Help with talking about Mary to protestants?

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CountrySteve

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ok so i was talking to this protesant about Mary and my beleives about her and how its ok to ask for her prayers and to honor her and call her blessed and all she replies back is i dont need Mary, how do i respond to this?
 
Hi, CountrySteve.

I would point out to her that she also doesn’t “need” her right arm.
 
I would say…

why do you say that we don’t need Mary, when we wouldn’t have had Jesus without her?
 
I think there are a lot of ways to respond to this but here a couple that came to my mind quickly.

Did Christ need Mary? Obviously not because He is God, but notice that He chose to hinge His incarnation on the yes of a woman and that woman was Mary. In a tremendous act of humility, He placed a specific need upon Mary such that you could say He needed Mary for His flesh that was sacrificed on the cross for our sins. He needed Mary to feed Him and raise Him until He began His mission.

You could also say that Christ fulfilled all commandments perfectly, not just technically. You can then say that He honored His mother perfectly, far beyond what we are capable of. He is God, so would limiting His mother to an incubation role be perfect honor? You can take this to almost any limit since we are talking about God here. She was made Queen of Heaven and Earth as Christ’s Queen Mother and just as the Queen Mother in the OT Davidic kingdom had a powerful intercessory role, so too has God given Mary in Christ’s kingdom.

In the end, you may be able to argue that you do not NEED Mary. It would be interesting to speculate that if Christ placed her in a special role and you ignored her, would you be disrespecting God’s will? How do you think Jesus will respond to disrespect of His mother? God has made our path to Him easier through Mary so while you may not NEED her (though how one is born without a mother is beyond me) it is like walking up a mountain with your eyes closed when you could have them opened by her.

God Bless.
 
OchsFam said:
I think there are a lot of ways to respond to this but here a couple that came to my mind quickly.

Did Christ need Mary? Obviously not because He is God, but notice that He chose to hinge His incarnation on the yes of a woman and that woman was Mary. In a tremendous act of humility, He placed a specific need upon Mary such that you could say He needed Mary for His flesh that was sacrificed on the cross for our sins. He needed Mary to feed Him and raise Him until He began His mission.

You could also say that Christ fulfilled all commandments perfectly, not just technically. You can then say that He honored His mother perfectly, far beyond what we are capable of. He is God, so would limiting His mother to an incubation role be perfect honor? You can take this to almost any limit since we are talking about God here. She was made Queen of Heaven and Earth as Christ’s Queen Mother and just as the Queen Mother in the OT Davidic kingdom had a powerful intercessory role, so too has God given Mary in Christ’s kingdom.

In the end, you may be able to argue that you do not NEED Mary. It would be interesting to speculate that if Christ placed her in a special role and you ignored her, would you be disrespecting God’s will? How do you think Jesus will respond to disrespect of His mother? God has made our path to Him easier through Mary so while you may not NEED her (though how one is born without a mother is beyond me) it is like walking up a mountain with your eyes closed when you could have them opened by her.

God Bless.
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This is beautiful!
 
CountrySteve said:
ok so i was talking to this protesant about Mary and my beleives about her and how its ok to ask for her prayers and to honor her and call her blessed and all she replies back is i dont need Mary, how do i respond to this?
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To put it in Reader’s Digest summary: If she was good enough for Jesus, she’s good enough for us! 🙂

I would mention a couple of things in the form of questions:
  1. Are we, as Christians, to be as much like Christ as possible (Christ-like): (Yes, of course!)
  2. Did Jesus ever break any of the Commandments when He walked the earth? (No.)
So, Jesus obeyed the Commandment to “Honor thy Father and thy Mother.” If we are to imitate Him as well as possible, we also “Honor” His mother. Actually, the Hebrew word for “Honor” is really closer to our English word for “Glorify.” (There is no exact translation to English here.)

Also, the Bible says that Mary said, “all generations will call me blessed.” (Luke 1:48)

Also, when Jesus was dying on the cross, He gave His mother to all mankind as our mother. (John 19:26-27) In English, this doesn’t come across well. Calling your mother “woman” isn’t very respectful in our language. For example, suppose your mother came up to you and said, “We have no milk.” (Similar to what Mary said to Jesus at Cana, except that was for wine.) Would you say, “Woman, what wouldst thou have me do? Go to Seven Eleven and fetcheth milk?” LOL That would probably get you in trouble. But in the Bible, this takes on a different connotation. He is speaking in a theological term, and addressing Mary as something mysteriously special. In John 19:26-27, she becomes our spiritual mother, too. And, as the Commandments say, we should “Honor” her. (Or, more closely, “Glorify” her.)
 
CountrySteve said:
ok so i was talking to this protesant about Mary and my beleives about her and how its ok to ask for her prayers and to honor her and call her blessed and all she replies back is i dont need Mary, how do i respond to this?
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Ask her why she “doesn’t need Mary”. Start a dialogue and be sincere! Not that you already aren’t.
 
OchsFam’s response was great. 🙂

Here’s the gist of how I explain it:

Catholics believe that the departed in Heaven can “hear” us and pray for us. I know of at least one example in the Bible where Jesus heeds his mother’s request that he perform a miracle (wedding at Cana). When Catholics “pray to Mary” we’re really asking Mary to pray for us. I believe that Christ hears all prayers, but because of his Biblical attentiveness to Mary’s requests, he might be attentive to a petition brought to him by Mary.

I keep my explanations really basic because, despite their high IQs, some of my acquaintances are fairly “anti-Catholic” and choose not to process anything too cerebral when it contradicts their misconceptions. :rolleyes:
 
RosaryFan said:
Hi, CountrySteve.

I would point out to her that she also doesn’t “need” her right arm.
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This is the essence of why we need Mary. Simply because she is a member of the body of Christ.
  1. We know that the church is Christ’s body.
“Christ is the head of the church, his body, and is himself its Savior.” (Eph 5:23)
  1. We are individually members of the body of Christ .
“Now you are the body of Christ and individually members of it.” (1 Cor 12:27)
  1. We are therefore members of each other also.
“so we, though many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another.” (Romans 12:5)
  1. A member of the body cannot say to another, “I don’t need you!”
“For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body – Jews or Greeks, slaves or free – and all were made to drink of one Spirit. For the body does not consist of one member but of many. If the foot should say, “Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body,” that would not make it any less a part of the body. And if the ear should say, “Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body,” that would not make it any less a part of the body. If the whole body were an eye, where would be the hearing? If the whole body were an ear, where would be the sense of smell? But as it is, God arranged the organs in the body, each one of them, as he chose. If all were a single organ, where would the body be? As it is, there are many parts, yet one body.** The eye cannot say to the hand, “I have no need of you,” nor again the head to the feet, “I have no need of you.”** On the contrary, the parts of the body which seem to be weaker are indispensable, and those parts of the body which we think less honorable we invest with the greater honor, and our unpresentable parts are treated with greater modesty, which our more presentable parts do not require. But God has so composed the body, giving the greater honor to the inferior part, that there may be no discord in the body, but that the members may have the same care for one another. If one member suffers, all suffer together; if one member is honored, all rejoice together. Now you are the body of Christ and individually members of it.” (1 Cor 12:13-27)

Therefore, no member of the body of Christ can say to Mary, “I don’t need you.”
 
RosaryFan said:
Hi, CountrySteve.

I would point out to her that she also doesn’t “need” her right arm.
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😃 I love that.

Yeah, like the other poster said, probably not actually helpful, but very funny and true! 😃
 
Scoobyshme said:
To put it in Reader’s Digest summary: If she was good enough for Jesus, she’s good enough for us! 🙂

I would mention a couple of things in the form of questions:
  1. Are we, as Christians, to be as much like Christ as possible (Christ-like): (Yes, of course!)
  2. Did Jesus ever break any of the Commandments when He walked the earth? (No.)
So, Jesus obeyed the Commandment to “Honor thy Father and thy Mother.” If we are to imitate Him as well as possible, we also “Honor” His mother. Actually, the Hebrew word for “Honor” is really closer to our English word for “Glorify.” (There is no exact translation to English here.)

Also, the Bible says that Mary said, “all generations will call me blessed.” (Luke 1:48)

Also, when Jesus was dying on the cross, He gave His mother to all mankind as our mother. (John 19:26-27) In English, this doesn’t come across well. Calling your mother “woman” isn’t very respectful in our language. For example, suppose your mother came up to you and said, “We have no milk.” (Similar to what Mary said to Jesus at Cana, except that was for wine.) Would you say, “Woman, what wouldst thou have me do? Go to Seven Eleven and fetcheth milk?” LOL That would probably get you in trouble. But in the Bible, this takes on a different connotation. He is speaking in a theological term, and addressing Mary as something mysteriously special. In John 19:26-27, she becomes our spiritual mother, too. And, as the Commandments say, we should “Honor” her. (Or, more closely, “Glorify” her.)
Click to expand...
she said that Jesus was only talking to that one disciple
 
thank y’all for all your answers i will talk to her again later and please pray for me that i will know what to say at the time cause i have memory problems i think i forgot lots of things 😦
 
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