Star of the Sea

Here you see the Immaculate Heart of Mary emblazoned upon the Mother of God, Mary, who is essentially the founder of the Catholic church by merit of having conceived Jesus. She is very popular among Christians and even the Qur'an devotes an entire chapter to her. She gave birth as a virgin and never died--having been assumed into heaven (known as the Assumption). Back in biblical times, lots of events were given special names that weren't particularly cryptic. Example: the Annunciation is when the angel Gabriel came and told Mary she'd soon be pregnant with God, the Resurrection is when Jesus comes back to life and the Crucifiction shouldn't need any explanation.

The Immaculate Conception is commonly confused with the virgin birth of Jesus, but that is not accurate. The Catholic Church teaches that Jesus was conceived by normal biological means, but that Mary's soul was kept "immaculate" at the time of her conception (that's the part that is generally misunderstood; it is Mary's birth that was immaculate because she was born without original sin). In any case, all this immaculate and virgin birth mythology suggests that all other women have some kind of defective soul before and presumably after giving birth.

Somehow, in this arrangement, Joseph (Mary's husband) doesn't get to become the Father of God, I don't know why. 

It's interesting that the Catholic Church (and many societies both old and new) have denigrated and/or treated woman as inferior to men for some inexplicable reason yet the most revered saint (Mary is also a saint) and designated Mother of Jesus (God) is a woman. Go figure.

Although Mary herself is not a divine being, you'd never know it if you examined how she's portrayed in the bible and the way she has always been venerated. There are many feasts specifically assigned to her as well as many names and epitaphs (The Virgin Mary, Mary Mother of God, The Blessed Mother of God, Madonna, Star of Sea, Queen of Heaven, etc)

I hope you've enjoyed my post about Mary, Cause of Our Joy. The post was inspired by seeing the picture at the top of the page somewhere on the Internet. It is amazing what 7 years of Catholic Catechism can drill into your head.

Do any of you know about original sin? If not, I can explain it in another post...