The Year of the Bible: "Hail Full of Grace........"
I was taught in my school to say the Rosary. When it came to the Rosary I said "Hail Full of Grace....." When the passage in scripture from Luke was recited the priest read "Hail full of Grace......." Today in Church the priest reads "Hail, highly favoured one......" So why in a Catholic Church have we ignored Tradition and why do we read a Protestant translation?
When I say Tradition I am not just saying "Well Catholics for generations have said "Hail, full of grace" so maybe they were wrong and we just changed the words, it is no significant loss. But in Tradition it is a very significant loss. I have a Revised Standard Version of the Bible, A Catholic translation. If we go to Luke 1 it tells us that the Angel Gabriel said "Hail full of grace....." but it has a small 'a' beside it, and if we go to the foot of the page we see that 'a' draws our attention to an alternative translation. Yes, you probably guessed it, "Hail, highly favoured one......." Yes, I must agree that it is an alternative translation, an apology to Protestant readers and Modenists within the Church
But what am I talking about when I say that "Hail, full of Grace...." is in accordance with tradition. I am saying that Luke understood what he was writing was of theological importance to the Church in his time. Mary was born free from any stain or weakness of sin, she was faithful to God and kept her soul immaculate. she was born full of the graces that Eve had been given But Eve had been unfaithful and lost those graces, but Mary remained faithful and sinless Full of Grace.
In the early Church Mary was called the New Eve, and contrasted with the Eve who was unfaithful to God. But Eve had been unfaithful to God, and death was brought to her children, however the new Eve, was faithful to God and because of her obedience became a mother not just to Jesus, but to all who would be baptised in the Holy Spirit. Mary's obedience came from the many graces she received at birth so that she was worthy to be the Mother of God as the Church proclaimed at the Council of Ephesus in the fourth century.
St Ephraim the Syrian A.D. 370 You alone and your mother ar more beautiful than any others For there is no blemish upon you nor any stain on your mother. Who of my children can compare in beauty to these?
The Key to understanding Mary is found in that when Jesus was claimed as the New Adam, then Mary was identified by the Church Fathers as the New Eve. But whereas the old Eve had been tempted into sin by the Serpent, Mary the New Eve remained faithful and obedient to God. It was also noted that when she conceived she did so without pain. In Genesis one of the graces lost was that from then women would conceive in pain as a result of the original sin. But Mary was free from that curse - a new creation. How could the Fathers know this? For many years after the death and resurrection of Christ Mary lived with the new Church, and probably explained this grace and the many others that made her immaculate were given to her because she had to be a fitting mother for our Saviour. For though his soul and his two natures came from God, His body came from her.
St Justin Martyr AD 155 Jesus became man by the virgin so that the course that was taken by disobedience in the beginning through the agency of the serpent might also be the course by which it was put down. Eve a virgin and undefiled conceived the word of the serpent and bore disobedience and death. But the virgin Mary received faith and joy when the Angel Gabriel announced to her the glad tidings that the spirit of the Lord would come upon her and the power of the Most High would overshadow her, for which reason the holy one born to her would be the Son of God. And she replied "Behold the handmaid of the Lord , be it done unto me according to your word".
"and why should the mother of my saviour visit me?" Luke 1
"My should doth MAGNIFY the Lord .... for he the is Mighty has one great things for me" Luke 1
When I say Tradition I am not just saying "Well Catholics for generations have said "Hail, full of grace" so maybe they were wrong and we just changed the words, it is no significant loss. But in Tradition it is a very significant loss. I have a Revised Standard Version of the Bible, A Catholic translation. If we go to Luke 1 it tells us that the Angel Gabriel said "Hail full of grace....." but it has a small 'a' beside it, and if we go to the foot of the page we see that 'a' draws our attention to an alternative translation. Yes, you probably guessed it, "Hail, highly favoured one......." Yes, I must agree that it is an alternative translation, an apology to Protestant readers and Modenists within the Church
But what am I talking about when I say that "Hail, full of Grace...." is in accordance with tradition. I am saying that Luke understood what he was writing was of theological importance to the Church in his time. Mary was born free from any stain or weakness of sin, she was faithful to God and kept her soul immaculate. she was born full of the graces that Eve had been given But Eve had been unfaithful and lost those graces, but Mary remained faithful and sinless Full of Grace.
In the early Church Mary was called the New Eve, and contrasted with the Eve who was unfaithful to God. But Eve had been unfaithful to God, and death was brought to her children, however the new Eve, was faithful to God and because of her obedience became a mother not just to Jesus, but to all who would be baptised in the Holy Spirit. Mary's obedience came from the many graces she received at birth so that she was worthy to be the Mother of God as the Church proclaimed at the Council of Ephesus in the fourth century.
St Ephraim the Syrian A.D. 370 You alone and your mother ar more beautiful than any others For there is no blemish upon you nor any stain on your mother. Who of my children can compare in beauty to these?
The Key to understanding Mary is found in that when Jesus was claimed as the New Adam, then Mary was identified by the Church Fathers as the New Eve. But whereas the old Eve had been tempted into sin by the Serpent, Mary the New Eve remained faithful and obedient to God. It was also noted that when she conceived she did so without pain. In Genesis one of the graces lost was that from then women would conceive in pain as a result of the original sin. But Mary was free from that curse - a new creation. How could the Fathers know this? For many years after the death and resurrection of Christ Mary lived with the new Church, and probably explained this grace and the many others that made her immaculate were given to her because she had to be a fitting mother for our Saviour. For though his soul and his two natures came from God, His body came from her.
St Justin Martyr AD 155 Jesus became man by the virgin so that the course that was taken by disobedience in the beginning through the agency of the serpent might also be the course by which it was put down. Eve a virgin and undefiled conceived the word of the serpent and bore disobedience and death. But the virgin Mary received faith and joy when the Angel Gabriel announced to her the glad tidings that the spirit of the Lord would come upon her and the power of the Most High would overshadow her, for which reason the holy one born to her would be the Son of God. And she replied "Behold the handmaid of the Lord , be it done unto me according to your word".
"and why should the mother of my saviour visit me?" Luke 1
"My should doth MAGNIFY the Lord .... for he the is Mighty has one great things for me" Luke 1
Comments
Post a Comment