Solemnity of Mary, Mother of God - Mary, Full of Grace

Boston Catholic Journal ^ | December 31, 2007

[Running On Empty]

Thanks, tiki!!

[Running On Empty]

I lIke your tagline

[Coleus]

You can’t back up your beliefs so you don’t like to be questioned >>

you still can’t keep your fat mouth shut, can You?

[tiki]

You’re welcome, I was reading about her at adoration the other day.

I stole the tagline from someone else’s post but I did ask.

[Running On Empty]

‘You can’t back up your beliefs so you don’t like to be questioned.”

This is reading someone’s mind, which is breaking a Religion Forum rule for posters.

[livius]

“O marvelous exchange! Man’s Creator has become man, born of a virgin. We have been made sharers in the divinity of Christ who humbled himself to share in our humanity.”

And it was thanks to Our Lady’s “yes.”

Protestants are missing a lot. We prayed for them tonight, that they would come to the fullness of faith.

[Salvation]

HE INCREASES AND SHE DECREASES [Mary, Mother of God]

[Salvation]

A hearty “Amen” to your prayer.

[FormerLib]

How tragic for such a thread to become a magnet for those who hate Christ.

[FormerLib]

I see you have embraced the classic leftist tactic of projection: accusing those whom you hate of embracing what you have embraced.

But yet you reject the words of the angel Gabriel as recorded in Scripture.

Let Jesus into you life and you will be amazed.

[Religion Moderator]

Discuss the issues all you want, but do not make it personal.

[Aquinasfan]

I have always admired that paining: Song of the Angels (1881) by French artist William-Adolphe Bouguereau (1825-1905)

Sane art critics consider this painting and this era the high-water mark of painting. It's hard to argue otherwise. Imagine where we'd be today without the modernist movement.

[Aquinasfan]

Of course Mary is idolized by you guys...You make cement statues of her

Like those idols of George Washington and Abraham Lincoln I've seen?

and get on your knees in front of the statues and pray to her...

To "pray to a saint" means asking that saint to pray for us; "pray," from the somewhat archaic usage meaning "to ask."

As far as the saints in heaven praying for us goes, it's right there in the Protestant version of the Bible.

Revelation 5:8

And when he had taken it, the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb. Each one had a harp and they were holding golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints.

[Aquinasfan]

Mary, Mother of God, pray for us.

[tioga]

Idolize.......no. Perhaps there are some - I even read a book “In Search of Mary” written by a marginal Catholic at best who did, BUT a REAL Catholic knows that Mary points to Jesus only. Mary is NOT mentioned in our mass, she may be honored as many Saints are, but she is NOT central to our mass - only Jesus is.

It is tradition to honor the mother of Jesus only. NOT central to our faith. It is you who do not understand and that is OK. But attacks like you make are uncalled for and petty.

Many mothers looked to Mary as an example of motherhood......nothing wrong with that - at least these women didn’t look to Hollywood for examples of mothers to follow. Take a look at Brittany Spears and know that would be a disaster. Better to have a statue of Mary or the Holy Family to remind you of good things than pictures of Brittany Spears on the magazines that adorn your coffee tables.

[trisham]

Beautiful!

[trisham]

Thank you! I’m bookmarking this thread on my PC. :)

[NYer]

Of course Mary is idolized by you guys...You make cement statues of her and get on your knees in front of the statues and pray to her...

You forget about the many passages where the Lord commands the making of statues. For example: "And you shall make two cherubim of gold [i.e., two gold statues of angels]; of hammered work shall you make them, on the two ends of the mercy seat. Make one cherub on the one end, and one cherub on the other end; of one piece of the mercy seat shall you make the cherubim on its two ends. The cherubim shall spread out their wings above, overshadowing the mercy seat with their wings, their faces one to another; toward the mercy seat shall the faces of the cherubim be" (Ex. 25:18–20), or (1 Chr. 28:18–19), or Ezekiel 41:17–18.

God forbids the worship of images as gods, but he doesn’t ban the making of images. If he had, religious movies, videos, photographs, paintings, and all similar things would be banned. But, as the case of the bronze serpent (Num. 21:8–9) shows, God does not even forbid the ritual use of religious images.

It is when people begin to adore a statue as a god that the Lord becomes angry. Thus when people did start to worship the bronze serpent as a snake-god (whom they named "Nehushtan"), the righteous king Hezekiah had it destroyed (2 Kgs. 18:4).

[Running On Empty]

A small correction:

We do mention Mary at every Mass when we all proclaim together the Creed:
“.....we believe in God the Father Almighty, maker of heaven and earth, and in Jesus Christ, His Only Begotten Son, who was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of Virgin Mary...”