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If we love any thing or any one equal to or more than God - if only for a moment - then that thing or that one is for us an idol. And that could be a wife, a child, an idea, a church, self, possessions, etc.

Fer shur. And the premier idol is moi. And I am really a very disappointing god. All I do is make myself anxious.

It somehow seems relevant (piling outrage on outrage, but work with me) that May being a sort of special Mary month, our chapter of Lay Dominicans sponsored a 'Holy Hour' this PM. I just got back from it. In a "Holy Hour" the Blessed Sacrament is put where everybody can see it, and a few hymns are sung and prayers are said at the beginning and at the end. The middle 50-55 minutes are silence.

The thing is, to honor Mary, we gathered to worship her Son. Throughout the whole hour, the only Marian thing that was said was, "Blessed be the mother of God, Mary most holy."

Now since most of the time was in silence, it is possible that many were focussing on Marian Devotions. But when we joined in "set prayers" it was almost entirely God 'n Jesus 'n the Holy Spirit, and one shout out to Mary, one to Joseph, and another to "all His [God's] saints and angels."

Thank you so very much for sharing your testimony, dear brother in Christ, and thank you for your encouragements!

And the premier idol is moi. And I am really a very disappointing god. All I do is make myself anxious.

LOLOL!

And truly, from our first breath we must resist the natural man in us - that which keeps insisting we are the center of the universe.

I find the stubbed toe to be a great challenge. Even as I'm hopping around on one foot, faced wrenched in pain, I keep trying to remind myself it's no big thing, I'm not the center of the universe and turn it over to God. It's a "toughie" for me. LOLOL!

Be careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God. And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. - Philippians 4:6-7

Thank God for the time He allows us to pray, meditate and adjust our priorities!

God's Name is I AM.

That probably would not have been a greatly disturbing service for me to be a part of.

Sorry, but the following is still glaringly out of order, to me:

The thing is, to honor Mary, we gathered to worship her Son

JESUS IS WORTHY WORSHIP BECAUSE OF WHO HE IS.

I believe it is usually quite hazardously UNFITTING--to put it mildly--to attach, to bind other adorations, venerations, worship to CHRIST.

The FATHER has gone to the paragon length of PUTTING ALL THINGS UNDER CHRIST'S FEET.

NOT under Christ's and Mary's collective feet.

There are abundant evidences in Scripture of THE FATHER'S attitude toward Christ's unfettered, paragon position, status, Deity with absolutely NO HANGERS-ON of any kind.

For any man or any institution to then counter-mand God's priorities, declarations, doings in the matter is a grossest of insults to THE FATHER as well as THE SON.

The thing is, to honor Mary, we gathered to worship her Son.

Then the focus of the worship was to honor Mary. That is NOT why we worship Jesus! We worship Jesus because He alone is worthy of worship. We don't USE Him to honor ANYONE. Human beings don't deserve that kind of attention or honor.

And Catholics can't figure out why they're accused of idolatry?