Every year during the Christmas Season, there are articles published that are critical of the song, Mary Did You Know. As expected, in early December, Fr. Robert McTeigue, SJ, published an article with the title, “The Problem With ‘Mary Did You Know.’” In the article, Fr. McTeigue criticized the following lyrics: “Did you know that your Baby Boy has come to make you new? This Child that you delivered will soon deliver you.”
Fr. McTeigue’s complaint was that the lyrics imply that Mary was a sinner who needed to be delivered from her sins. This is contrary to Catholic doctrine which states that Mary was preserved free from all stain of original sin from the moment of her immaculate conception, which allowed her to be a pure vessel in which the …show more content…
The article went on to say that anyone who has knowledge of the bible knows that Mary possessed knowledge that she was the mother of God. In addition to the announcement of the Angel Gabriel that she was going to be the Mother of God, here’s the first two sentences of Mary’s “song of praise” — known as “The Magnificat” — which indicates that she is aware of her role in the salvation of mankind:
My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior, for he has looked with favor on the lowliness of his handmaid. For behold, from henceforth all generations shall call me blessed; for he who is mighty, has done great things for me and holy is his name. (Luke 1:46-49)
Whenever I read anything about the life of Mary, I think about a book that I read in the early 1980s, while I was in law school. The title of the book was, The Life of The Blessed Virgin Mary. The content for the book was taken from the recorded visions of the well-known 19th-century Catholic mystic, Venerable Anne Catherine Emmerich (18__ – 18__).
According to the Modern Catholic Dictionary, a mystic is a person whose soul has been elevated by God to a supernatural state in which God is known in a way that no human effort or exertion could ever succeed in producing. A mystic is given certain insights that are far beyond ordinary human
Fr. McTeigue’s complaint was that the lyrics imply that Mary was a sinner who needed to be delivered from her sins. This is contrary to Catholic doctrine which states that Mary was preserved free from all stain of original sin from the moment of her immaculate conception, which allowed her to be a pure vessel in which the …show more content…
The article went on to say that anyone who has knowledge of the bible knows that Mary possessed knowledge that she was the mother of God. In addition to the announcement of the Angel Gabriel that she was going to be the Mother of God, here’s the first two sentences of Mary’s “song of praise” — known as “The Magnificat” — which indicates that she is aware of her role in the salvation of mankind:
My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior, for he has looked with favor on the lowliness of his handmaid. For behold, from henceforth all generations shall call me blessed; for he who is mighty, has done great things for me and holy is his name. (Luke 1:46-49)
Whenever I read anything about the life of Mary, I think about a book that I read in the early 1980s, while I was in law school. The title of the book was, The Life of The Blessed Virgin Mary. The content for the book was taken from the recorded visions of the well-known 19th-century Catholic mystic, Venerable Anne Catherine Emmerich (18__ – 18__).
According to the Modern Catholic Dictionary, a mystic is a person whose soul has been elevated by God to a supernatural state in which God is known in a way that no human effort or exertion could ever succeed in producing. A mystic is given certain insights that are far beyond ordinary human