Posted on 12/08/2012 2:24:39 PM PST by NYer
Do Catholics worship Mary? This question is as old as the Protestant Reformation itself, and it rests, like other disputed doctrinal points, on a false premise that has been turned into a wedge: the veneration of Mary detracts from the worship of Christ.
This seeming opposition between Mary and Christ is symptomatic of the Protestant tendency, begun by Luther, to view the entirety of Christian life through a dialectical lens – a lens of conflict and division. With the Reformation the integrity of Christianity is broken and its formerly coherent elements are now set in opposition. The Gospel versus the Law. Faith versus Works. Scripture versus Tradition. Authority versus Individuality. Faith versus Reason. Christ versus Mary.
The Catholic tradition rightly sees the mutual complementarity of these elements of the faith, as they all contribute to our ultimate end – living with God now and in eternity. To choose any one of these is to choose them all.
By contrast, to assert that Catholics worship Mary along with or in place of Christ, or that praying to Mary somehow impedes Christ’s role as “the one mediator between God and men” (1 Tim 2:5) is to create a false dichotomy between the Word made flesh and the woman who gave the Word his flesh. No such opposition exists. The one Mediator entrusted his mediation to the will and womb of Mary. She does not impede his mediation – she helps to make it possible.
Within this context we see the ancillary role that the ancilla Domini plays in her divine Son’s mission. Mary’s is not a surrogate womb rented and then forgotten in God’s plan. She is physically connected to Christ and his life, and because of this she is even more deeply connected to him in the order of grace. She is, in fact, “full of grace,” as only one who is redeemed by Christ could be.
The feast of Mary’s Immaculate Conception celebrates the very first act of salvation by Christ in the world. Redemption is made possible for all by his precious blood shed on the cross. Yet Mary’s role in the Savior’s life and mission is so critical and so unique that God saw it necessary to wash her in the blood of the Lamb in advance, at the first moment of her conception.
This reality could not be more Biblical: the angel greets Mary as “full of grace” (Luke 1:28), which is literally rendered as “already graced” (kecharitōmenē). Following Mary, the Church has “pondered what sort of greeting this might be” for centuries. The dogma of the Immaculate Conception, ultimately defined in 1854, is nothing other than a rational expression of the angel’s greeting contained in Scripture: Mary is “already graced” with Christ’s redemption at the very moment of her creation.
Because God called Mary to the unique vocation of serving as the Mother of God, it is not just her soul that is graced, as is the case for us when we receive the sacraments. Mary’s entire being, body and soul, is full of grace so that she may be a worthy ark for the New Covenant. And just as the ark of the old covenant was adorned with gold to be a worthy house for God’s word, Mary is conceived without original sin to be the living and holy house for God’s Word.
Thus Mary is not only conceived immaculately, that is, without stain of sin. She also is the Immaculate Conception. Her entire being was specifically created by God with unique privilege so that she could fulfill her role in God’s plan of salvation. “Free from sin,” both original and personal, is the necessary consequence of being “full of grace.”
Protestants claim that veneration of Mary as it is practiced by Catholics is not biblical. St. Paul encouraged the Corinthians to “be imitators of me, as I am of Christ” (1 Cor 11:1). Paul is not holding himself up as the end goal, but as a means to Christ, the true end. And if a person is imitated, he is simultaneously venerated.
If we should imitate Paul, how much more should we imitate Mary, who fulfilled God’s will to the greatest degree a human being could. Throughout her life she humbled herself so that God could be exalted, and because of this, Christ has fulfilled his promise by exalting his lowly mother to the seat closest to him in God’s kingdom.
Mary is the model of humility, charity, and openness to the will of God. She allows a sword to pierce her heart for the sake of the world’s salvation. She shows us the greatness to which we are called: a life free from sin and filled with God’s grace that leads to union with God in Heaven. She is the model disciple, and therefore worthy of imitation and veneration, not as an end in herself, but as the means to the very purpose of her – and our – existence: Christ himself.
God’s lowly handmaiden would not want it any other way.
Your case must be awfully lame; if you need a chorus of syncophantic backup singers to get GOD to do what you want!
"When you gonna LEARN!?", your priest will ask as you enter the confessional yet one more time...
No; He didn't. (Facts of the bible)
 'When I use a word,' Humpty Dumpty said, in a rather scornful tone, ' it means just what I choose it to mean, neither more nor less.'
'The question is,' said Alice, 'whether you can make words mean so many different things.' 'The question is,' said Humpty Dumpty, 'which is to be master - that's all.' |
Way to REBUKE him, Sister!!
Can't have no stinkin "Modernism" of the Three Wisemen or of "Cloud World".
#7
Well; YOU're not Jesus; so how DARE you rebuke her?
Just because a group of Catholics at some meeting decided a thing, it doesn't mean anything is settled outside that little group...And they certainly didn't/don't speak for God...
But hey, why do you figure Jesus wasn't allowed to know what day or hour he would return in the future???
Mat 24:3 And as he sat upon the mount of Olives, the disciples came unto him privately, saying, Tell us, when shall these things be? and what shall be the sign of thy coming, and of the end of the world?
Mat 24:36 But of that day and hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels of heaven, but my Father only.
So did Jesus have the power and authority to perform all those miracles while he was on the earth???
Joh 14:10 Believest thou not that I am in the Father, and the Father in me? the words that I speak unto you I speak not of myself: but the Father that dwelleth in me, he doeth the works.
Joh 14:11 Believe me that I am in the Father, and the Father in me: or else believe me for the very works' sake.
If you guys would 'search the scriptures' you'd know that 'Mary, the mother of God' is an impossibility and just another one of your religion's fables created to keep you guys under bondage to your religion...
I have clouds like that outside my window right NOW!!
‘cept there’s a lot less blue between them.
LOTs less!
We Catholics believe Mary is who we believe her to be only because we believe that Jesus is the Son of God. what our Church has decided to teach us.
"Shapes of Fear"
Eyewitnesses??? Oh please, just list ONE eyewitness...And list the scripture that Mary had only one child...
It's amazing...You take this 'for Catholic eyes only' propaganda and dish it out to actual Christians who read and believe the bible...I'd feel pretty foolish sometimes if I were you...
John 6:29
It’s also important to note that scripture shows that even the Israelites failed at times to stay true to what God commanded. Also the New Testament records ample evidence of error creeping in to churches. Even though the Jewish leadership preserved the Old Testament they are still today in error.
Claiming the Catholic Church preserved scripture serves no purpose in it’s claim to be true to what Jesus and the apostles taught.
If the Catholic Church preserved them so well can you show proof from apostolic teaching that Mary was assumed into heaven? Name one apostle who even mentioned the assumption of Mary.
So the alleged author may have been 60...Or he may have been 30...Either way, it's pretty clear he never knew Mary...And the author writes 120 after Jesus was born...Yet everything is fresh in his mind...Not a good way to start a story...
To begin with, the Protoevangelium records that when Mary's birth was prophesied, her mother, St. Anne, vowed that she would devote the child to the service of the Lord
Who prophesied Mary's birth??? Where is there any evidence of that???
A life of continual, devoted service to the Lord at the Temple meant that Mary would not be able to live the ordinary life of a child-rearing mother. Rather, she was vowed to a life of perpetual virginity.
Mary was betrothed to be wed...A wife in waiting BEFORE she was approached by the Angel...And it was a big surprise to Mary...Mary had NOT anticipated a life of virginity...Plus, according to scripture, Mary had more kids after Jesus...
However, due to considerations of ceremonial cleanliness, it was eventually necessary for Mary, a consecrated "virgin of the Lord," to have a guardian or protector who would respect her vow of virginity. Thus, according to the Protoevangelium, Joseph, an elderly widower who already had children, was chosen to be her spouse.
So the bible is wrong...Joseph knew that he was picked just to be a guardian to Mary...Joseph didn't really want to put Mary away when he found out she was pregnant...Why would Joseph care if Mary was pregnant if all he was to he was an overseer??? What nonsense...
A little further down the line it says that Joseph refused to be Mary's guardian since he already had kids...Next thing is says is that Mary became pregnant...What an anti-biblical convoluted story...And you guys pick this over the bible, eh???
It was Jerome who introduced the possibility that Christ's brethren were actually his cousins, since in Jewish idiom cousins were also referred to as "brethren."
Oh really??? So Jerome never read the book of Luke, eh???
Luk 1:36 And, behold, thy cousin (συγγενής, suggenēs) Elisabeth, she hath also conceived a son in her old age: and this is the sixth month with her, who was called barren.
I had to quit reading...If I was to believe any of that, I'd have to throw my bible away...Just as you guys have apparently done...
That is a gorgeous painting, even if slightly ... spooky? The color palette, the composition, the texture, very nice.
I did a quick web search but I know little about Maynard Dixon despite having an art history background. What’s his story?
Shapes of Fear is in the Smithsonian. It is a statement regarding the unknown of certain native Americans. Dixon began going to the Hopi, Ute and Navajo tribes around the turn of the century and continued until his death in 1946. My purpose in posting a few Dixon images is to state that fine art has been evolving but with certain religious connotations throughout all time.
We own the Maynard Dixon Living History Museum here in Mount Carmel Utah which has been preserved for history.
Here is the biography that we wrote for the website.
http://www.thunderbirdfoundation.com/learn/maynard-dixon/
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.