ummm...that's not what I gathered from the reading. A church built in her honor??
That is the bottom line.It is all about Him.
On this I agree...it is indeed all about Christ and that is why our focus should always be on Him.....not Mary. Mary is not needed, Mary does not forgive, we don't pray to Mary as she does not answer prayer, we don't have idols of Mary, we don't bow down to Mary, etc.
All of this should be reserved for Jesus as we are going to be celebrating him overcoming death this Sunday.
And as a Christian, this conversion story of this man coming to new life should be a source of joy to me and not an occasion for thinking how wrong he is.This was HIS experience.And he would probably rather give up his life than deny it.And I would never ask him to.Would you? .
If he has become a Christian I am of course, thrilled. Who wouldn't be?
I'm glad to hear you identify as a Christian.
For the most part on this forum catholics will rarely ever identify as a Christian. It seems at times, for most, it's about being a member of the roman catholic church....not a follower of Christ. I hear stories of "I was baptized as a baby in the catholic church...." That doesn't save you. It only gets you wet.
Rarely, do I hear someone who is catholic say, "I believe Jesus died for my sins and I follow Him and Him only." This is the faith Paul writes about and it is the faith Jesus talks about in the Gospels. He tells us to believe in Him and Him only for our salvation.
When we observe Good Friday, we are emaphasizing the day when Christ died for our sins.What you may not realize is that what you say about our beliefs is taken as a GIVEN by Catholics.Of course, he became a Christian and a follower of Christ in the Catholic tradition.And to say Mary was not needed is to ignore her singular, beautiful role in the salvation story.
In my Catholic experience we were encouraged to give honor to Mary as the Mother of our Lord and NEVER to worship her.
The distinction was always very clear.
The difference between us, I believe, is that if I had read this conversion story about a man who found faith and God’s love in a Lutheran Church , my first thought would have been:” Praise God!”Not,that he is wrong in what he thinks happened to him.
I truly believe that you misunderstand what Catholics believe.