A Goddess You Say

A goddess you say?

“Who is she that comes forth as the morning rising, fair as the moon, bright as the sun, as terrible as an army set in full battle array?” Song of Songs 6:10

BLESSED VIRGIN CONCEIVED WITHOUT SIN PRAY FOR US WHO HAVE RECOURSE TO THEE THIS IS NOT FANATICISM THIS IS THE TRUTH AS SEEN BY CATHOLICS And only one truth can exist in space and time….

A goddess you say? As Psalm 147 clearly reveals: “The strength of the war horse means nothing to Him, it is not infantry that interests Him. Yahweh is interested only in those who fear Him, in those who rely on his love.” As the Messiah Jesus Christ preached the concept of love for neighbour and God, obedience to this instruction would have resulted in abundant peace. However, humanity being weak natured discovered that war and conflict were inevitable consequences of its sin. It is particularly important to note that the God of the Jews, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and later the God of the Christians, in particular the God of the Holy Roman Catholic Church, is not a ‘Warmonger.’ The Lord does not demand war, He is not Mars, He is a God of Peace, however, He is also a ‘Great Deliverer’ and will deliver His own from their persecutors and the persecuting nations by way of war if circumstances warrant this. As the Christian writer C. S. Lewis once explained, apart from the Jews, men in general knew only paganism so when the light of Christ’s gospel was to be spread amongst the gentiles it appears, seemingly, that a foundation was already laid down in the myths and legends of paganism. This foundation, or shabby bed-rock, prepared for a true Religion, a true Faith in other words for the Truth of the real Divinity of Jesus Christ and of the Triune God, revealed as though such good news was concealed and now came out in the open and revealed by the Creator, by God Himself. Therefore, many pagan religions, Babylonian, Roman, Greek, Mayan, borrowed Judaic/Hebrew elements or by chance absorbed elements which Christianity could build upon. This could have happened by chance or by Divine will, evidently for the sake of the people who would come to understand and adopt Christianity as their own. This is possible for if

mankind is left isolated (such as the Inca, Maya, Aztec populations) beliefs in forces of good and appeasement of evil developed naturally and independently. Mankind seems always to gravitate towards the paradigm of good vs evil even if isolated. Therefore, some truth and understanding is developed by people who must build from scratch their lore, legend, religion and beliefs even if left isolated from the rest of mankind. In antiquity their occurred the emergence of the sun-god Ra by Pharoah Akhenaten coincidentally in the times when the Jews where exiled in Egypt. Was there any influence by Patriarch Joseph? The sun-god became a sort of monotheistic one god religion contrasting greatly with the diverse Egyptian deities and their pantheon. Once Akhenaten died, the Egyptian priests who rather preferred a pantheon of gods and goddesses, eradicated his monotheistic thought. However, the legends of their deities have stories, which are shadows of Catholic teaching, such as the story of Horus and his mother. Moving further forward in history we can well mention the Roman god chronos (god of time) whose emblem was Constantine’s Chi-Ro or XP, which was adopted to represent Christ. So were other pagan Roman gods, emblems and symbology adopted to represent Jesus Christ, such as the Roman/Asian shepherd god Mithras. The early Christians also adopted their names, such as Saint Venus and Saint Dionysius, this did not make them pagan! The three Magi, kings visiting the infant, were lucky to have preserved in their lore the prophecies regarding a King who would be born when a great Star was to appear. The Star of Bethlehem understood today as being the conjunction of Saturn and Jupiter representing a Holy High Priest-King did appear. The three Magi followed it and presented the gifts myrrh, gold and incense representing the Sacrifice, the Priest-hood and Kingship, (in modern lore J.R.R. Tolkien hints to ‘Watch’ for the return of the King.) The Magi were not Jews nor Christian but pagans who in some manner, which eludes us still, were instructed in the Truth. The Apostle Paul who set out to evangelise the pagans and the gentiles, when evangelising the Greeks spoke regarding their ‘Unknown God’ to whom an alter was dedicated. The Greeks had therefore dedicated an alter to the unknown God whom Saint Paul compared or actually stated that He was the True God, the Only One Triune God in existence without beginning and without end. Saul fell from his horse after being blinded by the sun out of which the Lord’s voice was heard, and Constantine had a similar experience whilst

marching onto Rome. But why the sun? Most strikingly and understandably so, is Jesus Christ compared with the light of the sun and the sun itself, this is figurative. However, following the darkness of paganism the sun and the light of the truth had to emerge, “What is the truth?” enquired the pagan Pontius Pilate to Jesus Christ, the fact that the Son of God had to suffer and die at the hands of men and resurrect on the third day to redeem mankind was it. Christians do not adore the sun in as much as they venerate the moon. The moon (and the morning star) reflect the sun’s light, the representation of Our Lady. However, the light and the darkness are mentioned many a time in the Old and New Testaments. Again the sun and the moon had many ancient pagan deities ascribed to them, this nonetheless does not mean that Christianity or Catholicism is a pagan religion. The sun is again mentioned during the Czestochowa and Fatima appearances, this now only symbolises the light which Christ brings to the world. In Heaven or in the New Jerusalem and in the Kingdom of God, as described in Revelation, there is no sun nor moon for God, the Triune God, is the Light and the only Light. If allegory and comparisons of the truth with the light of the sun and the moon is taken as pagan then the Bible (both Old and New Testaments) should be thrown away into the waste paper basket for such comparisons are done frequently, and this even the Catholic hating Evangelicals cannot but admit as truth. In Revelation the explanation and full meaning of the morning star is given. It represents power and dominion and the resurrection, it represents Jesus Christ. The sun and the moon grow dark (Joel 2:10) The city does not need the sun or the moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and the Lamb is its lamp. Revelation 21:23 “I, Jesus, have sent my angel to give you this testimony for the churches. I am the Root and the offspring of David, and the bright Morning Star.” Revelation 22:16 Pope Benedict XVI as Cardinal Ratzinger had authored the book “Daughter Zion – Meditations on the Church’s Marian Belief.” His Holiness clearly distinguishes between the ancient pagan goddesses and Our Lady. These pagan goddesses of fertility were the cause of many sexual rituals amongst their followers whose following was mainly a concern of their own fertility. The Pope clearly states that whilst the pagans were fertile through their prostitution, Our Lady and Christians are fruitful by virtue of

their celibacy and virginity. This fruitfulness is none other than salvation or simply the achievement of eternal life. That is the true secret of the path and the light, which illumes this path, our eternal life. The sexual act in marriage is not the same act as outside of marriage; whilst the physical attributes are similar, the spiritual is quite frankly at opposite polar ends. One act profanes and defiles whilst the other sanctifies and unifies. The Virginity, the Virgin Birth and Immaculate Conception were reserved only for her and her Son. In continuing with the theme on similarities and comparisons of ancient deities and Christianity I can start by mentioning Astarte or Astaroth and continue with Isis, Osiris and Horus, Hestia, Juno, Diana, Hecate, Demeter, Kali, Inanna, Durga, Vesta, Rhea Silva, Sophia, Lilith, Perseopherine, Maat, and other demons. But first……… C.S. Lewis on Allegory and Lore ³I am trying here to prevent anyone from saying the really foolish thing that people often say about Him [Jesus Christ]: “I’m ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don’t accept his claim to be God.” That is the one thing we must not say. A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said wouldnot be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic — on a level with a man who says he is a poached egg — or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is,the Son of God,: or else a madman or something worse …. You can shut him up for fool, you can spit at him and kill him as a demon; or you can fall at his feet and call him Lord and God. But let us not come up with any patronizing nonsense about his being a great humanteacher. He has not left that option open to us. He did not intend to.² – From Case for Christianity, by C.S. Lewis. If Aslan represented the immaterial Deity in the same way in which Giant Despair [a character in The Pilgrim's Progress] represents despair, he would be an allegorical figure. In reality however he is an invention giving an imaginary answer to the question, ‘What might Christ become like, if there really were a world like Narnia and He chose to be incarnate

and die and rise again in that world as He actually has done in ours?’ This is not allegory at all. (Martindale & Root 1990) And the Evangelicals say…. Particularly http://www.cuttingedge.org/ http://www.texemarrs.com/

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These so called Christians state that in Jeremiah 7:17-18 the Queen of Heaven whom Catholics refer to as the Blessed Virgin is mentioned. And again they say that she is mentioned in Jeremiah 44:25, however poor Evangelicals and poor in culture and knowledge know not that this reference is alluded to the Babylonian Queen goddess Astarte. Therefore when they realised this they attempted to compare Astarte with the Blessed Virgin stating that the Blessed Virgin is the re-incarnated demon of Astarte. I would not call such names the holy spouse of the Holy Spirit if I were them for foul froggy demons may appear in their dreams and trouble them at night. Nimrod and Semiramis believed in the Babylonian god Zero-Ashta who as ‘the woman’s promised seed’ was destined in Babylonian myth to slay or bruise the serpent’s head, and in so doing was to have his own heel bruised. “The Two Babylons” by Alexander Hislop 1917, p. 58-59. So what ?? Do these educated and Bible fearing Evangelicals therefore compare the passages in Revelation 12 to a Babylonian myth and therefore in so doing placing the Word of God on the level of a pagan myth, discrediting the Bible? The similarity does not prove that Our Lady is a demon but rather proves that you ‘guys and gals’ are deceived and listen to the lies of demons. Rather it is Freemasonry the Babylon mentioned in Revelation which also alludes to the modern day Israel steeped in its atheist Zionism and Kabbalistic occultic and New Age teachings. Freemasonry has revived all the ancient gods and goddesses just to cause havoc amongst monotheists. ‘The Armageddon Script’ by Peter Lemesurier, elucidates on Mother Earth worship, “….the Great Mother Earth herself, clad in the same

flowing robes of shimmering blue and white that had been those of mother-goddesses of earth and sky taught man’s history – and not least his most recent mother – goddess, the Virgin Mary herself…” (p. 245-6) The New Age gods and goddesses are nothing but the same ancient and modern day gods and goddesses of Freemasonry and other secret cults and devil worshippers. The ancient Judaic colours used adorning the High Priest were blue and white, however it is a blasphemous matter to compare Salvation History and the Judaic colours with Mother Earth or Gaia worship. Truly as everybody knows, the colours of planet Earth as seen from space are indeed blue and white, Our Lady is also clothed with such colours as in the apparitions of Lourdes and Fatima. However, should straight reasoning in accordance with justice and truth deduce that all that is associated with the colours blue and white is but paganism? Then if the answer is in the affirmative so were the ancient High Priest Judaic robes pagan. But who can state that such is so? A mere Bible based Christian such as an Evangelical? Evangelicals who state such nonsense are not Christian!! In “Longing for Darkness”, New Age writer China Galland compares Our Lady with the goddess Durga, the warrior queen also referred to as the Queen of the Universe who could restore harmony. The writer compares Our Lady with Kali-Kali who is dark or a black female goddess. Both New Agers and Buddhists including (according to the author) the Dalai Lama possibly view the Icon of Our Lady of Czestochowa, the Black Madonna of Poland as Buddhist Rang-Jung or self-arising. This selfarising reminds me of Adam and Eve who attempted to become gods and reach ‘the god status’ (the Dalai Lama would say Nirvana) by their own (and Lucifer’s) futile efforts. But they are wrong!!! Just because Our Lady appears black in certain Icons doesn’t make her Durga, Kali-Kali or other pagan demons. Should Barack Obama be compared to an African Voodoo priest for the sole reason that he is a black man? To me this is an evident smear campaign against the Blessed Virgin Mary.

1. Astarte or Astaroth. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Astarte

Astarte was connected with fertility, sexuality, and war. Her symbols were the lion, the horse, the sphinx, the dove, and a star within a circle indicating the planet Venus. Pictorial representations often show her naked. Astarte was accepted by the Greeks under the name of Aphrodite. The island of Cyprus, one of Astarte’s greatest faith centers, supplied the name Cypris as Aphrodite’s most common byname. Other major centers of Astarte’s worship were Sidon, Tyre, and Byblos. Coins from Sidon portray a chariot in which a globe appears, presumably a stone representing Astarte. In Sidon, she shared a temple with Eshmun. At Beirut coins show Poseidon, Astarte, and Eshmun worshipped together. Other faith centers were Cytherea, Malta, and Eryx in Sicily from which she became known to the Romans as Venus Erycina. A bilingual inscription on the Pyrgi Tablets dating to about 500 BC found near Caere in Etruria equates Astarte with Etruscan Uni-Astre that is, Juno. At Carthage Astarte was worshipped alongside the goddess Tanit. Donald Harden in The Phoenicians discusses a statuette of Astarte from Tutugi (Galera) near Granada in Spain dating to the 6th or 7th century BC in which Astarte sits on a throne flanked by sphinxes holding a bowl beneath her breasts which are pierced. A hollow in the statue would have been filled with milk through the head and gentle heating would have melted wax plugging the holes in her breasts, producing an apparent miracle when the milk emerged. The Syrian goddess Atargatis (Semitic form ‘Atar‘atah) was generally equated with Astarte and the first element of the name appears to be related to the name Astarte. The Masoretic pointing in the Hebrew Tanach (bible) indicate the pronunciation as ‘Aštōret instead of the expected ‘Ašteret, probably because the two last syllables have here been pointed with the vowels belonging to bōshet “abomination” to indicate that word should be substituted when reading. The plural form is pointed ‘Aštārōt. For what seems to be the use of the Hebrew plural form ‘Aštārōt as the name of a demon, see also Astaroth. Astarte, or Ashtoret in Hebrew, was the principal goddess of the Phoenicians, representing the productive power of nature. She was a

lunar goddess and was adopted by the Egyptians as a daughter of Ra or Ptah. In Jewish mythology, She is referred to as Ashtoreth, supposedly interpreted as a female demon of lust in Hebrew monotheism. The name Asherah may also be confused with Ashtoreth, but is probably a different Goddess. In Judaized Christian demonology, Ashtoreth is connected to Friday, and visually represented as a young woman with a cow’s horns on her head (sometimes with a cow’s tail too), resembling Hathor. Some sources claim that the Greek goddess Aphrodite (especially in her aspect as Aphrodite Erycina) is another name for Astarte. Herodotus wrote that the religious community of Aphrodite originated in Phoenicia and came to Greeks from there. He also wrote about the world’s largest temple of Aphrodite, in one of the Phoenician cities. Her name is the second name in an energy chant sometimes used in Wicca: “Isis, Astarte, Diana, Hecate, Demeter, Kali, Inanna.” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Astaroth In demonology Astaroth (also Ashtaroth, Astarot, and Asteroth) is a Prince of Hell.

The similarities with the Blessed Virgin are the following:A – connection with war B – one of her symbols is the lion C – one of her symbols is the dove D – the sphinx E – represented by a star, Venus, the morning star A – Our Lady is connected with war, however her power lies in the intercession to protect and does not wage war. She is not a goddess of war, she is not a goddess in the first place.

B – the symbol of the lion represents her Son. Solomon’s throne had two lions on either side and twelve lions of gold before him. C – the dove is the symbol of the Holy Spirit, she is His spouse D – the Jews might have used cherubim similar to the sphinx within the temple on either side of the arc of the covenant. E – the morning star has represented many, Satan (Isaiah), Our Lady (Litany of Loreto) and Jesus Christ (Revelation)

However, apart from these similarities Astarte was a goddess and a myth. The rituals in her honour included temple prostitution and this alone indicates that the Blessed Virgin has absolutely nothing to do with such a myth. Our Lady is not a goddess – she is the mother of Jesus Christ and therefore of God. She intercedes for humanity, is present body and soul in Heaven and therefore has qualities pertaining to Heaven and not to Earth. She is not a goddess of war, but a mother who protects.

2 Isis, Osiris and Horus. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horus Sky god Horus was told by his mother Isis to protect the people of Egypt from Set the god of the underworld. Horus is the god of the sky, and the son of Osiris. His mother is Isis. Since he was god of the sky, Horus became depicted as a falcon, or as a falcon-headed man, leading to Horus’ name, (in Egyptian, Heru), which meant The distant one. Horus was also sometimes known as Nekheny (meaning falcon), although it has been proposed that Nekheny may have been another falcon-god, worshipped at Nekhen (city of the hawk), that became identified as Horus very early on. In this form, he was sometimes given the title Kemwer, meaning (the) great black (one). As Horus was the son of Osiris, and god of the sky, he became closely associated with

the Pharaoh of Lower Egypt (where Horus was worshipped), and became their patron. The association with the Pharaoh brought with it the idea that he was the son of Isis, in her original form, who was regarded as a deification of the Queen. It was said that after the world was created, Horus landed on a perch, known as the djeba, which literally translates as finger, in order to rest, which consequently became considered sacred. On some occasions, Horus was referred to as lord of the djeba (i.e. lord of the perch or lord of the finger), a form in which he was especially worshipped at Buto, known as Djebauti, meaning (ones) of the djeba (the reason for the plural is not understood, and may just have been a result of Epenthesis, or Paragoge). The form of Djebauti eventually became depicted as an heron, nevertheless continuing to rest on the sacred perch. Since Horus was said to be the sky, he was considered to also contain the sun and moon. It became said that the sun was one of his eyes and the moon the other, and that they traversed the sky when he, a falcon, flew across it. Thus he became known as Harmerty – Horus of two eyes. Later, the reason that the moon was not as bright as the sun was explained by a tale, known as the contestings of Horus and Set, originating as a metaphor for the conquest of Upper Egypt by Lower Egypt in about 3000BC. In this tale, it was said that Set, the patron of Upper Egypt, and Horus, the patron of Lower Egypt, had battled for Egypt brutally, with neither side victorious, until eventually the gods sided with Horus (see below). As Horus was the ultimate victor he became known as Harsiesis, Heru-ur or Har-Wer (ḥr.w wr ‘Horus the Great’), but more usually translated as Horus the Elder. In the struggle Set had lost a testicle, explaining why the desert, which Set represented, is infertile. Horus’ left eye had also been gouged out, which explained why the moon, which it represented, was so weak compared to the sun. It was also said that during a new-moon, Horus had become blinded and was titled Mekhenty-er-irty (mḫnty r ỉr.ty ‘He who has no eyes’), while when the moon became visible again, he was re-titled Khenty-irty (ḫnty r ỉr.ty ‘He who has eyes’). While blind, it was considered that Horus was quite dangerous, sometimes attacking his friends after mistaking them for enemies. Horus was occasionally shown in art as a naked boy with a finger in his mouth sitting on a lotus with his mother. In the form of a youth, Horus was referred to as Neferhor. This is also spelled Nefer Hor, Nephoros or Nopheros (nfr ḥr.w) meaning ‘The Good Horus’.

War god Horus was also said to be a war god and a hunter’s god; since he was associated with the falcon. Thus he became a symbol of majesty and power as well as the model of the pharaohs. Furthermore Nemty (also a war god meaning “He who travels”) was later identified as Horus. Conqueror of Set After Set killed his brother, Osiris, Horus had many battles with Set, not only to avenge his father, but to chose the rightful ruler of Egypt. One scene stated how Horus was on the verge of killing Set; but his mother (and Set’s sister), Isis, stopped him. Isis injured Horus, but eventually healed him. By the Nineteenth dynasty, the enmity between Set and Horus, in which Horus had ripped off one of Set’s testicles, was represented as a separate tale. According to Papyrus Chester-Beatty I, Set is depicted as trying to prove his dominance by seducing Horus and then having intercourse with him. However, Horus places his hand between his thighs and catches Set’s semen, then subsequently throws it in the river, so that he may not be said to have been inseminated by Set. Horus then deliberately spreads his own semen on some lettuce, which was Set’s favorite food (the Egyptians thought that lettuce was phallic). After Set has eaten the lettuce, they go to the gods to try to settle the argument over the rule of Egypt. The gods first listen to Set’s claim of dominance over Horus, and call his semen forth, but it answers from the river, invalidating his claim. Then, the gods listen to Horus’ claim of having dominated Set, and call his semen forth, and it answers from inside Set. This myth, along with others, could be seen as an explanation of how the two kingdoms of Egypt (Upper and Lower) came to be united. Horus was seen as the God of Lower Egypt, and Set as the God of Upper Egypt (which happens to be _south_ of the upper Delta region). In this myth, the respective Upper and Lower deities have a fight, through which Horus is the victor. However, some of Horus (representing Lower Egypt) enters into Set (Upper Egypt) thus explaining why Lower Egypt is dominant over the Upper Egyptians. Set’s regions were then considered to be of the desert. But the battle wasn’t over yet, and the other gods were getting tired from over eighty years of fighting and challenges. Horus and Set challenged

each other to a boat race, where they each raced in a boat made of stone. Horus and Set agreed, and the race started. But Horus had a secret weapon: his boat was made of wood, not stone. Set’s boat, being made of heavy stone, sank, but Horus’s didn’t. Horus then won the race, and Set stepped down and officially gave Horus the throne of Egypt. But after the New Kingdom, Set still was considered Lord of the desert and its oases. The similarities with the Blessed Virgin and Jesus Christ are the following:A – Isis mothers her son Horus B – connection with war C – one of her symbols is the eagle and the falcon D – the sphinx A – Statues of Isis and Horus are said of being similar to later Christian statues and paintings of Our Lady and Child Jesus B – Our Lady is connected with war, however her power lies in the intercession to protect and does not wage war. She is not a goddess of war, she is not a goddess in the first place. C – the symbol of the eagle used often to represent Christianity and the Word of God D – the Jews might have used cherubim similar to the sphinx within the temple on either side of the arc of the covenant. Once again similarly with the case of Astarte, Isis, Osiris and Horus are simply pagan myths. The rituals in their honour included temple prostitution and this alone indicates that the Blessed Virgin has absolutely nothing to do with such a myth. As Pope Benedict explains clearly in his book “Daughter Zion” temple prostitution was a pagan attribute due to the worry and apprehension of physical fertility. Once Our Lady was Immaculately Conceived kept from every stain of sin nobody can compare her with such a filthy image as of Isis. Our Lady ensures our fruitfulness through our own sacrifices and abstinence, while demons who play the role of Isis are only interested in the profane sexual rituals which endure in the Black Mass and Masonic Lodge which apparently is thought to lengthen life, bring prosperity, ensure eternal life, a fake resurrection and victory over

Adonai by way of gaining an independent mortal life. All this is yet but a lie set aflame by the scheming of he who calls himself prince of this world. Our Lady is not a goddess – she is the mother of Jesus Christ and therefore of God. She intercedes for humanity, is present body and soul in Heaven and therefore has qualities pertaining to Heaven and not to Earth. She is not a goddess of war, but a mother who protects.

3 Juno, Diana and Hecate. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Juno_(mythology) Juno was the protector and special counselor of the Roman state. She is a daughter of Saturn and sister (but also the wife) of the chief god Jupiter and the mother of Juventas, Mars, and Vulcan. Her Greek equivalent is Hera. As the patron goddess of Rome and the Roman empire she was called Regina (”queen”) and, together with Jupiter and Minerva, was worshipped as a triad on the Capitol (Juno Capitolina) in Rome. As the Juno moneta (which either means “the one who warns” or “the one unique” or “union unique”) she guarded over the finances of the empire and had a temple on the Arx (one of two Capitoline hills), close to the Royal Mint. She was also worshipped in many other cities, where temples were built in her honor. Every year, on the first of March, women held a festival in honor of Juno called the Matronalia . On this day, lambs and other cattle were sacrificed in her honor. Another festival called the Nonae Caprotinae (”The Nones of the Wild Fig”) was held on July 7. Many people consider the month of June, which is named after the goddess who is the patroness of marriage, to be the most favorable time to marry. Lucina was an epithet for Juno as “she who brings children into light.” Juno’s own warlike aspect among the Romans is apparent in her attire. She often appeared armed and wearing a goatskin cloak, which was the garment favoured by Roman soldiers on campaign. This warlike aspect was assimilated from the Greek goddess Athena, whose goatskin was called the ‘aegis.’ Juno is therefore a notorious prostitute and is connected with temple prostitution. To discredit the Blessed Virgin some American

Evangelicals have gone to the lengths of associating her with the following, this is the work of secret societies and not of Christians: http://www.samliquidation.com/moshiach.htm From Jor’e D’eah (Yurah daah) Babylonian Oral Talmudic Law, commentary. rabbi, R. Jacob Be-Rab, asserts “that it unlawful to draw a Gentile out of a well into which he may have fallen. He also declares that the scrupulous Jewish Physician who thoroughly conforms to Talmudic Law will not attend a Gentile without honorarium, because this will be his sole reward. He may do so Gratuitously, if he wishes to study medicine by that means; but he should usually kill such patients whilst pretending to cure them. This however, must be attempted only when there is no chance of detection.”

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Balaam [Jesus] fornicated with his jackass. (Sanhedrin 105a-b)2

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Jewish priests raised Balaam [Jesus] from the dead and punished him in boiling hot semen.(57a Gittin)3

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She who was the descendant of princes and governors [The Virgin Mary] played the harlot with a carpenter (Sanhedrin 106a)4

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[Jesus] was lowered into a pit of dung up to his armpits. Then a hard cloth was placed within a soft one, wound round his neck, and the tow ends pulled in opposite directions until he was dead. (Sanhedrin 52b)5 Also, says they gave him four different executions in Sanhedrin 106a.6

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Hast thou heard how old Balaam [Jesus] was?”…bloody and deceitful men shall not live out half their days it follows that he was thirty-three or thirty-four years old. (Sanhedrin 106)

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Those who read the uncanonical books [New Testament] will have no portion in the world to come. (Sanhedrin 90a)

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Jews must destroy the books of the [Christians]. (Shabbath 116a)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diana_(mythology) Diana was the hunting goddess, associated with wild animals and woodlands. She also later became a moon goddess, supplanting Luna, and was an emblem of chastity. Oak groves were especially sacred to her. She was praised in poetry for her strength, athletic grace, distinct beauty and hunting skill. In practice she made up a trinity with two other Roman deities: Egeria the water nymph, her servant and assistant midwife; and Virbius, the woodland god. In her etymology, “Diana” is simply :”the Goddess”, with a Greek parallel in the name — though not the cult practice — of Dione at Dodona. She was goddess of fertility and quick to anger.

Diana was worshipped at a festival on August 13, when King Servius Tullius, himself born a slave, dedicated her shrine on the Aventine Hill in the mid-sixth century BCE. Being placed on the Aventine, and thus outside the pomerium, meant that Diana’s cult essentially remained a ‘foreign’ one, like that of Bacchus; she was never officially ‘transferred’ to Rome as Juno was after the sack of Veii. It seems that her cult originated in Aricia, where her priest, the Rex Nemorensis remained. There the simple open-air fane was held in common by the Latin tribes, which Rome aspired to weld into a league and direct. Diana of the wood was soon thoroughly Hellenized, “a process which culminated with the appearance of Diana beside Apollo in the first lectisternium at Rome”. Diana was regarded with great reverence by lower-class citizens and slaves; slaves could receive asylum in her temples. Though some Roman patrons ordered marble replicas of the specifically Anatolian “Diana” of Ephesus, where the Temple of Artemis stood, Diana was usually depicted for educated Romans in her Greek guise. If she is accompanied by a deer, as in the Diana of Versailles (illustration, above right) this is because Diana was the patroness of hunting. The deer may also offer a covert reference to the myth of Acteon (or Actaeon), who saw her bathing naked. Diana transformed Acteon into a stag and set his own hunting dogs to kill him. Worship of Diana is mentioned in the Bible. In Acts of the Apostles, Ephesian metalsmiths who felt threatened by Saint Paul’s preaching of Christianity, jealously rioted in her defense, shouting “Great is Diana of the Ephesians!” (Acts 19:28, New English Bible). Diana is therefore associated with Chastity and the Moon just like Our Lady, however this does not make Our Lady a pagan goddess. She still remains the Mother of God.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hecate Hecate (Greek: Ἑκάτη, “far-shooting” ) Hekate (Hekátê, Hekátē), or Hekat was originally a goddess of the wilderness and childbirth, naturalized early in Mycenaean Greece or in Thrace, but originating among the Carians of Anatolia, the region where most theophoric names invoking Hecate, such as Hecataeus or Hecatomnus, progenitor of Mausollus, are attested, and where Hekate remained a Great goddess into historical times, at her unrivalled cult site in Lagina. William Berg observes, “Since children are not called after spooks, it is safe to assume that Carian theophoric names involving hekat- refer to a major deity free from the dark and unsavoury ties to the underworld and to witchcraft held by the Hecate of classical Athens.”The monuments to Hekate in Phrygia and Caria are numerous but of late date. Popular cults venerating her as a mother goddess integrated her persona into Greek culture as Ἑκάτη. In Ptolemaic Alexandria she ultimately achieved her connotations as a goddess of sorcery and her role as the “Queen of Ghosts”, in which triplicate guise she was transmitted to post-Renaissance culture. Today she is a goddess of witches and Hellenic Polytheistic Reconstructionism. Some neo-pagans erroneously refer to her as a ‘crone goddess’ which is incorrect with her original virginal image in ancient Greece. One aspect of Hecate is represented in the Roman Trivia. The earliest inscription is found in late archaic Miletus, close to Caria, where Hecate is a protector of entrances. Our Lady is not a goddess of witchcraft, as the enemies of the True Christian Faith seem to purport. These heretics who call themselves Christians and slander the name of Our Lady are just thralls in the hands of secret societies who well know who their enemy is. Our Lady is not a goddess – she is the mother of Jesus Christ and therefore of God. She intercedes for humanity, is present body and soul in Heaven and therefore has qualities pertaining to Heaven and not to Earth. She is not a goddess of war, but a mother who protects.

4 Demeter, Kali, Inanna and Durga.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demeter In Greek mythology Demeter (pronounced /dɨˈmiːtɚ/; Greek: Δημήτηρ, possibly “distribution-mother” from the noun of the Indo-European mother-earth *dheghom *mater, also called simply Δηώ) is the goddess of grain and fertility, the pure. Nourisher of the youth and the green earth, the health-giving cycle of life and death, and preserver of marriage and the sacred law. She is invoked as the “bringer of seasons” in the Homeric hymn, a subtle sign that she was worshipped long before she was made one of the Olympians. The Homeric Hymn to Demeter has been dated to about the seventh century BC. She and her daughter Persephone were the central figures of the Eleusinian Mysteries that also predated the Olympian pantheon. Her Roman equivalent is Ceres, from whom the word “cereal” is derived. Demeter is easily confused with Gaia or Rhea, and with Cybele. The goddess’s epithets reveal the span of her functions in Greek life. Demeter and Kore (”the maiden”) are usually invoked as to theo (’”The Two Goddesses”), and they appear in that form in Linear B graffiti at Mycenaean Pylos in pre-classical times. A connection with the goddesscults of Minoan Crete is quite possible. According to the Athenian rhetorician Isocrates, the greatest gifts which Demeter gave were cereal (also known as corn in modern Britain), which made man different from wild animals; and the Mysteries which give man higher hopes in this life and the afterlife. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kali Kali, also known as Kalika (Bengali:, Kālī / Kālīkā ; Sanskrit , is a Hindu goddess associated with death and destruction. Despite her negative connotations, she is not actually the goddess of death, but rather of Time and Change. Although sometimes presented as black and violent, her earliest incarnation as a figure of annihilation still has some influence. More complex Tantric beliefs sometimes extend her role so far as to be the “Ultimate Reality” or Brahman. She is also revered as Bhavatarini (lit. “redeemer of the universe”). Comparatively recent devotional movements largely conceive Kali as a benevolent mother-goddess. Kali is represented as the consort of god Shiva, on whose body she is often seen standing. She is associated with many other Hindu goddesses like Durga, Bhadrakali, Sati, Rudrani, Parvati and Chamunda. She is the foremost among the Dasa-Mahavidyas, ten fierce Tantric goddesses.

Kali goddess of tantra therefore of temple prostitution. Again the enemies of Christianity liken the Mother of God with Kali with the pretext that New Age writers identify Our Lady of Czestochowa with Kali, for both are black. Therefore, I liken Oprah, the American t.v. program host, with Kali for she is also Black. Dear Evangelicals reconsider your associations with Masonry. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inanna Inanna (INANNa ) is the Sumerian goddess of sexual love, fertility, and warfare. Alternative Sumerian names include Innin, Ennin, Ninnin, Ninni, Ninanna, Innina, Ennina, Irnina, Innini, Nana and Nin, commonly derived from an earlier Nin-ana “lady of the sky”, although Gelb (1960) presented the suggestion that the oldest form is Innin (INNIN) and that Ninni, Nin-anna and Irnina are independent goddesses in origin. Her Akkadian name is Ishtar. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Durga In Hinduism, Durga (Sanskrit: “the inaccessible” or “the invincible”) or Maa Durga (Mother Durga) is a form of Devi, the supreme goddess. Goddess Durga is considered by Hindus to be the mother of Ganesha, and Kartikeya. She is thus considered the fiercer, demon-fighting form of Shiva’s wife, goddess Parvati. Durga is depicted as a warrior aspect of Devi Parvati with 10 arms who rides a lion or a tiger, carries weapons and assumes mudras, or symbolic hand gestures. This form of the Goddess is the embodiment of feminine and creative energy (Shakti). Both Innana and Durga are warriors and fight demons however both encourage temple prostitution. Our Lady (the Immaculately Conceived) is not a goddess – she is the mother of Jesus Christ and therefore of God. She intercedes for humanity, is present body and soul in Heaven and therefore has qualities pertaining to Heaven and not to Earth. She is not a goddess of war, but a mother who protects.

To discredit the Blessed Virgin some American Evangelicals have gone to the lengths of associating her with the following, this is the work of secret societies and not of Christians: http://www.samliquidation.com/moshiach.htm From Jor’e D’eah (Yurah daah) Babylonian Oral Talmudic Law, commentary. rabbi, R. Jacob Be-Rab, asserts “that it unlawful to draw a Gentile out of a well into which he may have fallen. He also declares that the scrupulous Jewish Physician who thoroughly conforms to Talmudic Law will not attend a Gentile without honorarium, because this will be his sole reward. He may do so Gratuitously, if he wishes to study medicine by that means; but he should usually kill such patients whilst pretending to cure them. This however, must be attempted only when there is no chance of detection.”

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Balaam [Jesus] fornicated with his jackass. (Sanhedrin 105a-b)2

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Jewish priests raised Balaam [Jesus] from the dead and punished him in boiling hot semen.(57a Gittin)3

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She who was the descendant of princes and governors [The Virgin Mary] played the harlot with a carpenter (Sanhedrin 106a)4

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[Jesus] was lowered into a pit of dung up to his armpits. Then a hard cloth was placed within a soft one, wound round his neck, and the tow ends pulled in opposite directions until he was dead. (Sanhedrin 52b)5 Also, says they gave him four different executions in Sanhedrin 106a.6

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Hast thou heard how old Balaam [Jesus] was?”…bloody and deceitful men shall not live out half their days it follows that he was thirty-three or thirty-four years old. (Sanhedrin 106)

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Those who read the uncanonical books [New Testament] will have no portion in the world to come. (Sanhedrin 90a)

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Jews must destroy the books of the [Christians]. (Shabbath 116a)

5 Sophia, Lilith, Persephone and Maat. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sophia_%28wisdom%29 Sophia is adopted as the term in the Septuagint for Hebrew ‫חכמות‬ Ḥokmot. In Judaism, Chokhmah appears alongside the Shekinah, ‘the Glory of God’, a figure who plays a key role in the cosmology of the Kabbalists as an expression of the feminine aspect of God. It is a central topic in the “sapiential” books (i.e., the eponymous Book of Wisdom as well as Ecclesiastes and Proverbs). A key passage which personifies Wisdom/Sophia in the Hebrew Bible is Proverbs 8:22-31. Paul also refers to the concept, notably in 1 Corinthians, but obscurely, deconstructing worldly wisdom: “Where is the wise? where is the scribe? where is the disputer of this world? hath not God made foolish the wisdom of this world?” (1 Corinthians 1:20) Paul sets worldly wisdom against a higher wisdom of God: “But we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, even the hidden wisdom, which God ordained before the world unto our glory.” (1 Corinthians 2:7) Kabbalists are not Jews, they belong to the synagogue of Satan as mentioned in Revelation. The Blessed Virgin has absolutely nothing to do with Sophia save the image of wisdom for she is the holy spouse of the Holy Spirit, wisdom Itself. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lilith

Lilith (Hebrew ‫ )לילית‬is a mythological female Mesopotamian storm demon associated with wind and was thought to be a bearer of disease, illness, and death. The figure of Lilith first appeared in a class of wind and storm demons or spirits as Lilitu, in Sumer, circa 4000 BC. Many scholars place the origin of the phonetic name “Lilith” at somewhere around 700 BC despite post-dating even the time of Moses. Lilith appears as a night demon in Jewish lore and as a screech owl in the King James version of the Bible. Lilith is a demon who supposedly seduced Adam in the garden of Eden. She is a whore a prostitute a perverted female demon, and unlike the Blessed Virgin (the Immaculately Conceived) Lilith does not stamp out the serpent but she fornicates with it. Therefore the comparison with the Blessed Virgin is also here ridiculous to say the least!! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Persephone In Greek mythology, Persephone (Kore or Cora) was the embodiment of the Earth’s fertility at the same time that she was the Queen of the Underworld, the korē (or young maiden), and the parthenogenic daughter of Demeter—and, in later Classical myths, a daughter of Demeter and Zeus. In the Olympian version she also becomes the consort of Hades when he becomes the deity that governs the underworld. The figure of Persephone is well-known today. Her story has great emotional power: an innocent maiden, a mother’s grief over her abduction, and subsequent joy after the return of her daughter. It is also cited frequently as a paradigm of myths that explain natural processes, with the descent and return of the goddess bringing about the change of seasons. In Greek art, Persephone is invariably portrayed robed. She may be carrying a sheaf of grain and smiling demurely with the “Archaic smile” of the Kore of Antenor. Mother Earth and the underworld have nothing to do with the Blessed Virgin for she shows the way to her Son, she is the Hodegitria, she removes us from the path to hell.

Maat or Mayet, thought to have been pronounced as *Muʔʕat (Muh-aht), was

the Ancient Egyptian concept of truth, order—law, morality, and justice sometimes personified as a goddess. Ma’at was seen as being in charge with regulating the stars, seasons, and the actions of both mortals and the

deities, after she had set the order of the universe from chaos at the moment of creation. Later, as a goddess in other traditions of the Egyptian pantheon, where most goddesses were paired with a male aspect, her masculine counterpart was Thoth and their attributes are the same. Like Thoth, she was seen to represent the Logos of Plato. After the rise of Ra they were depicted as guiding his Solar Barque, one on either side. After her role in creation and continuously preventing the universe from returning to chaos, her primary role in Egyptian mythology dealt with the weighing of souls that took place in the underworld, Duat. Her feather was the measure that determined whether the souls (considered to reside in the heart) of the departed would reach the paradise of afterlife successfully. Fanciful myth. Any comparisons with the Blessed Virgin start and finish with the elements of morality, truth, order and justice. Lawyers should pray the Holy Rosary too if they want to follow these virtues. Our Lady is not a goddess – she is the mother of Jesus Christ and therefore of God. She intercedes for humanity, is present body and soul in Heaven and therefore has qualities pertaining to Heaven and not to Earth. She is not a goddess of war, but a mother who protects. To discredit the Blessed Virgin some American Evangelicals have gone to the lengths of associating her with the following, this is the work of secret societies and not of Christians: http://www.samliquidation.com/moshiach.htm From Jor’e D’eah (Yurah daah) Babylonian Oral Talmudic Law, commentary. rabbi, R. Jacob Be-Rab, asserts “that it unlawful to draw a Gentile out of a well into which he may have fallen. He also declares that the scrupulous Jewish Physician who thoroughly conforms to Talmudic Law will not attend a Gentile without honorarium, because this will be his sole reward. He may do so Gratuitously, if he wishes to study medicine by that means; but he should usually kill such patients whilst pretending to cure them. This however, must be attempted only when there is no chance of detection.”

•

Balaam [Jesus] fornicated with his jackass. (Sanhedrin 105a-b)2

•

Jewish priests raised Balaam [Jesus] from the dead and punished him in boiling hot semen.(57a Gittin)3

•

She who was the descendant of princes and governors [The Virgin Mary] played the harlot with a carpenter (Sanhedrin 106a)4

•

[Jesus] was lowered into a pit of dung up to his armpits. Then a hard cloth was placed within a soft one, wound round his neck, and the tow ends pulled in opposite directions until he was dead. (Sanhedrin 52b)5 Also, says they gave him four different executions in Sanhedrin 106a.6

•

Hast thou heard how old Balaam [Jesus] was?”…bloody and deceitful men shall not live out half their days it follows that he was thirty-three or thirty-four years old. (Sanhedrin 106)

•

Those who read the uncanonical books [New Testament] will have no portion in the world to come. (Sanhedrin 90a)

Jews must destroy the books of the [Christians]. (Shabbath 116a)

6 The goddess Quetzacoatl in Mexico City At the center of the city, at the summit of a pyramid 150 feet high, Cortes insisted on the removal of the Aztec idols and installed a cross and an image of the Virgin Mary. Eventually, the natives attempted to remove the image, however their attempts proved useless as the image resisted and refused to be removed. A battle ensued and according to the Indios, “…the woman of the altar”(1) cast powder and hail in their eyes and blinded many, while Saint James of Compostella appeared astride a white horse, both the steed and rider killed numerous Indios. The Aztecs claimed that, had Saint James and the Virgin not frightened them, the Spanish would have been cooked and eaten with chocolate. The Spanish thanked ‘Our Lady of the Snows,’ (Feast August 5), for having delivered

them from the cannibalistic and chocolate eating Aztecs. The chocolate was consumed together with honey and amaranth during their pagan and magic rituals, practises which were later outlawed. However, an ancient prophecy of the Aztec civilization was regarding the return of the goddess Quetzacoatl, they had to respond and free themselves from her by performing magic rituals and repel the aggressors with showers of chocolate. The Blessed Virgin might have been mistaken for their Quetzacoatl. The Virgin who stamps out the snake underfoot shot water/snow/hail chrystals at them. Saint John the Baptist baptized with water. The Church today baptizes with water and the Holy Spirit to cleanse the child (neophyte) of Original sin. The fact that Our Lady, the Spouse of the Holy Spirit, guided Colombus through arduous adventures for the sake and salvation of the Indios, this mission to the Americas was a ‘baptizing’ mission. The dynamics of God’s Mercy and Justice which were manifest in Tenochtitlan can be studied. Our Lady symbolized the arrival of Christianity, of the christening with water and the Holy Spirit, manifest by God’s Mercy in baptism and God’s Justice in Our Lady’s supernatural attack. Our Lady of the Snows is radiant and pure, reflecting the Sun’s rays or God’s power. The cult of the indigenous snake deity, Tonantzin, was held on Tepeyac Hill and hundreds, if not thousands, of human sacrifices were offered to the pagan god. The Aztec priest would slit open the chest of the victim and pluck out the warm, still beating heart. The Blessed Virgin, who is referred as being the woman who crushes or stamps out the serpent (Genesis 3:15 and Revelation 12), was factually enacting the prefigurative biblical images. At Tepeyac, the feathered stone serpent god Quetzalcoatl was worshipped together with Tonantzin, the gods of human blood sacrifice and satanic macumba magic. Our Lady’s apparition caused the greatest mass conversion to Catholicism in history, as in the years 1531 to 1538, eight million conversions occurred. Mankind’s true Heavenly Queen Mother was victorious and at Tepeyac, crushed the serpent’s head. This apparition ended completely any desires, on the part of the natives, to re-enact the bloody human sacrifice, which was routinely carried out. The heavenly apparition prevented Indian insurrections in sixteenth century Mexico from taking place. Juan Diego was the instrument and Our Lady the converting power of the Mexican people. Previous to the mass tribal conversions these natives offered anually 20,000 people to their serpent god Quetzalcoatl. The Aztec word ‘coatlaxopeuh’ pronounced as ‘te quatlasupe’ incredibly resembles the Spanish word ‘Guadalupe,’ the former means ‘the stamping out or the crushing of the stone serpent.’ The Aztecs interpreted Our Lady in the Guadalupe Image, as a goddess who would crush their feathered serpent-

god Quetzalcoatl, truly exposing the primordial serpent as Lucifer and revealing in fact the age old struggle between the Dragon and the Woman. Our Lady saved the lives and souls of countless Aztecs from the tenebrous clutches of the ancient serpent, Lucifer. Ever since these events transpired she has remained the pride and joy of this people. Obviously, the view that she was a ‘goddess’ was initially necessary, in what other way could such natives describe the supernatural. Today the Mexican people are well aware that she is only our Mother and worship belongs solely to God. The text specifically shows evidence of a connection between the serpent of the Maya and Aztec people with the Dragon as mentioned in the Bible (Rev), which represents Satan. Here again Our Lady intervenes to stamp out the profane, the human sacrifice and the spilled blood of the innocent to the sun-god and snake as was already done in antiquity by Adonai in regards to Moloch/Baal. Moloch (Ja bal li int) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moloch Moloch, Molech, Molekh, or Molek, representing Hebrew ‫ מלך‬mlk, (translated directly into king) is either the name of a god or the name of a particular kind of sacrifice associated with fire. Moloch was historically affiliated with cultures throughout the Middle East, including but not limited to the Jewish, Egyptian, Canaanite, Phoenician and related cultures in North Africa and the Levant. In modern English usage, “Moloch” can refer derivatively to any person or thing which demands or requires costly sacrifices. Moloch went by many names including, but not limited to, Ba’al, Moloch, Apis Bull, Golden Calf, Chemosh, as well as many other names, and was widely worshipped in the Middle East and wherever Punic culture extended (including, but not limited to, the Ammonites, Edomites and the Moabites). Baal Moloch was conceived under the form of a calf or an ox or depicted as a man with the head of a bull. Hadad, Baal or simply the King identified the god within his cult. The name Moloch is the name he was known by among his worshippers, but is a Hebrew translation. (MLK has been found on stele at the infant necropolis in Carthage.) The written form Μολώχ Moloch (in the Septuagint Greek translation of the Old

Testament), or Molech (Hebrew), is the word Melech or king, transformed by interposing the vowels of bosheth or ’shameful thing’. He is sometimes also called Milcom in the Old Testament (1 Kings 11:5, 1 Kings 11:33, 2 Kings 23:13 and Zephaniah 1:5) The 12th century rabbi Rashi, commenting on Jeremiah 7:31 stated: Tophet is Moloch, which was made of brass; and they heated him from his lower parts; and his hands being stretched out, and made hot, they put the child between his hands, and it was burnt; when it vehemently cried out; but the priests beat a drum, that the father might not hear the voice of his son, and his heart might not be moved. A different rabbinical tradition says that the idol was hollow and was divided into seven compartments, in one of which they put flour, in the second turtle-doves, in the third a ewe, in the fourth a ram, in the fifth a calf, in the sixth an ox, and in the seventh a child, which were all burned together by heating the statue inside. http://www.deliriumsrealm.com/delirium/articleview.asp?Post=300 Moloch in Paradise Lost Milton writes of him in Paradise Lost “First, Moloch, horrid King, besmeared with blood Of human sacrifice, and parents’ tears; Though, for the noise of drums and timbrels loud, Their children’s cries unheard that passed through fire To his grim idol. Him the Ammonite Worshiped in Rabba and her watery plain, In Argob and in Basan, to the stream Of utmost Arnon. Nor content with such Audacious neighbourhood, the wisest heart Of Solomon he led by fraud to build His temple right against the temple of God On that opprobrious hill, and made his grove The pleasant valley of Hinnom, Tophet thence And black Gehenna called, the type of Hell.” - Paradise Lost, i. 391-405

Our Lady is not a goddess – she is the mother of Jesus Christ and therefore of God. She intercedes for humanity, is present body and soul in Heaven and therefore has qualities pertaining to Heaven and not to Earth. She is not a goddess of war, but a mother who protects.

7 Hestia, Vesta and Rhea Silva http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hestia In Greek mythology, virginal Hestia, (Roman name, Vesta) daughter of Cronus and Rhea, (ancient Greek Ἑστία) is the goddess of the hearth, of the right ordering of domesticity and the family, who received the first offering at every sacrifice in the household. In the public domain, the hearth of the prytaneum functioned as her official sanctuary. With the establishment of a new colony, flame from Hestia’s public hearth would be carried to the new settlement. In Roman mythology her more civic approximate equivalent was Vesta, who personified the public hearth, and whose cult round the ever-burning hearth bound Romans together in the form of an extended family. The similarity of names, apparently, is misleading: “The relationship hestia-histie – Vesta cannot be explained in terms of Indo-European linguistics; borrowings from a third language must also be involved,” Walter Burkert has written At a very deep level her name means “home and hearth”: the household and its inhabitants. “An early form of the temple is the hearth house; the early temples at Dreros and Prinias on Crete are of this type as indeed is the temple of Apollo at Delphi which always had its inner hestia” (Burkert p 61). It will be recalled that among classical Greeks the altar was always in the open air with no roof but the sky, and that the oracle at Delphi was the shrine of the Goddess before it was assumed by Apollo. The Mycenaean great hall, such as the hall of Odysseus at Ithaca was a megaron, with a central hearthfire. The hearth fire of a Greek or a Roman household was not allowed to go out, unless it was ritually extinguished and ritually renewed, accompanied by impressive rituals of completion, purification and renewal. Compare the rituals and connotations of an eternal flame and of sanctuary lamps. At the more developed level of the polis, Hestia symbolizes the alliance between the colonies and their mother cities. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vesta_%28mythology%29

Vesta was the virgin goddess of the hearth, home, and family in Roman mythology. Although she is often mistaken as analogous to Hestia in Greek mythology; she had a large, albeit mysterious role in Roman religion long before she appeared in Greece. Vesta was much more important to the Romans than Hestia was to the Greeks. Little is known about the goddess, as unlike other Roman deities, she had no distinct personality, was never depicted and went without mention in myths. Vesta’s presence was symbolized by the sacred fire that burned at her hearth and temples. Vesta’s (in some versions she is called Vestia) fire was guarded at her Temples by her priestesses, the Vestales. Every March 1 the fire was renewed. It burned until 391, when the Emperor Theodosius I forbade public pagan worship. One of the Vestales mentioned in mythology was Rhea Silvia, who with the God Mars conceived Romulus and Remus (see founding of Rome). The Vestales were one of the few full time clergy positions in Roman religion. They were drawn from the patrician class and had to observe absolute chastity for 30 years. It was from this that the Vestales were named the Vestal virgins. They could not show excessive care of their person, and they must not let the fire go out. The Vestal Virgins lived together in a house near the Forum (Atrium Vestae), supervised by the Pontifex Maximus. On becoming a priestess, a Vestal Virgin was legally emancipated from her father’s authority and swore a vow of chastity for 30 years. This vow was so sacred that if it were broken, the Vestal was buried alive in the Campus Sceleris (’Field of Wickedness’). It is likely that this is what happened to Rhea Silvia. They were also very independent and had many privileges that normal women did not have. They could move around the city but had to be in a carriage. Vesta is also known as honoring God in Greek mythology. Vesta was celebrated at the Vestalia which took place from June 7 to June 15. On the first day of the festivities the penus Vestae (the curtained sanctum sanctorum of her temple) was opened, for the only time during the year, for women to offer sacrifices in. Such sacrifices included the removal of an unborn calf from a pregnant cow. Vesta was the goddess of the hearth at the centre of atrium and home. It was in the house and home that Vesta was most important as she was the goddess of the hearth and of fire. Vesta was particularly important to women of the household as the hearth was the place where food was prepared and next to it the meal was eaten with offerings being thrown into the fire to seek omens (the future) from the way it burned. Her weakness was that she couldn’t fall in love. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhea_Silvia

Rhea Silvia (also written as Rea Silvia), and also known as Ilia, was the mythical mother of the twins Romulus and Remus, who founded the city of Rome. Her story is told in the Ab Urbe Condita of Livy. According to the legend, she was the daughter of Numitor, king of Alba Longa and descendant of Aeneas. Numitor’s brother Amulius seized the throne and killed Numitor’s son. Amulius forced Rhea Silvia to become a Vestal Virgin, a priestess to the goddess Vesta, so that she (and through her, Numitor) would have no heirs; Vestal Virgins were sworn to celibacy for a period of thirty years. The god Mars, however, came upon Rhea Silvia and raped her in the forest, thereby conceiving the twins. When Amulius learned of this, he ordered Rhea Silvia buried alive and ordered a servant to kill the twins, but the merciful servant instead set them adrift in the river Tiber. The river-god, Tiberinus found the twins and gave them to a she-wolf, Lupa, who had just lost her own cubs, to suckle. Subsequently, Tiberinus rescued and married Rhea Silvia. Romulus and Remus went on to found Rome and overthrow Amulius, reinstating Numitor as King of Alba Longa. Livy presents a somewhat rationalised version of this tale. In Ab Urbe Condita, the Tiber had overflown and the soldiers were ordered to expose the babies to the Tiber, thinking that the muddy flooded ground would be sufficient to drown the twins. Livy also casts doubt on whether the twins were actually suckled by a wolf. Livy commented that it was believed that the wife of the shepherd who would eventually raise the twins was a prostitute known to the other shepherds as the Wolf. That Livy’s euhemerist and realist deflation of this myth that was central to the origins of Rome was not general, is demonstrated by the recurrence of the theme of Mars discovering Rhea Silvia in Roman arts: the Latinists’ “Invention of Rhea Silvia” appears in bas-relief on the Casali Altar (Vatican Museums), in engraved couched glass on the Portland Vase (British Museum) or on a sarcophagus in the Palazzo Mattei. In a version presented by Ovid, it is the river Anio that takes pity on her and invites her to rule in his realm. Ancient Rome and its mythological birth was begotten by the most abominable of unions. A virgin, Rhea Silva, sworn to celibacy, a priestess of the goddess Vesta was raped by Mars the god of war. The fruit of this union, Romelus and Remus, the offspring, battled each other and as Cain killed Abel, Romulus murdered Remus for power and dominion over Rome. The antichristian spirit waged against the early Christians comes by no surprise when considering such a mythological backdrop. However, also does this myth contain similarities to what the Triune God prepared for the world and its redemption.

In its factual birth the Kingdom of Heaven was begotten by the singular holiest union ever. A virgin Immaculately Conceived gave birth to the Son of God, conceived by the Holy Spirit or God Himself. The Kingdom of Heaven is truly not of this Earth. The similarities with the Blessed Virgin and Jesus Christ are the following:A – Hestia and Vesta are the centre of the family and represent the fire or the heart B – Rhea Silva is a priestess and a virgin C- A union occurs with the divine D – gives birth to a kingdom E – connection with war A – if allowed the Blessed Virgin becomes the heart of the family and the Holy Spirit is represented by fire B – Our Lady is the Blessed Virgin C – Jesus Christ is conceived by the Holy Spirit D – The Virgin Birth gives to the world its Redeemer and Saviour the Priest-King of the Christians and of the future New Jerusalem E – Our Lady is connected with war, however her power lies in the intercession to protect and does not wage war. She is not a goddess of war, she is not a goddess in the first place. Our Lady is not a goddess – she is the mother of Jesus Christ and therefore of God. She intercedes for humanity, is present body and soul in Heaven and therefore has qualities pertaining to Heaven and not to Earth. She is not a goddess of war, but a mother who protects.

When Evangelicals speak of saints or of the Church victorious they do not understand the qualities pertaining to the people who dwell already in heaven. Jesus paid the full price and is the only mediator between God and man, however He is God Himself. The many secret societies ever endeavour to darken the above-mentioned Truth. They believe that they hold the secret to eternal life – the lie of the angel of light, the prince of this world and believed by Adam and Eve. In antiquity the Church was Israel but when Israel did not recognise the light, which came in the world, the Church became the faithful gentiles, the Roman Catholic Church. If the State of Israel this day likens itself with the Woman as mentioned in the Bible it is a delusion. American Evangelicals who have strong bonds with the State of Israel cannot believe that the Woman as mentioned in Revelation 12 is Israel for so will they be deluded. This might be a stumbling block for them to come to understand who the Woman really is. One question is posed; “What does it take for a mother to intervene before her Son, when her Son is God Himself?” The answer is our prayer, for when we pray the Holy Rosary we ask Our Lady to pray to her Son for us. Lest we forget the angelic salutation in the Bible confirming that all grace passes from God to us through her. Evangelicals you can tear your clothes such as the High Priest Annas and Kaiphas did before Christ but you can change nothing of the Truth. Do not be found calling God a liar!! 46

And Mary said: My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord 47 and my spirit rejoices in God my Saviour; 48 because he has looked upon the humiliation of his servant. Yes, from now onwards all generations will call me blessed, 49 for the Almighty has done great things for me. Holy is his name, 50 and his faithful love extends age after age to those who fear him. 51 He has used the power of his arm, he has routed the arrogant of heart. 52 He has pulled down princes from their thrones and raised high the lowly. 53 He has filled the starving with good things, sent the rich away empty. 54 He has come to the help of Israel his servant, mindful of his faithful love 55 -according to the promise he made to our ancestors-of his mercy to Abraham and to his descendants for ever. Luke

Both the Catholic Church and Our Lady are identified with the ‘Woman’ of Genesis 3:15, whom God said would be the perpetual enemy of the Devil: “I will make you enemies of each other: you (the ‘Serpent’) and the woman, your offspring and her offspring. It will crush your head and you will strike its heel.” Saint Bernard of Clairveaux explains that Mary, the image and model of the Church, already enjoys that victory by virtue of her Immaculate Conception, therefore, she is most evidently identified to the ‘Woman’ of Genesis 3:15 and of Revelation 12. In two occasions in the New Testament the Messiah addresses her as ‘Woman.’ In John 2:4 “Jesus said, ‘Woman, why turn to me? My hour has not come yet.’” Our Lady intercedes for mankind before her Son Jesus Christ. If Our Lord favored her intercession previous to ‘his hour,’ how much more does He favor her intercession following his sacrifice upon the cross, his Resurrection, Ascension and Our Lady’s Assumption of body and soul into heaven and coronation as ‘Queen of Heaven and Earth’? John 19:26 reveals that while crucified, the Messiah presented the Blessed Virgin to the disciple: “Jesus said to his mother, ‘Woman, this is your son.’ Then to the disciple He said, ‘This is your mother.’” Our Lord entrusts all mankind in the care of the ‘Woman’ and we in turn, receive her as our mother, or at least we should receive her as such. “By her maternal charity, Mary cares for the brethren of her Son who still journey on earth surrounded by dangers and difficulties, until they are led to their happy fatherland. Therefore, the Blessed Virgin is invoked by the Church under the titles of Advocate, Auxiliatrix, Adjutrix, and Mediatrix. These, however, are to be so understood that they neither take away from nor add anything to the dignity and efficacy of Christ the one Mediator…. In the bodily and spiritual glory which she possesses in heaven, the Mother of Jesus continues in this present world as the image and first flowering of the Church as she is to be perfected in the world to come. Likewise Mary shines forth on earth, until the day of the Lord shall come, as a sign of sure hope and solace for the pilgrim People of God.”(2) By the power the Father bestowed upon the Blessed Virgin, she is triumphant over Satan. Revelation chapter 12 reveals Creation’s primeval and present conflict: “Now a great sign appeared in heaven: a woman, adorned with the sun, standing on the moon, and with twelve stars on her head for a crown. She was pregnant, and in labor, crying aloud in the pangs of childbirth. Then a second sign

appeared in the sky, a huge red dragon that had seven heads and ten horns, and each of the seven heads crowned with a coronet. Its tail dragged a third of the stars from the sky…. The woman brought a male child into the world, the son who was to rule all the nations with an iron scepter… And now war broke out in heaven, when Michael with his angels attacked the dragon. The dragon fought back with his angels, but they were defeated and driven out of heaven. The great dragon, the primeval serpent, known as the devil or Satan, who had deceived the entire world, was hurled down to the earth and his angels were hurled down with him…. As soon as the devil found himself thrown down to the earth, he sprang in pursuit of the woman, the mother of the male child, but she was given a huge pair of eagle’s wings to fly away from the serpent into the desert, to the place where she was to be looked after for a year and twice a year and half a year… Then the dragon was enraged with the woman and went away to make war on the rest of her children, that is, all who obey God’s commandments and bear witness for Jesus.” It is by no coincidence that the Marian title ‘Terror of Demons,’ is one of the images applied to the Blessed Virgin Mary. Humanity’s Mother and Queen, is brilliantly set in Heaven and on Earth, her Immaculate sinless glory abusively terrifies the demonic forces. Therefore, rightly does the Roman Catholic Church attribute this title to the Blessed Virgin, who is terrible as an army set in full battle array. The ‘Shulamite Woman’ in the Old Testament Book, Song of Songs 6:10, is indeed the ‘Woman’ of Revelation 12. “Who is she that comes forth as the morning rising, fair as the moon, bright as the sun, as terrible as an army set in full battle array?” Revelation 12, highlights the heavenly struggle between Saint Michael (Hebrew ‘Mi-Cha-el’ or ‘Who Is Like Unto God?’) and the Dragon who affirms his maxim: ‘I Shall Not Serve (the Son of God made man).’ Michael the Archangel, bravely and courageously rose to do battle against the Cherubim Lucifer, opposed the Dragon’s rebellious and disobedient will, humbled himself before God to serve Him and serve God’s Son, who would in the future be both God and man. Saint Michael did not consider Lucifer at par with the Holy Trinity and by his statement indicated his servitude and allegiance to the future God-Man, for he knew that Jesus Christ was like unto God and God Himself. As described in Revelation Jesus Christ was the only one in heaven who was found worthy to break the seven seals! In

Daniel 12, the angelic apparition revealed details regarding the future apocalyptic times: “At that time Michael will stand up, the great prince who mounts guard over your people.” Michael is the protector of the Holy Eucharist. Throughout the ages, these principalities and powers have ravaged mankind, caught up in the war between the ‘Woman’ and the ‘Dragon/Devil.’ Saint Bernard of Clairvaux in his ‘De Laude Novae Militiae’ postulated, that in times when Christianity is in danger by way of war and conflict, the faithful fights a double-edged war against the enemy of his soul and of his flesh. The ‘Woman’ has been ever ready to help her children, rescuing them both from the dangers of the soul and the dangers, which place the body in peril in times of war and conflict. The following chapters are extensive enough in revealing many miraculous favors mediated by the Mother of God during such times. The ‘Woman’ has according to God’s heavenly plan, changed and re-directed the historical course of human events. A series of conversions, beginning with the work of evangelization by the twelve apostles and spreading throughout the whole world. Evidently, the ‘Woman’ supports this plan of salvation. She offers her children continuous help and the sure hope of witnessing an eventual final victory over all the forces of the ‘Dragon/Devil.’ In Romans 8:35-37 Paul says: “Nothing therefore can come between us and the love of Christ, even if we are troubled or worried, or being persecuted, or lacking food or clothes, or being threatened or even attacked. As scripture promised: For your sake we are being massacred daily, and reckoned as sheep for the slaughter. These are the trials through which we triumph, by the power of him who loved us. For I am certain of this: neither death nor life, no angel, no prince, nothing that exists, nothing still to come, not any power, or height or depth, nor any created thing, can ever come between us and the love of God made visible in Christ Jesus our Lord.” In Luke 12:4-5 the ‘apostle of the gentiles’ clarifies: “I tell you, my friends do not be afraid of those who kill the body and after that can do no more. But I will show you whom you should fear: Fear him who, after the killing of the body, has power to throw you into hell. Yes, I tell you, fear him.” Both Paul and Luke were continuously persecuted and beaten with rods and shut many times in prison for bearing witness to the Faith. In 61 AD at the end of Paul’s apostolic mission and during his martyrdom in Rome, Luke remained an inseparable companion. The Apostle of the gentiles, writing for the last time to Timothy, says: “I

have fought the good fight, I have finished my course…Make haste to come to me quickly. For Demas hath left me, loving this world…. Only Luke is with me” (2 Timothy 4:6-13). Saint Paul was martyred, beheaded for the Faith and received eternal rest for fighting ‘the good fight.’ He is remembered as the apostle of the gentiles for having evangelized many countries in his numerous voyages. The calf or the ox, symbolic of the sacrifice of Zachariah the priest and the father of John the Baptist, represents Saint Luke the Evangelist. Saint Luke recounts the manner how Saint John the Baptist was born to Mary’s cousin Elizabeth. It is by no surprise or coincidence that Luke’s Gospel uniquely records Mary’s visit to Elizabeth, the Magnificat, and the Presentation of Our Lord in the Temple, and the account of the Child Jesus’ disappearance in Jerusalem. Elizabeth’s beautiful words uttered on her encounter with the Blessed Virgin: “Of all women you are the most blessed, and blessed is the fruit of your womb” (Luke 1:42-43). Mary, who proclaims that God, “…has brought down the powerful from their thrones, and lifted up the lowly; he has filled the hungry with good things, and sent the rich away empty” (Luke 1:46-56). It is Luke to whom we must be grateful for recounting the angelic salutation of Gabriel: “Rejoice, so highly favored! The Lord is with you.” (Luke 1:28-29) Our Lady humbly accepted God’s invitation to be the Mother of the Messiah. She humbly replies: “I am the humble handmaid of the Lord… let what you have said be done to me” (Luke 1:38). With her FIAT, she opposes Lucifer’s rebellion and accepts to become the Mother of God. Essentially, Our Lady opposes the pride of the Dragon, by accepting humbly the will of God becoming the Messiah’s mother; God the Son was made man. She is the mother of Him, whom Lucifer rejected, causing a rebellion which reverberated throughout Creation. It is by no surprise therefore, that she is his foe, for the Blessed Virgin represents the humanity which Lucifer so ardently detests, albeit the fact that now she is also his Queen. The Angelic Rebellion led by the proud Dragon, was against the very fact that God the Son was to become a man and Sovereign of Creation, rightly so for Creation was begotten by the Father’s Word. The illogical and ‘hopeless’ rebellion accomplished by its chief architect, Lucifer, caused by his self-love and vanity is repeated on Earth. The spirit which opposes servitude to Jesus Christ, the anti-Christian spirit which is so evident in secret societies, is a spirit which affirms the repetition of Lucifer’s rebellion, and does not recognize the sovereignty of God the Son made man, Savior and Redeemer of mankind. Most reprobate sects publically declare that they need not a personal Savior who would save them from Original sin and

personal sin. They invoke the architect of the heavenly rebellion to accomplish the same hopeless rebellion on Earth. On the other hand, Our Lady initiates her animosity against the rebel Dragon by humbly accepting God’s will and thus in the process, indicating the manner how mankind should return to the Father, that is by accepting humbly the redemption offered by God through her Son’s sacrifice. In this manner Our Lady opens for all mankind the wondrous door of real eternal hope. Truly the enmity between the Dragon and the Woman was not begotten at the Anunciation, nor at the fall of Adam and Eve, when Our Lord explicitly declared this enmity in Genesis 3:15, but was conceived with Lucifer’s rebellion. When the Holy Trinity revealed the future intent (the birth of Jesus Christ), Lucifer refused to serve, for his ambition was such that the angel expected the Lord to unite with his angelic ‘almost perfect’ nature, rather than the inferior human. This wish was not granted for the angelic nature was not created in the image and likeness of God. An angelic rebellion followed when the Dragon swept one third of the stars from the sky or from heaven (Rev 12). One third of the angels joined forces with the Dragon, apostatized against God and were cast out of heaven by Saint Michael, a mere Archangel as opposed to the Cherubim. Lucifer’s enmity versus the Blessed Virgin was conceived previous to the rebellion, for Lucifer loathed the fact that God would unite with human nature. The Child (God the Son) conceived of the Holy Spirit, was born of the Virgin Mary. The Cherubim Lucifer detested mankind previous to the angelic rebellion, for God the Son (conceived by the Holy Spirit) would borrow the Blessed Virgin’s flesh. Lucifer’s jealousy was eclipsed by the Lord’s decision, however, indeed the Dragon knew not then who the future mother of God the Son would be. While today Our Lady is both Queen of angels and mankind, previous to her birth she was one of the factors provoking Lucifer’s own undoing, which will carry on till the very end of time. Following this reasoning anyone can clearly understand howcome Our Lady was conceived Immaculate, free from the stain of Original sin for she is the foe of the Dragon’s rebellion and the pure mother of God the Son. As well as being the great writer of the Gospel and the Acts of the Apostles, Saint Luke is accredited with many works of sacred art particularly depicting the Blessed Virgin Mary and Child Jesus. Most early icons painted by Luke the Evangelist have surprisingly, evidently miraculously, survived to our modern day. Many iconographic depictions of Mary and Child bear witness to Luke’s love and devotion to Theotokos, the Mother of God. Mentioning

Saint Luke in this particular work is necessary, for it is also through his paintings, which have survived for twenty centuries, that Our Lady has wrought many miraculous healings and interventions during the terrible times of war. Saint Luke’s writings clearly depicted Our Lady, he also produced pictorial paintings and icons which are traditionally acclaimed to be the authorship of Luke, such as the Icon of ‘Our Lady and Child of Czestochowa’ in Poland and ‘Salus Popoli Romani’ found at the Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore in Rome. For the early Christians, the portrayal of God in art was not a subject of prohibition any longer, on the contrary there was now an urgency for the iconographic rendering of Christ, as He said: “Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father” (John 14:6-14). In those former times, an early practice performed by Christian neophytes following baptism, was the wearing of a blue cord around their neck. As testimony to their new found Faith, during travel the neophyte would also carry icons of Christ and the Mother of God, symbolizing the first and second coming of Jesus Christ. In keeping to the theme of iconographic rendering, Saint Luke is accredited for having painted many, as previously mentioned, the Icon of the Blessed Virgin Mary and Child Jesus of Czestochowa in Poland, the Icon Salus Popoli Romani at the Basilica Santa Maria Maggiore in Rome, the Icon of Our Lady of Philermos in Montenegro, various Russian Icons and the statue of the Madonna and Child, otherwise known as the Statue of Our Lady of Guadeloupe discovered in Seville. This form of evangelizing through works of art, confirms Luke’s desire to further the devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary. He left such icons in places were recent conversions and new Christian communities were being established. This was the expression that Our Lady is the Mother and Protector of Christians and Christianity. The Christians prayed invoking her protection and intercession in times of calamity, understood as times of plagues, disasters and wars. Our Lady and Child’s iconographic renderings, grossly aided the conversions of pagans by the miraculous healings. In this manner, the flourishing of Christian communities persevered and were preserved. An attribute of human nature is to display pictures, especially pictures of our loved ones. All iconographic representations of Our Lady and Child, convey to the pilgrim a message of urgency for conversion and a nudging for the attention to be drawn on the person of Our Lady, that is, if we wish to discover her Son Jesus Christ. Most of the iconographic depictions painted by Saint Luke are the cause of innumerable miraculous intercessions wrought by Our Lady during times of peace and war. The devotions to Theotokos, as a result of Saint Luke’s Icons, have caused

astonishing victories and great changes in the destinies of the entire human race. Pope John Paul II, in his apostolic letter, ‘Rosarium Virginis Mariae,’ instituted the luminous mysteries and encouraged the recitation of the Holy Rosary, exhorting the faithful to use this prayer: “…to contemplate with Mary the face of Christ.” Pope Benedict refers to the Holy Trinity as the God with the human face, for He revealed all and sacrificed Himself. Praying the Holy Rosary before an icon undoubtedly facilitates the accomplishment of this exhortation, many spiritual and temporal graces are received when the Holy Rosary is recited before a miraculous Icon. Pilgrimages to shrines and sanctuaries displaying a miraculous Icon, exposed for prayer and contemplation, still contribute to the spiritual and temporal health of the Christian people. In today’s age of magazine, TV and computer images, such practices should be encouraged. The word ‘icon’ is derived from the Greek word ‘eikon’ meaning ‘image’ or ‘depiction.’ In ‘The Catechism of the Catholic Church,’ CCC 1159 to 1162 and CCC 2129 to 2141, discuss the virtues of the Christian veneration of Images. CCC 1160 “Christian iconography expresses in images the same Gospel message that Scripture communicates by words. Image and word illuminate each other.” CCC 2131 “Basing itself on the mystery of the Incarnate Word the seventh ecumenical council, at Nicea (787), justified against the Iconoclasts the veneration of icons of Christ, but also of the Mother of God, the angels, and all the saints. By becoming incarnate, the Son of God introduced a new ‘economy’ of images.” CCC 2132 “The Christian veneration of images is not contrary to the first commandment, which proscribes idols. Indeed, ‘the honor rendered to an image passes to its ‘prototype’, and ‘whoever venerates an image venerates the person portrayed in it.’ The honor paid to sacred images is a ‘respectful veneration’, not the adoration due to God alone: Religious worship is not directed to images in themselves, considered as mere things, but under their distinctive aspect as images leading us on to God incarnate. The movement towards the image does not terminate in it as image, but tends towards that whose image it is.” CCC 2141 “The veneration of sacred images is based on the mystery of the Incarnation of the Word of God. It is not contrary to the first commandment.”(3) The late Pontiff, Pope John Paul II, in his work titled ‘Mother of the Redeemer,’ clearly identifies the ‘Woman’ with ‘Our Lady’: “She who as the one ‘Full of Grace’ was brought into the Mystery of Christ in order to be His Mother and thus the Holy Mother of God… remains in that mystery as ‘the Woman’ spoken of by the Book of

Genesis (3:15) at the beginning.”(4) The death and Resurrection of Jesus Christ achieved mankind’s redemption and as such no other victory could be greater, however, Saint Bernard affirmed that humanity has also essentially defeated Lucifer by virtue of the very existence of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Saint Bernard postulated: “In the Most Holy Virgin the Church has already reached that perfection whereby she exists without spot or wrinkle.” For this reason, as explained by Saint Bernard, both the Church and the Blessed Virgin are associated with the ‘Woman’ of Revelation 12. On December 6, 2007, Fr. Raniero Cantalamessa in an article titled ‘The Virgin without sin’ issued the following statement, “Mary is the sign and guarantee of this. The whole Church, after her, is called to become “glorious, without spot or wrinkle, or any such thing, that she might be holy and immaculate” (Ephesians 5:27). A text of the Second Vatican Council says: “But while in the Most Holy Virgin the Church has already reached that perfection whereby she is without spot or wrinkle, the followers of Christ still strive to increase in holiness by conquering sin. And so they turn their eyes to Mary who shines forth to the whole community of the elect as the model of virtues” (”Lumen Gentium,” 65).”(5) St Francis of Assisi referred to her as the “..virgin made church..” Therefore, the ‘Woman’ who crushes Lucifer, is the Church represented by the Blessed Virgin, who is in turn, the Church’s pinnacle of perfection. The Blessed Virgin is also the Mother of the Church and all the faithful. Whenever Christians are persecuted the mother is apprehensive and intervenes. Delivering messages, Our Lady warns her children of imminent and pending dangers. Notwithstanding such warnings and apparitions by the Queen, whenever the mother Church declares an apparition as authentic, the faithful are not obliged to believe in it. Marian messages do not form part of the corpus of the Dogmatic Constitution of the Church

“Gaude, Maria Virgo, cunctas haereses sola interemisti in universo mundo,” or “Rejoice, O Virgin Mary, who alone has crushed all the heresies in the world,”