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Luke 2:34 Then Simeon blessed them and said to Mary, his mother: "This child is destined to cause the falling and rising of many in Israel, and to be a sign that will be spoken against, 35 so that the thoughts of many hearts will be revealed. And a sword will pierce your own soul too."

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Also: ...But his mother treasured all these things in her heart. 52And Jesus grew in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and men.

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I’m sorry but I can’t imagine Jesus enjoying your sense of humor. No, I can’t picture Jesus smirking as He daydreams about His parents having sex. In fact, most people don’t like to envision the thought of their parents having sex. I think the people who do are a little odd. But then again, most people show respect to Mothers

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person can think of something intellectually or factually without necessarily envisioning it.

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What can the apostle mean, then, when he declares that he completes “the things lacking” [in Greek, hysterêmata] in Christ’s afflictions”?

The answer can be found in St Paul’s understanding of the Church as the Body of Christ. In his earlier letters – to the Corinthians, for example – he uses the image of a body with many interconnected members in reference to local Christian communities. In Colossians, he is more concerned to stress Christ’s Lordship over the entire cosmos, as over the living organism which is the ekklesia, the Church universal. Incorporated into Christ through baptism, the Christian lives in intimate communion with Him. So intimate, in fact, that Christ actually dwells within the believer: “It is no longer I who live,” Paul affirms, “but Christ who lives in me!” (Gal 2:20). The apostle’s own suffering, endured on behalf of the whole Body, thus shares in Christ’s sufferings, because of the communion that unites him with the One who is the Head of the Body (Col 1:18).


http://www.oca.org/pages/orth_chri/Publications/LifeinChrist/2004/july.html#jul01

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Originally posted by Leviathan

PoW,
How about engaging in conversation...

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Originally posted by TGB

POW: I've...taken things from here to other venues.

Tom: Do you have our permission to reproduce what we say here on other sites?

Tom

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St Mary of Egypt
Mother of repentance and conversion

This is the holy life, this is the great spiritual impact had by a solitary woman who, by the precious account of her life, was so marred by sin that she could not physically enter into the temple. Yet Christ's forgiveness is absolute, and there is no sinner so far fallen, Mary's life seems to say, that God cannot lift him up into new life. Indeed, the scope and breadth of the gifts given to St Mary in response to her great love for God are mysterious and wonderful, for some even beyond belief.

http://www.monachos.net/monasticism/mary_of_egypt/index.shtml

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The Life of Our Holy Mother, St Mary of Egypt
By St Sophronius, Patriarch of Jerusalem
http://www.monachos.net/monasticism/mary_of_egypt/life.shtml

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Originally posted by Leviathan

PoW.
The conversation as moved to Mary, and having nothing to do with the topic you show off your cutting and pasting skills...about Being a 'saint' and 'suffering'.

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Originally posted by Leviathan

You are saying the Only thing that matters in your life is What? you quote again;

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The only thing that matters is

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YOUR LIFE. Your "annuciations."

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Originally posted by PotOnWheel

Google-searching for "Piper" and "Mary" I found this by Elisabeth Elliot.

http://www.leaderu.com/orgs/cbmw/rbmw/chapter25.html

(The Essence of Femininity--A Personal Perspective, Elisabeth Elliot)

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The gospel story begins with the Mystery of Charity. A young woman is visited by an angel, given a stunning piece of news about becoming the mother of the Son of God. Unlike Eve, whose response to God was calculating and self-serving, the virgin Mary's answer holds no hesitation about risks or losses or the interruption of her own plans. It is an utter and unconditional self-giving: "I am the Lord's servant. . . . May it be to me as you have said" (Luke 1:38). This is what I understand to be the essence of femininity. It means surrender.{3}

Think of a bride. She surrenders her independence, her name, her destiny, her will, herself to the bridegroom in marriage. This is a public ceremony, before God and witnesses. Then, in the marriage chamber, she surrenders her body, her priceless gift of virginity, all that has been hidden. As a mother she makes a new surrender---it is her life for the life of the child. This is most profoundly what women were made for, married or single (and the special vocation of the virgin is to surrender herself for service to her Lord and for the life of the world).

The gentle and quiet spirit of which Peter speaks, calling it "of great worth in God's sight" (1 Peter 3:4), is the true femininity, which found its epitome in Mary, the willingness to be only a vessel, hidden, unknown, except as Somebody's mother. This is the true mother-spirit, true maternity, so absent, it seems to me, in all the annals of feminism. "The holier a woman is," wrote Leon Bloy, "the more she is a woman."

Femininity receives. It says, "May it be to me as you have said." It takes what God gives---a special place, a special honor, a special function and glory, different from that of masculinity, meant to be a help. In other words, it is for us women to receive the given as Mary did, not to insist on the not-given, as Eve did.

Perhaps the exceptional women in history have been given a special gift---a charism---because they made themselves nothing. I think of Amy Carmichael, for example, another Mary, because she had no ambition for anything but the will of God. Therefore her obedience, her "May it be to me," has had an incalculably deep impact in the twentieth century. She was given power, as was her Master, because she made herself nothing.

I would be the last to deny that women are given gifts that they are meant to exercise. But we must not be greedy in insisting on having all of them, in usurping the place of men. We are women, and my plea is Let me be a woman, holy through and through, asking for nothing but what God wants to give me, receiving with both hands and with all my heart whatever that is. No arguments would ever be needed if we all shared the spirit of the "most blessed among women."

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“Now I rejoice in [my] sufferings [endured] for your sake, and I complete in my flesh what is lacking in Christ’s afflictions for the sake of His Body, which is the Church” (Col 1:24).

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And you think that the subject of "Mary" (which the thread BEGAN with, not "moved" to) has nothing to do with being a saint, or suffering?

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Originally posted by Leviathan

...quite the right turn from Mary being ever-virgin and Jesus's siblings.

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Originally posted by PotOnWheel

I Choose You
by Rachael Lampa

Album :

When everyone around you sees
An ordinary life,
Fit for nothing more than common dreams,
I can see the stars of heaven
Shining in your eyes.
Soon the world will hear the angels sing.

Mary, I know it’s hard to understand...
You hold the Light of the world in your hands.

I choose you to bring the world a Savior.
I choose you to bring the world a King.
I choose you to be the arms of love that hold the Answer
For the world to see My promises come true...
I choose you.

I know there are many questions
Weighing on your mind:
What is becoming of your life?
Oh, just remember I have called you
To leave your fears behind -
To walk by faith and not by sight.

Mary, I know it’s all a mystery;
My hand is leading if you’ll only believe.

I choose you to bring the world a Savior.
I choose you to bring the world a King.
I choose you to be the arms of love that hold the Answer
For the world to see My promises come true...
I choose you.

And He shall be called Emmanuel,
Wonderful, Prince of Peace.

I choose you to bring the world a Savior.
I choose you to bring the world a King.

I choose you to bring the world a Savior.
I choose you to bring the world a King.
I choose you to be the arms of love that hold the Answer
For the world to see My promises come true...
I choose you, oh.

I choose, I choose you, oh...
For the world to see My promises come true...
Oh, for the world to see My love come shining, I . . .

( I choose you, I choose you, I choose you, I choose you,
I choose you, I choose you, I choose you, I choose you,
I choose you, I choose you, I choose you, I choose you,
I choose you, I choose you, I choose you, I choose you,
I choose you, I choose you, I choose you. . . )

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Mary was a wonderful woman, but even her last words recorded in the bible were 'Listen to my son, and do what HE tell you' - Leviathan

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who knew not wedlock.

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immaculate Mary
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the all-pure and all-blameless Lady.

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Maybe not married before she had Jesus...

Or a virgin til death.

immaculate...without sin...come on.

Mary was a wonderful woman, but even haer last words recorded in the bible were 'Listen to my son, and do what HE tell you'

There is only ONE mediator between man and God, and that is Jesus.

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Originally posted by Leviathan

PoW,
Then you had the question "Mary Who"...then I posted

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who knew not wedlock.

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ACTUALLY....

[quote]Originally posted by feelinahole

Mary who?

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Rachael Lampa, at 15 about the same age as Mary on the first Christmas, answers that question beautifully in "I Choose You." Lampa, speaking from the road (touring with another Christmas project, playing the role of Anna in the musical "Child of the Promise"), fell in love with the song from the moment she heard it. "I know," she says. "I'm at that same age that Mary was when God picked her out of everyone to be the mother of Christ ... this song just hit me deep!"


Written from God's point of view, "I Choose You" reminds us that, when God makes a plan, He is the one that can and will see it through. It's a promise that applies to everything from the birth of Christ to what we're going through in our everyday lives.

It was a powerful moment for Lampa, who struggles to maintain a "normal" high school life when she's not touring or recording. Her family of six lives near Boulder, Colo., and has its own set of Christmas traditions. "It's kind of silly," Lampa laughs, "but all us kids take over a room in the house every year and build a fort. It stays up at least a day. We always go to church together, too."

http://www.passageway.org/popculture/silent_text.asp

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Chaffee also took part in the shaping of the CD, writing the lyric to "Sister of My Soul." As Nicole C. Mullen sings, "If you could sing your soul's song/ to an audience of One/ then Mary so can I" the heart of both book and music comes out. By showing a personal connection to Mary's life, Chaffee hopes to inspire listeners and readers to look to the same Source for strength that Mary looked to.

"When we get down to it, none of us have a perfect experience," she explains. "Relating that to the experience of Mary, a real woman -- she just had to be sitting in that barn saying, 'The King? In a stable?!'" Chaffee laughs a bit at the absurdity. "Our expectations are often dashed against reality, yet, God's promise did come true!"

In the same way that God touched Mary and held her up through hard times as she prepared to give birth to His Son, He touched each of the women in these stories and songs and gave them the same gift: Jesus. We all bring different experiences, good or bad, fun or painful, to each Christmas. Chaffee says that it all boils down to this: "The gift that we need most is in our lives already ... no matter what happens in life, the Baby is still in that manger!"

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