A Protestant Confused

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Myrridias

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Hello, I’m new, and just found this site today. A few years back my parents and I moved from New York to Georgia (US) and there was some issues with both my Autism (well, Asperger’s syndrome, but still) and their stance on medication which helps with the tertiary effects of the prev. stated condition which caused the trouble and the first place (getting better though), so yadda yadda yadda, we’ve been looking for a true home for several years now, and still haven’t found one. Well my grandfather died a few years ago, and he was a strong Catholic (he really believed, and I have no doubt he is with the Lord) and following the Requiem Mass we were left with some… questions (my father not having attended a mass or looked into for some time) and my great-aunt (a former nun I think) tried to explain it to us. We still were kind of confused. I have tried to reconcile it with what we believe and, even though some of the doctrines I still don’t understand but at least when ever I hear about it, the liturgy at least and I see the Lord really work in it. At least, the catholic church seems strong while the Baptists seem to be… faltering. Anyway, I am unsure about what I should do, any advice you can give would be appreciated.

Also, if you could clear up the whole Mary thing, it would be appreciated, I mean no offense of course.
 
Hello!

I’m not an apologetic, but I can give you my view on Mary.

Catholics believe that Mary is the tabernacle of the New Covenant (she held Jesus) and is the woman spoken of in Revelations who was clothed in the sun and is the Queen of heaven. Being Jesus’ mother, she is the closest to God and Catholics like to ask Mary to pray for us.

The Hail Mary is reciting various scripture (mostly from what Elizabeth and Angel Gabriel said to her), then adding ‘pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death’.

Also, she’s a reminder that the Creator once trusted Himself to His creation. There are many other reasons why Catholics are fond of Mary. However, we’re not required to ask for her prayers, but it’s very difficult not to be fond of her when you remember that she nurtured Jesus and is still His mother.
 
Welcome! I converted to the Catholic faith from the Southern Baptist tradition. I had “problems” with Mary as well.

However, I learned that what I had heard growing up from other Protestants about what Catholics believe about Mary was just plain wrong: “Catholics worship Mary over Jesus”; “Catholics are idolators because they worship statutes”, and just on and on and on.

I suggest you just browse around this website - - - use the “Search” feature at the top of the page and put in “Mary”. Most of the questions you have about Mary and the Catholic faith have already been asked and answered - - - you"ll see some of the old postings there.

There’s a lot of good info on this site. Welcome again!
 
Myrridias said:
Hello, I’m new, and just found this site today. A few years back my parents and I moved from New York to Georgia (US) and there was some issues with both my Autism (well, Asperger’s syndrome, but still) and their stance on medication which helps with the tertiary effects of the prev. stated condition which caused the trouble and the first place (getting better though), so yadda yadda yadda, we’ve been looking for a true home for several years now, and still haven’t found one. Well my grandfather died a few years ago, and he was a strong Catholic (he really believed, and I have no doubt he is with the Lord) and following the Requiem Mass we were left with some… questions (my father not having attended a mass or looked into for some time) and my great-aunt (a former nun I think) tried to explain it to us. We still were kind of confused. I have tried to reconcile it with what we believe and, even though some of the doctrines I still don’t understand but at least when ever I hear about it, the liturgy at least and I see the Lord really work in it. At least, the catholic church seems strong while the Baptists seem to be… faltering. Anyway, I am unsure about what I should do, any advice you can give would be appreciated.

Also, if you could clear up the whole Mary thing, it would be appreciated, I mean no offense of course.
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Welcome to CAF - you’ve come to the right place, and no offense taken. 🙂 These might help you understand something of the Catholic approach to Mary:

forums.catholic-questions.org/showpost.php?p=456463&postcount=79

forums.catholic-questions.org/showpost.php?p=456468&postcount=80

forums.catholic-questions.org/showpost.php?p=456470&postcount=81
 
Myrridias said:
Hello, I’m new, and just found this site today. A few years back my parents and I moved from New York to Georgia (US) and there was some issues with both my Autism (well, Asperger’s syndrome, but still) and their stance on medication which helps with the tertiary effects of the prev. stated condition which caused the trouble and the first place (getting better though), so yadda yadda yadda, we’ve been looking for a true home for several years now, and still haven’t found one. Well my grandfather died a few years ago, and he was a strong Catholic (he really believed, and I have no doubt he is with the Lord) and following the Requiem Mass we were left with some… questions (my father not having attended a mass or looked into for some time) and my great-aunt (a former nun I think) tried to explain it to us. We still were kind of confused. I have tried to reconcile it with what we believe and, even though some of the doctrines I still don’t understand but at least when ever I hear about it, the liturgy at least and I see the Lord really work in it. At least, the catholic church seems strong while the Baptists seem to be… faltering. Anyway, I am unsure about what I should do, any advice you can give would be appreciated.

Also, if you could clear up the whole Mary thing, it would be appreciated, I mean no offense of course.
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Hi, and welcome to CAF. All I can say is take your time to learn about Catholicism. The width & Breadth of the Church is enormous and no one not even the pope has a handle on everything. It has taken 2000 years to build the Church to what it is today, so to understand it in great depth will take years also.

My suggestion is ask one subject (Mary is a great start) and learn all there is to know about it. When you are satisfied that you understand the what & why of our belief with regards to a subject move on to the next.

Peace to youo\ on your journey!

👍
 
Myrridias said:
Hello, I’m new, and just found this site today. A few years back my parents and I moved from New York to Georgia (US) and there was some issues with both my Autism (well, Asperger’s syndrome, but still) and their stance on medication which helps with the tertiary effects of the prev. stated condition which caused the trouble and the first place (getting better though), so yadda yadda yadda, we’ve been looking for a true home for several years now, and still haven’t found one. Well my grandfather died a few years ago, and he was a strong Catholic (he really believed, and I have no doubt he is with the Lord) and following the Requiem Mass we were left with some… questions (my father not having attended a mass or looked into for some time) and my great-aunt (a former nun I think) tried to explain it to us. We still were kind of confused. I have tried to reconcile it with what we believe and, even though some of the doctrines I still don’t understand but at least when ever I hear about it, the liturgy at least and I see the Lord really work in it. At least, the catholic church seems strong while the Baptists seem to be… faltering. Anyway, I am unsure about what I should do, any advice you can give would be appreciated.

Also, if you could clear up the whole Mary thing, it would be appreciated, I mean no offense of course.
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First of all, welcome! You might have noted that Mary was mentioned only once during the entire mass, and it was only to ask for her prayers, as she is the first among Saints in heaven. To understand the Catholic faith, I can wholeheartedly recommend a book to you. It is an easy read and explains nearly every facet of the faith. It is written by two very well educated Priests. Mary is in there, too. It is entitled Catholicism for Dummies. Have a look.
 
Myrridias said:
Hello, I’m new, Also, if you could clear up the whole Mary thing, it would be appreciated, I mean no offense of course.
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Jesus taught us the Lord’s Prayer, to call God our Father. Jesus said God is His Father.

That makes you a brother of the Lord. Correct?

You know that God is not your earthly Father. That means God must be your spiritual Father if he is Father to you.

Do you have also a spiritual mother? Is it possible for a human to have a father and not a mother? Jesus is fully human and fully God. He was born of a woman. Your Savior took His humanity from her alone.

God is Jesus’s Father and Mary is His mother.

But Mary is a creature, fully human, like you. So God is your Father and hers. That makes her a child of God, like you.

She is also the mother of Jesus the human person, who is also God the Second Person of the Holy Trinity. That makes her the mother of God. She is not the mother of Jesus’s human nature. She is the mother of the person Jesus, who is God and man.

She conceived Jesus, of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit overshadowed her. Your mother and father conceived you. Jesus the Savior, the person, comes from God the Holy Spirit and Mary the woman.

By her relationship to the Three Divine Persons, She is mother of the Son, daughter of the Father, and spouse of the Holy Spirit, since Jesus was conceived of the Holy Spirit in her womb. She is unique among women, blessed among women.

Jesus who is perfectly holy, perfectly fulfilled the law, the commandments. The law commands that He honor His Father and mother. If you were God how would you honor your mother? What would you do to show her honor?

Jesus said God is our Father. Mary is also your spiritual mother. Protestants disown their mother. They deny her. They in fact despise her and give her no honor. They say she is an ordinary woman, nothing special. They don’t need her or want her around.

Imagine telling Jesus you don’t want to know His mother and want nothing to do with her. Tell him that you reject her help and prayers for your soul. That sounds crazy to me.

Whose prayers do you tyhink are more powerful, have more influence with the Father, Son and Holy Ghost, Mary’s or your own mother’s?
 
Myrridias said:
Hello, I’m new, and just found this site today. A few years back my parents and I moved from New York to Georgia (US) and there was some issues with both my Autism (well, Asperger’s syndrome, but still) and their stance on medication which helps with the tertiary effects of the prev. stated condition which caused the trouble and the first place (getting better though), so yadda yadda yadda, we’ve been looking for a true home for several years now, and still haven’t found one. Well my grandfather died a few years ago, and he was a strong Catholic (he really believed, and I have no doubt he is with the Lord) and following the Requiem Mass we were left with some… questions (my father not having attended a mass or looked into for some time) and my great-aunt (a former nun I think) tried to explain it to us. We still were kind of confused. I have tried to reconcile it with what we believe and, even though some of the doctrines I still don’t understand but at least when ever I hear about it, the liturgy at least and I see the Lord really work in it. At least, the catholic church seems strong while the Baptists seem to be… faltering. Anyway, I am unsure about what I should do, any advice you can give would be appreciated.

Also, if you could clear up the whole Mary thing, it would be appreciated, I mean no offense of course.
Click to expand...
I was a Baptist for 27 years and just this year converted back (I was baptized Catholic as a baby). I felt the same way at first. I was nervous sending our daughter to a Catholic school because I didn’t want to have to ‘deprogram’ her (as I thought) from Mass by attending Sunday worship at the local Baptist Megachurch across the street. 😉

So I talked with my wife and we decided One Family, One Faith. I called the local parish to find out about Catholicism and signed up for RCIA (Rite of Christian Initiation for Adults). It’s an absolutely amazing class! It goes through everything Catholics believe. Starts around September, ends at Easter. Along with that I spent a ton of time lurking this site. Still do.

The toughest time I’ve had is with the whole Mary thing. It’s a huge pill for protestants to swallow. Let me see if I can shed some light.

First off, we don’t “Worship” Mary. She is blessed to us. We hold her in high regard. So did God. cf. Luke 1:48.

Now we know that God considers her special. She’s in heaven with Him. Hebrews 12:1 says we’re surrounded by a great cloud of witnesses (so folks in Heaven are watching/listening). So asking somebody currently in the presence of God to pray FOR us (which is not the same as praying TO somebody) seems OK.

I equate it to asking my mom to assist my dad in considering one of my requests. I ask dad to borrow car, he says he’ll consider it. I ask mom to ‘remind him’ to consider it. She’s intimately close to him (in his presence, so to speak). How powerful is her petition over just mine ? “Honey, go easy on him and let him borrow the car. He’s done good all week at school, his grades are good and he’s kept his promises to you about taking out the garbage…”

It is the same way when we ask Mary to pray for our intentions. We do not worship her. We give her the Honor due the Mother of our Lord. She was highly-favored with God and as such we know a request from her in our behalf is something truly miraculous and special.

I hope this helps. I pray you’ll find your way to a local parish RCIA class. Good luck in your quest!
 
anonymous_in_fl said:
Welcome! I converted to the Catholic faith from the Southern Baptist tradition. I had “problems” with Mary as well.

However, I learned that what I had heard growing up from other Protestants about what Catholics believe about Mary was just plain wrong: “Catholics** worship **Mary over Jesus”; “Catholics are idolators because they worship statutes”, and just on and on and on.
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It’s actually on the Vatican website:

vatican.va/holy_father/pius_xii/encyclicals/documents/hf_p-xii_enc_08091953_fulgens-corona_en.html

Do keep in mind the Latin word is colere, which could mean “to honor, revere, worship.” (We have no workable English cogate of “colere.”) If I were to select one word I’d go with the “honor” as that is close to the Italian translation.

We had a recent thread with this discussion but I can’t seem to find it.
 
Myrridias said:
Hello, I’m new, and just found this site today. A few years back my parents and I moved from New York to Georgia (US) and there was some issues with both my Autism (well, Asperger’s syndrome, but still) and their stance on medication which helps with the tertiary effects of the prev. stated condition which caused the trouble and the first place (getting better though), so yadda yadda yadda, we’ve been looking for a true home for several years now, and still haven’t found one. Well my grandfather died a few years ago, and he was a strong Catholic (he really believed, and I have no doubt he is with the Lord) and following the Requiem Mass we were left with some… questions (my father not having attended a mass or looked into for some time) and my great-aunt (a former nun I think) tried to explain it to us. We still were kind of confused. I have tried to reconcile it with what we believe and, even though some of the doctrines I still don’t understand but at least when ever I hear about it, the liturgy at least and I see the Lord really work in it. At least, the catholic church seems strong while the Baptists seem to be… faltering. Anyway, I am unsure about what I should do, any advice you can give would be appreciated.

Also, if you could clear up the whole Mary thing, it would be appreciated, I mean no offense of course.
Click to expand...
Just some additional thoughts and suggestions…if you have some aspect of Catholicism you want to know or understand, start a thread on it in the Forum one topic at a time (Forum rules) that way, you will not be overwhelmed.

Also, somebody mentioned RCIA. Through the RCIA, Catholicism is taught to those exploring the Catholic faith in local parishes. If you are interested, search for the nearest catholic parish and inquire about this program.

Or there are a ton of books out there. Check Scott Hahn’s books. Also, available online is the Cathechism of the Catholic Church (CCC)or get a copy of the Compedium of the CCC, a shortened Q and A version fo the CCC.
 
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