Former Catholics - Mary worship

[Cube2]

Maybe I am only speaking for myself, but I could care less about wearing a Brown Scapular.

What I would do, if I was interested in wearing one, is research the whole story behind the practice, not taking any aspects from it alone without the balance of the rest. Then, when I understood its meaning in accordance with the faith of the Church, would I wear one. As it is, I do not understand it.

I am not one to practice devotions to private revelations. I am sure they have benifits to certain communities and factions, but I seek more universal practices and devotions.

What I think Catholics should dwell on, is the abuse of a supposed devotion to Mary, while rejecting Teachings of the Church. For example, can someone claim to have a deep devotion to Mary and receive a sterilization surgery, and claim it is not wrong???

Fine, I’d do the same. All faiths claim to get some benefits from what they believe and practice. But, its good to separate any believe from the authentic system of believes.

 

[Cube2]

Cube…

Regarding the promises of the rosary, what you are omitting is what their reflections are about.

My concern is why Mary?
The catholic faith assumes that saints in heaven are transformed to be like God. Thus, Mary gets the attributes of God so as to be omnipresent in spiritual form. She is able to hear our prayers made all over the earth, whether by heart or audibly. This is the concern as it is not supported by scripture or Apostolic teachings.

They are reflections of the life of Christ from His incarnation in Mary all the way up to His ascension into heaven, Pentecost, – the beginning of the Church, and gratitude to Mary for her ‘Yes’ to God, by the assumption of Mary into heaven and her coronation as queen of heaven and earth…because of her yes to Christ, all her care for Him her entire life, being witness to His crucifixion, when only one apostle showed up.

My question is; 'the assumption of Mary into heaven and her coronation as queen of heaven and earth…
This is a Catholic dogma not supported by scripture or Apostolic teaching. In any case the assumption of Mary into heaven was not a Catholic believe until 1950.

And to not give Mary honor at the end for her great work in the history of faith is not becoming of the family of man.

Mary deserves honor, though not veneration or consecrating oneself to her.
Even the apostles deserves honor for the great work they did. I credit Apostle Paul for preaching the gospel to the gentiles of whom I am.

The next concern to be covered, is just how long it took the Church to declare Mary’s assumption into heaven, – one thousand, nine hundred and fifty four years.

Then it was not a tradition! By declaring it a dogma implied it did not have sufficient basis to stand on its own.

Now, wouldn’t you think, looking at the catechism which describes the content of our faith and its parameters, that it was long reflections and dialogues concerning Mary, considering the effectiveness of her help and example for Christians in the entire length of our history??? Likewise, you need to check out the foot notes of the Catechism and see the preliminary and vast number come from Scripture itself.

I don’t deny that. But lets consider the example of assumption of Mary into heaven. Its scriptural basis are 2 verses in Rev. 12.
When you read the subsequent verses, the identity of the woman changes. If the whole believe is taken from a small section of scripture while omitting the major explanations, then some truths are withheld. That is my greatest concern.

But for her to become the Mother of the Son of God, she likewise needed even greater salvation and redemption by the Heavenly Father for this most great mission of any human being in history.

Mary was declared the ‘Mother of God’ in 431AD as a Dogma. This implies that the view was not a popular believe for four centuries.
That’s a concern of the teachings that the church adopted.

Well, if one does not see any importance to Mary as God does it alone, then why did God bother with being Trinitarian and needing His Son to redeem us? Couldn’t God just forgive mankind with the animal sacrifice in the Jewish temple of ancient times?

The mystery of salvation is based on redemption, God buying us back to himself. God had to pay the full price of death on our behalf. He could have done it without the help of mankind like Melchizedek who did not have parents. But he chose to come in the very understandable way of being born in human likeness. Phil 2:7: But made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men.
My concern is how much we should honor Mary.

Mary and Jesus are on the same plane…Mary said Yes…to give Christ His humanity. And she could not pass on bodily sin to Him. And with our Catholic sensitivity to having Christ present on our altars and His residence among us in the tabernacle…we cannot but help but reflect on Mary being the means with her cooperation with God to allow herself to be Christ’s mother.

God created Adam from dust. He is able to take up a human form.
He did it for mankind, not mankind for him. The apostles doctrine was pro-Christ alone and his mission on earth, while the Catholic doctrine is pro Mary/Jesus mission.

 

[Geo17]

I have been trying to come back to the Catholic church for over a year. I spent 31 years believing the Bible, and I can’t just forget all I learned from it. Coming back to Catholicism is based more on being disgusted with protestant churches than anything else. I have even found a local Catholic church I like. It’s quite different from the one I grew up in. I live in an area that was hit hard by the Sandy storm of 2012. We were devastated. As the weeks went by finally aid came in. I expected the people from the protestant churches to offer help. But I didn’t see even one. Nevertheless, most of these people claim they live the Bible. The Army was here, Fema was here, the Red Cross was here, and Catholic charities were here. A local Knights of Columbus cooked warm food everyday once they fixed up their hall. They were hit too. When I finally got TV service again, I had 2 channels I never heard of. These are EWTN and Telecare. It seemed like God was telling me something. I really never knew much about Catholicism because I was born in the 1950’s and grew up in the 60’s. The church didn’t teach us much back then. I’ve been paying a lot of attention to Pope Francis, and for the first time in my life, I really like a pope.

But every time I see, hear, or read about Catholics praying to Mary or saints, and not to God the Father and Jesus I back off. I cannot forget these scriptures from the letter to the Hebrews in the NT:

“14 Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has ascended into heaven, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold firmly to the faith we profess. 15 For we do not have a high priest who is unable to empathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet he did not sin. 16 Let us then approach God’s throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.” NIV I believe this. Since I do, why would I want to ask anyone else for help when I can go straight to God in the name of His Son.

I’m also looking to be with people who live their faith. I know many Catholics don’t. I’m not stupid. But in 30 years of being protestant I never found a church with people who took following the Bible seriously. They all said they did. But they didn’t. What’s worse, in the last 10 years or more, protestants don’t even think their sins matter to God. They don’t think they are God’s people. At least Catholics believe we are some of God’s people. God has many people, all over the world. As Jesus said, He has other sheep not of the Israeli sheep pen, and He had to go to them too.

But I still think too much emphasis is placed on Mary and saints, and not enough on Jesus and God.

 

[Dorothy]

Cube wrote:

<< “Mary was declared the ‘Mother of God’ in 431 AD as a dogma. This implies that the view was not a popular believe for four centuries. That’s a concern of the teachings that the church adopted.”

Dogmas are proclaimed when there is a need to spotlight a belief and clarify it.

The crux of all this misunderstanding has to do with the Protestant adoption of “Sola Scriptura”.

Scripture does not stand up all by itself.

In previous posts others have tried to explain why the dogma of Mary as Mother of God was proclaimed.
It doesn’t help if we say why over and over again? It seems that what we are trying to explain is ignored and we hear the same replies over and over again.

I understand that you have been taught to react this way to many things Catholic. Does this kind of dialogue help either of us?

Lord Jesus Christ send the Holy Spirit to enable us to dialogue according to Your Will! (all of us).

 

[Dorothy]

I have been trying to come back to the Catholic church for over a year. I spent 31 years believing the Bible, and I can’t just forget all I learned from it. Coming back to Catholicism is based more on being disgusted with protestant churches than anything else. I have even found a local Catholic church I like. It’s quite different from the one I grew up in. I live in an area that was hit hard by the Sandy storm of 2012. We were devastated. As the weeks went by finally aid came in. I expected the people from the protestant churches to offer help. But I didn’t see even one. Nevertheless, most of these people claim they live the Bible. The Army was here, Fema was here, the Red Cross was here, and Catholic charities were here. A local Knights of Columbus cooked warm food everyday once they fixed up their hall. They were hit too. When I finally got TV service again, I had 2 channels I never heard of. These are EWTN and Telecare. It seemed like God was telling me something. I really never knew much about Catholicism because I was born in the 1950’s and grew up in the 60’s. The church didn’t teach us much back then. I’ve been paying a lot of attention to Pope Francis, and for the first time in my life, I really like a pope.

But every time I see, hear, or read about Catholics praying to Mary or saints, and not to God the Father and Jesus I back off. I cannot forget these scriptures from the letter to the Hebrews in the NT:

“14 Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has ascended into heaven, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold firmly to the faith we profess. 15 For we do not have a high priest who is unable to empathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet he did not sin. 16 Let us then approach God’s throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.” NIV I believe this. Since I do, why would I want to ask anyone else for help when I can go straight to God in the name of His Son.

I’m also looking to be with people who live their faith. I know many Catholics don’t. I’m not stupid. But in 30 years of being protestant I never found a church with people who took following the Bible seriously. They all said they did. But they didn’t. What’s worse, in the last 10 years or more, protestants don’t even think their sins matter to God. They don’t think they are God’s people. At least Catholics believe we are some of God’s people. God has many people, all over the world. As Jesus said, He has other sheep not of the Israeli sheep pen, and He had to go to them too.

But I still think too much emphasis is placed on Mary and saints, and not enough on Jesus and God.

“Geo 17”

Welcome home to the Church.

Yes, we do place Blessed Mother and the saints in a special place, as they are great examples of what the Lord’s grace can do.

Many Catholics understand deeply the words of our Lord Jesus Christ on the cross when he said “Behold your mother”. She is the perfect disciple and an example to me of how I should love her Son.

I am aware that she is a creature, though highly privileged. Also, she grew in the grace she was given from the beginning through her faith and trust in the Lord. Our Blessed Mother is like a clear pane of glass (no smudges, no sin) through which the pure Light of the Trinity shines through.

She is nothing, God is everything! She acknowledges that everything she has comes from the Lord! (“He who is mighty has done great things for me.”) That is humility!

Mary magnifies the Lord! There is so much in the entire Magnificat in Sacred Scripture!

She shows me who Jesus is and how to love Him!

 

[adf417]

The Council of Nicaea in 325 condemned Arianism and declared the divinity of Christ. You must also be obligated to reject this new doctrine and deny the Divine Nature of Christ and hold him as a creation of God the Father. You would be in good company with the Jehovah’s Witnesses.

The Council of Chalcedon in 451 condemned Monophysitism and infallibly proclaimed the two natures of Christ. Rejecting this new doctrine as you should will place you firmly in the camp of the Oriental Orthodox.

Constantinople III in 681 condemned Monothelitism, which you must embrace as you reject “new doctrines”. As monothelites you would be in quite a minority because I am not aware of any Church or sect or ecclesial community which adheres to this.

Nicaea II in 787 restored the veneration of icons, but since this is a “new doctrine” you must place yourself with the iconoclasts and reject all religious imagery. You would be in the company of Jews, Muslims and Protestants here.

And then we have the problem of Sacred Scripture. Since it was Ecumenical Councils which met hundreds of years after Christ’s ascension and assembled the canon, this must be “new doctrine” as well. You are honor-bound to reject the entire New Testament as a new creation that did not exist in the Apostolic age. In rejecting the New Testament you will be once again in good company with Jews and Muslims, but you will not be much of a Christian at all if you continue to reject all the “new doctrines”.

Oh and by the way, devotion to Mary was introduced long before any Ecumenical Council. It was mandated by Christ.

[BIBLEDRB]John 19:26-27[/BIBLEDRB]

Bump! …for those who tend to ignore simple logic like this.

 

[adf417]

I have been trying to come back to the Catholic church for over a year. I spent 31 years believing the Bible, and I can’t just forget all I learned from it. Coming back to Catholicism is based more on being disgusted with protestant churches than anything else. I have even found a local Catholic church I like. It’s quite different from the one I grew up in. I live in an area that was hit hard by the Sandy storm of 2012. We were devastated. As the weeks went by finally aid came in. I expected the people from the protestant churches to offer help. But I didn’t see even one. Nevertheless, most of these people claim they live the Bible. The Army was here, Fema was here, the Red Cross was here, and Catholic charities were here. A local Knights of Columbus cooked warm food everyday once they fixed up their hall. They were hit too. When I finally got TV service again, I had 2 channels I never heard of. These are EWTN and Telecare. It seemed like God was telling me something. I really never knew much about Catholicism because I was born in the 1950’s and grew up in the 60’s. The church didn’t teach us much back then. I’ve been paying a lot of attention to Pope Francis, and for the first time in my life, I really like a pope.

Hi Geo17 and welcome, I could help chuckle when I read this part about the only two channels you were able to catch. I don’t know anything about Telecare but I’ve been wishing I had EWTN for a long time and I have full cable. I’m jealous.

But every time I see, hear, or read about Catholics praying to Mary or saints, and not to God the Father and Jesus I back off. I cannot forget these scriptures from the letter to the Hebrews in the NT:

“14 Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has ascended into heaven, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold firmly to the faith we profess. 15 For we do not have a high priest who is unable to empathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet he did not sin. 16 Let us then approach God’s throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.” NIV I believe this. Since I do, why would I want to ask anyone else for help when I can go straight to God in the name of His Son.

I’m also looking to be with people who live their faith. I know many Catholics don’t. I’m not stupid. But in 30 years of being protestant I never found a church with people who took following the Bible seriously. They all said they did. But they didn’t. What’s worse, in the last 10 years or more, protestants don’t even think their sins matter to God. They don’t think they are God’s people. At least Catholics believe we are some of God’s people. God has many people, all over the world. As Jesus said, He has other sheep not of the Israeli sheep pen, and He had to go to them too.

But I still think too much emphasis is placed on Mary and saints, and not enough on Jesus and God

Think Eucharist! If we actually put too much emphasis on Mary we would be to eating her body and drinking her blood. Not to mention, we would also have stopped saying at least the 1st few lines of the creeds and would have moved her reference in the creeds to a focal point of the creeds.

My prayers go out for you.
Peace!!!

 

[dronald]

Bump! …for those who tend to ignore simple logic like this.

I definitely have an issue with the OO being rejected. They define one thing slightly differently and now they’ve been separated forever.

But I digress.

 

[adf417]

I definitely have an issue with the OO being rejected. They define one thing slightly differently and now they’ve been separated forever.

But I digress.

I do not necessarily see this as a digression, that is if you care to share why it is some council findings are pertinent and some are not as Cube has alluded to. At least I’m interested.

Peace!!!

 

[Cube2]

Cube wrote:
Dogmas are proclaimed when there is a need to spotlight a belief and clarify it.
The crux of all this misunderstanding has to do with the Protestant adoption of “Sola Scriptura”.

Scripture does not stand up all by itself.

In previous posts others have tried to explain why the dogma of Mary as Mother of God was proclaimed.
It doesn’t help if we say why over and over again? It seems that what we are trying to explain is ignored and we hear the same replies over and over again.

I understand that you have been taught to react this way to many things Catholic. Does this kind of dialogue help either of us?

Lord Jesus Christ send the Holy Spirit to enable us to dialogue according to Your Will! (all of us).

Sorry, I did not read the other postings as you know they are in thousands.
Sincerely, I’ve never been taught by anybody to react to Catholics in that way, its out of my selfless research and prayer.

You have asked, “Does this kind of dialogue help either of us?”
Let me give you my Christian background in brief.
I was raised in Roman Catholic, went through the catechism classes and was baptized and confirmed. After 10 years, I converted to a born again Christian. I confess, my perspective of things have never been the same again!

This dialogue is very important! Through it, we understand one another since we both claim to be Christians. We also try to find out the causes of all these differences and somehow shed some light on how to do God’s will.
As you have said, may the Holy Spirit reveal the truth to all of us. Amen.

 

[rcwitness]

I was raised in Roman Catholic, went through the catechism classes and was baptized and confirmed. After 10 years, I converted to a born again Christian. I confess, my perspective of things have never been the same again!

Thanks for sharing Cube2,

I think, alot of us come to deeper conversions after our salvation. This is how it is suppose to be. In your situation, I am curious as to the manner in which you were Confirmed. This is usually done, and I wish always, at an age of reasoning. That means you were of age to either accept or reject the faith you were baptized into. Since you say you received the Sacrament of Confirmation, this would be considered by the Church as accepting your Spiritual believe in Him as the Church has Confirmed Him to be, which is the Son of God worthy of our Adoration and reconciliation to God. Is this contrary to your view of ‘born again’?

Why, after this conversion of your heart, would you feel the need to leave the Catholic faith in order to convert deeper into Jesus? Did you not believe in Him when you were Confirmed? Were you just going through the motions? Were you forced to be Confirmed? Did you conceal your true doubt? I really don’t understand how someone can go through Confirmation and then decide to leave the Church in order to be ‘born again’.

 

[dronald]

I do not necessarily see this as a digression, that is if you care to share why it is some council findings are pertinent and some are not as Cube has alluded to. At least I’m interested.

Peace!!!

Well, it’s sorta off topic but my point is that a group disagrees with something even in the smallest way and suddenly they’re not in the “fullness of truth.” The OO are almost identical, but not good enough just because of a misunderstanding.

Why not just be the same Church already?

 

[Dorothy]

Sorry, I did not read the other postings as you know they are in thousands.
Sincerely, I’ve never been taught by anybody to react to Catholics in that way, its out of my selfless research and prayer.

You have asked, “Does this kind of dialogue help either of us?”
Let me give you my Christian background in brief.
I was raised in Roman Catholic, went through the catechism classes and was baptized and confirmed. After 10 years, I converted to a born again Christian. I confess, my perspective of things have never been the same again!

This dialogue is very important! Through it, we understand one another since we both claim to be Christians. We also try to find out the causes of all these differences and somehow shed some light on how to do God’s will.
As you have said, may the Holy Spirit reveal the truth to all of us. Amen.

I appreciate your sharing your background! It helps me to pray and ponder how to not let such things happen in families! I don’t say that as a put-down on you. I am aware that there are Catholics who have done the same as you.

I am also aware that there are many conversions TO the Catholic faith by Pentecostals, Baptists, etc.
So, it is a two-way street.

I must leave all of this in the Lord’s hands and keep praying for unity.

Peace,

Dorothy

 

[PJM]

=Cube2;12056531]Thanks for the response.
We respect Mary very much for what she did. She was found worthy by God to carry our Saviour Jesus Christ in her womb.

Our greatest controversy is the NEW doctrines.
The church history clearly shows that the teaching of referring to Mary as the “mother of God” was made a Dogma in 431AD. So, it was not a church doctrine ever since the time of the apostles. Secondly, for the view to be declared a Dogma, it meant it did not have enough authenticity to stand by itself. The declaration opened a new wave of controversy of understanding as God does not have a mother. God is a trinity of Father, Son and the Holy Spirit. From the time Mary gave birth to Jesus, she was always referred to a s mother of Jesus. We do not have a controversy over that.

We try alot to understand Catholics but the basis of the Catholic doctrine is not based on scripture.
About the scapular, history states:
On July 16, 1251, when the Carmelite Order was in danger of crumbling, Our Lady appeared to St. Simon Stock and gave him the Holy Brown Scapular with the treasured promise that “Whosoever dies clothed in this shall never suffer eternal fire.” The trouble ceased.

The problem between Catholics and the other believers is the significance of Mary’s appearance and how she solves a problem at all times, not only to the Carmelite Order.
The 1st question is why Mary?
Mary is not a messenger of God. The messengers of God are the angels. Peter was rescued by angel from prison. When Jesus was ascending, 2 angels appeared in Acts 1:10 etc etc.
The 2nd Question is why Mary does not exalt God?
Mary comes with a brown Scapular and says, “Whosoever dies clothed in this shall never suffer eternal fire”
This contradicts with Jesus’ words,
John:3:14-15: And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life.
John:14:6: Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.
Rev:20:15: And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire.

The question is, whom do we believe?

WELCOME TO CAF!

So what Protestant teaching dates back to the 400’s:thumbsup:

My friend, do you have any understanding of the “natural evolution” od Dogma?

1st. It is a WIDELY help belief

2nd. It then my debate and agreement of thge bishops [always with the Pope], can become a doctrine

3td. Then if enougn request are made to the Magisterium [LED by the Pope] it can become a Defined Dogma.

ALL this takes time.

Consider also most of this is taking place durring SEVERE Persecutiution of the Church.

Sorry, I don’t get the point your making.

God Bless you,
Patrick

 

[DaisyNJesus]

I have been trying to come back to the Catholic church for over a year. I spent 31 years believing the Bible, and I can’t just forget all I learned from it. Coming back to Catholicism is based more on being disgusted with protestant churches than anything else. I have even found a local Catholic church I like. It’s quite different from the one I grew up in. I live in an area that was hit hard by the Sandy storm of 2012. We were devastated. As the weeks went by finally aid came in. I expected the people from the protestant churches to offer help. But I didn’t see even one. Nevertheless, most of these people claim they live the Bible. The Army was here, Fema was here, the Red Cross was here, and Catholic charities were here. A local Knights of Columbus cooked warm food everyday once they fixed up their hall. They were hit too. When I finally got TV service again, I had 2 channels I never heard of. These are EWTN and Telecare. It seemed like God was telling me something. I really never knew much about Catholicism because I was born in the 1950’s and grew up in the 60’s. The church didn’t teach us much back then. I’ve been paying a lot of attention to Pope Francis, and for the first time in my life, I really like a pope.

But every time I see, hear, or read about Catholics praying to Mary or saints, and not to God the Father and Jesus I back off. I cannot forget these scriptures from the letter to the Hebrews in the NT:

“14 Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has ascended into heaven, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold firmly to the faith we profess. 15 For we do not have a high priest who is unable to empathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet he did not sin. 16 Let us then approach God’s throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.” NIV I believe this. Since I do, why would I want to ask anyone else for help when I can go straight to God in the name of His Son.

I’m also looking to be with people who live their faith. I know many Catholics don’t. I’m not stupid. But in 30 years of being protestant I never found a church with people who took following the Bible seriously. They all said they did. But they didn’t. What’s worse, in the last 10 years or more, protestants don’t even think their sins matter to God. They don’t think they are God’s people. At least Catholics believe we are some of God’s people. God has many people, all over the world. As Jesus said, He has other sheep not of the Israeli sheep pen, and He had to go to them too.

But I still think too much emphasis is placed on Mary and saints, and not enough on Jesus and God.

I hear you brother.
Hugs to you and I hope you find your peace somehow. I wish we could all just focus on Jesus and the Gospels…

 

[Dorothy]

I hear you brother.
Hugs to you and I hope you find your peace somehow. I wish we could all just focus on Jesus and the Gospels…

I am delighted with our Blessed Mother and the saints.

The saints are all so different from one another, and that shows us the Lord sanctifies us in many ways and different walks of life.

We are family! They each reflect the Lord to us in a unique way, and can intercede for us. They inspire me also!

 

[KathleenGee]

Hi Cube,

Thanks for your responses…Today I will have to be brief.

Why Mary? Why not? Who says we are excluding the apostles???

I think we spoke over each other when I said it took 1800 years to develop the dogma of the Immaculate Conception and the Assumption of Mary into heaven.

Devotion/veneration to the Mother of God was always there among both clergy and lay. She began to make her intercession known about the year 200. You can read alot of different testimonies of how the prayers to Mary for her intercession brought about great good.

What you have to go back to is the deposit of faith in the catechism. It is from there that dogmas are eventually drawn…because of the consistency of faith in Jesus.

You can have all sorts of saints and each one has his or her own charism…but the charisms must all bring us to a deeper understanding of Christ. Likewise we are a communion of saints.

My issue with Protestantism is how it has changed texts and books to bring about various convictions vs that of the Apostles and that of St. paul not to change even one single word of Scripture…yet it has been done. The Geneva Bible is the one that translated, ‘vain repetitions’. Other bibles prior did not use that terminology and it is the one used to accuse Catholics of praying vainly with repetitions. Protestantism is much younger than devotion to Mary.

The other point lacking in Protestant belielfs is lack of consistency of faith and belief and practice…all with the presumption that the Catholic Church is not apostolic, etc. So we are not inclined to leave our faith because of one individual…I think this is far more serious than having special love for the Blessed Mother. She keeps us with Christ.

I think you need to step back…if you want, get the Vatican Document on the Sacred Liturgy to see how we worship. Then if you can and get a grasp, you will sure see our affection for Christ’s Mother is nothing in comparison.

I think that spin that goes out saying we worship or venerate Mary or make up stuff, in terms of dogmas, is not taking into consideration the great effort by many believers to uphold the true faith in Christ and to ensure with the Holy Spirit that how we believe and respond to Christ is indeed that which He passed on in the Oral Tradition through the apostles. Such misperceptions are as a red herring…

The work of the Church is to reconcile the sinner back to God and to continue the work of Christ’s blood in the Sacrifice of the Mass. Daily Mass atones for the sins committed around the world, hour by hour. Only Christ can atone for sin because He is God. Jesus said, ‘Do this in memory of Me’ in the foundation of the Mass…the directive in ‘Do this’.

The Catholic Church’s teachings are most faithful to the Lord. It is we who fail. but are thankful we have His mother who is our greatest advocate. We are Church, a gathering of people, not individuals relating to God in our walk with Him.

 

[Tantum_ergo]

I hear you brother.
Hugs to you and I hope you find your peace somehow. I wish we could all just focus on Jesus and the Gospels…

I think we do. I don’t think that Mary and the Saints somehow are competing, you know?

“Hey, I want to focus on Jesus and the Gospels”.

“But I want to focus on Mary and the saints”!

The beauty of Catholicism: We focus on both-and.

Mary and the saints are PART of Jesus and the gospels. They are working WITH Him and FOR Him!

Mary is Jesus’ mother. The saints loved Jesus and the gospels so much that they lived lives of heroic virtue. . .all for Him.

How can we focus on Jesus and the gospels and NOT think about Mary? Or St John, or St Peter, or St Paul? or about the many people, some famous, some known only to God, who loved Jesus and the gospel to the fullest?

 

[EvangelCatholic]

I am delighted with our Blessed Mother and the saints.

The saints are all so different from one another, and that shows us the Lord sanctifies us in many ways and different walks of life.

We are family! They each reflect the Lord to us in a unique way, and can intercede for us. They inspire me also!

That is a wonderful message on the Mother of God. We grow in faith honoring holy Mary.

 

[Geo17]

First question: what is OO?

One thing I like about Pope Francis is I think he’s going to try to unite all Christians, Catholics and Protestants alike. After all, we all believe in the same 1 and only God. If not, then we don’t believe in God at all. There is only 1.

I could tell you a long sad story about confirmation. But I won’t. I’ll just say I was too young. But the worst part was I wanted my father’s name, and I meant that to honor him. But he refused to stand up for me in church. A cousin had the same name, so he stood with me. But my father turned that day into such a war, I barely remember 1 thing about it. All I remember was my father being angry almost the whole week.

So when I left the CC I also stopped believing God was real. When I started to read the Bible I intended to prove to myself it was false. God had other plans. I sure did undergo a conversion, but it happened over a 3 year time period. I thought a Born Again church would help me grow closer to God better than a CC would. After 31 years, I have not found that to be true. I know (deep inside me) some Catholics are Born Again. I think I found a CC where at least 1 priest and the deacon who does the Mass with him, are both Born Again. I go there as often as I can. But I can’t say prayers to Mary. I just can’t.

I saw part of a docudrama (on EWTN) about Padre Pio. I’m now seeking more knowledge on him. From the little I saw, he was without a doubt Born Again. One problem I have is my eyes, so I can’t read much. Before even 1 page, the lines tend to jump around. I hope to see an eye Doc this month. Therefore, I’m looking for videos on Padre Pio. Anyone know of any?
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To adf417**, if you can get your TV service through Verizon, EWTN and Telecare should come with it. And I mean the most basic and inexpensive package they have. I got it quite accidentally after the Sandy storm. But then again there’s no accidents with God.