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Quick Apology: Is Mary “Mother of God”?

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Objection

In today’s post I’d like to offer a quick apology to the following objection:

“Mary is the mother of Jesus, she’s not the ‘Mother of God'”

The idea being expressed here was championed by Nestorius in the 5th Century and condemned at the Council of Ephesus (AD 431). Unfortunately, this is a sentiment often expressed by many Protestants when they hear Catholics and Eastern Orthodox Christians refer to Mary as “Mother of God”.

Response

In responding to this objection, I simply put forward a few logical statements:

1. Jesus is God

2. Mary gave birth to Jesus

3. Therefore, Mary is the mother of God

I then ask the person with whom I am speaking to identify the perceived error. Does he deny that Jesus is God? Does he deny that Mary gave birth to Jesus? If Jesus is God and Mary gave birth to Him, doesn’t “Mother of God” seems to be an appropriately descriptive title?

To put it in terms of Scripture, in Luke’s Gospel, St. Elizabeth says to Mary “And why is this granted me, that the mother of my Lord should come to me?” (Luke 1:43). Is Elizabeth’s “Lord” God? Yes or No? If her “Lord” is God then Mary is “the mother of [her] Lord[/God]”.

One might also consider the Deuteronomic command to “Honour your father and mother” (Deuteronomy 5:16). As we all know, Jesus fulfilled the Law perfectly. So, in fulfilling this command, whom did He honour?

Contrary to what is often proposed, Mary being “Mother of God” does not make her greater than Jesus. It simply establishes her relationship with her Son and Saviour and, like the pronouncements of the Council of Ephesus, safeguards the Church’s teaching concerning the divinity of Christ.

Mother of God

Leading Bible Study

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Saturday was the last installment of my “Do’s and Don’ts of Leading Bible Study” series. I’ve decided to create this short post to aggregate all the different entries in the series:

Part 1: Preparation
Part 2: Beginning the meeting
Part 3: Starting the discussion
Part 4: Fostering discussion
Part 5: Tricky issues
Part 6: Concluding thoughts

Bonus: Feedback #1
Bonus: Feedback #2
Bonus: Feedback #3

I have used this blog series to capture some of my experience in leading Bible study, as well as record some of the hard lessons I’ve had to learn. It is my hope that this will be a useful resource for anyone new to leading a Bible study group, such as the many new people we’ve recently had leading in the JP2 Group.

DO: Be welcoming…just not too much…

When I began this series, I had hoped that there would be more discussion. Unfortunately, despite these posts getting a large number of hits, there was fairly little feedback in the Comment Boxes.

Therefore, over the next few days I’m going to be emailing this post to everyone I know who has been involved in leading Bible studies, discussion groups or are involved in leadership in some kind of way 🙂

I invite you to do the same 😀

Even if you’re not a Bible study leader, what have been some good experiences and bad experiences you’ve had in a Bible study group?

What, in your opinion, makes for a good Bible study?

Update on “Twelve for 2012″…

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listenAt the beginning of the year I posted my Twelve for 2012, the twelve books I was going to read this year. I thought I’d post an update on how I’m doing with the list.

Here are the books on the list which I finished:

The Church and the New Media
– Brandon Vogt

I’m Not Being Fed! 
– Jeff Cavins

The Passion of Jesus Christ
– John Piper

Father Brown of the Church of Rome
– G.K Chesterton

The Story of Christianity
– Justo Gonzalez

 I suppose that it’s no surprise that I was unable to restrict myself to my initial reading list! Yes, that’s right, I’ve been naughty and read some books that weren’t on the list:

The One Thing
– Matthew Kelly

Pillar of Fire and Truth
– Catholic Answers

Quitter
– Jon Acuff

I am currently reading:

How To Listen When God Is Speaking
– Mitch Pacwa, SJ

…and here are the books which I still have yet to read:

Rediscover Catholicism – Matthew Kelly
Godless Delusion – Patrick Madrid & Kenneth Hensley
The Path of Life – Cyprian Smith OSB
Jesus of Nazareth – Pope Benedict XVI
Jesus Among Other Gods – Ravi Zacharias
Philosophy For Dummies – Thomas Morris

So I have six books to read in five months. This means that I have to read at least one book each month until the end of the year. Fortunately, the books on the list which I’ve already read are generally the longer ones. All the remaining books to read, with the exception of Pope Benedict’s Jesus of Nazareth, are reasonably short.

Qur’an Cover-to-Cover: Day 23 (“Those who set the ranks”)

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angels

It’s another long one today, one hundred and eighty-two verses.

Surah 37 – “Those who set the ranks” (As-Saaffat)
The chapter opens with Allah swearing by the different angels that “your God is One”.

We are then treated to a description of Heaven’s defense system. We are told that an “adornment of stars…[act] as protection against every rebellious devil [so] they may not listen to the exalted assembly [of angels]” and “are pelted from every side” by flaming meteors. I believe this is a reference to the jinn we read about earlier who eavesdrop on Heaven and report what they hear to soothsayers.

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The excuses we make

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I’m starting to fall significantly behind with my blog. I have a large number of posts in draft, but very few have recently been published.

Anything Worth Doing…

G. K. Chesterton said “Anything worth doing, is worth doing badly”. I think the point he was trying to make is that if something is important, it’s worth giving it a go, rather than endlessly procrastinating. There is a temptation to leave a task until some undefined, almost mythical, point in the future when you finally feel qualified to attempt it.  “Perfect is the enemy of good” might be another way of expressing the same sort of idea. Given my personality, there’s a real danger that all the entries currently sitting in my “drafts” folder will remain there, forever to be tweaked and tinkered but forever found unsatisfactory and remaining unpublished.

I’ve therefore resolved to be a bit braver and to publish more of my thoughts on this blog, even if they’re not formed to my level of satisfaction.

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Why do we sing the liturgy?

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If you attend the liturgy in the Catholic Church you may encounter, in additions to hymns and a psalm, words of the liturgy that are sung.

Now, in some parishes there will be no singing whatsoever. In others, the priest and congregation may sing small parts of the liturgy such as:

Priest: “The Lord be with you…”
Congregation: “…and also with you”
Priest: “Lift up your hearts…”
Congregation: “…we lift them up to the Lord”

At the other end of the spectrum, my local Byzantine parish sings virtually everything. Only two things are actually spoken during that liturgy: the homily and a brief prayer before communion. Absolutely everything else is sung,  including the prayers, readings, creed etc.

This begs the question why? Most Christian churches use music and will have some songs, but why is it that some churches (those who are more “liturgical”) sing parts of the liturgy which others will simply say?

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The Epistle of Joy – Episode #13 (Video)

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We are now drawing to the end of Chapter 3:

Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect; but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own. Brethren, I do not consider that I have made it my own; but one thing I do, forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. Let those of us who are mature be thus minded; and if in anything you are otherwise minded, God will reveal that also to you. Only let us hold true to what we have attained. – Philippians 3:12-16

Here’s what I had to say:

For an audio-only version of this video, please click here.

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