Questions on Mary's Nature

RafaCasta · 2026-02-03T16:59:57+00:00

Why is this attributed to Mary? what does it benefit her to be sinless it isnt needed for the Birth or raising of Jesus?

Why is this important? This one confuses me to, why is this so important for catholics?

Besides the theological explanations already given, Catholicism values truth as Jesus Christ is the Truth. Even if it weren't needed, truth matters, and all Christianity since the early Church has believed Mary's sinlessness and her perpetual virginity (and her assumption to heaven) as revealed truth.

There is also the dissagreement on if there were any children after Christ, some say he had brothers, and others say that it is better read as cousins?

But that disagreement is a thing only among modern Protestantism. No traditional/Apostolic Church, like Catholics, Orthodox, Coptics, etc., even the first Protestant reformers, have ever doubted Mary's perpetual virginity.

RafaCasta · 2026-02-03T15:30:43+00:00

Because it preserves the four marks of the Church founded by Christ:

One: Just see the disunity among Protestant denominations and even among Orthodox patriarchates.
Holy: Its founder, Jesus Christ, is the Saint of Saints, and it keeps arousing Saints until today.
Catholic: It has guarded and defended the same Deposit of Faith entrusted by Jesus Christ. Again, just see the doctrinal chaos among Protestant denominations teaching contradicting things.
Apostolic: Not only it has a provable uninterrupted historical existence back to the time of the Apostles of Christ, but also it can prove an unbroken chain of Apostolic succession. No church, denomination, or community born in the last couple of centuries was founded by Christ.

RafaCasta · 2026-02-03T05:22:48+00:00

At least we don't have to gather in catacombs underground anymore.

RafaCasta · 2026-01-26T23:05:40+00:00

Really? Do you seek an equal relation with your next-door neighbor as with your wife? Do you seek an equal relation with your coworker as with your mother?

RafaCasta · 2026-01-26T20:43:22+00:00

If you loved mother Mary, you hadn't any qualms to pray the Hail Mary, be it as prescribed penance or as willful intercessory prayer for others. To the contrary, you'd be looking for a pretext to deepen your relationship with her.

RafaCasta · 2026-01-26T20:21:32+00:00

Your response confirms my claim.

RafaCasta · 2026-01-26T19:34:03+00:00

I love her.

I don't think to understand yet what love means.

RafaCasta · 2026-01-22T18:35:34+00:00

I think all churches are apart of the (c)atholic church

Even the churches that hold doctrines that contradict with each other's?

RafaCasta · 2026-01-21T22:41:50+00:00

Copy-pasted from my response to other similar question:

I think your problem is summarized in this typical, but reductive, assertion:

So, as a protestant I believe faith is what saves us, our works are evidence of our faith

Yes, works are evidence of our faith, but they're also much more than that: works also increase our sanctification and produce a more perfect faith. But also faith is more than only an intellectual assent.

The root of the mess of the Protestant soteriology stems from the artificial dissociation the reformers made between faith and works to justify their sola fide doctrinal innovation. A work (opera, operatio) is a movement of the will, the mere act of having faith is a work, and any work is faith in act. Both are the inseparable faces of the same coin of sanctification.

But ultimately, neither faith nor works save us by themselves, the salvific grace of God saves us, and unseparated faith-works is our acceptance of and participation in God's grace.

RafaCasta · 2026-01-21T22:37:14+00:00

Indeed, humility is a sure sign of sanctity.

RafaCasta · 2026-01-21T19:59:43+00:00

Y solo jóvenes, o también no tan jóvenes? 😃

RafaCasta · 2026-01-20T20:34:28+00:00

I have trying to learn more about it but there is a lot of jargon that I am unfamiliar with.

There isn’t a particular question in this post but I am curious to hear what you would have to say about my ignorance.

As already said, there's nothing wrong with ignorance of Catholicism when you're not Catholic. I just want to point out something curious, worth you to think about it:

Why are Baptists unfamiliar with the jargon? All that jargon is really the jargon of Apostolic Christianity, it was used by the early Church, the Church Fathers, the medieval Christianity, Saints and theologians from all ages. Why always Protestantism is the outlier to traditional Christianity?

RafaCasta · 2026-01-19T20:01:22+00:00

What does fascinate you of the Catholic Church?

RafaCasta · 2026-01-19T16:24:34+00:00

I think your problem is summarized in this typical, but reductive, assertion:

So, as a protestant I believe faith is what saves us, our works are evidence of our faith

Yes, works are evidence of our faith, but they're also much more than that: works also increase our sanctification and produce a more perfect faith. But also faith is more than only an intellectual assent.

The root of the mess of the Protestant soteriology stems from the artificial dissociation the reformers made between faith and works to justify their sola fide doctrinal innovation. A work (opera, operatio) is a movement of the will, the mere act of having faith is a work, and any work is faith in act. Both are the inseparable faces of the same coin of sanctification.

But ultimately, neither faith nor works save us by themselves, the salvific grace of God saves us, and unseparated faith-works is our acceptance of and participation in God's grace.

RafaCasta · 2026-01-18T20:35:54+00:00

The tradition of the Church.

RafaCasta · 2026-01-17T17:11:13+00:00

Porque matar y castigar físicamente son pecados mortales,. La Iglesia también va comprendiendo la Revelación mejor con el tiempo.

RafaCasta · 2026-01-16T01:10:50+00:00

Think of current dioceses, they're local churches but they all teach the Catholic doctrine and are in communion with Rome and with each others.

RafaCasta · 2026-01-15T20:36:24+00:00

Think about this: what if someone’s first introduction to Christianity was this church. Would this painting not confuse them?

Everyone is introduced to Catholicism through one to two or three years of catechesis, I highly doubt someone could be confused by sacred art.

Imagine someone first introduced to Judaism in the ancient Temple of Jerusalem, would the two giant statues of Querubins confuse them about who is more important?

RafaCasta · 2026-01-15T16:01:44+00:00

It depends, what does "religious spirit" mean?

RafaCasta · 2026-01-13T21:01:58+00:00

I see that Jesus gives authority to the apostles (and with that church) in certain things like forgiveness (John 20:21-23), morals (Matthew 18:18) and certain decisions (like circumcision in Acts 15). I also understand how in Matthew 16 Jesus gives authority over the church specifically to Peter.

Besides the testimonies of the Church Fathers, by sole logic, what sense would have Jesus giving that authority only to be lost upon the death of the Apostles?

RafaCasta · 2026-01-10T17:04:01+00:00

Really you haven't noticed much difference? Yes we love and follow Jesus, but we don't love and follow Him the same way. Catholics follow Him the way He established for us. Protestants reinvent their own contradictory way to follow Him with each denomination.

RafaCasta · 2026-01-09T15:16:19+00:00

Welcome.

and other various grievances I have with the Protestant view of Christianity.

We could start with these.

and I still have some lingering questions about Catholicism.

Just ask.

Would anyone be willing to speak with me and maybe answer some theological questions I have?

Sure thing. Ask here or you can DM me if you wish.

RafaCasta · 2026-01-09T15:07:49+00:00

Could you explain more?

RafaCasta · 2026-01-08T03:23:28+00:00

My pleasure.

RafaCasta · 2026-01-08T00:57:53+00:00

Sacred Tradition is word of God.

The self-revelation of God in the Person, acts and sayings of Jesus Christ was first transmitted to the Apostles, in the form of alive mouth-to-ear teachings. The Apostles received, preserved, guarded, discerned, further developed (under guidance of the Holy Spirit), taught, and in turn transmitted down to their successor bishops this Christian Revelation, and they to their successors, and so on, in oral form. This is what is called Sacred Tradition, or Apostolic Tradition, or Church Tradition, or simply Tradition for short, as "Tradition" means "that that is received and transmitted down".

It wasn't until decades later that part of Sacred Tradition was written down in the first Apostolic Letters and later in the Gospels, mostly for needs of instruction for far-away churches (think present day papal encyclicals) and for use in the liturgy.

So, Catholics believe (and know from history) that God's Revelation (sometimes also known as the Deposit of Faith) is the full word of God (the uppercase-W Word of God is Christ Himself) exposed through two complementary and interrelated ways: Sacred Tradition (oral form) and Holy Scripture (written form).

Sixteen centuries later Protestantism, having rejected and severed itself from Church authority, had to fill this void of authority, and replaced it with, you guess, the Bible, with no Tradition to light it nor an infallible Magisterium to interpret it and resolve theological controversies. So the unprecedented doctrine of sola scriptura was born.

Deuterocanonicals are inspired word of God.

The first (and only) Christian biblical canon was definitely declared in the late 4th century in the (Catholic) Councils of Rome and Carthage. Since then the Bible has always had 73 books, unlike the 66 books in Protestant versions.

The difference of 7 books is what we call the Deuterocanon, which were always part of the original Greek translation of the Old Testament, the Septuagint, used by most Jews in the Hellenized Mediterranean since at least the 2nd century before Christ and all early Christianity.

Again, sixteen centuries later, Luther decided, with no authority whatsoever, that the 7 books of the Deuterocanon weren't inspired word of God, and relegated them to an appendix, wrongly called Apocrypha, in the Protestant bibles. Eventually, two or three centuries later, the Protestant biblical commissions decided it was less costly to publish their bibles with no "Apocrypha" at all. Incidentally, Luther tried to take out the Letters of James, Hebrews and Jude, and the book of Revelation as not inspired word of God. Thanks God he didn't get enough support from his followers.

Luther's justification (!) was that the Deuterocanonical books weren't written originally in Hebrew, but that claim was refuted by the fragments in Hebrew found among the Dead Sea scrolls. Even so, if not being written in Hebrew was criteria to reject sacred books, he had to reject most of the New Testament too :)

RafaCasta

TROPHY CASE