Metamorphosis (Formerly Bible Catholic)

According to the Bible, it is unknown whether or not Jess appeared to his mother, Mary. However, according to tradition, Jesus appeared to his mother. This is known in Hispanic cultures as the encuentro --the encounter.  While Scripture does not describe any post-Resurrection appearances of Jesus to His Mother, Mary, many saints have speculated that Jesus did appear to His Mother. For example, as Pope Saint John Paul II once remarked: The Gospels mention various appearances of the risen Christ, but not a meeting between Jesus and his Mother. This silence must not lead to the conclusion that after the Resurrection Christ did not appear to Mary… …Indeed, it is legitimate to think that the Mother was probably the first person to whom the risen Jesus appeared. (Pope Saint John Paul II, General Audience, May 21, 1997, accessed on Dec. 30, 2017 at  21 May 1997 | John Paul II )

The Immaculate Conception was known and articulated as such by the Catholic Church for many centuries prior to it’s dogmatic declaration in 1854. For example, Origen, an early Church Father, though not a canonized saint, called Mary “immaculate”: His mother immaculate, His mother incorrupt, His mother pure. His mother! Whose mother? The mother of God, of the Only-begotten, of the Lord, of the King, of the Maker of all things, and the Redeemer of all. Quoted in St. Thomas Aquinas,  Catena Aurea , Vol. 1–4, Commentary on Matthew 1:18 (Oxford: John Henry Parker, 1841) reprinted by Primedia E-Launch, Kindle Edition, 2012. Origen died around A.D. 254 or 1,600 years before the Immaculate Conception of Mary was solemnly declared. St. Irenaeus of Lyons, offered this interpetation of Isaiah: ‘Before she who was in labor gave birth, and before the birthpains came on, she was delivered of a male’…he indicated His unexpected and extraordinary birth from the Virgin. St. Irenaeus of