Unity with God is a vital part of salvation—an intrinsic component of the spiritual walk. But sometimes it can be difficult to know if you are really connecting with the Lord. You may even feel like you are stuck in a void where God cannot reach. But this actualization is not impossible. By correctly opening your heart and mind to the Lord, you can reach a state of true communion with God and begin living your spiritual life in a totally new way. In his book, The Divine Conception, Craig B. Polenz covers the main points needed to achieve spiritual oneness with the Lord. Through explication, Polenz unravels the personal stories of Abraham, Jacob, Hagar and Leah as never before. He shows how we can emulate the people who were most changed by the Lord. Join these men and women and follow their example to live a full, complete, and gratifying life in the Lord!
• Explains how Mary was born into a lineage of powerful women who cultivated and passed on the ability to consciously conceive elevated beings • Includes a complete translation of the Infancy Gospel of James and reveals the hidden codes it contains relating to the practice of miraculous conception • Shows how Mary was trained and initiated in the “womb mysteries” and reveals the esoteric techniques she used to conceive Jesus Delving into one of the Virgin Mary’s forgotten gospels, the Infancy Gospel of James, Marguerite Mary Rigoglioso, Ph.D., reveals a truth that has been suppressed for nearly two millennia: that Mother Mary was not a passive bystander to her own pregnancy but an advanced member of a sacred order of women trained in divine conception. Unlocking the hidden codes of Mary’s gospel and other ancient source texts, the author reveals how Mary conceived Jesus through a careful process that she willed and initiated. She explains how Mary was born into a family of powerful priestesses, women who possessed, cultivated, and passed on the ability to consciously conceive elevated beings to help the planet. This lineage included Mary’s own mother, Anne, who conceived Mary with this method, her relative Elizabeth (mother of John the Baptist), and the biblical matriarch Sarah, the wife of Abraham and mother of Isaac. These women were schooled in the shamanic “womb mysteries,” secret knowledge of the capacity of the womb. Decoding the Infancy Gospel of James, the author shows how Mary was trained and initiated, reveals the esoteric techniques she used to conceive Jesus, and explores the birth itself and the mind-altering reality that accompanied it. By revealing the Virgin Mary as a trained holy woman and a conscious actor in the conception of Jesus, the author corrects the impression we have been given of a passive and bewildered girl who had no idea how or why she was pregnant. She also restores Mary as the empowered feminine orchestrator of these significant events, paralleling the redemption of Mary Magdalene in recent years. Explaining how and why virgin birth was accomplished, this book allows us to make sense of miraculous conception and reveals the power that lies in all women’s wombs.
Divine Conception: The Art of the Annunciation asks the questions: How to evoke the invisible in the visible? How to convey the divine in the human?Focussing on twelve specific aspects of the Annunciation (for instance, where Mary is reading, or where Joseph is present at the event), the book explores images (paintings, illuminated manuscripts, ivories, mosaics, sculpture, wall paintings, metal work) in the context of the period when they were made. Each chapter reflects on contemporaneous treatises, sermons, patron's requirements, devotional practices, artistic conventions, theological concerns, that informed the artist and his audience.The works of art discussed relate to the Latin West from the earliest times, with a cut-off date towards the middle of the 16th century.
This second volume of the series Mariological Studies in Honor of Our Lady of Guadalupe treats the mystery of the Immaculate Conception, hidden in plain sight for nearly a thousand years prior to Bl. John Duns Scotus and his later influence at the Council of Florence. Until now, practically nothing was known of this history. Key to the present study is St. Gregory Nazianzen, whose Marian doctrine inspired Benedict XVI at a 2007 public audience: "Mary, who gave human nature to Christ, is true Mother of God and, in view of her highest mission, was 'prepurified,' as if a distant prelude of the Immaculate Conception." Fr. Kappes' groundbreaking thesis confirms Benedict's insight beyond anything previously imaginable. The person and mystery of Mary in Christ and the Church unfolds as indispensable for ecumenical theology. Greco-Latin agreement on the Immaculate Conception at Florence was itself a portent to subsequent harmony on other doctrinal questions, then, as now. As Pope Francis intensifies efforts to resolve differences between Orthodox and Catholics, Fr. Kappes' research clarifies Our Lady's central role in these efforts.
From the cross Jesus gave us his mother to be our mother, too: a singularly holy model, consoler, and intercessor for our spiritual journey. Yet most Protestants, and too many Catholics don't understand the role that God wants her to play in our lives. In Behold Your Mother, Tim Staples takes you through the Church's teachings about the Blessed Virgin Mary, showing their firm Scriptural and historical roots and dismantling the objections of those who mistakenly believe that Mary competes for the attention due Christ alone. Combining the best recent scholarship with a convert's in-depth knowledge of the arguments, Staples has assembled the most thorough and useful Marian apologetic you'll find anywhere. Relevant and essential -- Mary matters. Read Behold Your Mother and find out just how much.
THE MYSTICAL CITY OF GOD, VOLUME I “THE CONCEPTION” VENERABLE MARY OF AGREDA — A Catholic Classic! — Includes Illustrations by Herbert Railton — Includes an Active Index, Table of Contents, and NCX Navigation Publisher: Available in Paperback: ISBN-13: 978-1-78379-280-1 Publisher: Volumes 1 to 4 and a Popular Abridgement are available in Paperback and E-Book Editions. The Mystical City of God is a monumental four-volume history of the life of the Blessed Virgin Mary, as revealed by Our Lady to Venerable Mother Mary of Jesus of Agreda (1602—1665), a 17th century Spanish nun. Venerable Mary saw in ecstasy all the events recorded within the books. Later, Our Lady told her to write them down—the result is The Mystical City of God, acclaimed by Popes, cardinals and theologians, a book which has inspired the laity and the clergy for over 300 years and which has gone into sixty editions in various languages. Arguably, the most important book—second only to the Bible—ever to have been written. The Mystical City of God, revealed to Mother Mary of Jesus by Heaven itself, complements and completes the story of the life of Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ but, in addition, provides the rich history of the entire life of His Most Blessed Mother. Through the study of Our Lady, we come to know Her, Her Son and the Blessed Trinity in ways never before imagined. The Mystical City of God consists of 4 volumes; The Conception, The Incarnation, The Transfixion and The Coronation. This is the unabridged Volume I, “The Conception”, containing Books 1 and 2. Volumes: The Mystical City of God by Venerable Mary of Agreda in 4 Volumes and a Popular Abridgement: The Conception (Volume I, Part I, Books I & II in 1 book) Paperback: ISBN-13: 978-1-78379-280-1 The Incarnation (Volume II, Part II, Books III & IV in 1 book) Paperback: ISBN-13: 978-1-78379-283-2 The Transfixion (Volume III, Part II, Books V & VI in 1 book) Paperback: ISBN-13: 978-1-78379-286-3 The Coronation (Volume IV, Part III, Books VII & VIII in 1 book) Paperback: ISBN-13: 978-1-78379-289-4 The Mystical City of God: Popular Abridgement Paperback: ISBN-13: 978-1-78379-063-0 PUBLISHER: CATHOLIC WAY PUBLISHING
Immaculate Conceptions examines devotional writings, religious and literary texts, and visual art that feature the mystery of the immaculacy of the Virgin Mary in the culture of early modern Spain. The author’s analysis is motivated by the complexity and multivalent capacity of the doctrine and its icon at a time when the debates around Mary’s conception imbued all levels of religious and social life. She considers the many interests – political, doctrinal, artistic, and gender-driven – that intersect and compete in the exegesis and textual and visual representations of the Immaculate Conception. She argues that the Immaculate Conception of Mary proved to be a fertile conceptual and ideological field wherein the identities of the Spanish state, local communities, and individuals were negotiated, variously defined, and contested. The study’s broader aim is to delineate a speculative category, the religious imagination, defined as a spiritual, intellectual, or artistic pursuit in which the individual is committed to sacred truth yet articulates this truth through contingent, partial, and contextually determined theological propositions. The representational status of the image and its relationship to theories of physical sight and spiritual vision are central to the author’s formulation of this category.
