Catholics, what is your evidence of...?

Question

I don't mean to make anyone upset. I am really trying to understand something. I have a friend who is Catholic and simply gave me the "The church said it, so it's right." answer.

So, perhaps people here can help me. What is the evidence of the assumption of the Virgin Mary, the Perpetual Virginity, and the Immaculate Conception? I really mean no disrespect. I am really just curious to see how this teaching came along being that it is one of the major things that divides the Catholic and Protestant sects of Christianity.

Answer 1

First of all there is never much evidence of miracles.

+ Immaculate Conception +

When the angel Gabriel called Mary, "Full of grace," Mary was already full of grace.

When the angel Gabriel said, "The Lord is with you," the Lord was already with her.

The Blessed Virgin Mary was in a state of grace before she said "yes" to the angel's question and before the Holy Spirit came upon her for a different purpose.

When did Mary's state of grace begin?

Catholics believe this state of grace was with Mary since her Immaculate Conception. This means that Mary was conceived in the normal way (not like Jesus) but that she did not inherit original sin.

God prepared her for her later role as the mother of Jesus.

+ The Assumption +

John 19:26-27 states:

When Jesus saw his mother and the disciple there whom he loved, he said to his mother, "Woman, behold, your son." Then he said to the disciple, "Behold, your mother." And from that hour the disciple (John) took her into his home.

The minutes of the Ecumenical Council of Ephesus in 431 C.E. indicate that four or six years after the death and resurrection of Jesus, John and the Virgin Mary came together to Ephesus, and for a short time stayed in the building, a section of which is now under Church of the Virgin Mary today.

Later John moved the Virgin Mary to a house he had prepared for her on Bulbul Dagi (Bulbul Hill). She lived there until the end of her earthly life.

St. John of Damascus (P. G., I, 96) later wrote:

St. Juvenal, Bishop of Jerusalem, at the Council of Chalcedon (451), made known to the Emperor Marcian and Pulcheria, who wished to possess the body of the Mother of God, that Mary died in the presence of all the Apostles, but that her tomb, when opened, upon the request of St. Thomas, was found empty; wherefrom the Apostles concluded that the body was taken up to heaven.

http://www.turktour.com/virgin_mary.html
http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/02006b.htm

+ Sources of Doctrine +

I have much more to tell you, but you cannot bear it now. But when he comes, the Spirit of truth, he will guide you to all truth. He will not speak on his own, but he will speak what he hears, and will declare to you the things that are coming. (John 16:12-13)

The Catholic Church does not use Holy Scripture as the only basis of doctrine. It could not. The early Catholic church existed before and during the time that the New Testament was written (by Catholics).

There were hundreds of Christian writings during the first and second centuries. Which New Testament writings would become official was not fully decided until about 400 C.E.

Catholics believe that the Holy Spirit was guiding the early church (and is guiding the church today) to make the correct choices about things like:
+ The Holy Trinity (which is also only hinted at in the Bible)
+ Going to church on Sunday instead of Saturday (which is actually directly against one of the Ten Commandments)
+ The Communion of Saints
+ Which writings include in the New Testament?

Things that are even more modern like
+ Slavery is bad. Slavery is never declared evil in the Bible. This was one of the justifications for slavery in the Confederate States.
+ Democracy is good. The Bible states that either God should be the leader of the nation like Israel before the kings or kings should be the leader, "Give to Caesar that which is Caesar's." This was talked about a lot during the American Revolution.

This second source of doctrine is called Apostolic Tradition.

Do Christians who do not allow the continuing guiding force of the Holy Spirit to make their beliefs more and more perfect, still endorse slavery as Colossians 3:22 commands, "Slaves, obey your human masters in everything"?

Therefore, brothers, stand firm and hold fast to the traditions that you were taught, either by an oral statement or by a letter of ours. (2 Thessalonians 2:15)

We instruct you, brothers, in the name of (our) Lord Jesus Christ,to shun any brother who conducts himself in a disorderly way and not according to the tradition they received from us. (2 Thessalonians 3:6)

I praise you because you remember me in everything and hold fast to the traditions, just as I handed them on to you. (1 Corinthians 11:2)

For more information, see the Catechism of the Catholic Church, sections 80 and following: http://www.usccb.org/catechism/text/pt1sect1chpt2.htm#80

+ With love in Christ.

Answer 2

There is evidence that after the birth of Jesus Mary had other Children with her husband Joseph, thus she was no longer a Virgin, the Roman Catholics hold her as a virgin and worship and reverence her in spite of the clear command in the Bible not to. You see the Roman Catholics were for many centuries forbidden to read the Bible except for the things the Priest told them, and the Priest was not allowed to tell them anything that contradicted the Papal Edicts also called Papal Bull.

Answer 3

Assumption of Mary: recorded by the apostles who witnessed it and always believed to be true. In recent years, the doctrine was written down and codified so that any arguments about it would be moot, but we've always known it to be true.

Perpetual Virginity: for this, you have to understand that Mary and Joseph were not 21st century Christians; they were 1st century Jews. Then go back and read the Old Testament about the Ark of the Covenant and the Most Holy Place (or Holy of Holies in some translations). Mary and Joseph would have understood her womb to be the new Ark of the Covenant, and so sexual relations would have been out of the question. Other evidence from Scripture: The Bible never says Mary and Joseph had sex, although it does record other couples having sex. The Bible also does not record Mary giving birth to other children, and if she had, where were they in Luke 2 when Mary and Joseph left the safety of the caravan to return to Jerusalem to look for Jesus? It wouldn't have been possible for them to do that with lots of littler kids in tow. Also, in Luke 1, the angel tells Mary she is about to have a baby. She answers, "How can this be?" A girl who is about to be married and have sex would know how this could be. The only reason she would be asking this if she was in a situation that she was not going to be having sex. Ever. So that leads one to conclude that Mary was consecrated to the temple to work and pray there (like Anna in Luke 2, who went to live and work in the temple after she was widowed). Because her parents were elderly, the temple priests would have arranged a ceremonial marriage for her to be provided for and protected by a trustworthy man of the faith. This would have been Joseph, an older, widowed man who already had children and could provide for Mary in this ceremonial arrangement.

Immaculate Conception: Luke 1, the angel greets Mary as "You who have Been Most Favored by God." (Read it in Greek to get the correct tense and grammatical structure.) This means Mary has already received the most favor of God, which is the Grace of Absolution won by Christ on the Cross (doesn't matter that it didn't happen yet because God is eternal). If Mary received this gift of salvation BEFORE the angel encountered her, one has to ask, "when?" And because the Bible does not indicate any special event where this took place, it must not have been within Mary's memory (as Luke tells all that she remembers, including information that is not in the other gospels, which means Luke must have spoken with Mary to get the info). If it happened before her memory, it had to happen at birth or before birth. It just makes sense that it would happen upon conception.

Answer 4

The Feast of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, 15 August; also called in old liturgical books Pausatio, Nativitas (for heaven), Mors, Depositio, Dormitio S. Mariae.

This feast has a double object: (1) the happy departure of Mary from this life; (2) the assumption of her body into heaven. It is the principal feast of the Blessed Virgin.

http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/02006b.htm

In support of his preference of virginity to marriage, Jerome argues that not only Mary but Joseph also remained in the virgin state (19); that, though marriage may sometimes be a holy estate, it presents great hindrances to prayer (20), and the teaching of Scripture is that the states of virginity and continency are more accordant with God's will than that of marriage (21, 22).

http://www.newadvent.org/fathers/3007.htm

In the Constitution Ineffabilis Deus of 8 December, 1854, Pius IX pronounced and defined that the Blessed Virgin Mary "in the first instance of her conception, by a singular privilege and grace granted by God, in view of the merits of Jesus Christ, the Saviour of the human race, was preserved exempt from all stain of original sin."

http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/07674d.htm

Answer 5

there is no divide over His Immaculate conception among Christians. Either Catholic or Protestant.
There is no scripture that says Mary was assumed to Heaven. Actually Just as Jesus said John took her as his mother and cared for her until she died and then took her body to Jerusalem and buried her in Gethsemane.

Answer 6

The most ancient tradition is that she "fell asleep" some years after her stay with St. John the Evangelist in Jerusalem and Ephesus (modern Turkey), and before his exile at Patmos. All we know about Our Lady's death and Assumption can be summed up in this bit of history written by St. John of Damascus (b. A.D. 676):

St. Juvenal, Bishop of Jerusalem, at the Council of Chalcedon (A.D. 451), made known to the Emperor Marcian and Pulcheria, who wished to possess the body of the Mother of God, that Mary died in the presence of all the Apostles, but that her tomb, when opened, upon the request of St. Thomas, was found empty; wherefrom the Apostles concluded that the body was taken up to heaven.

It is said that her otherwise empty tomb was filled with roses and lilies. It is the ancient tradition of the Church that she "died" of love and was then taken up into Heaven by the power of God. In any case, there was no sickness beforehand, as she was not heir to the consequences of original sin, such as sickness, disease and natural mortality. Some Catholics believe she was assumed into Heaven while still alive; this may be safely believed as the Church has never made any solemn definitions on the matter.

Answer 7

I can't give you hard evidence but I can't give you some of the reasoning behind it.

The assumption, also refered to sometimes as the dormition, and was just celebrated on the 15th of August, basically refers to the fact that Mary, the mother of Jesus, did not die. The reason is because Mary was free from sin, and sin is what cuases death. In the immaculate conception Mary was preserved from original sin, and she did not sin throughout her life. Therefore, she did not have to die.

Perpetual Virginity - you'll have to read up on this one. All I can say is that no other children of Mary were mentioned in the bible, and given that she was kind of important to the story, you think other children of hers would have been mentioned. If you look at the writings of the early church fathers this was something that was always assumed, and later confirmed by the church

Immaculate conception, which refers to the fact that Mary was preserved from original sin, makes sense because she had to be free of sin in order to give birth to Jesus. If Jesus was going to get His humanity from her, it had to be perfect.

Your friend is right in saying "because the church said so". We know from sacred scripture and tradition that Jesus gave His church the gift of infallibility. This means that on matters of faith and morals the church is protected from error. All of the above mentioned concepts have been infallibly declared as truth by the office of the Pope.

God bless

Answer 8

Easy. What is your evidence of any element of faith of any religion?

What kind of evidence do you wish for us (Catholics) to present?

The division of Catholics and Protestants is a question of authority. Catholics have the authority of the Magesterium and Protestants have "The Bible". Of course, "The Bible" is being interpreted by THOUSANDS of Protestant denominations and non denominations independently.

Faith is first before embarking on religious study. So here is the summary of the answer:

"Faith is the realization of what is hoped for and evidence 2 of things not seen." Hebrews 11:1

Answer 9

+PAX

At the end of the Gospel of John, he writes that there were many other things that occurred that he did not write down.

At the crucifixion, Jesus turned his Mother over to St. John for care for the rest of her life. Had he any true brothers or sisters, they would have cared for her, not St. John. But even on the cross, Jesus loved her so much that he made arrangements for her as any good Jewish son would do.

It is a matter of tradition handed down, mouth to mouth, from those who were there, St John being one, for 2000 years.

To correct some of the incorrect statements, Mary is the Immaculate Conception, not Jesus.

We do not worship anyone over the Father, Son or Holy Spirit. We are redeemed by Jesus' life, death and resurrection, nothing else.

We do not pray to statues or pictures.

The Catholic Church was begun by Jesus himself when he gave the keys of the Kingdom to St. Peter, the first Pope.

The Catholic Church did not remove anything from the Bible. During the reformation, the new Protestants removed several books from the Bible believing them not to be Divinely inspired.

Benedicite,
J

Answer 10

I don't think I could say it more eloquently than Jeanette_Benedicta.

Mary is the Immaculate Conception who was filled with grace from her first moments, she is the Ark of the New Covenant and the New Eve.

Mary was assumed into Heaven by the power of God, where she was crowned Queen of Heaven .




Her soul magnifies the Lord (Luke 1:46-55)!


Think of what that means :)

Answer 11

Our beliefs go back to the very days of Jesus. We don't change things just to be different.

There are over 30,000 Protestant groups that all believe in different variations of the original Catholic Theology. (we were all Catholic until about 1600)

A better question would be to ask Protestants where there evidence or authority comes from. We all have to look to others to help us understand all of the scriptures, I just prefer to go back to the start.

I mean no disrespect to Protestants, I was one for many years. I still have very good friends that are Protestant.

For me, after 20 years of searching, I found a more complete faith in the Catholic Church.

Peace be with you!

P.S. to the lady above me, we do not put saints above Jesus. My goodness, if some people would learn our ACTUAL beliefs instead of repeating lies about us we could have meaningful dialog. I don't mind questions, but un-informed statements like the one above are divisive. If you don't know what you are talking about, don't pretend to.

If you want to learn, get a copy of the Catechism of the Catholic Church, it has our beliefs in them and where they are backed up by scripture. I 100% Guarantee that you will NOT find in there that we Place Saints higher than Jesus, or even on the same level as Jesus, we also do not believe that Mary (or the saints) are our redeamer.

P.S. Congraduations on your engagement, may God Bless you and your Husband to be!