.
No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon. - Matt 6:24
If any [man] come to me, and hate not his father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple. - Luke 14:26
And when he had called the people [unto him] with his disciples also, he said unto them, Whosoever will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me. - Mark 8:34
Please consider asserting to the Body of Christ for our prayerful considerationhereon, and to the watching world, what your focus you choose in light of the above. To What, or to Whom do you give your all to?
OOOOOPS,
I was trying to click “edit” one more time and got too close to “post,” instead!
Ahhh well, it was almost OK.
Ping to a lot of folks I’d be grateful to if they would respond.
Nothing wrong with asking out Blessed Mother to intercede for us.
And that would be “Father Mark Kirby” to you!
"Even thou God has set His seal of approval on the Holy Rosary by many miracles, and in spite of the Papal Bulls that have been written approving it, there are only too many people who are against the Holy Rosary [Fr. Mark's Marian prayer would fit into this category as well] today ... It is easy to see that they have absorbed the poison of hell and that they are inspired by the devil ..." --St. Louis De Montfort, The Secret of the Rosary.
This prayer to Mary is idolatrous. It tells the person to take their prayers TO MARY who will THEN take those prayers to Jesus.
Why? Because Jesus loves Mary MORE and He'll listen to HER before He'd listen to a believer.
This is the heart of the papist error which teaches that Mary is closer and more beloved than all those who believe in His name as God and Savior.
And that is a lie.
Then one said unto him, Behold, Thy mother and thy brethren stand without, desiring to speak with thee. But he answered and said unto him that told him, Who is my mother? and who are my brethren? And he stretched forth his hand toward his disciples, and said, Behold my mother and my brethren! For whosoever shall do the will of my Father which is in heaven, the same is my brother, and sister, and mother." -- Matthew 12:46-50 "While he yet talked to the people, behold, his mother and his brethren stood without, desiring to speak with him.
Jesus tells us to pray to Him alone. Mary's prayers carry no more weight nor import than any Christian's prayers. Further, Mary has no reason to pray TO God anymore for anything since we assume she is WITH God, face-to-face.
Wake up, RCs. You're missing the point of Christianity. Christ alone saves the sinner. There is only ONE who deserves our prayers.
"After this manner therefore pray ye: Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name..." -- Matthew 6:9
Worse, Roman Catholic apologists who pray to Mary somehow think they are pleasing God when, in fact, as Scripture tells us, they are clearly and willfully disobeying God, at their peril.
For every man shall bear his own burden. Let him that is taught in the word communicate unto him that teacheth in all good things. Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap. For he that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption; but he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting." -- Galations 6:4-8"But let every man prove his own work, and then shall he have rejoicing in himself alone, and not in another.
Was she in competition with Jesus when she said, "Let it be done unto me according to thy word"?
Was she in competition with Jesus when she said, "My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God, my savior"?
Was she in competition with Jesus when she said, "Do whatever he tells you"?
Exodus 20:
1 And God spoke all these words:
2 “I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery.
3 “You shall have no other gods before me.
4 “You shall not make for yourself an idol in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below.
5 You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the fathers to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me, 6 but showing love to a thousand {generations} of those who love me and keep my commandments.
Paragraph 6. Mary - Mother of Christ, Mother of the Church
963 Since the Virgin Mary's role in the mystery of Christ and the Spirit has been treated, it is fitting now to consider her place in the mystery of the Church. “The Virgin Mary . . . is acknowledged and honored as being truly the Mother of God and of the redeemer.... She is ‘clearly the mother of the members of Christ’ . . . since she has by her charity joined in bringing about the birth of believers in the Church, who are members of its head.”500 “Mary, Mother of Christ, Mother of the Church.”501
I. MARY'S MOTHERHOOD WITH REGARD TO THE CHURCH
Wholly united with her Son . . .
964 Mary's role in the Church is inseparable from her union with Christ and flows directly from it. “This union of the mother with the Son in the work of salvation is made manifest from the time of Christ's virginal conception up to his death”;502 it is made manifest above all at the hour of his Passion:
Thus the Blessed Virgin advanced in her pilgrimage of faith, and faithfully persevered in her union with her Son unto the cross. There she stood, in keeping with the divine plan, enduring with her only begotten Son the intensity of his suffering, joining herself with his sacrifice in her mother's heart, and lovingly consenting to the immolation of this victim, born of her: to be given, by the same Christ Jesus dying on the cross, as a mother to his disciple, with these words: “Woman, behold your son.”503
965 After her Son's Ascension, Mary “aided the beginnings of the Church by her prayers.”504 In her association with the apostles and several women, “we also see Mary by her prayers imploring the gift of the Spirit, who had already overshadowed her in the Annunciation.”505
. . . also in her Assumption
966 “Finally the Immaculate Virgin, preserved free from all stain of original sin, when the course of her earthly life was finished, was taken up body and soul into heavenly glory, and exalted by the Lord as Queen over all things, so that she might be the more fully conformed to her Son, the Lord of lords and conqueror of sin and death.”506 The Assumption of the Blessed Virgin is a singular participation in her Son's Resurrection and an anticipation of the resurrection of other Christians:
In giving birth you kept your virginity; in your Dormition you did not leave the world, O Mother of God, but were joined to the source of Life. You conceived the living God and, by your prayers, will deliver our souls from death.507
. . . she is our Mother in the order of grace
967 By her complete adherence to the Father's will, to his Son's redemptive work, and to every prompting of the Holy Spirit, the Virgin Mary is the Church's model of faith and charity. Thus she is a “preeminent and . . . wholly unique member of the Church”; indeed, she is the “exemplary realization” (typus)508 of the Church.
968 Her role in relation to the Church and to all humanity goes still further. “In a wholly singular way she cooperated by her obedience, faith, hope, and burning charity in the Savior's work of restoring supernatural life to souls. For this reason she is a mother to us in the order of grace.”509
969 “This motherhood of Mary in the order of grace continues uninterruptedly from the consent which she loyally gave at the Annunciation and which she sustained without wavering beneath the cross, until the eternal fulfillment of all the elect. Taken up to heaven she did not lay aside this saving office but by her manifold intercession continues to bring us the gifts of eternal salvation .... Therefore the Blessed Virgin is invoked in the Church under the titles of Advocate, Helper, Benefactress, and Mediatrix.”510
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.”511 “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.”512
II. DEVOTION TO THE BLESSED VIRGIN
971 “All generations will call me blessed”: “The Church's devotion to the Blessed Virgin is intrinsic to Christian worship.”513 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.”514 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.515
III. MARY - ESCHATOLOGICAL ICON OF THE CHURCH
972 After speaking of the Church, her origin, mission, and destiny, we can find no better way to conclude than by looking to Mary. In her we contemplate what the Church already is in her mystery on her own “pilgrimage of faith,” and what she will be in the homeland at the end of her journey. There, “in the glory of the Most Holy and Undivided Trinity,” “in the communion of all the saints,”516 the Church is awaited by the one she venerates as Mother of her Lord and as her own mother.
In the meantime the Mother of Jesus, in the glory which she possesses in body and soul in heaven, is the image and beginning of the Church as it is to be perfected in the world to come. Likewise she shines forth on earth until the day of the Lord shall come, a sign of certain hope and comfort to the pilgrim People of God.517
IN BRIEF
973 By pronouncing her “fiat” at the Annunciation and giving her consent to the Incarnation, Mary was already collaborating with the whole work her Son was to accomplish. She is mother wherever he is Savior and head of the Mystical Body.
974 The Most Blessed Virgin Mary, when the course of her earthly life was completed, was taken up body and soul into the glory of heaven, where she already shares in the glory of her Son's Resurrection, anticipating the resurrection of all members of his Body.
975 “We believe that the Holy Mother of God, the new Eve, Mother of the Church, continues in heaven to exercise her maternal role on behalf of the members of Christ” (Paul VI, CPG # 15).”
No comment necessary except to compare this to the God inspired Scriptures.
Translated directly from the Hebrew:shalom b'SHEM Yah'shua HaMashiachOur father in heaven
may your name be sanctified
may your kingdom be blessed
your will shall be done in heaven and on earth
give us our bread continually
forgive us the debt of our sins
as we forgive the debt of those who sin against us
do not bring us into the hands of a test
and protect us from all evil
amen
Placemark
Blessed Mary, Why Honor Her?
Why would anyone want to honor Mary? After all, Jesus Christ is paramount and we should go directly to Him. We do not need her.....or do we? Let us examine this question with Scripture and with our own GOD given powers of reason.
1. Who is the first person in Scripture to call Mary ‘Blessed’? The first place in the Bible where you will find the answer is Luke 1:28. If your answer is Gabriel, then it is the wrong answer. Gabriel is an Archangel, and the Greek word ‘angel’, means ‘messenger’. So Gabriel was only a messenger for someone, but who? Gabriel was sent by GOD, so it was GOD’s message that Gabriel delivered. If GOD was the first person to call Mary ‘Blessed’, can any of GOD’s creatures do less? Dare you, or I, or anyone else refute a clear statement from GOD Himself? Anyone who attempts to do so is putting himself above GOD. Others in Scripture called her ‘Blessed’ also. Elizabeth did in Luke 1:42, and a ‘woman from the crowd’ did in Luke 11:27. Mary herself said in Luke 1:48, “...for behold, henceforth ALL GENERATIONS ‘SHALL’ CALL ME BLESSED”. Can you dispute the fact that the word ‘henceforth’ means from this moment on, and that the word ‘shall’ is a command, and not a suggestion? If you look up the word ‘Blessed’ in the dictionary, it means, ‘Holy’, held in ‘Veneration’, ‘Revered’. GOD is telling us that Mary is Holy, and she should be venerated and revered. How can any person refuse to abide by this specific command in Luke 1:48 and still claim they follow the Bible?
2. Okay, so she is ‘Blessed’, but that does not mean we need her! Well, what did GOD say through Gabriel in Luke 1:30-33? “You have found favor with GOD.” Right there, GOD ‘venerated’ Mary over all other women. In verse 31 He tells her that she will conceive. Who will she conceive? None other than Jesus Christ, the second person of the Holy Trinity, who will manifest Himself as the ‘Incarnate Word’. GOD Himself needed Mary to conceive His very own Son, and to carry Him for nine months to term. GOD needed Mary to be the vessel to give birth to His Divine Son. If GOD needed her, can we not need her also?
3. So she gave birth to a male child! She is a mother like any other mother! Why does that make her special? This brings us to a basic theological question. Who is Jesus Christ? We know that He is the second person of the Holy Trinity, the only Son of GOD. We know He is also the ‘Incarnate Word’ as explained in John 1:14, “...the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us.” John 1:1 teaches us that the “WORD WAS GOD.” Mary gave birth to the ‘Incarnate Word’, and the ‘Word’ was GOD. I ask, to whom did Mary give birth? The only possible answer is that she gave birth to GOD. Some insist that she only gave birth to the ‘humanity’ of GOD, but what does that mean? Jesus Christ was the only person ever born with two natures, one human and one divine. He was but one person however, not two. He could not be a human person and a divine person, as that would make Him two persons. The question then becomes, ‘was Jesus Christ a human person, or was He a divine person’? Back to John 1:1 and 14, the ‘Incarnate Word’ was GOD. Jesus Christ is a divine person. Mothers give birth to persons, each with a nature. They do not give birth to natures. GOD Himself, calls Jesus Christ His divine Son (Heb 1:5-8). Yes, she is a mother like any other mother, but what a difference between the sons.
4. Well, I am still not convinced you said? We have established that Jesus Christ is GOD, that He was born of Mary, and that GOD needed her for this ‘Incarnation’. Let us look at what Scripture says. Jesus Christ did not come to destroy the ‘Law’, but to fulfill it. In Matthew 5:17-20, Jesus stated this and He also said in verse 18-19, “...not one jot or tittle shall be lost from the law till all things have been accomplished. Therefore whoever does away with one of these least commandments, and so teaches men, shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven...” He very plainly said to ‘keep the commandments’, all of them. Now don’t you suppose Jesus Christ Himself, kept the commandments that He Himself had written? Of course He did, all of them, for He said:
“If you keep My commandments you will abide in My love, AS I HAVE ALSO KEPT MY FATHER’S COMMANDMENTS, AND ABIDE IN HIS LOVE.”, John 15:10.
Now what about ‘honor thy father and thy mother’? Don’t you think He kept that one too? There is certainly ample Scriptural evidence to show that He honored His Father, and there is evidence that He honored His mother as well. In fact, He, GOD Himself, must have obeyed His mother’s, everyday living, ‘mother to child’ commands as He was growing up. This is shown in Luke 2:51, “And He went down with them and came to Nazareth, and was SUBJECT to them.” That is a very profound verse if you think about it. In effect it says, that for many years, the ‘Creator of the Universe’ obeyed the commands of a little Jewish girl, by the name of...Mary. Jesus also acted on her suggestion that the wedding guests were out of wine at Cana, by performing His first public miracle when He turned water into wine in John 2:1-5. Jesus Christ therefore kept the commandment ‘honor thy mother’, as well. If Jesus Christ honored His mother, can we do less? Jesus Christ loves His mother like any good son would. He will defend her from all attacks against her. If you have not honored Mary, what will you tell her Son after you have taken your last breath, and when you meet Him face to face, and He asks you why? Remember, at that point in time, the ‘GOD of Mercy’ becomes the ‘GOD of Justice’. Then it is too late to correct the injustice done to the Mother of GOD. St. Louis Marie Grignion de Montfort said it best in his book ‘True Devotion to Mary’, “Let no one presume to hope for the mercy of GOD, who dares to slight or offend GOD’s mother.”
5. In Summary:
a. GOD called Mary Blessed, and He venerated her.
b. GOD needed her to bear His Divine Son.
c. GOD chose Blessed Mary above all women.
d. Blessed Mary gave birth to the divine ‘Incarnate Word’.
e. As a child, Jesus Christ obeyed the commands of His mother.
f. Jesus Christ honors His very own mother.
g. Jesus Christ will defend His mother as any good son would. Doesn’t that make Blessed Mary special?
Does not this make her worthy of our honor? Can we do less than what GOD Himself did? Does any man or woman have the right, or the authority, to say we should not honor Blessed Mary? I have given you the Scriptural authority to honor her. Ask the person who tells you otherwise to show in Scripture where it says not to honor her. Jesus Christ was the only person in history who was able to choose His own mother. Why did He choose Mary? Because she is spec
GoodExcellent post, Quix.
So many forget that when we give to others, we are todo that in secret as well, not lettings others know of our generosity.
Wow!
1600+ (mostly acrimonious) posts in less than four days!
How many folks here have changed their minds on any of these issues discussed?