Catholic Veneration of Mary

1. let us agree that Mary is a woman.Catholic doctrine/dogma never states otherwise.

2. Was she highly favored like all the other women of the OT? Ask yourself,Did the other women conceive the Messiah? Most of the highly favored women of the OT were barren and conceieved. Mary was not barren.She was overshadowed by the power of God.The hypostatic union took place.Her spouse was the Holy Spirit.

Note that the angel's salutation preceded Mary's acquiescence. Mary was already highly favored. God's grace was not given in time after Mary accepted the angel's word.

She is like the other women but NOT like the other women because she conceived Jesus and did not have natural relations to conceieve.

3. The angel greeted Mary with God's message.Hail,full of grace. FULL OF. Yes,the martyr Stephen received grace from God. Notice that the grace that is given to Mary and the grace that is given to Stephen is NOT the same. The scripture is clear.

4. Mary is human.She is free from sin because she is saved from sin by her Son's death on the cross. However,she is saved from sin outside of time because God is outside of time.We were redeemed from our sins before we committed them.Mary was conceived free from sin because God created her.Then she was assumed into heaven.This means not by her own power.ONLY JESUS rose from the dead.She was assumed by God because she was free from sin.

5. Genesis tells us that God put enmity between Mary and Satan.This is total enmity.She was either totally for God and without sin at all,or she was a little bit for God and could be a little bit for Satan(with sin)and not have total enmity. It just makes sense to me that the woman who would concieve Jesus(God), be a spouse of the Holy Spirit would not have sin at all.It also makes sense to me that this is possible for God who is outside of time.And it's especially possible because He created His mother. Finally Adam and Eve were created without sin as were the angels.This means that it is possible;God created His creatures without sin.Of course,the fall of Adam and Eve brought sin and death into the world and the sin of Lucifer and the angels banished them from heaven beyond redemption.

6. People say there is nothing in scripture re Mary;or they claim there are a few scant verses.The same could be said about the dogma of the Trinity;but it's there. BTW.There is plenty said in scripture re both Mary and the Trinity.More passages than we think if we just SEE them.

7. Mary is the perfect model for Motherhood.In a culture denigrating the role of motherhood and hell bent on aborting the unborn veneration of Mary is the answer.

ONLY a woman can become a mother. It is something a man can never do. This-motherhood-is how God chose to come into the world and Mary is the woman He created and chose to be His mother.

Or you could say He chose then created. It is Mary and she is promised in Genesis.

8.Jesus and Mary are the book ends of scripture. They are promised in Genesis and  appear in John's vision of Revelation.  

 Then God's temple in heaven was opened, and the ark of his covenant could be seen in the temple. There were flashes of lightning, rumblings, and peals of thunder, an earthquake, and a violent hailstorm.
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. She was with child and wailed aloud in pain as she labored to give birth. Then another sign appeared in the sky; it was a huge red dragon, with seven heads and ten horns, and on its heads were seven diadems. Its tail swept away a third of the stars in the sky and hurled them down to the earth. Then the dragon stood before the woman about to give birth, to devour her child when she gave birth. She gave birth to a son, a male child, destined to rule all the nations with an iron rod. Her child was caught up to God and his throne. The woman herself fled into the desert where she had a place prepared by God, that there she might be taken care of for twelve hundred and sixty days.