…whose beating heart in the hypostatic union gave her Son the precious Blood shed for our sins.
Behold the mystery! The Precious Blood of Jesus, shed for our sins, was derived from and nourished by the little heart beating in the breast of a humble young virgin. Is it any wonder that the prophecy of Our Lady’s Magnificat – that “all generations” would call her “Blessed” – has been fulfilled in every age and every land? Nor can any wonder that, till our Lord comes again, the Church will always pray:
“Hail! Mary! full of grace, the Lord is with thee! Blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the Fruit of thy womb, Jesus. Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death. Amen.”
The hypostatic union refers to the Christian theological concept that Jesus Christ is both fully God and fully man, possessing two complete and distinct natures in one person. This union is considered a profound mystery in Christian doctrine, emphasizing that these natures coexist without confusion or separation .
+ See Our Blessed Mother in the Order of Grace
Cf. Also John Paul II’s Encyclical on Mary, Mother of the Redeemer. The Protestant King James Version, an English Reformation translation, translates this name, identically to the Catholic translations. In Holy Scripture personal names convey the essence and meanings of persons; thus “Abraham”, means “Father of a multitude” etc. A name in the Bible is more like a verb form than a mere noun.
2. No serious historian questions the fact that even the ancient paintings of the catacombs reveal a persecuted church intimately bound in Charity with the heavenly Church Triumphant. “Burial inscriptions in the Roman Catacombs and graffiti in the underground recesses of St. Peter’s suggest that, from the second or early third century, Mary was considered a protectress of the dead and their kindly mediatress with Christ; she was honored with Christ and St. Peter. The frescoes in the catacombs of St Priscilla, particularly rich in representation of our Lady, confirm this view. Claims are made for a church in early times as far from Rome as Glastonbury.” Theotokos, Michael Glazier, Inc. Wilmington Delaware Rvd. 2d. 1986 p. 49 “Archeology”.
3. “By the Hypostatic Union is meant that the eternal Son of God, in His Incarnation, assumed human nature, and united it to Himself in personal unity; in other words, that in the one divine person of Jesus Christ, the two natures, the divine nature and the human nature, ever distinct in themselves, became inseparably and eternally united.” The Life and Glories of St. Joseph, Edward Healy Thompson, M.A. TAN Publishers, 1980.
4. It was this “yes” of Mary, which made the Fathers, as early as the second century, contrast her obedience to Eve’s disobedience and call Mary “the New Eve,” giving her a positive, salvific role in the history of salvation, subordinate only to Christ. [See St. Irenaeus’ statement of this on pg. 25 of this issue, and Saint Ephrem’s on pg. 27. -Ed.]
Now Mary, whom Elizabeth would address as “the mother of my Lord”, was saluted by the Angel Gabriel with a new, unprecedented name, Kecharitomene, which in the Greek means literally: You who have been and remain filled with the Divine grace, or, “full of grace”. 1 Cf. The New Jerusalem Bible
To Mary alone was given a name indicating her exception as the elect vessel through whom God would enter the world to bring salvation. According to Apostolic Tradition handed down by the Fathers, that Vessel, the new Ark of God Himself, could not be a vessel of corruption and sin. By divine election, Mary was to be saturated with the purifying power of God – grace– as she would confer upon God His truly human nature, nourished in her womb by her own blood. When we contemplate this simple yet stupendous fact we already begin to understand the “scandal” of the Incarnation to both Jew and Greek; and we realize that Protestantism is actually an almost perfect blend of both heresies, the Judaic and rationalist. And Protestantism, of course, is the mother of modernism.
** “Assumed into Heaven.” Behold the mystery and love of. God for us.
According to the Bible, God previously took Enoch and Elijah to heaven without them dying. Genesis 5:24 says, “Enoch walked with God; then he was no more, because God took him away.” Mary likewise led the way for all of us, the Church of the New Testament,” by the grace of her Son and His redeeming Blood alone. After the creation of the universe all genuine miracles are mere footnotes.
—
+ Cf.. By means of the Beatific Vision
+ Karl Rahner, Christology and Mariology
+ The Predestination of Mary by Reginald Garrigou-Lagrange
Please Share Catholic Critique
Updated 8.17.26 / SH
