeguarded from denying truths about Jesus Christ.
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The early reformers, such as Luther, Calvin and Zwingli held Mary in high honour and affirmed the doctrines of her being the Mother of God and Ever Virgin.
For example:
Martin Luther
“There can be no doubt that the Virgin Mary is in heaven. How it happened we do not know.” (Cole, William J,
The Works of Martin Luther, 10, p. 268.)
“The veneration of Mary is inscribed in the very depths of the human heart.” (Pelikan, J (ed),
The Works of Martin Luther, Concordia: St. Louis, volume 10, III, p.313)
“But the other conception, namely the infusion of the soul, it is piously and suitably believed, was without any sin, so that while the soul was being infused, she would at the same time be cleansed from original sin and adorned with the gifts of God to receive the holy soul thus infused. And thus, in the very moment in which she began to live, she was without all sin..." (Pelikan, J (ed),
The Works of Martin Luther, Concordia: St. Louis, volume 4, 694)
“She is rightly called not only the mother of the man, but also the Mother of God ... It is certain that Mary is the Mother of the real and true God." (Pelikan, J (ed),
The Works of Martin Luther, Concordia: St. Louis, volume 24, 107.)
“It is an article of faith that Mary is Mother of the Lord and still a Virgin." (Pelikan, J (ed),
The Works of Martin Luther, Concordia: St. Louis, volume 11, 319-320)
“Is Christ only to be adored? Or is the holy Mother of God rather not to be honoured? This is the woman who crushed the Serpent's head. Hear us. For your Son denies you nothing.” (Pelikan, J,
Op. Cit., Volume 51, 128-129.)
John Calvin
"Elizabeth called Mary Mother of the Lord, because the unity of the person in the two natures of Christ was such that she could have said that the mortal man engendered in the womb of Mary was at the same time the eternal God.” (Calvin, J,
Opera, Braunshweig-Berlin, 1863-1900, Volume 45, 35.)
“Helvidius has shown himself too ignorant, in saying that Mary had several sons, because mention is made in some passages of the brothers of Christ.” (Leeming, Bernard, “Protestants and Our Lady”,
Marian Library Studies, January 1967, p.9.)
“It cannot be denied that God in choosing and destining Mary to be the Mother of his Son, granted her the highest honour.” (Calvin, J,
Op. Cit., Volume 45, 348.)
“To this day we cannot enjoy the blessing brought to us in Christ without thinking at the same time of that which God gave as adornment and honour to Mary, in willing her to be the mother of his only-begotten Son.” (Calvin, J,
A Harmony of Matthew, Mark and Luke, Edinburgh: St Andrew’s Press, 1972, p.32)
Ulrich Zwingli
“It was given to her what belongs to no creature, that in the flesh she should bring forth the Son of God.” (Zwingli, U,
In Evangelii Lucae, Opera Completa, Zurich, 1828-42, Volume 6, I, 639.)
"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, U,
Opera, Corpus Reformatorum, Volum 1, 424.)
“I esteem immensely the Mother of God, the ever chaste, immaculate Virgin Mary.” (Stakemeier, E, in
De Mariologia et Oecumenismo, Balic, K (ed), Rome, 1962, p.456.)
“Christ ... was born of a most undefiled Virgin.” .” (Stakemeier, E, in
De Mariologia et Oecumenismo, Balic, K (ed), Rome, 1962, p.456.)
“It was fitting that such a holy Son should have a holy Mother.” .” (Stakemeier, E, in
De Mariologia et Oecumenismo, Balic, K (ed), Rome, 1962, p.456.)
“The more the honour and love of Christ increases among men, so much the esteem and honour given to Mary should grow.” (Zwingli, U,
Opera, Corpus Reformatorum, Volume 1, 427-428..)
All quotations and references from
www.romanchristendom.blogspot.co.uk/2012/12/rorate-caeli.html, though the page does not seem to be available now as blog pages disappear.
It was only later reformers that started to deny these and remove Mary from their theology. However to do so limits our understanding of Christ. As an Orthodox put it:
There is no room for the Mother of God in a "reduced Christology." Protestant theologians simply have nothing to say about her. Yet to ignore the Mother means to misinterpret the Son. On the other hand, the person of the Blessed Virgin can be properly understood and rightly described only in a Christological setting and context. Mariology is to be but a chapter in the treatise on the Incarnation, never to be extended into an independent "treatise." Not, of course, an optional or occasional chapter, not an appendix. It belongs to the very body of doctrine. The Mystery of the Incarnation includes the Mother of the Incarnate. Sometimes, however, this Christological perspective has been obscured by a devotional exaggeration, by an unbalanced pietism. Piety must always be guided and checked by dogma. Again, there must be a Mariological chapter in the treatise on the Church. But the doctrine of the Church itself is but an "extended Christology," the doctrine of the "total Christ," totus Christus, caput et corpus.