While on an excursion in Mexico, our tour guide made a claim that they (meaning the Mayan-Catholic Christians) “worship Mary’s sister,” but he made other claims about Catholic Christians that were inaccurate, so I am going down a few rabbet holes this week : )
If I ever move to Mexico, who knows, maybe I can become a tour guide ; )
Bl. Anne Catherine Emmerich reveals that Mary’s elder sister is another Mary, married with Cleofas, father of one of the disciples of Emaus.
If anybody is interested in the 200 anniversary free Congress on Emmerick, please write to f.nazar at gmail
St. Jerome identified this “sister,” adelphe, as the sister-in-law of the Blessed Virgin (the Wife of St. Joseph’s brother).
Sacred Scripture doesn’t really tell us about Mary’s family. Tradition claims that Saint Joachim and Saint Anne (Mary’s parent’s) experienced infertility prior to giving birth to our Blessed Mother. It is possible that they gave birth to another Mary after her, but I’m not sure that I believe this.
There is another Mary, mentioned in Mark 15:40, who was the mother of St. James.
Sadly, this sounds like a mistaken notion—the “worship” part. It’s either a mistranslation, since I assume the guide was a Mexican(perhaps he didn’t know the term for veneration) or a tragic error in belief. I pray it was the former rather than the latter. It is unfortunate that guides often get things wrong, in my experience.
He is just very ignorant of the Faith. He started off by saying, “Catholics say that they are monotheistic, but then they worship all these Saints…” (which is not true). My Wife thinks that maybe he thinks Our Lady of Guadalupe is Mary’s Sister.
John 19:25 refers to Mary’s sister at the foot of the cross. It’s not clear whether Mary of Clopas is that sister or another person.
To answer the original question, we don’t know. The Gospel writers gave us what we need to know for salvation; maybe in Heaven we will get the whole of history in detail if we want it.
Another thought about things mentioned (or not) in the Gospels. I was listening to Arlo Guthrie’s album Outlasting the Blues. “Wedding Song” mentions Joseph and Mary and their wedding; the Gospels mention the fact of their marriage but have no description of their wedding. There’s a lot more about the wedding at Cana, I guess because that is instructive for our faith but the details of Joseph and Mary’s wedding might not be.
Mary of Clopas is explicitly mentioned only in John 19:25, where she is among the women present at the crucifixion of Jesus: Now there stood by the cross of Jesus His mother, and His mother’s sister, Mary of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene.
Even Mary was a Disciple, “Ecce Mater Tua”, all of His disciples are brothers and sisters of the eternal flesh with Jesus from the cross. Mary is Mother of Jesus who is God, and Mary, like US are brothers and sisters of Christ in the eternal flesh. The eternal flesh comes from Him through Him by Mary and The Holy Spirit.
Well one thing I will point out that at the heart of the Hail Mary prayer is Jesus - blessed is the fruit of thy womb “Jesus”. The First part of the prayer is reciting scripture greeting Mary as she was in the bible. Jesus is the heart of the prayer and the last part of the prayer you are asking her to pray for you.Where are you worshipping Mary?I pray the rosary and its also about Jesus in the mysteries which you are to focus on while praying.
Some Christians see Mary as simply a vessel for the Lord and a terrible sinner. They are not paying attention if you spent your life at the side of Jesus serving him from his birth to his death on the cross what would you be like?She had knowledge right from the beginning and believed.
A woman cries out “Blessed is the womb that bore you, and the breasts at which you nursed!”
Jesus answers “rather blessed are those who hear and follow the word of God” hes changing why Mary is blessed - not because she is his mother but rather because she heard and followed the word of God which is exactly why she is blessed.
When Jesus died on the cross everyone left thinking it was over - not Mary she was keeping vigil expecting him to rise and return.She is the greatest example of faith to Christians our mother and the Queen of heaven.You could look at her as the Greatest Saint if the other does not work for you.
Mary is always pointing to Jesus not herself.
That is hard to know in The Bible if she ever did or not so we really don’t know.
Blessed Anne Catherine Emmerich’s revelation tells her whole story, being the elder sister of Mary by 19 years. Read them at archive.org or gloria.tv
I just discovered this interesting article about who possibly was related to whom and how they were related. Worth the read!
PeterGeorge,
re: “When Jesus died on the cross everyone left thinking it was over - not Mary she was keeping vigil expecting him to rise and return.”
PeterGeorge is not here anymore, but does anyone know of what scripture he may have been thinking?
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](Matthew 28:1-7 After the Sabbath, as the first light of the new week dawned, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary came to keep vigil at the tomb. Suddenly the earth reeled and rocked under their feet as God’s angel cam | The Message (MSG) | Download The Bible App Now)
After the Sabbath, as the first light of the new week dawned, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary came to keep vigil at the tomb. Suddenly the earth reeled and rocked under their feet as God’s angel came down from heaven, came right up to where they were standing. He rolled back the stone and then sat on it. Shafts of lightning blazed from him. His garments shimmered snow-white. The guards at the tomb were scared to death. They were so frightened, they couldn’t move. The angel spoke to the women: “There is nothing to fear here. I know you’re looking for Jesus, the One they nailed to the cross. He is not here. He was raised, just as he said. Come and look at the place where he was placed. “Now, get on your way quickly and tell his disciples, ‘He is risen from the dead. He is going on ahead of you to Galilee. You will see him there.’ That’s the message.”
Mary Magdalene is Apostle to the Apostles, when she told them, “He is risen.”
From the second nature, The Body.
Peace always,
Stephen
Sorry, I thought he was referring to the Messiah’s mother.
This sounds like the same argument that Christ had brothers simply because the word brother was used. This word is best transliterated to kinsfolk. When we see certain translations, we see brother or sister. The reason why it is brother or sister is because this is the word used for not just a sibling but rather a relative. Even an in-law could fit this category. An example is me calling my cousin brother when when are not biological siblings. There are close friends I know today that I call brother as well because of their relation to me. This is a cultural norm which we should not take as a way of affecting our understanding of scripture negatively or outside of the church.
DocG8404,
What scriptural reason do you have for thinking that it couldn’t be referring to an actual biological sibling?
In rereading it, I see that he was referring to the Messiah’s mother.
Even where brothers and sisters is used it does not say she is their mother it says they are with the mother of Jesus and she is always described in this way the separation is always there.They may of be Josephs children who was thought to be a widow it really doesn’t say.They were not two teenagers in love it was a arranged marriage where they likely never even saw each other.The moment he found out she was pregnant he dumped her and called it off.It was only when an Angel came and told him to marry her and to call the baby Jesus who is the son of God - Joseph obeyed the angel and likely never forgot that moment.
Mary was without original sin and was capable of not sinning unlike us.The Catholic belief of the Immaculate conception.
It also implies Mary would not need Jesus to raise her up because she is without original sin she would simply ascend to heaven at death first Human ever.God the Father saved her at birth nothing that she did.
That’s a hard one for people to take.
When Joseph rejected her she likely faced being stoned to death it was a very religious society where people were stoned for these sins.So her fate was death until the Angel changed Joseph mind.He saw that Angel more than once he was told to take them to Egypt also.