Reflections on the Spiritual Motherhood & Mediation of Mary

Last updated on: July 26, 2018 at 11:47 pm By Dave Armstrong

From the 750-page first draft version of my first book, A Biblical Defense of Catholicism (1994). Protestant quotations will be in blue; Orthodox in green. ***** I. Introduction Dom Ralph Russell “Distinguished Anglican scholars (Hoskyns, Lightfoot), besides . . . Roman Catholics, suggest that in a text to which St. John attaches such importance on Calvary more is involved than simply asking the disciple to look after his mother. For one thing, it is his mother whom he addresses first. Then... Read more

Reflections on Mary: Preliminaries & Devotional Excesses

Last updated on: July 26, 2018 at 11:44 pm By Dave Armstrong

[From the original, much-larger 1994 version of my book, A Biblical Defense of Catholicism. Words of Protestants will be in blue] ***** I. GENERAL INTRODUCTION C. S. Lewis “There is no controversy between Christians which needs to be so delicately touched as this. The Roman Catholic beliefs on that subject are held not only with the ordinary fervour that attaches to all sincere religious belief, but (very naturally) with the peculiar and, as it were, chivalrous sensibility that a man feels... Read more

Orthodoxy & Contraception: Continuity or Compromise?

Last updated on: November 22, 2021 at 2:00 pm By Dave Armstrong

[with Fr. Deacon Daniel G. Dozier] Chapter 9 (pp. 225-244) of my book, Orthodoxy and Catholicism: A Comparison (3rd revised edition, 2015), co-authored with Fr. Deacon Daniel G. Dozier, M.A., who is a Byzantine Catholic clergyman, with degrees in theology and organizational leadership. He is the author of The Twelve Great Feasts of the Messiah and the Mother of God (Eastern Christian Publications) and Classics Made Simple: The Spiritual Exercises of Saint Ignatius of Loyola (TAN Publishing). He speaks periodically on the... Read more

Does the Holy Eucharist Give Us Spiritual “Power”?

Last updated on: July 26, 2018 at 11:02 am By Dave Armstrong

I received a remarkably critical letter (in the worst sense of that term), in response to my last column in The Michigan Catholic, entitled, “The Sunday Mass obligation makes perfect sense.” The woman more or less completely misunderstood my central point, which was not to say that we should attend Mass only out of some dead legalistic obligation (see my first paragraph and several other parts that denied that), but that the Mass obligation was a good thing for the... Read more

The Blessed Virgin Mary: Biblical & Catholic Overview

Last updated on: July 25, 2018 at 8:01 pm By Dave Armstrong

I. INTRODUCTION AND DEFINITIONS * 1. MOTHER OF GOD Mary is the true physical mother of Jesus Christ, Who is truly God; hence Mary is the Mother of God. The doctrine was defined at the Council of Ephesus in 431 in order to counter Nestorius, who thought that Mary gave birth to Jesus Christ’s human nature only. The Catholic Church responded by stating that persons, and not natures, are conceived and born, and that Jesus Christ was a Divine Person,... Read more

Martin Luther Was Extraordinarily Devoted to Mary

Last updated on: August 18, 2024 at 4:58 pm By Dave Armstrong

Despite the radicalism of early Protestantism with regard to many ancient Catholic “distinctives,” such as the Communion of the Saints, Penance, Purgatory, Infused Justification, the Papacy, the priesthood, sacramental marriage, etc., it may surprise many to discover that Martin Luther was rather conservative in some of his doctrinal views, such as on baptismal regeneration, the Eucharist, and particularly the Blessed Virgin Mary. * Luther indeed was quite devoted to Our Lady, and retained most of the traditional Marian doctrines which... Read more

Humanae Vitae: August 1968 & the “Progressive” Revolt

Last updated on: July 25, 2018 at 12:01 pm By Dave Armstrong

The following is a collection of lengthy excerpts from an article written by Cardinal James Francis Stafford, courtesy of Catholic News Agency, and published in California Catholic Daily (29 July 2008). It’s essential reading for all who want to understand a key event in the modernist crisis of the Church. Everything is here: the faddishness of the theologically liberal mindset, desire for mere popular acclaim, the herd mentality, the coercive and hostile tendency, the quick irrational judgment and impulse to polarization, knee-jerk trashing... Read more

Mary Mediatrix: St. John Paul II & Benedict XVI Clarify

Last updated on: July 25, 2018 at 11:35 am By Dave Armstrong

Many Protestants (especially the tiny minority of anti-Catholics among Protestants) are under the false impression that the teaching of the Blessed Virgin Mary as Mediatrix is somehow a new, novel thing, and that if these notions are proclaimed as the Fifth Marian Dogma, that the Catholic Church will turn a new page of ever-more outrageous heresy and unbiblical excess. Some Catholics (many of whom have not studied the issue in much depth at all) also join in on this needless... Read more

Mary Mediatrix & Jesus (Mere Vessels vs. Sources)

Last updated on: July 24, 2018 at 6:50 pm By Dave Armstrong

I answered an objection to my recent article on this topic at National Catholic Register: Of course, Jesus is our Savior, and the source of all the grace (as I made quite clear in my paper), which He then chooses to pass through Mary to us. No contradiction whatsoever. It only is for those accustomed to thinking in unbiblical either/or terms. A hose is not the ultimate source of water. An electric wire is not the source of electricity or... Read more

Predestination Mysteries: Dialogue with an Atheist

Last updated on: July 24, 2018 at 4:10 pm By Dave Armstrong

This is a follow-up to “Predestination and Salvation: Q & A with an Atheist”. Words of atheist Grimlock will be in blue. ***** [replying to my answers to his #1 and #2 questions in the previous exchange] If I’ve understood it correctly, your position is something like this: God created everything, including free beings. God also knows whether a being will end up in Hell, yet still created everything so that those beings would exist. Yet what I struggle with is... Read more