Posted on 09/03/2014 6:36:07 AM PDT by NKP_Vet
A little six-year-old Protestant boy had often heard his Catholic companions reciting the prayer “Hail Mary.” He liked it so much that he copied it, memorized it and would recite it every day. “Look, Mommy, what a beautiful prayer,” he said to his mother one day.
“Never again say it,” answered the mother. “It is a superstitious prayer of Catholics who adore idols and think Mary a goddess. After all, she is a woman like any other. Come on, take this Bible and read it. It contains everything that we are bound to do and have to do.” From that day on the little boy discontinued his daily “Hail Mary” and gave himself more time to reading the Bible instead. One day, while reading the Gospel, he came across the passage about the Annunciation of the Angel to Our Lady. Full of joy, the little boy ran to his mother and said: “Mommy, I have found the ‘Hail Mary’ in the Bible which says: ‘Hail full of grace, the Lord is with thee, blessed art thou amongst women.’ Why do you call it a superstitious prayer?”
On another occasion he found that beautiful Salutation of St. Elizabeth to the Virgin Mary and the wonderful canticle MAGNIFICAT in which Mary foretold that “the generations would call her blessed.” He said no more about it to his mother but started to recite the “Hail Mary” every day as before. He felt pleasure in addressing those charming words to the Mother of Jesus, our Savior.
When he was fourteen, he one day heard a discussion on Our Lady among the members of his family. Every one said that Mary was a common woman like any other woman. The boy, after listening to their erroneous reasoning could not bear it any longer, and full of indignation, he interrupted them, saying:
“Mary is not like any other children of Adam, stained with sin. No! The Angel called her FULL OF GRACE AND BLESSED AMONGST WOMEN. Mary is the Mother of Jesus Christ and consequently Mother of God. There is no higher dignity to which a creature can be raised. The Gospel says that the generations will proclaim her blessed and you are trying to despise her and look down on her. Your spirit is not the spirit of the Gospel or of the Bible which you proclaim to be the foundation of the Christian religion.”
So deep was the impression which the boy’s talk had made that his mother many times cried out sorrowfully: “Oh my God! I fear that this son of mine will one day join the Catholic religion, the religion of Popes!” And indeed, not very long afterwards, having made a serious study of both Protestantism and Catholicism, the boy found the latter to be the only true religion and embraced it and became one of its most ardent apostles.
Some time after his conversion, he met his married sister who rebuked him and said indignantly: “You little know how much I love my children. Should any one of them desire to become a Catholic, I would sooner pierce his heart with a dagger than allow him to embrace the religion of the Popes!”
Her anger and temper were as furious as those of St. Paul before his conversion. However, she would change her ways, just as St. Paul did on his way to Damascus. It so happened that one of her sons fell dangerously ill and the doctors gave up hope of recovery. Her brother then approached her and spoke to her affectionately, saying: “My dear sister, you naturally wish to have your child cured. Very well, then, do what I ask you to do. Follow me, let us pray one ‘Hail Mary’ and promise God that, if your son recovers his health, you would seriously study the Catholic doctrine, and should you come to the conclusion that Catholicism is the only true religion, you would embrace it no matter what the sacrifices may be.”
His sister was somewhat reluctant at the beginning, but as she wished for her son’s recovery, she accepted her brother’s proposal and recited the “Hail Mary” together with him. The next day her son was completely cured. The mother fulfilled her promise and she studied the Catholic doctrine. After long preparation she received Baptism together with her whole family, thanking her brother for being an apostle to her.
The story was related during a sermon given by the Rev. Fr. Tuckwell. “Brethren,” he went on and said, “the boy who became a Catholic and converted his sister to Catholicism dedicated his whole life to the service of God. He is the priest who is speaking to you now! What I am I owe to Our Lady. You, too, my dear brethren, be entirely dedicated also to Our Lady and never let a day pass without saying the beautiful prayer, ‘Hail Mary’, and your Rosary. Ask her to enlighten the minds of Protestants who are separated from the true Church of Christ founded on the Rock (Peter) and ‘against whom the gates of hell shall never prevail.’”
That means without sin.
Mary is alive in heaven. There’s your problem, correct? You have no belief?
This is not to say I disagree with you but it would depend on how we see a lot of other things.
Correct. It wasn’t (as vlad said) good Roman Catholic theology. But it was on Relevant radio, and is pretty popular in some circles.
Kind of like saying that believing in Fatima is needed to be saved. Not Catholic theology (it is classed as Private Revelation, in other words not needed to be saved) yet there are many who claim that if you doubt Fatima you are in danger of hell.
To be fair, there is plenty of nuttiness out there, and on one has the corner on the market (Rob Bell anyone?)
No stumbling blocks my friend. The Catholic Church is based on scripture, sacred tradition, and REVELATION. Part of revelation is belief in true miracles, the Saints, martyrs, etc. Its our Credo.
Wrong!
Your "version" of the Bible is different than the actual Bible.
You wrongly attempt to treat Luke 1:28 as a title when in fact it is not. The angel did not use Mary's name in Luke 1:28.
Only two versions of the Bible, Douay Rheims and the Aramaic Bible in Plain English, use the words, full of grace.
You will also notice that Jesus is not at the end of Elizabeth's greeting to Mary. It has been added by the rcc.
So to say this is straight from the Bible is wrong and deceptive at best.
Below are the actual verses from the Bible. All verses are NASB.
Luke 1:28 “Greetings, favored one! The Lord is with you.”
Luke 1:39-42
39Now at this time Mary arose and went in a hurry to the hill country, to a city of Judah,
40and entered the house of Zacharias and greeted Elizabeth.
41When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the baby leaped in her womb; and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit.
42And she cried out with a loud voice and said, “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb!
In reading some of the Early Church Fathers who knew the Apostles and got first hand knowledge from them face to face — Holy Tradition — you will find out the truth about Mary being carried to heaven body and soul.
It happened with Elijah and Enoch, so why can’t it be a possibility with Mary?
It in no way means this. Do a word study using the Greek and you'll understand.
Wow what a wonderful testimony. Too bad it’s on the way to being ignored for the two-trillionth round of : Mary, Mother of God or Goddess of the Papists?
Good luck there all who engage in such debauchery. The thread is worth a bump or two though just for the OP. So duke it out y’all. It’s for a good cause.
Sorry, Jesus came directly to man kind. He did not choose His mother to be the line to Him. HE is the direct line to the Father. I think He makes that perfectly clear in scripture that only through HIM do you see the Father. Nothing about Mary there.
And on this one verse the catholic church has built an entire false theology that is no where else supported by Scripture.
Hail Mary, full of grace — spoken by the Archangel Gabriel, Lk 1
the Lord is with thee — spoken by Elizabeth at the Visitation “How is this that the Mother of my Lord should visit me?”
“Blessed art thou among women” — spoken by Elizabeth at the Visitation.
“And blessed is the fruit of thy womb.” Spoken by Elizabeth at the Visitation.
Remember — this all starts with the statement “And Elizabeth, filled with the Holy Spirit”
You are right on the word, Jesus. It was added later.
Dude, it's more than in spirit you catholics pray and worship Mary.
This attributes an argument that the other party does not hold. It is a straw man argument.
So it would seem that you are calling quotes from the Bible straw man arguments, is that correct?
It happened with Elijah and Enoch, so why can’t it be a possibility with Mary?
If all of the ECFs were in 100% agreement on this you might have something. But they aren't as you well know. So the RCC, has doubled down on Mary ascending to Heaven. So much false theology has been built around Mary by the RCC there's no way they can back off the teachings on her.
Because it did happen with Elijah and Enoch doesn't mean we can extraploate it happened to Mary.
If we go down this road, and assume as you do it is a possibility, we could make the claim about almost anybody in the past. But we would be wrong to do so without a clear teaching in the Bible.
These two are the only ones we have a clear record off that all agree upon. And that is where we should leave it.
Not in this way....Mary's name is never used in any of the translations.
You also leave out a comma between Hail and Mary. Though we've already established Mary's name isn't in the text. By doing this it attempts to prescribe a title to Mary which is not supported by the text.
The Greek reads as:
Greetings, you favored with grace.
It is a greeting by the angel to Mary. Nothing more, nothing less.
I also don't understand the vehemence that they come with.
Certainly Mary would never interfere in a relationship her Son has with anyone.
I also do not understand why we have the same "conversation" over and over again. It seems someone posted a lovely story of a conversion and it has become this big conflict.
Take the Blessed Mother or leave her, but leave us none the less, as we will keep her.
There's no threat. There is however, the correct interpretation of the Word.
False teachings, like the RCC does with Mary, that aren't supported by the Bible, need to be addressed when espoused.
IF she had ANY sin on her soul she wouldn’t have been Full of Grace.
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