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The Hail Mary of a Protestant
http://www.abouttherosary.com ^ | September 3, 2014 | Robbe Lyn Sebesta

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.’”


TOPICS: Apologetics; Ecumenism; Theology; Worship
KEYWORDS: herewegoagain; pleasenomore
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To: Springfield Reformer

821 posted on 09/08/2014 11:48:33 AM PDT by caww
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To: boatbums; Iscool; Steelfish

It’s called bracketing, a propaganda technique used to cause a reflexive association between some agreed upon cultural icon of evil and the class of individuals one seeks to discredit. It doesn’t matter that the targeted individuals aren’t anything like the associated evil icon. It only matters that the people being propagandized always think of the two together, without conscious effort. You can accomplish a lot as a propagandist if you can short-circuit critical thinking. Bracketing works. Christians should avoid it as an unethical practice, essentially a lie told indirectly.

BTW, steelfish, you do know Jim Jones was telling His people to use their Bibles for toilet paper, don’t you? Doesn’t sound like a Sola Scriptura guy to me. Just sayin ...


822 posted on 09/08/2014 12:18:29 PM PDT by Springfield Reformer (Winston Churchill: No Peace Till Victory!)
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To: caww

Amen!


823 posted on 09/08/2014 12:20:54 PM PDT by Springfield Reformer (Winston Churchill: No Peace Till Victory!)
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To: xzins; Elsie
>>I don’t know how recent is this current Catholic comment on Islam in the Catholic Catechism, but I’m thinking they will rewrite that one.<<

I doubt very much that they will rewrite that one. According to prophesy there is coming a one world religion. The Catholic Muslim alliance along with many of the Protestant churches (think of the comments about Islam being a peaceful religion coming from even those who purport to be Christian - Bush comes to mind, a Methodist if I'm not mistaken) and that prospect is in the foreseeable future. I think the Catholic Church will lead in that endeavor.

824 posted on 09/08/2014 12:31:04 PM PDT by CynicalBear (For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ)
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To: F15Eagle

Indeed it is. There are many here who will deny that untill it’s too late and will be caught in that awful time.


825 posted on 09/08/2014 12:51:28 PM PDT by CynicalBear (For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ)
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To: aimee5291; metmom; boatbums; caww; presently no screen name; redleghunter; Springfield Reformer; ...
I know other christian groups and they may not accept Catholic ways but I’ve never heard them post such nonsense about our Catholic faith..

Could you be more specific? Do you mean things like presenting the NT church as one that,

1. was established upon the premise of assured (if conditional) perpetual infallibility, having infallibly declared she is and will be perpetually infallible whenever she speaks in accordance with her infallibly defined (scope and subject-based) formula, which renders her declaration that she is infallible?

2. was presided over by a pope the whole church looked to as it supreme infallible head in Rome, being taught that he was the "rock" of Mt. 16:18?

3. named apostolic successors after Judas (in order to keep the original number of apostles), and thus one must have been for the martyred apostle James (Acts 12:1,2) like Matthias was and after that manner (Acts 1:15ff)?,

4. had a separate sacerdotal class of believers titled "priests ," as they uniquely changed bread into human flesh and dispensing it to the masses to receive life in them and eternal life (as RCs claim in quoting Jn. 6:53,54 to us)?

5. had a hierarchical order of priests, bishops, Cardinals, etc., with ostentatious religious dress and titles, including "Most Reverend?"

6. required (with rare exceptions) clerical celibacy, which presumes all such have that gift?

7. taught incognizant (usually) souls were formally justified by interior holiness via sprinkling of water, and thus (usually) ended up in "purgatory" in order to become good enough (and atone for sins) to enter Heaven?

8. taught there was a separate class of believers called “saints,

9. prayed to the departed in Heaven, or angels, and before images?

10. and had apostles teaching Mary was born and kept sinless, and was a perpetual virgin?

11. was a church that conformed to this world in using papal sanctioned physical oppression torture, burning and death to deal with theological dissent

12. having lost that power, treats even notorious manifestly impenitent public sinners as members in life and in death, in contrast to the NT means of disfellowship and supernatural spiritual discipline?

13. was one whose members overall come in near last in things such as evangelism, commitment, and personal Bible reading, the latter which it hindered for a long time, and later sanctioned teaching multitudes for decades such things as that OT miraculous stories are fables or folktales, etc.?

14. teaches that the deity Muslims worship (not as unknown) is the same as theirs?

15. boasts of unity while discouraging objectively searching the Scriptures in order to ascertain the veracity of RC doctrine?

And in which souls believe such uncensored and often officially sanctioned teaching such as presents Mary as

an almost almighty demigoddess to whom "Jesus owes His Precious Blood" to,

whose [Mary] merits we are saved by,

who "had to suffer, as He did, all the consequences of sin,"

and was bodily assumed into Heaven, which is a fact (unsubstantiated in Scripture or even early Tradition) because the Roman church says it is, and "was elevated to a certain equality with the Heavenly Father,"

so that “sometimes salvation is quicker if we remember Mary's name then if we invoked the name of the Lord Jesus,"

for indeed saints have "but one advocate," and that is Mary, who "alone art truly loving and solicitous for our salvation,"

and whose power now "is all but unlimited,"

for indeed she "seems to have the same power as God,"

"surpassing in power all the angels and saints in Heaven,"

so that "the Holy Spirit acts only by the Most Blessed Virgin, his Spouse."

Moreover, "there is no grace which Mary cannot dispose of as her own, which is not given to her for this purpose,"

and who has "authority over the angels and the blessed in heaven,"

including "assigning to saints the thrones made vacant by the apostate angels,"

whom the good angels "unceasingly call out to," greeting her "countless times each day with 'Hail, Mary,' while prostrating themselves before her, begging her as a favour to honour them with one of her requests,"

and who (obviously) cannot "be honored to excess,"

and who is (obviously) the glory of Catholic people, whose "honor and dignity surpass the whole of creation." Sources .

Could you tell men what i left out (i can)?

826 posted on 09/08/2014 1:18:59 PM PDT by daniel1212 (Come to the Lord Jesus as a contrite damned+destitute sinner, trust Him to save you, then live 4 Him)
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To: daniel1212

Thank you.


827 posted on 09/08/2014 1:27:07 PM PDT by MamaB
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To: St_Thomas_Aquinas

She was still a sinner who needed a Savior.


828 posted on 09/08/2014 1:30:59 PM PDT by MamaB
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To: CynicalBear

You can’t really cite a prophesy that says there will be coming one world religion. You are, of course, relying on the Mystery Babylon riding the Beast, but that could just as easily be a dominant occult religion and not a one world religion.

After all, there will be unraptured new believers in Jesus at that time, who believe after the rapture, so ‘one world religion’ is not true just because of the presence of these believers in Jesus. That equals at least two religions.


829 posted on 09/08/2014 1:36:04 PM PDT by xzins ( Retired Army Chaplain and Proud of It! Those who truly support our troops pray for victory!)
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To: Elsie

Amen.


830 posted on 09/08/2014 1:36:12 PM PDT by MamaB
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To: boatbums

Their “idea” of Christianity was wrong in every way. They were cult leaders who wanted to control people into obeying them. From everything I have read they used drugs just like Charles Manson. They never told the truth about anything. May as well be satanists.


831 posted on 09/08/2014 1:43:45 PM PDT by MamaB
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To: xzins
>>You can’t really cite a prophesy that says there will be coming one world religion.<<

Revelation 6:10and they cried out with a loud voice, saying, "How long, O Lord, holy and true, will You refrain from judging and avenging our blood on those who dwell on the earth?" 11And there was given to each of them a white robe; and they were told that they should rest for a little while longer, until the number of their fellow servants and their brethren who were to be killed even as they had been, would be completed also.

Now how many religions are left?

832 posted on 09/08/2014 2:05:01 PM PDT by CynicalBear (For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ)
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To: St_Thomas_Aquinas
The ark is a type for Mary. The ark contained the manna, the Ten Commandments, and the staff of Aaron (which represented the priesthood), and was kept in the Holy of Holies.

Blasphemy!

Yeshua 'contains' the Bread of Life, the Torah, and the Priesthood.

YESHUA IS THE MERCY SEAT.

YESHUA WAS SPRINKLED WITH BLOOD.

IT IS YESHUA who stands in the Holy of Holies!

It is YESHUA who leads the people forward into battle!

It is YESHUA who strikes down the enemies of YHWH and of His people!

REPENT of this evil thing!

833 posted on 09/08/2014 2:25:24 PM PDT by roamer_1 (Globalism is just socialism in a business suit.)
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To: roamer_1

Amen. Where do those ideas come from?


834 posted on 09/08/2014 2:38:38 PM PDT by MamaB
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To: MamaB
Amen. Where do those ideas come from?

Paganism, Babylonian Mystery Religion, plain and simple. Study this profane thing, sitting in a crescent moon atop the Mercy Seat of YHWH. Look at the cherubim, cringing and unable to look at her in her power. The crescent moon doubles as the horns of the bull. Look at all the sun disks. This is not dedicated to YHWH. It is dedicated to the Queen of Heaven, Astarte/Isis/Ishtar/Semiramis, with all of her symbolism present, SITTING upon the Throne, the Mercy Seat of Yeshua!!!

ALL Christians, those STRONG in the Word, should study the profane, it's symbolism and rites, and be familiar with the character of it's gods. What you will find, not only in this picture, but in your own churches, will curl your hair.


835 posted on 09/08/2014 2:54:30 PM PDT by roamer_1 (Globalism is just socialism in a business suit.)
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To: roamer_1; MamaB
>>ALL Christians, those STRONG in the Word, should study the profane, it's symbolism and rites, and be familiar with the character of it's gods.<<

That image is an abomination. Virtually all of Catholicism at this point is based on paganism. Unfortunately most of the Protestant churches have retained much of that paganism. Those truly searching for truth need to seriously study to find where "traditions"/and beliefs in the churches they attend came from.

836 posted on 09/08/2014 3:39:57 PM PDT by CynicalBear (For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ)
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To: ShadowAce

Would John 3:16 in the KJV not apply to Mary?

Surely you would agree that the first person to believe in Christ would have everlasting life.


837 posted on 09/08/2014 4:08:45 PM PDT by rwilson99 (Please tell me how the words "shall not perish and have everlasting life" would NOT apply to Mary.)
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To: xzins
... I’d love to see past versions of that catechism...

What!?

I know for a FACT that NOTHING has changed in the Catholic way of doing things since PENTACOST!!!

838 posted on 09/08/2014 4:24:55 PM PDT by Elsie (Heck is where people, who don't believe in Gosh, think they are not going...)
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To: Steelfish
This debate is long over.

All you need to do, then, is to declare VICTORY! and leave the field of battle.

839 posted on 09/08/2014 4:25:40 PM PDT by Elsie (Heck is where people, who don't believe in Gosh, think they are not going...)
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To: Steelfish
All one has to do is get a self appointed “reverend” before your name and without any formal theological training like the Billy Grahams and Robert Schuller, thump out scriptural passages and soon attract a following of low IQ Christians just like that clown “Bishop” TD Jakes does on television. Before long, this becomes a joke with a Four Square Church or a First Baptist or First Lutheran or a First AME, or first this or that in every street corner and peddle this nonsense to low information people.

All one has to do is get a bunch of dudes to VOTE for you; get POPE in front of your NEW name, and you can then live any way you want; for no modern Catholic will call you out.



Pope Stephen VI (896–897), who had his predecessor Pope Formosus exhumed, tried, de-fingered, briefly reburied, and thrown in the Tiber.[1]

Pope John XII (955–964), who gave land to a mistress, murdered several people, and was killed by a man who caught him in bed with his wife.

Pope Benedict IX (1032–1044, 1045, 1047–1048), who "sold" the Papacy

Pope Boniface VIII (1294–1303), who is lampooned in Dante's Divine Comedy

Pope Urban VI (1378–1389), who complained that he did not hear enough screaming when Cardinals who had conspired against him were tortured.[2]

Pope Alexander VI (1492–1503), a Borgia, who was guilty of nepotism and whose unattended corpse swelled until it could barely fit in a coffin.[3]

Pope Leo X (1513–1521), a spendthrift member of the Medici family who once spent 1/7 of his predecessors' reserves on a single ceremony[4]

Pope Clement VII (1523–1534), also a Medici, whose power-politicking with France, Spain, and Germany got Rome sacked.

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Bad_Popes

840 posted on 09/08/2014 4:28:07 PM PDT by Elsie (Heck is where people, who don't believe in Gosh, think they are not going...)
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