But Protestants on this thread have no respect for her.
Some may seem to express that in their reaction against Mariolatry, but this is not the case in simply rejecting the hyperexaltation by Caths in making the Mary of Scripture into,
• an almost almighty demigoddess to whom "Jesus owes His Precious Blood" to,
• whose [Mary] merits we are saved by,
• who "had to suffer, as He did, all the consequences of sin,"
• and was bodily assumed into Heaven, which is a fact (unsubstantiated in Scripture or even early Tradition) because the Roman church says it is, and "was elevated to a certain affinity with the Heavenly Father,"
• and whose power now "is all but unlimited,"
• for indeed she "seems to have the same power as God,"
• "surpassing in power all the angels and saints in Heaven,"
• so that "the Holy Spirit acts only by the Most Blessed Virgin, his Spouse."
• and that “sometimes salvation is quicker if we remember Mary's name then if we invoked the name of the Lord Jesus,"
• for indeed saints have "but one advocate," and that is Mary, who "alone art truly loving and solicitous for our salvation,"
• Moreover, "there is no grace which Mary cannot dispose of as her own, which is not given to her for this purpose,"
• and who has "authority over the angels and the blessed in heaven,"
• including "assigning to saints the thrones made vacant by the apostate angels,"
• whom the good angels "unceasingly call out to," greeting her "countless times each day with 'Hail, Mary,' while prostrating themselves before her, begging her as a favour to honour them with one of her requests,"
• and who (obviously) cannot "be honored to excess,"
• and who is (obviously) the glory of Catholic people, whose "honor and dignity surpass the whole of creation." Sources and more.
I have NEGATIVE ‘respect’ for the creature your chosen religious organization has invented!!!
They probably have more respect for her then all the writers after Pentecost. Not one word of her after that date. No one cared enough to even record where she spent her last days. She was obviously insignificant not only to religious writers but secular as well.
I'm looking at the people in Jesus' life and, as near as I can tell, Mary is the ONLY person who never let Jesus down, who always stood by him and was with him in the beginning, the end and the in between.
The Apostles, men we rightly hold in high esteem, and whose words we read, study, memorize and argue over, were not at Mary's level.
Even though they were in His presence and saw His miracles, they still had doubts and not one was with Him in the end, and one even betrayed Him.
They were not touched directly by God as Mary was. They did not know Jesus as Mary did. No one did. No one had greater faith than Mary. In fact, how could anyone have a greater love and faith than Mary?
I'm not Catholic nor Orthodox, so Mary and where Mary might be in the Holy Hierarchy are a matter of contemplation for me.
However, to my limited understanding as stated above, I think the Catholics have a much better understanding than the (pick your favorite flavor) Protestants have.
In thinking about Mary and her life, if I believe in an infinite Holy Trinity with infinite power, and I do, then it's easy for me to see that Mary out ranks every other human in life and also in "death".
So, all I can say is: Thank You, Holy Spirit for helping my understanding. I am grateful.
In spite of my laziness, and my built-in bias against what I grew up believing about the institution known as the Catholic Church, I should learn the Rosary.
We have plenty of respect for the Mary of Scripture.
We don’t believe all the extra nonsense taught about her by the Catholic church that has no Scriptural support.
And not believing unsubstantiated rumors about people does not equate to disrespecting them. On the contrary, it is out of respect that we believe about her only what it true, that which we know for sure as has been revealed to us by the Holy Spirit.
Very few non Catholics care to reveal their denomination affiliations because then threads become about denominations instead of the issue of the article at the beginning of the thread.
But I do see that many Catholics deem anyone not Catholic as Protestants, or derogatorily as "prots."
If you have been reading this thread closely, you will see that non Catholic Christians love and respect the Mary of the Bible very much.
The Mary of Catholicism has been made into a veritable caricature of who she really was. And is. An obedient handmaid of the Lord.
We love and respect her.