Posted on 03/14/2010 12:14:46 PM PDT by NYer
Romano Guardini wrote in his book on the Rosary, “To linger in the domain of Mary is a divinely great thing. One does not ask about the utility of truly noble things, because they have their meaning within themselves. So it is of infinite meaning to draw a deep breath of this purity, to be secure in the peace of this union with God.”
Guardini was speaking of spending time with Mary in praying the Rosary, but David Mills, in his latest book, Discovering Mary, helps us linger in the domain of Mary by opening up to us the riches of divine revelation, both from tradition and Scripture. Mills, a convert from the Episcopal Church, former editor of the Christian journal Touchstone and editor of the 1998 book of essays commemorating the centennial of C.S. Lewis’ birth The Pilgrim’s Guide: C. S. Lewis and the Art of Witness, as well as the author of Knowing the Real Jesus (2001), has written a rock-solid introduction to the Blessed Virgin Mary, and done so with intellectual rigor and an affable tone.
His book begins with an introduction in which he describes how he came to discover the riches of the Church’s teachings on Mary: “I began to see how a sacred vessel is made holy by the sacred thing it carries,” he writes. “I began to feel this in a way I had not before. I found myself developing an experiential understanding of Mary and indeed a Marian devotion. Which surprised me. It surprised me a lot.”
Unfortunately, he notes, he did not learn about Mary from contemporary Catholics, nor in homilies, “even on Marian feast days.” It seems he learned on his own by reading magisterial documents and going back to Scriptures in light of those documents.
This book shares the fruit of that study. Mills examines the life of Mary, Mary in the Bible, Mary in Catholic doctrine, Marian feast days and the names of Mary. He includes an appendix full of references to papal documents and books on Mary.
Most of the book is done in a question-and-answer format, which usually works well, although at times it feels awkward. Would someone really ask, for instance, “What is happening in the liturgy on the Marian feast days?”
But most of the questions are natural. “What is the point of Marian devotion?” Mills asks. It is “to live the Catholic life as well as we can,” he answers. “This means going ever more deeply into the mystery of Christ, to become saintlier, more conformed to his image, by following Mary’s example and by turning to her for help and comfort.”
Next question: “Does devotion to Mary detract from our devotion to Christ?”
“Christians since the beginning of serious Marian devotion have been careful to emphasize Mary’s subordination to her son,” Mills replies. “In fact, they have said it so often that the reader begins to expect it. In the fifth century St. Ambrose put it nicely: ‘Mary was the temple of God, not the god of the temple.’”
David Mills, with the same radical clarity he showed in Knowing the Real Jesus, has written what has to be one of the best, if not the very best, short introductions to Catholic teaching on Mary, the Mother of God. Discovering Mary is ideal for those wanting to know more about her, whether they be skeptics, Protestants, or Catholics who don’t know the Mother of the Church well enough.
Franklin Freeman writes from Saco, Maine.
DISCOVERING MARY
Answers to Questions About the Mother of God
By David Mills
Servant Books, 2009
148 pages, $12.99
To order: servantbooks.org
But Jesus Christ — Who is at once fully human [from the aspect of His Incarnation as the human person Jesus of Nazareth] as well as fully God — did.
Or maybe I just could put it, Jesus of Nazareth has a Mother. All human beings do.
The Son of God was begotten of the Father (no mother involved). The Son of Man was begotten by the Holy Spirit, in the person of Mary, a human mother.
At least, that's what it looks like to me, FWIW.
I think it’s likely that you’ve forgotten the post I was referring to:
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A Protestant Discovers Mary
Monday, March 15, 2010 5:05:18 PM · 252 of 341
betty boop to Quix
Basically, ALL the events of Fatima are in keeping with, consistent, with, of the type of fairly common UFO phenomena of the last 100 years or more.
Good grief, dear brother in Christ! If this is all you see in Mary, then you must be spiritually dead, after some fashion....
But WHAT fashion would that be???
Why on earth would “Protties” — at least some of certain confessions — “go after,” hound, and persecute the Mother of God???
WHY?????????????????
[A most agonizing question for me.]
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Are you getting these from the hate sites you pimp for? Many of them were made up by the bigots you pimp for, they know it and if you don’t it’s quite telling.
YOU deny the inerrancy of Scripture by REFUSING to call her blessed.
You are a treasure to many of us.
And, I just care.
WOW.
GOD BE WITH YOU!
A great AOG church is hard to beat.
A poor one . . . hard to find a worse stinking pile.
If there’s balance, healthiness, warmth, humility, caring demonstrated by the leadership
and ABOVE ALL,
IF GOD SHOWS UP with any regularity and demonstrativeness at all—then it can be most enlivening and deepening of one’s relationship with God.
Trouble is, then leadership tends to try and ritualize whatever seemed to facilitate God showing up so dramatically . . . and God soon stops playing that game.
At least one tends to hear good Bible teaching in most of them.
Join the club.
I’ve been with the assemblies since 1986 (formerly up in NJ, right now in NC). Which PB assembly were you a part of? What happened to cause you to leave? Does your new meeting remember the Lord each Lord’s Day?
INDEED.
Interesting.
Thx for the link.
How many titles is that?
I suspect they’ve added to Christ, to Jesus . . . less than 3% of that.
And still they insist there’s no elevation of Mary above Jesus.
Their deeds and words speak volumes . . . contradictory volumes to such rationalized denials.
Bless you Bro.
However,
Building a horrendous edifice of a specially empowered personage and ‘special relationship’
on a microscopic parenthetical phrase out of the whole of a timeless Infinite God’s existence
is GREATLY MORE THAN a little cheeky and unfitting.
imho, FWIW
Granted as a cradle Catholic I didn't love her until I became a mother myslef, but any mother should be respected, especially Jesus' mother.
Being a mother I realize their is NO way any of us "average women", sould stand by and watch a son being tortured and crucified without questioning, cursing, fighting, and crying to God. She is exactly what the Angel Gabriel said, "Hail Mary Full of Grace, The Lord is with You.
Elizabeth filled with the Holy Spirit said, "Blessed are YOU (Mary) AMONG women, AND Blessed in the Fruit of Your Womb.
Cedar Rapids Bible Chapel. What happened involved a new elder a really dumb mistake my daughter made. It's rather personal. He didn't handle it well and left my daughter crying and feeling unworthy to attend so my wife and I decided it was time to go and take our 4 kids who still live at home elsewhere.
The new Church does not have communion every Sunday. The chapel did but I almost never attended. If just felt wierd there as opposed to the assembly in Carpentersville Illinois that we used to attend.
I think the problem here is that the Roman Catholic Organization doesn’t say that “Mary is a temple of the Holy Ghost, as is all Christians”. The RCO refers to Mary as “Temple of the Holy Ghost”.
The “T” in “Temple” is capitalized. This denotes the same thing it does in the following sentence:
I follow the Truth.
The “T” in the word truth is capitalized to denote that it is referring to God. The capitalization also makes it a title. This, of course, is a title that can only apply to “a god”. So “Temple of the Holy Ghost” is in the same way a title with a capital letter that gives the appearance of referring to “a god”.
Jesus once stated “Tear down this Temple and in three days I’ll put it back together.” See how the word Temple is capitalized?
What the RCO does is it commandeers terms of Christianity and applies them to pagan things. You can see it in the way the RCO has commandeered the word “catholic”.
This is the part I don't get — why would you associate the Mother of God with UFO phenomena in any way shape or form? I really don't understand this, dear brother in Christ.
The Holy Scriptures urge us to "become as little children." Where there are little children, usually we expect to find a mother lurking about, and very close by....
This is the part I don’t get — why would you associate the Mother of God with UFO phenomena in any way shape or form? I really don’t understand this, dear brother in Christ.
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I outlined that above . . . don’t recall the post # . . . let me try again . . .
1. I accepted the Vatican construction on Fatima events and phenomena for probably 4+ decades of my 63 years—mostly on faith and without much more than cursory examination into the whole thing.
2. WHEN I became aware that there was extensive research back to the original testimonies etc. as well as added interviews with survivors . . . I had to prayerfully re-evaluate.
3. From that, it was very straightforward.
4. ALL the significant events of Fatima were demonstrated and documented to be RATHER STANDARD UFO SORTS OF PHENOMENA. This was easy for me to evaluate because I’ve read many hundreds—probably thousands of such case studies.
5. to wit:
A) The UFO craft—which it clearly was—by very reliable testimonies—behaved exactly like many such craft behaved. Even the “sun dancing in the sky” was clearly the large craft in a very brilliant light mode blocking out the sun and moving about.
B) Even the drying of the ground from being just a bit earlier quite rainsoaked and wet—was, again, a typical UFO phenomena.
C) The personage purported to be Mary, perhaps claiming to be Mary, . . . reports differed . . . was quite typical of UFO personages claiming to be a variety of personages.
D) The multiple events and their sequencing were also quite typical of UFO phenomena.
E) The predictions were fairly typical UFO type personage predictions with a special Marian twist.
F) The effects of the craft and events on the minds and emotions of the watchers were all quite standard UFO event effects.
G) The effects on the environment in addition to the dried ground were all typical, standard UFO event and craft effects.
H) The sound and light phenomena were all quite typical UFO sound and light phenomena.
I) Picking 3 sisters and giving them a prophetic mission—with some secrecy and some overtness was again, quite typical of UFO events and phenomena.
I’ll stop there.
Now—I have, for the 2nd time, outlined specifics answering your question. Neither you nor any other Roman Catholic et al has with like patience responded to such points.
Perhaps you will be able to bother indulging me, this time.
Perhaps you’d now be willing to help me understand more clearly what you were talking about with:
“. . . then you [Quix] must be spiritually dead, ....”
“Why on earth would “Protties” — at least some of certain confessions — “go after,” hound, and persecute the Mother of God???”
*sigh*
God did not have a mother. He Is, Was, Will Always Be.
You illustrated the point perfectly. The title keeps changing and becomes more grandiose every time.
What was the name of that Other Guy again?
Jesus Christ my Lord and Savior!
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