Religion

Lodestar

(2,388 posts) Wed Dec 23, 2015, 01:14 AM Dec 2015

How the Virgin Mary Became the World’s Most Powerful Woman

Fascinating article. Didn't know Mary was a prominent religious figure in the Islamic faith !

By Maureen Orth
Photographs by Diana Markosian
PUBLISHED NOVEMBER 8, 2015

It’s apparition time: 5:40 p.m. In a small Roman Catholic chapel in Bosnia and Herzegovina, in the village of Medjugorje, Ivan Dragicevic walks down the aisle, kneels in front of the altar, bows his head for a moment, and then, smiling, lifts his gaze heavenward. He begins to whisper, listens intently, whispers again, and doesn’t blink for ten minutes. His daily conversation with the Virgin Mary has begun.

Dragicevic was one of six poor shepherd children who first reported visions of the Virgin Mary in 1981. She identified herself to the four girls and two boys as the “Queen of Peace” and handed down the first of thousands of messages admonishing the faithful to pray more often and asking sinners to repent. Dragicevic was 16 years old, and Medjugorje, then in communist-controlled Yugoslavia, had yet to emerge as a hub of miracle cures and spiritual conversions, attracting 30 million pilgrims during the past three decades.

I’m in Medjugorje with a group of Americans, mostly hockey dads from the Boston area, plus two men and two women with stage 4 cancer. We’re led by 59-year-old Arthur Boyle, a father of 13, who first came here on Labor Day weekend in 2000, riddled with cancer and given months to live. He felt broken and dejected and wouldn’t have made the trip had not two friends forced him into it. But that first night, after he went to confession at St. James the Apostle church, psychological relief
came rapidly.
Continue -
http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2015/12/virgin-mary-text

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Islam portal. v. Mary (Arabic: مريم? Maryām), the mother of Jesus (Isa), is considered one of the most righteous women in the Islamic religion. She is mentioned more in the Quran than in the entire New Testament and is also the only woman mentioned by name in the Quran.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_in_Islam

11 replies

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Highlight:

How the Virgin Mary Became the World’s Most Powerful Woman (Original Post) Lodestar Dec 2015 OP

In what exactly has this imaginary Mary been powerful? Yorktown Dec 2015 #1

why do people "know" she was a virgin Skittles Dec 2015 #2

Actually in the Aramaic language of the time, the word for truedelphi Dec 2015 #5

"woods birth" does not have the same ring to it Skittles Dec 2015 #6

Well, she was a virgin in the original mythologies the Xians stole it from. mr blur Dec 2015 #7

The author, Maureen Orth, was interviewed on PBS by Al Hunt this evening. nt No Vested Interest Dec 2015 #3

This is what rubs me Cartoonist Dec 2015 #4

"powerful"? trotsky Dec 2015 #8

In the same sense as... uriel1972 Dec 2015 #9

If we are talking power Goblinmonger Dec 2015 #11

The Medjugorje visions edhopper Dec 2015 #10

Yorktown

(2,884 posts)

1. In what exactly has this imaginary Mary been powerful?

Reply to Lodestar (Original post)

Wed Dec 23, 2015, 01:38 AM

Dec 2015

She had a son who became the leader of a small group of Jewish peace and love hippies. That leader was executed young (+/-33yo) because the philosophy he was pushing was bad for the business of mainstream Jewish priests.

In what did anything in that story confer power at any point of time to the said Mary, if she and Jesus really existed? Besides, calling one's mum 'woman' isn't very respectful:

2 On the third day a wedding took place at Cana in Galilee. Jesus’ mother was there, 2 and Jesus and his disciples had also been invited to the wedding. 3 When the wine was gone, Jesus’ mother said to him, “They have no more wine.” 4 “Woman,[a] why do you involve me?” Jesus replied.

As for the copy-and-paste from NT to Quran, it was a botched job as muhamad copied from apocryphal gospels which haven't made it into Christian canon: the story of infant jesus speaking to defend Mary's honor as she had had a son not from Joseph comes from Syriac infancy gospel based on that of 'Thomas'

The Arabic Gospel Of The Infancy Of The Savior v2 "He has said that Jesus spoke, and, indeed, when He was lying in His cradle said to Mary His mother: I am Jesus, the Son of God, the Logos, whom thou hast brought forth, as the Angel Gabriel announced to thee; and my Father has sent me for the salvation of the world."

Surah 19:29-34 "But she pointed to the babe. They said: "How can we talk to one who is a child in the cradle?" He said: "I am indeed a servant of Allah: He hath given me revelation and made me a prophet; And He hath made me blessed wheresoever I be, and hath enjoined on me Prayer and Charity as long as I live; (He) hath made me kind to my mother, and not overbearing or miserable; So peace is on me the day I was born, the day that I die, and the day that I shall be raised up to life (again)"! Such (was) Jesus the son of Mary: (it is) a statement of truth, about which they (vainly) dispute

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Syriac_Infancy_Gospel

Skittles

(153,169 posts)

2. why do people "know" she was a virgin

Reply to Lodestar (Original post)

Wed Dec 23, 2015, 01:54 AM

Dec 2015

seriously

truedelphi

(32,324 posts)

5. Actually in the Aramaic language of the time, the word for

Reply to Skittles (Reply #2)

Wed Dec 23, 2015, 04:01 AM

Dec 2015

"virgin" and the word for a woman being in the woods were very similar expressions.

That is one possibility.

Skittles

(153,169 posts)

6. "woods birth" does not have the same ring to it

Reply to truedelphi (Reply #5)

Wed Dec 23, 2015, 04:27 AM

Dec 2015

no indeed

mr blur

(7,753 posts)

7. Well, she was a virgin in the original mythologies the Xians stole it from.

Reply to Skittles (Reply #2)

Wed Dec 23, 2015, 06:30 AM

Dec 2015

If it works, why change it?

No Vested Interest

(5,167 posts)

3. The author, Maureen Orth, was interviewed on PBS by Al Hunt this evening. nt

Reply to Lodestar (Original post)

Wed Dec 23, 2015, 02:08 AM

Dec 2015

Cartoonist

(7,318 posts)

4. This is what rubs me

Reply to Lodestar (Original post)

Wed Dec 23, 2015, 03:36 AM

Dec 2015

. . . and handed down the first of thousands of messages admonishing the faithful to pray more often and asking sinners to repent.
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Thanks, but is that all you got? Have you ever said anything useful in all those messages? How about some proof that your lover boy exists. Or anything of any consequence.