Copyright © 2006 By Doug Lawrence. All Rights Reserved.
Catechism Of The Catholic Church Reprinted With Permission.
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God’s Truth From The Catechism Of The Catholic Church – cont.
712 The characteristics of the awaited Messiah begin to appear in the "Book of Emmanuel"
("Isaiah said this when he saw his glory,"
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speaking of Christ), especially in the first two verses of
Isaiah 11:
There shall come forth a shoot from the stump of Jesse,
and a branch shall grow out of his roots.
And the Spirit of the LORD shall rest upon him,
the spirit of wisdom and understanding,
the spirit of counsel and might,
the spirit of knowledge and the fear of the LORD.
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713 The Messiah's characteristics are revealed above all in the "Servant songs."
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These songs
proclaim the meaning of Jesus' Passion and show how he will pour out the Holy Spirit to give life to
the many: not as an outsider, but by embracing our "form as slave."
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Taking our death upon
himself, he can communicate to us his own Spirit of life.
714 This is why Christ inaugurates the proclamation of the Good News by making his own the
following passage from Isaiah:
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The Spirit of the LORD God is upon me,
because the LORD has anointed me
to bring good tidings to the afflicted;
he has sent me to bind up the broken hearted,
to proclaim liberty to the captives,
and the opening of the prison to those who are bound;
to proclaim the year of the LORD's favor.
Paragraph 6. Mary - Mother of Christ, Mother of the Church
963 Since the Virgin Mary's role in the mystery of Christ and the Spirit has been treated, it is fitting
now to consider her place in the mystery of the Church. "The Virgin Mary . . . is acknowledged and
honored as being truly the Mother of God and of the redeemer. . . . She is 'clearly the mother of the
members of Christ' . . . since she has by her charity joined in bringing about the birth of believers in
the Church, who are members of its head."
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"Mary, Mother of Christ, Mother of the Church."
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I. MARY'S MOTHERHOOD WITH REGARD TO THE CHURCH
Wholly united with her Son . . .
964 Mary's role in the Church is inseparable from her union with Christ and flows directly from it.
"This union of the mother with the Son in the work of salvation is made manifest from the time of
Christ's virginal conception up to his death";
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it is made manifest above all at the hour of his
Passion:
Thus the Blessed Virgin advanced in her pilgrimage of faith, and faithfully persevered in her union
with her Son unto the cross. There she stood, in keeping with the divine plan, enduring with her
only begotten Son the intensity of his suffering, joining herself with his sacrifice in her mother's
heart, and lovingly consenting to the immolation of this victim, born of her: to be given, by the same
Christ Jesus dying on the cross, as a mother to his disciple, with these words: "Woman, behold
your son."
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