Radio Replies First Volume

"I read a couple of prayers to Mary on another thread and believe me, they were pretty worshipful."

To set the record strait on the definition used by Catholics on the word "worship" regarding the Blessed Virgin Mary.

From Webster's:

Main Entry: worship

2 : to regard with respect, honor, or devotion : ADORE (in the Renaissance men worshiped antiquity— Stephen Spender) (admire the poetry and worship the memory of the poet— William Du Bois) (whom I... worshiped as only a young lover can— J.A.Rice) (in his calm, unexcited way, he worships success— Rose Macaulay) (he had the wildness we all worshiped — Eudora Welty)

synonyms see REVERE

So you're saying that, with the Fourth Commandment, by telling us to Honor Thy Mother and Father, the Lord was commanding us to WORSHIP our parents?

Of course not, because there is a difference between HONOR/VENERATION and WORSHIP.

The distinction was clarified by St. Augustine, one of the early Church Fathers -- and was later officially adopted by the Church to distinguish between honoring parents, Saints, and Mary, as opposed to worshipping the Lord. DULIA is the word for "the homage of veneration," and LATRIA, is the term which signifies "the worship of adoration." DULIA is the honor paid to our parents and to saints, and HYPERDULIA, a special honor among humans, is identified as belonging to Mary, because she is the Mother of Our Lord, Jesus Christ, and in imitation of Christ, we Honor His Mother in accordance with the Fourth Commandment.

To give LATRIA, or worshipful adoration, to any human being, other than the Jesus Chirst, the Incarnation, is heretical within the Catholic Church. It certainly happpens, but those who fall out of line with the Church teachings are in heresy and need to be corrected and put back on the right track.

Note, if you do not agree with the above analysis, you are in a bit of a pickle, because if you totally exclude the honoring of any human being without idolatry, then this would mean the Fourth Commandment is in conflict with the First Commandment. And, if you believe Scripture is the inerrant Word of God, as I do, that makes your conflation of "honor" and "worship" to be outside the possibility of a valid scriptural interpretation.

God bless.

No, it wasn’t the Hail Mary.

Well, if it was as you say, then the prayer is a prayer said in heresy. No prayer sanctioned by the Church would allow adoration of Mary. But, then, if you are like a lot of other Protestants, and even a lot of Catholics, you may have difficulty understanding the difference between the two.

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