[JSteff]

So you are saying that you are certain they were honoring her as part of the trinity??

So sorry you could not understand nor accept the difference between respect for the Human Mother of Christ and her being a deity. You may want to go back to religion class or CCD and learn the difference.

They may/should have been praying to her for intercession/assistance as the mother of Christ, and asking for assistance in praying to Jesus. If they did not know the difference they NEVER learned the proper understanding of Mary or of why and how one ask Mary for way to ask her for help with their prayers to the trinity/God. They need to go back to class or speak to a priest about it. You are not taught to pray to her as God.

My mother was a catholic school teacher and CCD instructor and did NOT teach anyone to venerate Mary as a God. That is what pagans do... speak to humans as a god or Gods.. and that is DISTINCTLY not part of the Church teachings.

Good luck in you search.

[metmom]

So you are saying that you are certain they were honoring her as part of the trinity??

What's that got to do with the discussion?

In post 192, you said, "Members of the Catholic church do not bow to images (other than that of Jesus Christ) nor is it taught to do so. "

and in post 222 I replied with

"ON the contrary, I was raised Roman Catholic and there were statues of Mary in the churches and people did indeed bow down before them and pray to Mary and light candles to her. I saw the people bowing down with my own eyes. "

Throw a rock over a fence and the dog that yelps is the one that got hit.

So where do you get that conclusion out of it, that I thought that people were honoring her as part of the Trinity, much less being certain of it? I simply addressed the fact that people bow down to statues of Mary which you said they didn't do.

Why are you changing the subject and reading more into it than I said? I said nothing about motivation or what was going through their minds. I didn't bring the Trinity into it.

Nice attempt misrepresenting what I said, but it's a fail.

So the whole rest of your post is a waste of bandwidth because it doesn't actually address what I really said and addressing what you think I said is a waste of time.

[Quix]

I do NOT believe that the

DIFFERENCE is found in the dogmatic church classes.

The DIFFERENCE is found in each heart . . .

each time, each behavior, each prayer.

What is their FOCUS in their heart and why.

If you can read Fararro’s stuff and avoid seeing idolatry, then I’d have to wonder about your eyes, discernment and analysis.

Rationalized catechism ‘legal’ dogma stuff can be quite slick at splitting hairs and rationializing everything from A to Z and back to Inquisition.

It’s a great magicsterical effort at putting thick layers of white-wash on whatever the old men’s power-mongering club decreed as best for the INSTITUTION.

The faithful are usually much more straightforward and simple at a heart level.

The Mary caricature is easily focused on MORE, as your own words outlined.

Yet Christ died that we might have DIRECT ACCESS TO THE FATHER.

Going through ANYone else is an affront to His Blood and an affront to The Father’s gift of His Son in our behalf.

Rationalizing it BECAUSE OF OUR COMFORT ZONES

is NOT admirable nor Biblical.

Besides, it Grieves the authentic Mary, big time.

Idolatry by any other name is still idolatry. Cute sanctioned weasel words don’t help any.

Blasphemy is still blasphemy.