We hear of Mary having many names and titles like:
Our Lady of Lourdes, Our Lady of Fatima, Our Lady of
Guadalupe, Our Lady of Mount Carmel, The Immaculate
Conception, the Seat of Wisdom, the House of Gold,
and many more. All these names and titles refer to
one and the same person - Mary of Nazareth. Catholicism
refers to Mary in many ways but all these ways refer to
her as the Mother of Jesus - the great Mother of God
whom all Catholics honor and venerate but not worship.
Without our knowledge of Mary, Jesus would only be
a mythic figure coming from nowhere. The gospel image
of a real baby in the arms of Mary tells us that Jesus
was incarnated as man in the womb of a virgin. That
gospel image is often celebrated every Christmas season
and never fails to touch our human hearts with joy,
peace and a strong sense of family.
Mary in the New Testament
Mary is mentioned in all of the four gospels. It is however
in the gospel of Luke where she is mentioned more:
she assented to be the Mother of God upon
announcement of the angel Gabriel that God's favor
rests well on her [Luke 1:26-38]
she is a virgin: "one who does not know man" - with
the term "know man" as connotating sexual relations
[Luke 1:34]
she visited her cousin Elizabeth to help her since
Elizabeth was also with child but in her old age
[Luke 1:39-56]
she gave birth to Jesus in Bethlehem with simple
shepherds paying homage to the Babe in the manger [Luke 2:1-20]
she, together with Joseph, presented Jesus in
the Temple to be consecrated to God [Luke 2:21-40]
with Joseph, she sought and found the child Jesus
in the Temple - speaking words of wisdom with the
elders there [Luke 2:41-52]
she and some of Jesus' relatives were considered
part of a greater family for Jesus: "those who hear the
word of God and do God's will" [Matthew 12:46-50]
she was also instrumental in solving the problem
in the wedding of Cana [John 2:1-11]
she, two other women, and the disciple John, stood
by Jesus at the foot of the cross [John 19:25-27]
after the resurrection and ascension of Jesus, Mary
waited together with the apostles and disciples for
the coming of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost [Acts 1:14]
These are some of the references to Mary in the New Testament.
There are many more and all of them help us give a gospel
image of who Mary is as a person. A good book that will
help us understand this gospel image of Mary is "Mary
in the New Testament", edited by Raymond E. Brown, Karl
P. Donfried, Joseph A. Fitzmyer, and John Reumann.
Mary's Assumption into heaven
The dogma or doctrine on the assumption of Mary to heaven
teaches that Mary has been taken body and soul - her full
humanity - to heaven where she receives the full and eternal
vision of God. Catholic tradition does not say that she
did not die, only that she has already received what we will
also all receive in fitting degree when we are also finally
brought to the Father. This article of faith on the assumption
of Mary is not in the Bible. There is an apocryphal account
of it in the Transitus Beatae Mariae of Pseudo-Melito,
but it is not considered inspired text like the Bible. In
Catholic faith, when the Bible is silent or ambiguous on
a certain event or person, the Church often sources out
the truth in Sacred Tradition (the unwritten word of God).
And a lot that was discussed on the truth of the Assumption
of Mary were taken from Sacred Tradition. However, although
not a full reference, the Church maintains that there is a
biblical allusion to the assumption of Mary in the passage
of Apocalypse 12:1 - "A great sign appeared in the sky,
a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet,
and on her head a crown of twelve stars."
The Immaculate Conception
This dogma is one of the most Catholic and sometimes misunderstood
article of faith in Catholicism. This article of faith is found
within the text of the gospel account of the Annunciation of the
angel Gabriel to Mary. Catholics believe greatly in the Immaculate
Conception - meaning that from the moment of Mary's conception
in the womb of her mother, St. Ann, Mary was kept free from
original sin by the power of divine grace. Since she was to
bear the Son of God, it is but fitting that the womb that will
conceive and bear Him, is pure and completely untainted with
any trace of sin. Thus is she titled, the Immaculate Conception.
Mary continued to remain sinless throughout her life. Since
she did not have original sin (the sin all mankind inherits
upon conception because of the disobedience to God of Adam
and Eve), she did not deserve to suffer the consequences of it,
so at the end of her life, she was assumed in her full humanity
by God into heaven.
Devotion to Mary
Devotions are traditional forms of prayers that are not part
of the Mass. They can be public or private - expressing love
for God and neighbor personified in Mary and the saints. One
form of devotion to Mary is the praying of the holy rosary.
The holy rosary is made up of decades of beads to represent
the four mysteries (joyful, sorrowful, light, and glorious)
of the Christian faith which sum up the life of Jesus and
Mary's participative role in it. Another form of devotion
to Mary is the May crowning. May is the month of honoring
Mary for Catholics. Traditionally, Catholic parishes pick
one day in May to host a devotion called a May crowning.
On this day a young girl is chosen to place a crown of
roses on a statue of Mary which is sometimes carried in
a procession around the neighborhood. All those in attendance
sing hymns and pray the rosary. Other devotions to Mary
include: the First Saturdays devotion, the pilgrimages to
Marian shrines all over the world, and the honoring of
Marian apparitions through scapulars and medals.
Summary and conclusion
Except for Jesus, Mary, throughout the ages is the subject
of many poems, hymns, statues, icons, paintings, treatises,
and sermons than any other in all human history. To understand
why Catholics are so affectionate and attached to the Mother of
God, we just have to look at the most primal of all emotions:
the bond between a mother and her child. Catholic devotion to
Mary is really just a logical extension of the strong bond
of a child's personal relationship with his own mother.
We hear of Mary having many names and titles like:
Our Lady of Lourdes, Our Lady of Fatima, Our Lady of
Guadalupe, Our Lady of Mount Carmel, The Immaculate
Conception, the Seat of Wisdom, the House of Gold,
and many more. All these names and titles refer to
one and the same person - Mary of Nazareth. Catholicism
refers to Mary in many ways but all these ways refer to
her as the Mother of Jesus - the great Mother of God
whom all Catholics honor and venerate but not worship.
Without our knowledge of Mary, Jesus would only be
a mythic figure coming from nowhere. The gospel image
of a real baby in the arms of Mary tells us that Jesus
was incarnated as man in the womb of a virgin. That
gospel image is often celebrated every Christmas season
and never fails to touch our human hearts with joy,
peace and a strong sense of family.