{"id":142581,"date":"2024-09-08T05:00:18","date_gmt":"2024-09-08T09:00:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.regnumchristi.com\/en\/?p=142581"},"modified":"2024-09-08T05:00:18","modified_gmt":"2024-09-08T09:00:18","slug":"birth-of-the-blessed-virgin-mary","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.regnumchristi.com\/en\/birth-of-the-blessed-virgin-mary\/","title":{"rendered":"Birth of the Blessed Virgin Mary"},"content":{"rendered":"

Dear Bliss,<\/span><\/p>\n

I am glad you wrote me about your latest struggles. \u00a0Being a convert to the Catholic faith has its own particular challenges, the one you mentioned is a common one. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Don\u2019t be ashamed of the reticence you feel at honoring the Blessed Virgin Mary. \u00a0It\u2019s understandable. It\u2019s a leftover emotional habit. It will, little by little, go away, as you get to know better the Church\u2019s attitude towards the Mother of Christ and, therefore, the Mother of Christ\u2019s brothers and sisters (i.e., you and me).<\/span><\/p>\n

One important aspect of that attitude is what I like to call Marian freedom. \u00a0A lot of non-Catholic Christians get icky feelings when Catholics praise Mary because they think Catholics believe that Mary\u2019s elevated role in the plan of salvation taints God\u2019s omnipotence, as if God couldn\u2019t save humanity all by himself, so he was forced to enlist the help of this wonder-woman. \u00a0If that were the case, I would get icky feelings too. But it\u2019s not the case.<\/span><\/p>\n

God was free to save us in whatever way he wanted to. \u00a0He was even free not to save us at all. After Original Sin he could have crumpled up the universe as we crumple up a rough draft, and tossed it into the cosmic circular file. \u00a0He could have saved us be dropping red Twinkies from heaven with little messages on the label: \u201cSavor and be saved\u201d, and whoever believed and savored would have been saved. But he didn\u2019t. \u00a0He freely chose another way. He freely chose to send his Son, his Eternal Son, in human form, to be a New Adam (as St Paul puts it), who would succeed where Adam had failed: in faithfully fulfilling God\u2019s will even when put to the test by the Devil.<\/span><\/p>\n

As part of that plan, he chose to include a New Eve, which, in my humble opinion, was a nice choice. \u00a0It fits. After all, the human race is male and female; only together are we fully in the \u201cimage of God\u201d, as the Book of Genesis puts so clearly. \u00a0And the Fall of the human race involved mess-ups on the part of Eve as well as on the part of Adam, so why not work out the Redemption with the help of a woman? \u00a0Yeah, why not?<\/span><\/p>\n

Of course, without Christ, even Mary would have been just another sinner. \u00a0It was only in view of his future saving sacrifice that she was conceived without sin and preserved from sin. \u00a0But the point remains the same. God wasn\u2019t forced to work with Mary in order to save us; he freely chose to. Digesting that truth does wonders for alleviating icky feelings.<\/span><\/p>\n

Your loving uncle, Eddy<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Dear Bliss, I am glad you wrote me about your latest struggles. \u00a0Being a convert to the Catholic faith has its own particular challenges, the one you mentioned is a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":359,"featured_media":145992,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[3719],"tags":[],"post_folder":[],"class_list":["post-142581","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncle-eddy"],"pp_statuses_selecting_workflow":false,"pp_workflow_action":"current","pp_status_selection":"","pp_force_visibility":null,"pp_subpost_visibility":null,"pp_inherited_force_visibility":null,"pp_inherited_subpost_visibility":null,"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nBirth of the Blessed Virgin Mary - Regnum Christi<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.regnumchristi.com\/en\/birth-of-the-blessed-virgin-mary\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Birth of the Blessed Virgin Mary\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Dear Bliss, I am glad you wrote me about your latest struggles. \u00a0Being a convert to the Catholic faith has its own particular challenges, the one you mentioned is a […]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.regnumchristi.com\/en\/birth-of-the-blessed-virgin-mary\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Regnum Christi\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/RegnumChristiEn\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2024-09-08T09:00:18+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.regnumchristi.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/1200x675-RC.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"675\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Fr. 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He was ordained a Catholic priest in 2003 and earned his doctorate in moral theology in 2010. He provided spiritual support on the set of Mel Gibson\u2019s\u00a0The Passion of the Christ\u00a0while researching the 2005 Catholic best seller,\u00a0Inside the Passion, the only authorized, behind-the-scenes explanation of the film. Fr. John has contributed news commentary regarding religious issues on NBC, CNN, Fox, and the BBC. He also served as the English-language press liaison for the Vatican\u2019s 2005 Synod of Bishops on the Eucharist. His most widely known books are The Better Part: A Christ-Centered Resource for Personal Prayer and 60 Days to Becoming a Missionary Disciple. His most recent book is\u00a0Spiritual But Not Religious: The Search for Meaning in a Material World. Fr. John resides in Atlanta and serves as Territorial Vicar for the Legionaries of Christ. See all books, Regnum Christi Essays, Retreat Guides, posts, and online classes from Fr. John Bartunek, LC.","url":"https:\/\/www.regnumchristi.com\/en\/author\/jbartunek\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.regnumchristi.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/142581","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.regnumchristi.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.regnumchristi.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.regnumchristi.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/359"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.regnumchristi.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=142581"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.regnumchristi.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/142581\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.regnumchristi.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/145992"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.regnumchristi.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=142581"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.regnumchristi.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=142581"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.regnumchristi.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=142581"},{"taxonomy":"post_folder","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.regnumchristi.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/post_folder?post=142581"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}