“There can be no
doubt that the Virgin Mary is in heaven. How it happened we do not know. (In
the same way Ezekial and Elijah were assumed - by God’s power!!) And since the
Holy Spirit has told us nothing about it, (Luther
is wrong) we can make of it no article of faith . . . It is enough to
know that she lives in Christ. (Sermon of August 15, 1522, the last time Martin Luther preached on the
Feast of the Assumption)”
“The
veneration of Mary is inscribed in the very depths of the human heart. (Sermon, September 1, 1522)”
“She
is the highest woman and the noblest gem in Christianity after Christ . . . She
is nobility, wisdom, and holiness personified. We can never honor her enough. (So
much for the endless criticisms I hear that she was a sinner.) Still honour and
praise must be given to her in such a way as to injure neither Christ nor the
Scriptures. (Sermon, Christmas,
1531) [Precisely, say I. And the Catholics do neither! How could loving Jesus’ mother injure Jesus?]
No woman is like you. You are
more than Eve or Sarah, blessed above all nobility, wisdom, and sanctity.
(Sermon, Feast of the Visitation, 1537)
One should honor Mary as she
herself wished and as she expressed it in the Magnificat. She praised God for
his deeds. How then can we praise her? The true honor of Mary is the honor of
God, the praise of God's grace . . . Mary is nothing for the sake of herself,
but for the sake of Christ . . . Mary does not wish that we come to her, but
through her to God. (Explanation
of the Magnificat, 1521) The Magnificat is the central prayer of the Legion of Mary, a RC lay
evangelising movement.
It is a sweet
and pious belief that the infusion of Mary's soul was effected without original
sin; so that in the very infusion of her soul she was also purified from
original sin and adorned with God's gifts, receiving a pure soul infused by
God; thus from the first moment she began to live she was free from all
sin" (Sermon: "On the Day of the Conception of the Mother of God,"
1527)
She is full of grace, proclaimed
to be entirely without sin- something exceedingly great. For God's grace fills
her with everything good and makes her devoid of all evil. (Personal
{"Little"} Prayer Book, 1522)
Luther gives the Blessed Virgin the exalted position of "Spiritual Mother" for Christians:
It is the consolation and the superabundant goodness of God, that man is able to exult in such a treasure. Mary is his true Mother . (Sermon, Christmas, 1522)
Mary is the Mother of Jesus and the Mother of all of us even though it was Christ alone who reposed on her knees . . . If he is ours, we ought to be in his situation; there where he is, we ought also to be and all that he has ought to be ours, and his mother is also our mother. (Sermon, Christmas, 1529)
Martin Luther on Mary's Perpetual
Virginity
Christ, our Savior, was the real
and natural fruit of Mary's virginal womb . . . This was without the
cooperation of a man, and she remained a virgin after that.
{Luther's Works, eds. Jaroslav Pelikan (vols. 1-30)
& Helmut T. Lehmann (vols. 31-55), St. Louis: Concordia Pub. House (vols.
1-30); Philadelphia: Fortress Press (vols. 31-55), 1955, v.22:23 / Sermons on
John, chaps. 1-4 (1539)}
Christ . . . was the only Son of
Mary, and the Virgin Mary bore no children besides Him . . . I am inclined to
agree with those who declare that 'brothers' really mean 'cousins' here, for
Holy Writ and the Jews always call cousins brothers.
{Pelikan, ibid., v.22:214-15 / Sermons on John,
chaps. 1-4 (1539)}
A new lie about me is being
circulated. I am supposed to have preached and written that Mary, the mother of
God, was not a virgin either before or after the birth of Christ . . .
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