Those who are led astray into worshiping and praying to dead people. If it leads away from Christ, it's hurting people.
The Catholic faith is responsible for creating the fire in the souls of Mother Teresa of Calcutta, John Paul II, St. Louis De Montfort, St. Padre Pio, St. Therese Lisieux "The Little Flower," St. John Vianney, St. Joseph, and on and on and on and on.
Silly me. All this time I thought that was the job of the Holy Spirit.
They all spoke of their love of The Most Holy Eucharist and The Holy Rosary as well. Are ALL the blesseds and saints somehow mistaken?
"Thou shalt have no other gods before me" That kind of devotion belongs to God alone.
What is the Catholic church's obsession with canonizing people? What purpose does it serve?
Why pray to them and ask favors of them? Do Catholics not believe that God can and does answer prayer? Do they expect to get something out of Mary or other *saints* that they can't or won't get out of God? Why would they? If God isn't going to give us something through prayer, what makes ANYONE think that anyone else is going to cross God's will and do it anyway?
Why the need to venerate Mary and lift her up as ever virgin, immaculately conceived, bodily assumed, and hearing and answering our prayers?
Mary didn't die for us. Jesus did. She can't do anything for us that God can. We don't NEED her.
Some do, or think they do, which is almost the same thing. Remembrance of Mary's feminine and motherly qualities opens some people up to the remembrance of those qualities in God. They recall the best qualities of their own mothers, or sometimes the lack thereof, and reflect, "Surely God is not less nurturing than a good mother!"
Of course it is always wise to go on to a more mature understanding of God: that he is a Father, more responsible than a mother for the discipline a child needs. But the remembrance of Mary can open up a channel for the person who feels bereft and unhopeful of an answer to prayer.
She is also a substitute mother for those without good mothers, or those whose mothers have failed them in some way or ways. Mary becomes their mother, the perfect mother, who would never fail them.
MOST IMPORTANT: It is essential to go onward from these needs to Jesus and thence to God himself. If you want to make Mary really happy, progress onward to her son and his message.
INDEED:
= = = Those who are led astray into worshiping and praying to dead people. If it leads away from Christ, it’s hurting people.
The Catholic faith is responsible for creating the fire in the souls of Mother Teresa of Calcutta, John Paul II, St. Louis De Montfort, St. Padre Pio, St. Therese Lisieux “The Little Flower,” St. John Vianney, St. Joseph, and on and on and on and on.
Silly me. All this time I thought that was the job of the Holy Spirit.
They all spoke of their love of The Most Holy Eucharist and The Holy Rosary as well. Are ALL the blesseds and saints somehow mistaken?
“Thou shalt have no other gods before me” That kind of devotion belongs to God alone.
What is the Catholic church’s obsession with canonizing people? What purpose does it serve?
Why pray to them and ask favors of them? Do Catholics not believe that God can and does answer prayer? Do they expect to get something out of Mary or other *saints* that they can’t or won’t get out of God? Why would they? If God isn’t going to give us something through prayer, what makes ANYONE think that anyone else is going to cross God’s will and do it anyway?
Why the need to venerate Mary and lift her up as ever virgin, immaculately conceived, bodily assumed, and hearing and answering our prayers?
Mary didn’t die for us. Jesus did. She can’t do anything for us that God can. We don’t NEED her.