Bible Verses that back up our Catholic beliefs about Mary:

Mary - Mother of God:
“And when Elizabeth heard the greeting of Mary, the babe leaped in her womb, and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit and she exclaimed with a loud cry, ‘Blessed are you among women and blessed is the fruit of your womb! And why is this granted me, that the mother of my Lord should come to me?”  (Luke 1:41-43).  This verse clearly supports the Catholic Dogma that Mary is the Mother of God.  This does not mean that Mary is divine or that she existed before God, it only means that she is the true Mother of Christ who is God.  Those who refute that Mary is the Mother of God obviously ignore this verse.  

"And Mary said, ‘My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior, for he has regarded the low estate of his handmaiden. For behold, henceforth all generations will call me blessed; for he who is mighty has done great things for me, and holy is his name’" (Luke 1:46-49).  If Mary's soul magnifies the Lord, then how could she's have the stain of sin on her soul?

“for he who is mighty has done great things for me” (Luke 1:49)

“the prayer of a righteous man has great power in it’s effect” (James 5:16) Many people often ask their friends to pray for them.  Who better to ask for prayers than the Mother of God.

“Now there was a man in Jerusalem, whose name was Simeon and this man was righteous and devout, looking for the consolation of Israel”  (Luke 2:25)  If Simeon was righteous wouldn't Mary have been also?

“And they were both righteous before God, walking in all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord blameless.” (Luke 1:6)  Speaking of John the Baptists Parents – Zechariah & Elizabeth.  If John was righteous why couldn't Mary be also?

“For as by one man's disobedience many were made sinners, so by one man's obedience many will be made righteous.” (Rom. 5:19)

“For with God nothing is impossible”  (Luke 1:37)

“and he (John the Baptist) will be filled with the Holy Spirit, even from his mothers womb” (Luke 1:15)

“Hail, full of Grace! The Lord is with you.” (Luke 1:28)  The Angle Gabriel speaking to Mary.  No other person in the Bible is greeted in this manner by an angel.

"If one member suffers, all suffer together; if one member is honored, all rejoice together" (1 Cor. 12:26).  If the Angles honor Mary shouldn't we?  Remember, honor does not mean worship in Catholic Doctrine.

Luke 2:21-24 - What about the Sin Offering of Mary?
Another Passage often quoted by Protestants to prove Mary was a sinner is Luke 2:21-24 (see below). Protestants insist that since Mary offered a sin offering in Jerusalem she must have been a sinner.  A closer look into this verse reveals that this view is incorrect.  We must understand something here, Mary and Joseph were simply obeying the Laws of the Old Covenant regarding the birth of a male child.  Not to obey the laws would have been a serious sin against God’s covenant with Israel.  Again,
this offering was for Mary, Joseph, and Jesus!  If you want to believe that this verse proves that Mary was a sinner then you must also believe that it proves that Jesus was also a sinner.  

“And at the end of eight days, when he was circumcised, he was called Jesus, the name given by the angel before he was conceived in the womb.  And when the time came for their purification according to the law of Moses, they brought him up to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord (as it is written in the law of the Lord, "Every male that opens the womb shall be called holy to the Lord") and to offer a sacrifice according to what is said in the law of the Lord, "a pair of turtledoves, or two young pigeons."  (Luke 2:21-24)  Restates a Levitical Law!

Here's is the Levitical Law which Mary was obeying in Luke 2:21-24:   "And when the days of her purifying are completed, whether for a son or for a daughter, she shall bring to the priest at the door of the tent of meeting a lamb a year old for a burnt offering, and a young pigeon or a turtledove for a sin offering, and he shall offer it before the LORD, and make atonement for her; then she shall be clean from the flow of her blood. This is the law for her who bears a child, either male or female.  And if she cannot afford a lamb, then she shall take two turtledoves or two young pigeons, one for a burnt offering and the other for a sin offering; and the priest shall make atonement for her, and she shall be clean. "  (Lev 12:6-8)

Something else to consider:  Jesus was baptized.  Why?  He didn’t need original sin removed.  Does this prove that Jesus was a sinner?  Most definitely not!  Also, why was Jesus circumcised?  He was God, so why did he need circumcision?  Does this prove that Jesus was not really God?  No!  Common sense must prevail here in these verses or we will get contradictions!  Properly understood these Bible verse make perfect sense and do not contradict but confirm the teachings of the Catholic Church.  

Refuting the Protestant Beliefs about Mary from a few Protestant Writings. Most protestants today are unaware of the Marian beliefs held by most of the early protestant reformers.

Martin Luther held to the belief of the Immaculate Conception, Luther's words: “It is a sweet and pious belief that the infusion of Mary's soul was effected without original sin; so that in the very infusion of her soul she was also purified from original sin and adorned with God's gifts, receiving a pure soul infused by God; thus from the first moment she began to live she was free from all sin" (Sermon: "On the Day of the Conception of the Mother of God,” 1527).

"Christ . . . was the only Son of Mary, and the Virgin Mary bore no children besides Him . . . 'brothers' really means 'cousins' here, for Holy Writ and the Jews always call cousins brothers."  Martin Luther, (Sermons on John, chapters 1-4, 1537-39).

The Birth of Jesus, Christmas Day; Luke 2:1-14, A sermon by Martin Luther, from his Wartburg Church Postil, 1521-1522: It is well known what is meant by giving birth. Mary's experience was not different from that of other women, so that the birth of Christ was a real natural birth, Mary being his natural mother and he being her natural son.
Therefore her body performed its functions of giving birth, which naturally belonged to it, except that she brought forth without sin, without shame, without pain and without injury, just as she had conceived without sin. The curse of Eve did not come on her, where God said: "In pain thou shalt bring forth children," Gen. 3: 16; otherwise it was with her in every particular as with every woman who gives birth to a child. (15)  Grace does not interfere with nature and her work, but rather improves and promotes it. Likewise Mary, without doubt, also nourished the child with milk from her breast and not with strange milk, or in a manner different from that which nature provided, as we
sing: ubere de coelo pleno, from her breast being filled by heaven, without injury or impurity. I mention this that we may be grounded in the faith and know that Jesus was a natural man in every respect just as we, the only difference being in his relation to sin and grace, he being without a sinful nature. In him and in his mother nature was pure in all the members and in all the operations of those members. No body or member of woman ever performed its natural function without sin, except that of this virgin; here for once God bestowed special honor
upon nature and its operations. It is a great comfort to us that Jesus took upon himself our nature and flesh. Therefore we are not to take away from him or his mother any thing that is not in conflict with grace, for the text clearly says that she brought him forth, and the angels said, unto you he is born.

The Lutheran Book of Concord, The Person of Christ, Article 24, states:  “On account of this personal union and communion of the natures, Mary, the most blessed Virgin, bore not a mere man, but, as the angel (Gabriel) testifies, such a man as is truly the Son of the most high God, who showed His divine majesty even in His mother's womb, inasmuch as He was born of a virgin, with her virginity inviolate. Therefore she is truly the mother of God, and nevertheless remained a virgin.”  Not many Lutherans today realize that this doctrine is taught in the Concord.

The Methodist Church (AD 1784):  John Wesley, who's teaching and writings formed the theology of the Methodist Movement, held very high views of Mary.  John Wesley, as did most protestants of the time,
believed in Mary's perpetual virginity.  However, most Methodists today are likely unaware of his beliefs about Mary. Today many Methodist leaders deny the ever virginity of Mary.

John Wesley's: Letter To a Roman Catholic, July 18, 1749.:  ”The Blessed Virgin Mary, who, as well after as when she brought him forth, continued a pure and unspotted virgin”

Note*  John Wesley died not as a Methodist, but as a Priest of the Anglican Church.  The Methodist movement came of out his teachings, John Wesley did not found the Methodist Church as it is today.

The Protestant Reformer Ulrich Zwingli (1484 - 1531) had this to say:
"It was not enough that the conception of Jesus take place without a male role, for if a woman who had previously known a man had conceived him even through the Holy Spirit, 'who would ever have believed that the child that was born was of the Holy Spirit? For nature knows no birth that is not besmirched with stain.' For the same reason she had to be ever a virgin, she who bore the one in whom there could not be even the least suspicion of blemish. For the birth of Jesus to be absolutely pure of every stain, Mary herself had to be free of any pollution of normal
child-bearing..."

Last thoughts:  

- God created Adam and Eve without sin so doesn't it make sense that he also created Mary the Mother of Christ without sin as well.  

- Isn't Mary, who brought Jesus our saviour into this world, greater than Eve who brought sin into this world.

- God would never allow Mary to be susceptible to the temptations of the devil and therefore able to commit sin.  It makes no sense that God would have allowed Mary to commit sins since she was Jesus's mother and caregiver.  It makes perfect sense that God protected Mary from the devil by creating her without the stain of original sin.