[Faith Presses On]

Mrs. Don-o, if you were to read to uninitiated children the descriptions of Mary by Catholics, they would describe her as a goddess. I can’t imagine and just don’t want to imagine addressing another creature as “our life, our sweetness and our hope.” And the next line says, “to THEE do we cry,” does it not? Not being worldly minded, as many Protestants are who convert to Catholicism (saying things such as that Catholicism has more respect for science), but being minded to follow Jesus and know and love Him ever more, it profoundly saddens and disturbs me to see how Catholics miss out on not knowing what it’s like to acknowledge all of God’s nature to be His alone. We make our choices and we can only know the experience of what we choose and “miss out” on what we don’t choose. When Catholics do things such as call Mary “our life, our sweetness and our hope,” it is one more way in that they miss out on attributing to God what’s His alone.

[Mrs. Don-o]

Nicely put: and I can see your point. Little children might well think that Mary was some sort of goddess (if they knew the concept of "goddess")--- and think the same of angels and archangels, various fairy-tale and Disney characters, and female entertainment divas.

This shows why children need careful instruction, so they do not carry this misunderstanding into adulthood.

[Mark17]

Since I am an ex catholic, I feel qualified to comment. 😁 First, let me say, I didn’t pay close attention in catechism class. I was more interested in flirting with the girls. 👍 I would not call Mary a goddess. For want of a better word, we were taught she was like a Demi goddess, similar to the Titans of Greek mythology. I know that is not a real good analogy, but Demi goddess would be about the best term I can come up with.
Whether I actually, physically heard the words, the implication was clear, that Mary was considered the 4th most important person in the whole universe, after the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Now that I am no longer a catholic, I think it is blasphemous.