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.’”
Why don’t you quite playing word games and just say something worthy of responding to.
Nice example of a straw man argument but I think the discussion on this thread has moved on from that topic.
You are my brother in Christ, correct?
Such was the connotation used in Biblical times.
In act, Paul uses “Brothers and sisters” quite often.
Christ was Mary’s only child.
Are you aware that they lives in little communities with neighbors? May four or six houses that shared a well and a cooking fire?
These were hteir brothers and sisters.
Another thing — the word for cousin isn’t used that much. The words brothers and sisters are substituted for it.
yeah—that’s why we go to this one. They are pretty Christ-centered, and the one or two issues in which we differ are not that important or vital to the faith.
That argument has already been proven false and debunked.
Can you post the context with each of those? It makes a difference.
There would be no point because you can’t explain your responses. Apparently, you simply wish to respond, whether it addresses the question or not.
Have a nice rest of the day.
You cannot simply switch contextual meanings in the middle of a sentence ( brothers does not mean brothers but “cousins.”) unless it is ‘obviously’ required..... It is not legitimate to say that because a word has a wide scope of meaning, that you may then transfer any part of that range of meaning to any other text that uses the word.
.... In other words, just because the word brother means fellow Jews or cousin in one place, does not mean it has the same meaning in another. Therefore, each verse should be looked at in context to see what it means. The context is clear....
These verse’s I gave are in full context of ‘familial relationship’... mother, brothers and sisters.
(However...I recognize that it’s necessary for catholics to say otherwise, the perpetual virginity of Mary is threatened, and since that contradicts Roman Catholic tradition, an interpretation that is consistent with that tradition must be adopted.)
Good on you for not letting small issues get in the way of the big picture. I’d have no problem attending there either...though I usually judge a church first and foremost by what the Pastor preaches/teaches.
As is said...”so goes the Pastor so goes the church”....
I prefer a teaching Pastor who centers on scripture teaching. Some are better at their appraoch then others I’ve found.
No...it’s clearly in the scriptures for you to read...Scripture often times interprets itself if you read in context.
I have given the verses...you might read the full context and let God reveal ‘to you’ as HE will. That is what will make the difference...His work to reveal truth, as we read, and let Him show us what He determines.
I don’t have to explain my responses when they are clearly stated as they are. You asked how I knew...I told you clearly...If you don’t understand the word “context” then look it up...it’s that simple.
Follow the thread...I’ve already addressed your statements in other posts.
That is an unreasonable request. If you want to raise a contextual concern, it is your responsibility to show exactly what in the context makes caww's conclusions inappropriate. Find us a specific example and show everyone how it makes a difference. Otherwise, it just looks like you're stymied by caww's use of scripture and hope that a vague, non-specific allegation of contextual problems will suffice as a response.
Thank you very much.
You say you are Christian, but Mary worship makes one wonder.
BTW, I’ve been there... I escaped Rome because God saved me out of it.
2,000 years of Catholic teaching heresy on Mary cannot overrule Scriptural teaching on Mary.
I'll stick with agreeing with the Holy Spirit in what He inspired in Scripture: *Mary, the mother of Jesus*.
That way, I KNOW I can't be wrong.
The Holy Spirit is clear in Scripture in calling Mary *the mother of Jesus*.
John 2:1 On the third day there was a wedding at Cana in Galilee, and the mother of Jesus was there.
John 2:3 When the wine ran out, the mother of Jesus said to him, “They have no wine.”
Acts 1:14 All these with one accord were devoting themselves to prayer, together with the women and Mary the mother of Jesus, and his brothers.
Thanks.
Great post in 269, btw.
Spell check doesn’t catch it if it’s spelled right.
Catholics have a child-like and elementary and completely misguided notion of what Christians believe.
And while there may be those who call themselves Protestants to believe like that, no genuine Christian does.
So your thinly veiled attempt to broad brush and smear all Christians fails yet again.
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