But if someone is serving Mary, they are not serving God. If they are trusting Mary, they are not trusting God.
Mary and God are not interchangeable. Trusting Mary does not be default translate into trusting God.
I would like some Catholic somewhere to explain exactly what the point of all this Mary stuff is anyways.
Will God not listen to those who follow Him when they pray?
Was Jesus atonement not enough in and of itself that works must be added to it?
Is the Holy Spirit incapable of giving grace to the believer that Mary is necessary to fill in?
If God can do it all, then what’s the point of all the Mary stuff? It’s redundant.
If Mary is necessary, then people think that God is not enough in and of Himself to do His own work without “help” from Mary and that makes God less than God and Mary greater than Him as she is filling in what He lacks.
FWIW, no Christians will be condemned. Many who call themselves Christians will be, but no genuine believers in JESUS, will be.
“I would like some Catholic somewhere to explain exactly what the point of all this Mary stuff is anyways.”
Not Catholic, but when we studied cults in seminary, there always has been a thread of mother-son co-god heathen belief. This is just one more where Mary is co-redemptrix.
1. But if someone is serving Mary, they are not serving God. If they are trusting Mary, they are not trusting God...Mary and God are not interchangeable. Trusting Mary does not be default translate into trusting God.
Catholics do not trust in Mary the way we trust in God. The Church clearly teaches Mary is a creature and nowhere near being divine. The trust we put in Mary is as someone close to God that prays for us. Just as, since you are a sincere Christian, I would trust in your prayers more than I would someone I knew was a hypocrite or an atheist.
2. I would like some Catholic somewhere to explain exactly what the point of all this Mary stuff is anyways.
It's hard to pinpoint what you mean by "Mary stuff" without further elaboration. If you mean the charge that Catholics worship Mary or depend on her for our salvation, or see her as divine, these are false charges that can easily be refuted by looking at what the Church actually teaches about these things. If it is the charge that some individual Catholics sometimes (out of ignorance) have an excessive devotion to Mary and blur the lines between her and God, that is regrettably true. In doing so, they are relying on pietistic and emotional custom, not on the teachings of the Church.
3. Will God not listen to those who follow Him when they pray?
Yes God will and does. But he also desires us to pray for each other. This is what Catholics believe Mary does for those who ask her for her prayers, as I noted above.
4. Was Jesus atonement not enough in and of itself that works must be added to it?
The Church nowhere teaches that Mary atones or has atoned for the sins of man. Only Christ's atoning death on the cross did that.
Works are a different topic. The Catholic Church forcefully teaches that we cannot save ourselves by our own works. However, since, as James in his epistle say, "Faith without works is dead", our works do play a part.
5. Is the Holy Spirit incapable of giving grace to the believer that Mary is necessary to fill in?
The Church teaches that grace comes from God alone. It does not teach anywhere that grace comes from Mary. The most one could correctly say is that we can ask Mary (or anyone else) to pray for us that we may be more open to God's grace.
6. If God can do it all, then what’s the point of all the Mary stuff? It’s redundant.
Because it isn't redundant because Mary doesn't have divine power to do the things that only God can do. Her role is to be someone that can pray for us, just as we do for each other.
7. If Mary is necessary, then people think that God is not enough in and of Himself to do His own work without “help” from Mary and that makes God less than God and Mary greater than Him as she is filling in what He lacks.
Mary is only necessary in the sense that all Christians, as members of the Body of Christ, are all necessary. She has her role to fill and we have ours. It doesn't take anything away from God for his faithful creatures to have a role in his kingdom and in bringing those called to be his children into relationship and eventually into heaven with him. Doing the work that God has called us to do doesn't make us greater than God, and neither does it make Mary greater.
FWIW, no Christians will be condemned. Many who call themselves Christians will be, but no genuine believers in JESUS, will be.
On that we can agree.
If you want to know what the Church really teaches about Mary, you need to get it from the Church itself, not what someone has told you it teaches or what you mistakenly believe it teaches or by the bad example of the Catholics you know or hear about who sadly do not follow the teachings of the Church. For this I won't refer you any polemical or apologetics material about the Church, but right to the source, the Catechism of the Catholic Church. If it isn't in there or referenced there, the Church doesn't teach it. For example:
CCC 970 "Mary's function as mother of men in no way obscures or diminishes this unique mediation of Christ, but rather shows its power. But the Blessed Virgin's salutary influence on men . . . flows forth from the superabundance of the merits of Christ, rests on his mediation, depends entirely on it, and draws all its power from it." "No creature could ever be counted along with the Incarnate Word and Redeemer; but just as the priesthood of Christ is shared in various ways both by his ministers and the faithful, and as the one goodness of God is radiated in different ways among his creatures, so also the unique mediation of the Redeemer does not exclude but rather gives rise to a manifold cooperation which is but a sharing in this one source."
CCC 971 "All generations will call me blessed": "The Church's devotion to the Blessed Virgin is intrinsic to Christian worship." The Church rightly honors "the Blessed Virgin with special devotion. From the most ancient times the Blessed Virgin has been honored with the title of 'Mother of God,' to whose protection the faithful fly in all their dangers and needs. . . . This very special devotion . . . differs essentially from the adoration which is given to the incarnate Word and equally to the Father and the Holy Spirit, and greatly fosters this adoration." The liturgical feasts dedicated to the Mother of God and Marian prayer, such as the rosary, an "epitome of the whole Gospel," express this devotion to the Virgin Mary.