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.’”
“Which, BTW, is why it is logical for Protestants to use Scripture to certify the correctness of a given teaching.”
And that leads to the many examples of protestants discovering that gay children getting married is a Biblical good, just as one example of error. There are many. Divorce, women preachers, gay preachers, etc.
“Can I assume by that you mean a gift to understand Scripture?”
Nope.
God’s gift to me was His Passion, His unmerited gift to me of Grace and His Church to renew that gift for the rest of my very short life here and my Eternal Life with Him in Heaven.
He sent The Twelve and their followers he gave them power and authority over all devils, and to cure diseases. And he sent them to preach the kingdom of God, and to heal the sick.
That began His Church. To pretend that He did not found a Church is to ignore the Holy Writ. To pretend that He wanted the many division among the Protestants is to again ignore His Holy Writ.
You may choose to believe He did NOT appoint MEN to be the Apostles and their successors but it is again, to ignore Holy Writ.
The MEN that God gives us to be our shepherds in this life are here at HIS fiat doing HIS will. When they betray him, and many do, they become another Judas. When they obey Him they are His agents among us.
This is not a forum to engage in an exegetical discourse of scripture. Colleges and universities have there year degrees on this and doctoral degrees as well.
Protestants are well know for throwing out bits and pieces of scripture to advance their “own” theology. This what David Koresh and Jim Jones did, as do thousands of others street-pastors who pick up a Bible and then like TD Jakes etc thump around their interpretations. If you want to test and debate your points of view, I suggest you either pick up a book by Benedict XVI or as is so convenient these days you may visit any number of Catholic websites. For starters, I suggest:
www.Catholicanswers.com
http://www.catholic.com/tracts/christ-in-the-eucharist
Took me about 5 minutes.
Start with Mohammedans worshiping the same God. That is a good jump off point.
841 The Church's relationship with the Muslims. "The plan of salvation also includes those who acknowledge the Creator, in the first place amongst whom are the Muslims; these profess to hold the faith of Abraham, and together with us they adore the one, merciful God, mankind's judge on the last day."
You know C. S. Lewis didn’t “pope”, right?
In response to my post:
I scrutinized the Catechism looking for those obvious “gotcha” moments where I could say, “see, not Christian!
In the Religion forum, on a thread titled The Hail Mary of a Protestant, Gamecock wrote:
Took me about 5 minutes.
Start with Mohammedans worshiping the same God. That is a good jump off point.
841 The Church’s relationship with the Muslims. “The plan of salvation also includes those who acknowledge the Creator, in the first place amongst whom are the Muslims; these profess to hold the faith of Abraham, and together with us they adore the one, merciful God, mankind’s judge on the last day.”
Of course he had to avoid the context of that cut-n-paste to make it work.
The REST of the story:
The Church and non-Christians
839 “Those who have not yet received the Gospel are related to the People of God in various ways.”
How is anything in that not Christian?
It’s interesting to see them trot out the Protestant converts to Catholicism. Not a word about the Catholics becoming jihadists.
Why mention C. S. Lewis in your elitist list of “smart” people Pope-ing then?
Catholics serve the same god as Muslims and include pagan practices in their religion. So say the Catholic Church.
You noticed that also ey. That seems to permeate the responses of so many who follow the organization that twists, corrupts, and adds to scripture.
Nope, you have been shown the very words of the Catholic Church that prove what I said.
You are trying to fit two errors into one truth.
Muslims don’t worship the same God.
Those who have not received the gospel, Muslims are a good example, are not related to Christians in any way.
Two gotcha moments for the price of one.
This thought brings up a question, for any FRoman Catholic: is why do you cut Muslims more slack that Prods?
Another failed Protestant, eh?
Or is that quote really yours and not someone else’s that you forgot to cite?
Because it’s written at a level way above inane cartoons.
Jealousy is one of the seven deadly sins, is it not?
Shouldn’t jealousy and class envy be confessed as the sin it is?
I'll stop refuting error here when people stop posting it. Meanwhile:
2Ti 3:13-17 But evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse, deceiving, and being deceived. (14) But continue thou in the things which thou hast learned and hast been assured of, knowing of whom thou hast learned them; (15) And that from a child thou hast known the holy scriptures, which are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus. (16) All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: (17) That the man of God may be perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works.
If God's own apostle says it's profitable, who am I to argue?
BTW, that clause where we're just supposed to sit back and let the academic elites duke it out? You may have that in your Bible. It's not in mine.
Peace,
SR
So your Catholic teachers taught you that they were smarter and holier than you...And then, you believed them...You believed them so much that you are trying to convince bible believers who know better that your teachers were telling the truth...
You must own two or three London bridges and a few islands in New Mexico...
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