Hahahahahaaaaaaa! Roman Catholics cultists can be sooooooo funny! They like to play word games without proper knowledge or understanding of the words...
Venerate: to offer honor or respect to (someone) as a divine power (a proper setting in which to venerate God)
Synonyms adore, deify, glorify, revere, reverence, venerate - http://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/venerate
As a WEST VIRGINIAN, I accept your ignorance as a local flaw in knowledge of anything that is NOT Baptist.
beat me to it
Did you catch that?
Let's play it again:
Maalula is one of the world's oldest Christian settlements, and its inhabitants still speak Aramaic, a language spoken by Jews in Israel at the time Jesus was said to have lived.
Original Christianity, the Christianity planted by the Apostles themselves as related in the Book of Acts, venerates and loves Mary. Only the 16th century syncretism of Christianity, rationalism, and Platonism you have mistaken for the real thing disrespects her.
English is rather limited in this regard. Worship is the Enghlish translation of the Latin ‘honor.’ Now ‘honour’ has been an English word for centuries and good ol’ worship got a promotion.
I don’t know for sure about anyone else but when I venerate Mary the operational definition is to deeply honor, respect and revere a holy being who is above human (body and soul) but below deity. The highest of the Saints (I think).
About half the online definitions of venerate seem to include a God reference and half don’t. But that is irrelevant — words only approximate perfect description (ask Plato). Perhaps some other nuance of semantics would better describe what a Catholic actually does when he prays to Jesus’ mother. For me it’s the sentence above.
Oh, love ya, WVKayacker! Your own example gave a hint of the semantic range. Here's a few more from Thesaurus.com:
Venerate. Revere, honor, observe, respect, cherish, esteem, exalt, admire, appreciate, love, regard, treasure, value, look up to, think highly of.
These local Dutch communities still venerate (respect) the WWII-era U.S. soldiers' graves...
Ethical doctors still venerate (observe) the principles handed down by the ancient Greek physician Hippocrites...
We venerate (look up to) the Pilgrim fathers because of their devotion to a Christian way of life....
The Mennonites venerate (think highly of) Menno Simons as their founder...
The Bible says we should venerate (honor) our parents and our elders....
To venerate (recognize) Mrs. Johnson’s fifty-five years of service in the school system, the county is naming a school in her honor...
The town plans to venerate (show appreciation for) the former president by naming a street after him....
I suspect you venerate Blessed Mary, too, if you are a Christian. She herself said, "All generations will call me blessed."
They like to play word games
Words matter.
You do realize that “worship” is not included in the list of synonyms you posted don’t you?