Latria, Hyperdulia

[sinner06]

Hi, I was wondering, what is the difference between Latria and Hyperdulia? I know that Hyperdulia is the honor and reverence given to Mary, and Latria is the honor and reverence give only to God, but what is the real difference? What I mean to say is, what would be some examples of somethings that would be appropriate for Latria, but not Hyperdulia? Thanks in advance!

 

[Trishie]

We worship God. We give God the honour due to God alone. God is uncreated. He is.
“I am who am” God told Abraham

We honour Mary as the mother of Jesus and as the most true of Christians. She is a creature, a human person created by God. But God chose her to be the Mother of His incarnate Son. We love her whom God so loved and whom Jesus loved and was rended by throughout His early life.

We honour her as a woman of faith…sen the Wedding Feast of Cana where even though Jesus tld her it wasn’t time yet, He still worked the miracle of changing water into wine because His Mother asked Him to, even though it wasn’t a matter of life or death to do so.
She showed faith, because she simply told the servant to do as He asked. She knew how much Jesus loved her and that He would grant her request, made with love and trust. ( John 1:1-12)

One of the last things Jesus did as He hung dying on the cross was to provide a home for her and gave her into the care of His faithful disciple to look afer her like she was John’s own mother.
“When Jesus then saw His mother, and the disciple whom He loved standing nearby, He said to His mother, “Woman, behold, your son!” And from that moment the disciple made a place for her in his home” ( John 19:26-27)

In doing this, Jesus shows something of how He wishes us to perceive His mother. In the instance of the wedding feat miracle in response to her request, He is revealing her as a woman of faith whose intercession moves Him to respond to others’ needs.

Welcome to CAF!

 

[LilyM]

Well, you don’t want to say Mary is either divine or a goddess for starters. She is neither. You don’t want to say that she created us, or that she saves us from our sins (except in the very inferior sense that Paul uses when he speaks of himself as having saved people - we can go so far as possibly saying ‘co-redemptrix’ and yet keep within these bounds).

You don’t want to address the prayers of the sacrifice of the Mass (our ultimate act of worship) to her, and indeed they are not addressed to her - all are TO God our Father or the Lord Jesus Christ, although some mention Mary.

Remember as His mother, Christ was bound by the commandment to honour Mary uniquely over and above all other creatures. So nothing we give her in terms of human respect, outside the sort of boundaries named above, could possibly honour her more than He has done!

 

[AmbroseSJ]

 

[rpp]

Hi, I was wondering, what is the difference between Latria and Hyperdulia? I know that Hyperdulia is the honor and reverence given to Mary, and Latria is the honor and reverence give only to God, but what is the real difference? What I mean to say is, what would be some examples of somethings that would be appropriate for Latria, but not Hyperdulia? Thanks in advance!

Your definition of latria is incorrect.

Latria is worship. This is reserved to God (the Trinity) and God alone. This means that we must give all to God and submit our will to His an call upon His mercy to save us from our sins.

Dulia, is honor and reverence. That is what is accorded to the saints. We can call upon them to join us in prayer and their prayers are very helpful because “the prayers of the righteous availith much”. We can look to them as examples and models; people worthy to emulate and learn from.

Hyperdulia is great honor and reverence reserved for the Blessed Virgin Mary alone. She has a special relationship with our Lord Jesus Christ as she is the his Earthly mother. She is the perfect example of all graces and her prayers on our behalf are most efficacious,

 

[CentralFLJames]

Latria is full worship that is due only to God.

It can be said that its impossible for anyone to attain proper latria worship without the sacrifice of the mass. This is what makes the Protestant complaints that Catholics worship Mary so ridiculous since Catholics only offer the mass to God through Jesus since Jesus’ sacrifice is the only thing that pleases God.

Protestants don’t offer true worship since they do not have a real mass with an apostolic priesthood and can’t offer up the Eucharist as the sacrifice to God. At best a newly baptised baptised Protestant or one with no grave post-baptismal sins can offer hyperdulia to God through prayer. This is the same level Catholics in a state of grace can attain to in prayer alone to God or to a saint. So from the Protestant perspective they see our prayer to Mary as the same level as their worship to God - and the are correct. But that is because they can’t get even close to true worship without the mass and prayer falls far below latria. To me its no difference than the jealousy Cain’s imperfect worship of God which was rejected vs Abel’s true worship which was pleasing. We know where jealousy leads…

Simple dulia is simple prayer to any saint.

Another thing that Protestants don’t understand is that any prayer said after making the sign of the cross and the phrase “In the name of the father and the son and the holy spirit” is subordinate to the will of God. So when one subsequently says a “Hail Mary” it is subordinate to Jesus’ mediation so can not be worship of Mary. It simply asks Jesus to approve of the prayer and let Mary enjoin our prayers through Her Son.

James

 

[Corki]

Hi, I was wondering, what is the difference between Latria and Hyperdulia? I know that Hyperdulia is the honor and reverence given to Mary, and Latria is the honor and reverence give only to God, but what is the real difference? What I mean to say is, what would be some examples of somethings that would be appropriate for Latria, but not Hyperdulia? Thanks in advance!

It’s not “things” but attitudes and feelings. Have you ever heard the phrase “God is God and I am not”? That is Latria. Even though Jesus is God made man, God is not anything like us. Prayer to God is always of the mind that God is God and we are not.

Reverence to Mary is exactly the opposite. She is exactly like us. She is not God, she is not divine, she suffered, she struggled, she had hopes and dreams. She is the “us” we would all most want to be. She was also closer to Jesus on this earth than any other human. Prayers to Mary are of the mind that she is not God but is the closest to Him. That is hyperdulia.