Mary As The Early Christians Knew Her

A remarkable volume features three ancient texts--a brief prayer to Mary found on a scrap of papyrus in Egypt about a hundred years ago, The Gospel of Mary and The Annunciation Hymn of Rejoicing--that open up the life of Mary, and her role in the church, in new and sometimes startling ways. $10,000 ad/promo.

Some Christians have piled the status of the mother of Jesus so high that it rivals that of her Son. Others ignore the Virgin Mary entirely. Behind all of the images is a girl who grew up to be the mother of Christ. How did the first Christians view her? What were the commonly understood facts about the Blessed Mother's early life --- before the Annunciation? How did Mary, the mother of Jesus, become the Theotokos? Frederica Mathewes-Green opens up the Virgin Mary's early life, offering a window into her centrality to the Christian Faith in new and sometimes startling ways. “Do you want to get to know Mary a bit better? Are you interested in entering a faithful Marian spirituality? Let Frederica Mathewes-Green facilitate a rich, traditional, authentic meeting of Mary. When it comes to spending time with the mother of our Lord, this book is second only to Scripture.” Lauren F. Winner, author of Girl Meets God, Mudhouse Sabbath, and Real Sex “The Mary that Frederica Mathewes-Green gives us in these winsome texts–a palpably real woman, at once humble and exalted--transcends the differences that persist even today among the main streams of the Christian tradition, not least because this Mary points beyond herself to the ultimate source of our hope and our joy. -John Wilson, editor, Books & Culture "Frederica Mathewes-Green is a sparkling writer. In The Lost Gospel of Mary, not only is her material fascinating, but so is her perspective as a thoughtful and irenic Orthodox Christian. There is much here to warm the heart as it engages the mind from here to warm the heart as it engages the mind from early in our comon Christian tradition." - Brian McLaren, author of A Generous Orthodoxy and www.brianmclaren.net.

The Classic Story of a Family's Pilgrimage into the Orthodox Church Veiled in the smoke of incense, the Eastern Orthodox Church has long been an enigma to the Western world. Yet, as Frederica Mathewes-Green discovered, it is a vital, living faith, rich in ritual beauty and steadfast in integrity. Utilizing the framework of the Orthodox calendar, Mathewes-Green chronicles a year in the life of her small Orthodox mission church, eloquently illustrating the joys and blessings an ancient faith can bring to the worshipers of today.

This book is open access under a CC BY-NC-ND license. This book reveals exciting early Christian evidence that Mary was remembered as a powerful role model for women leaders—women apostles, baptizers, and presiders at the ritual meal. Early Christian art portrays Mary and other women clergy serving as deacon, presbyter/priest, and bishop. In addition, the two oldest surviving artifacts to depict people at an altar table inside a real church depict women and men in a gender-parallel liturgy inside two of the most important churches in Christendom—Old Saint Peter’s Basilica in Rome and the second Hagia Sophia in Constantinople. Dr. Kateusz’s research brings to light centuries of censorship, both ancient and modern, and debunks the modern imagination that from the beginning only men were apostles and clergy.

Meet Mary teaches you everything the Bible says about her, what the early Christians believed, and all of the Church's key Marian teachings of 2,000 years.

For the first time a noted historian of Christianity explores the full story of the emergence and development of the Marian cult in the early Christian centuries. The means by which Mary, mother of Jesus, came to prominence have long remained strangely overlooked despite, or perhaps because of, her centrality in Christian devotion. Gathering together fresh information from often neglected sources, including early liturgical texts and Dormition and Assumption apocrypha, Stephen Shoemaker reveals that Marian devotion played a far more vital role in the development of early Christian belief and practice than has been previously recognized, finding evidence that dates back to the latter half of the second century. Through extensive research, the author is able to provide a fascinating background to the hitherto inexplicable “explosion” of Marian devotion that historians and theologians have pondered for decades, offering a wide-ranging study that challenges many conventional beliefs surrounding the subject of Mary, Mother of God.

Allow the Mother of Jesus to teach you new ways to pray. This new series of books is designed to open up the meaning of one ancient way of Christian prayer in a relatively short amount of time. In Praying with Mary you will discover: • The mother of Jesus—in all of her simplicity and complexity. • How to prayerfully follow Mary’s footsteps toward God. “This book drew me to reflect in a new way on Mary’s distinctive choices and gifts.” —Thomas H. Smolich, SJ, President, Jesuit Conference USA “With the turn of every page, the mystery of Mary unfolds.” —Lauren Artress, Canon of Grace Cathedral and author of Walking a Sacred Path

With refreshing candor and self-deprecating humor, Wayne takes the reader with him on the adventure to Medjugorje that radically and permanently changed his life. You will discover the apparitions of the Blessed Mother along with him, as he chronicles the ways that the Virgin Mary continues to speak to the world today from Medjugorje. "In a tiny village in the mountains of Yugoslavia, the Virgin Mary, mother of Jesus Christ, had reportedly been appearing to a group of local teenagers, beginning in June, 1981, and continuing every evening since." So begins journalist Wayne Weible's life-transforming investigation into the veracity of one of the most popular Marian apparition claims in history. What began as a quick attempt to add some spice to his regular newspaper column resulted in a life-long exploration of the apparitions of the Blessed Mother that are still happening at Medjugorje, and the lives that are changed as a result. Do miracles happen? Wayne Weible is one former skeptic who is now convinced that they do. Paraclete Press presents a special, hardcover, illustrated edition of Medjugorje: The Message---the best-selling English-language book on the subject--- on the occasion of the 25th anniversary of Mary's first message to six youths in the mountains. This new edition includes a new preface by the author and a special, eight-page photo insert.

Yes, Mary knew what was going to happen to her during her lifetime. This historical narrative provides information about how Mary was named, blessed, and ordained by God to be the mother of Jesus before her conception. It contains detailed biographical information about her parents and their trials, her preconception consecration by God, her birth and early life, her Temple years and holy vow, refusal of Joseph when selected by God, their betrothal, difficulties, and the beautiful phenomena that occurred during the birth of Jesus Christ. This compilation of traditions and history from ancient scriptures is filled with stories of angel visitations, Old Testament prophecies fulfilled in front of witnesses and miracles. Mary was born of a barren woman in a miraculous manner. Her parents were told by heavenly messengers that Mary was to be the most important woman that will ever be born on Earth. While yet a virgin, in a way unparalleled, Mary was to bring forth the Son of God. God provided the name, Jesus, Immanuel, when He announced the future conception of Mary. According to the signification of the name, Jesus was to become the Savior of all nations. The original scriptures from which this information was obtained were used in early Christian churches for hundreds of years. They are not found in the New Testament because they were written about Mary. New Testament books were limited to those about Jesus Christ. This book includes a glossary, references and a list of prophecies from the Old Testament.

Mary appears only a few times in the Bible, but those few passages come at crucial moments. Catholics believe that Mary is the ever-virgin Mother of God, the Queen of Heaven and Earth. But she also was a human being--a woman who made a journey of faith through various trials and uncertainties and endured her share of suffering. Even with her unique graces and vocation, Mary remains a woman we can relate to and from whom we have much to learn. In Walking with Mary, Edward Sri looks at the crucial passages in the Bible concerning Mary and offers insight about the Blessed Mother's faith and devotion that we can apply in our daily lives. We follow her step-by-step through the New Testament account of her life, reflecting on what the Scriptures tell us about how she responded to the dramatic events unfolding around her. “This book is the fruit of my personal journey of studying Mary through the Scriptures, from her initial calling in Nazareth to her painful experience at the cross,” writes Edward Sri “It is intended to be a highly readable, accessible work that draws on wisdom from the Catholic tradition, recent popes, and biblical scholars of a variety of perspectives and traditions. With the riches of these insights, we will ponder what her journey of faith may have been like in order to draw out spiritual lessons for our own walk with God.” He add, “It is my hope, therefore, that whether you are of a Catholic, Protestant, or other faith background, this book may help you to know, understand, and love Mary more, and that it may inspire you to walk in her footsteps as a faithful disciple of the Lord in your own pilgrimage of faith.”