[boatbums]

Isn't this what we all pray for? "Lord, may my assent, my complete and unreserved (or as complete and unreserved as this sinner can manage) assent to you be a vehicle through which you make life available to those who do not know you."

May my feeble attempt to give my will to you -- as I pray daily when I ask that your will be done -- make me an instrument with which you share your love with a world in tortured and crying need.

Amen. Very well said. And just because we offer ourselves to God mind, body, heart and soul doesn't mean that we cannot still love our spouses with all our hearts. I think you make a very good point about how even men are to be the "bride" of Christ, so I think it beneficial to get beyond earthy and human connotations of the words and understand their spirit.

I honor Mary and admire her very much. I don't think I have ever said other than that. She was so brave at such a young age but her faith and trust in God to take care of all her cares and worries concerning what she was to do in his plan for our (and hers) salvation is a shining example to us all no matter our age or our gender. I agree that talking of Mary as the spouse of God certainly does render not only Scriptural problems but the opportunity for crassness that she does not deserve. She rejoiced in God her savior and so should we.

[Mad Dawg]

I think at this point we just hug and kiss each other and leave the hairy stuff to God.

[MarkBsnr]

I agree that talking of Mary as the spouse of God certainly does render not only Scriptural problems but the opportunity for crassness that she does not deserve.

Then stop defending posters who believe that the non divine Jesus was the bastard child of slut Mary and/or the rapist Holy Spirit, and start looking to the Church of Jesus Christ, created by Him and commissioned by the Holy Spirit at Pentecost.