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I think it sad that these tit for tat volleys continue over and over.

Protestants claim Catholics are in error, Catholics feel the protestants are not even part of Christ's body.

We are all the body of Christ if we confess with our mouths and our lives that Jesus is indeed the messiah.

We ALL make mistakes and live in a broken world.

Even as the church was being established, MEN began putting their own spin on the salvation message. What's the difference in 2010?

Besides, look at all the scandals....in both Protestant and Catholic churches. satan is alive and well, attempting to tear down the church from within.

Unity in the body of Christ comes through the belief in the essentials of the faith. Christ Jesus is the sacrificial lamb of God, given in love from the Father Almighty.

We all believe that...don't we? God knows our imperfections, our propensity to sin.

Do we not run back to HIM when we fall into sin?

I guess I'm just sayin....Can't we all just get along. lol.

Think about those who are searching for salvation. Are we not giving off a message of disunity through our own prideful tendencies?

Who cares if others pray to Mary, why must those who pray to or through Mary keep insisting that others are in error if they fail to do so?

Unity through the Father, the Son, the Holy Spirit.

Who thinks themselves or their spouses worthy to have the Holy Spirit overshadow them and give birth to the Son of God? Who thinks themselves worthy to be the parent of the Son of God?

It was THROUGH Mary that Christ was introduced to the world. One can settle on the 3 years that the apostles were with him or one can allow the depth of love his Mother shows us through the 33 yrs she shared with Jesus and every day since. Do you think Mary would have asked and done the silly things/questions that the apostles did? Deny him 3 times, go into hiding at his crucifixion, etc.?

It’s not by accident that the holiest of Saints throughout the ages have had a deep devotion to Our sweet Mother. It’s not by accident that the graces that are showered out when we allow Mary to guide us to her Son through her eyes and heart are unquestionably blessed. God’s ways are not our ways.

Here’s a bold idea...pray on it and see where the Holy Spirit leads you.

God Bless

look, there are exaggerators in all religions.

This is not Catholic dogma. It’s an exaggeration of the term “mediatrix of all graces”. But this merely means Mary mediates graces, but so does every saint and every Christian.

When I treat a patient, I am the “mediator” of God’s healing (as Pare said: I treated him but God cured him). And when we pray to Mary or the saints, or ask for our friends to pray for us, they are “mediators” of the graces that God sends to us (i.e. the middle men who help us gain God’s graces).

When Jesus said “when two or more are gathered in my name I am there” he was pointing out the importance of joint prayers. No, it’s not necessary, but it is part of our belief.

The Mother of God said, “henceforth all generations shall call me blessed” (Luke 1:48). What does that mean when no one calls her blessed but Catholics and all the ancient churches that separated from the Catholic Church?

The “bible only” individualist abhors any sign of reverence for her. How could scripture be so wrong? What does scripture mean by all generations?

ANSWER: Generations means offspring having common parentage and constituting a stage of descent (American Heritage Dictionary).

Through Christ death on the cross, all humanity henceforth was given the power to become adopted sons of God (John 1:12), adopted brothers of Christ, adopted son’s of Jesus’s mother. If Jesus is our adopted brother, Mary is our mother. The “generations” that will call her blessed are her adopted children, the adopted brothers of Christ, the adopted sons of God.

Note that John 1:12 says to them gave He power to become sons of God. It does not say He Made them sons of God. It says that to those who receive Christ, God gave them the power to become.

There is much more involved in becoming a son of God than just “receiving Christ”. Remember that the 5 foolish virgins low on oil (Mat 25:1-13), the man who buried the one talent (Mat 25:14-30), the man without the wedding garment (Mat 22:2-14), and the many, that will say Lord, Lord (Mat 7:22), all made an effort, and still were all thrown to hell.

“And if the just man shall scarcely be saved, where shall the ungodly and the sinner appear?” (1Peter 4:18)

Salvation is not a simple matter. Christ said that few will find it (Mat 7:14)

The Early Christians & Scripture on Mary:

DEVOTION TO OUR LADY IS NECESSARY FOR SALVATION

Even as Eve, having become disobedient, was made the cause of death both to herself and to the entire human race so also did Mary, by being obedient, become the cause of salvation both to herself and to the whole human race. And therefore, as the human race was made subject to death by a virgin, so is it saved by a virgin. St Irenaeus of Lyons (202 A.D)

THOSE DEVOTED TO OUR LADY SHALL OBTAIN SALVATION

In the multitude of the Elect she shall have praise, and among the blessed she shall be blessed. Ecclesiasticus 24.4

Her children rose up and called her blessed. Proverbs 31:28

For behold, from henceforth all generations shall call me blessed ... who are born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of man, A of God. St Luke 1:48, St. John 1:13

O Mary, thou art blessed among women, for thou hast brought forth life for both men and women! St. Augustine (354 – 430 A.D.)

Although in the most pure womb of Mary there was but one kernel of grain, Jesus Christ, nevertheless, her womb is called a “heap of wheat” (Cant. 7:2) because all the Elect were virtually contained in it. St. Ambrose (337 – 397 A.D.)

However great a sinner may have been, if he shows himself devout to Mary he will never perish. St Hilary of Poitiers (300-368 A.D.)

He who is devout to the Virgin Mother will certainly never be lost. St. Ignatius of Antioch (35 – 117 A.D)

0 Mother of God! If I place my confidence in thee, I shall be saved; if I am under thy protection, I have nothing to fear; for being thy client is a certainty of salvation which God grants only to those whom He intends to save. St. John Damascene (676 –749 A.D.)

THOSE WHO REFUSE TO HONOR OUR LADY WILL BE LOST

He who angers His Mother is cursed by God. Ecclesiasticus 3:18

If you would enter into Life, keep the commandments ... Honor thy father and thy mother. St Matthew 19:17,19

Behold thy Mother! St. John 19:27

There is a generation that does not bless their Mother, a generation pure in their own eyes and yet not washed from their filthiness. Proverbs 30.11-12