He has made it clear that he will not participate in any of it with me and that would include reading anything pro-Catholic that I might give him.
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Hi,
Welcome into the Church Jesus started.
I think you were wise to postpone the meeting. It would have been unfair in that several so called experts of their view would have been teamed up against you. Even a very well trained Catholic apologist would have a hard time with that. Two, or three heads are better than one. The psychological dynamic in that situation is unfair to you. It is not unlikely that they will come with a closed mind. And they will come thinking that you have nothing to teach them, so they will feel free, and maybe duty bound to interrupt you at every chance, and change the subject just as you are making a good point because “they know everything and you – in their mind – know nothing.”
If you do agree to a meeting in the future, I suggest you ask if an equal number of knowledgeable Catholics also attend to assist you. Their assistance will be valuable, not in making them become Catholic, but just in explaining what Catholics really believe. Most likely, if Catholics really believed what they think Catholics believed everyone on this list would not be Catholic either.
Many non-Catholics believe that the doctrines on Mary take away from the Glory due to God.
I suggest you pray about considering sharing this with your husband
(but not the parenthesis sections.)
Your love for your husband and his for you is a good thing. It is not perfect because we are not perfect. But it is good.
Why is it good?
There is only one reason why. It is because God’s grace works through us enabling us to love others. If it was not good, and / or not the working of God’s grace it would be pointless to try to love anyone as the result is useless at best, or the equivalence of hatred at the worst.
Point here is that God’s grace does work through us and molds our character if we are open to it.
(God’s grace is not just some external covering of a heap of manure as Martin Luther believed.)
Why do we honor Mary and the doctrines about her?
This practice and those doctrines about Mary give glory to God.
For example :
It offends God to deny Mary’s perpetual virginity.
( We know this for various reasons. The shortest explanation is because our Lady of Fatima asked the children to make sacrifices for those who sin in this way. No sacrifices would have been asked for if it was not a sin. – Our sacrifices, just as we daily do to help others, needs to be understood as a participation in the One Sacrifice of Jesus Christ.
Colossians 1:24
His Sacrifice won the grace for us to make our sacrifices done in Him and by that help good and beneficial to others.
The denial of Mary’s virginity is also a rejection of the
Church’s teaching authority given to her by Jesus Christ.)
How does this denial offend God?
God is a Master Artist.
His greatest work is in our hearts and souls is to make us good people.
The donkey that Jesus rode into Jerusalem had never been ridden before.
Why? It points to Jesus being special.
Mary’s perpetual virginity also points to Jesus being special.
Jesus has exercised his power in changing our lives. He also changed Mary’s life
from the beginning of her Immaculate Conception.
If we deny this work of God, we deny giving to Him the credit He deserves.
God is a God of Love. His relationship with Mary - and all the rest of us -
can only be understood from that perspective. Jesus loves Mary. We imitate Him. And no matter how much we love her, we will never love her as much as He does.
Also see
defendingthebride.com/ma3/only11.html
I hope this helps,
John
The husband announced that he had joined one of the church’s small groups and he will resume attending Wednesday night Bible study.