The Person of Mary ©

The charts below are direct quotes from Post-Vatican II Magisterial Documents concerning the theme, Mary As Person. These teachings of the Catholic Church may prove useful to include in talks, in homilies or for research. For the full title and document data, click on the abbreviation code (for example, BYM leads you to the document, Behold Your Mother). This will also lead you to the complete document on this website or assist you in locating it elsewhere.

For an index of the documents used in the study see: List of Magisterial Documents
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Documents	V. The Person of Mary
Lumen Gentium, 1964	received the Word of God in her heart and in her body 53
The VM in Intellectual and Spiritual Formation, 1988	Post-conciliar Mariology has given renewed attention to anthropology. ... In the convergence of the data of faith and the data of the anthropological sciences, when these turn their attention to Mary of Nazareth, one understands more clearly that the Virgin is both the highest historical realization of the Gospel (cf. III Conferencia General del Episcopado Latino-Americano (Puebla 1979), La evangelización en el presente y en el futuro de America Latina (Bogota 1979), 282), and the woman who, through her self-control, her sense of responsibility, her openness to others and to the spirit of service, her strength and her love, is the most completely realized on the human level. 15 Finally, in Mary everything is referable to the human race, in all times and all places. She has a universal and permanent value. She is "our true sister," (MC 56), and "because she belongs to the offspring of Adam she is one with all human beings in their need for salvation." (LG 53) Mary does not disappoint the expectations of contemporary man. Because she is the "perfect follower of Christ" (MC 35), and the woman most completely realized as a person, she is a perennial source of fruitful inspiration. 21 Research into Scripture and Tradition ... must also integrate and be strengthened by the more secure fruits of learning in anthropology and the human sciences. 27
Mulieris Dignitatem, 1988	The special presence of the Mother of God in the mystery of the Church makes us think of the exceptional link between this "woman" and the whole human family. It is a question here of every man and woman ... "God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them." (Gen 1:27) 1 In this "revealing of man to himself," [Christ does so] do we not need to find a special place for the "woman" who was the Mother of Christ [and thereby of all women]? 2

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