Mary and Mass

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sherilo

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I am enjoying a spiritual rebirth and have been studying the Catholic faith of my infanthood. Being raised Protestant, as you all might guess, had made me very doubtful about Catholicism. However, through research and study, I find that Scripture supports Catholicism. Still having a little trouble with some Marian aspects. Can I still attend Mass with these reservations? Can you recommend any reading on Mary, particularly in the areas of her perpetual virginity?

Sherilo
 
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sherilo:
I am enjoying a spiritual rebirth and have been studying the Catholic faith of my infanthood. Being raised Protestant, as you all might guess, had made me very doubtful about Catholicism. However, through research and study, I find that Scripture supports Catholicism. Still having a little trouble with some Marian aspects. Can I still attend Mass with these reservations? Can you recommend any reading on Mary, particularly in the areas of her perpetual virginity?

Sherilo
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Hi Sherilo and Welcome!
I was raised a Protestant and converted to the Faith about 41 years ago. Don’t worry if you don’t understand Marian doctrine and all that goes with it… It took be a while too. The real tool that brought me to greater devotion to Mary is the Rosary… Start praying it regularly and I can guarantee you that your troubles will be over. I like Hail Holy Queen by Scott Hahn…this should also help you. In Christ, Annunciata:)
 
The question of Mary’s perpetual virginity is covered in one or more threads in the Apologetics and/or Miscellaneous forums.

Also, www.newadvent.org is a website that is a Catholic Encyclopedia and you can search on topics (such as Mary, Marian dogmas, Marian devotion, special revelation, etc.) that interest you. You will note there that you can actually purchase the encyclopedia.

The oddity about Catholic belief is the Church’s position on special revelation. While many Catholics have intense devotion to Mary, the church does not require recitation of the rosary or belief in mystical revelations from Mary or in alleged or “approved” apparitions of Mary, such as Lourdes and Fatima. (Somebody out there correct me if I mistated this).

Post #2 was precisely correct, that you may attend Mass and get to Marian devotion at a later time, if you are so inspired. I’ve read the Hail Holy Queen book by Hahn and it is easy reading.
 
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sherilo:
I am enjoying a spiritual rebirth and have been studying the Catholic faith of my infanthood. Being raised Protestant, as you all might guess, had made me very doubtful about Catholicism. However, through research and study, I find that Scripture supports Catholicism. Still having a little trouble with some Marian aspects. Can I still attend Mass with these reservations? Can you recommend any reading on Mary, particularly in the areas of her perpetual virginity?

Sherilo
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Don’t miss Mass!! Your reservations are not denials.

Recommend reading Luke… one verse…

Hail full of Grace

The Greek past perfect participle addresses her not by her name, Mary, but by her position.

The full of grace in this text defines her sinlessness as not only an “always was” condition, but as one that will always be.

That is followed by her declaration of “how can this be, for I know not man”

This supports the understanding that she had already pledged her virginity for her lifetime… so she was certainly puzzled. Not because she didn’t know where or how a baby comes,but because she knew it would not be possible for a perpetual virgin.

MrS
 
The others have given you some great advise and sound information. I just wanted to add that all the Marian doctrines and dogmas have been developed as a natural outgrowth of answering questions about the nature of Christ and his mission of our redemption and salvation. They are not meant to simply glorify Mary, rather they were defined to safeguard the Church’s teachings about Christ, and to reinforce its teachings regarding our life in Christ. Whenever the Church defines a doctrine or dogma it is meant to show another facet of the faith given to us by Christ–to unearth the whole of the truth that he passed on to the Apostles. If you keep that in mind, you will have less difficulty understanding the mind of the Church regarding Marian theology. 🙂
 
sherilo: I am a Baptist and signed up for RCIA.
In June, I started thinking more like a Catholic.

I still don’t know how to properly pray the rosary.

A few months ago, I started praying at night before falling asleep:
Lord’s Prayer…10 Hail Marys…Lords Prayer. Just one decade.
It only took a few days of doing this before I started to see more about Mary.

Praying the Hail Mary is basically praying the scripture in Luke. Even as a protestant, I learned that it is a good thing to pray Holy Scripture and to thereby meditate on it.

By the way, sometimes I pray some Hail Marys as follows:
After the word “Jesus” insert something about Jesus into the prayer.

Examples: “Jesus…_____”…then finish the Hail Mary prayer.
  • sing the first verse of “Jesus loves me this I know…”
  • “the Rose of Sharon”
  • “the Bright in the Morning Star”
  • sing the song “Jesus, Jesus, Jesus … there’s just something about that name…”
  • “Emmanuel, God with Us”
  • “King of Kings”
  • “Lord of Lords”
  • skip sometimes and pray a normal Hail Mary
 
Yes, continue to go to Mass. Read the story of the wedding at Cana, a foreshadowing of the Last Supper and the gift of the Eucharist, and a perfect depiction of Mary’s role. If you ask her she will tell you “Do whatever He asks you.”
 
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sherilo:
I am enjoying a spiritual rebirth and have been studying the Catholic faith of my infanthood. Being raised Protestant, as you all might guess, had made me very doubtful about Catholicism. However, through research and study, I find that Scripture supports Catholicism. Still having a little trouble with some Marian aspects. Can I still attend Mass with these reservations? Can you recommend any reading on Mary, particularly in the areas of her perpetual virginity?

Sherilo
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Lack of understanding of Marian Doctrines will not prevent you from attending Mass as long as you give faithfilled assent. “I dont understand but by faith I will agree that the Church’s Judgement concerning these doctrines is correct.”
 
jmm08 said:
sherilo: By the way, sometimes I pray some Hail Marys as follows:
After the word “Jesus” insert something about Jesus into the prayer.

Examples: “Jesus…_____”…then finish the Hail Mary prayer.
  • sing the first verse of “Jesus loves me this I know…”
  • “the Rose of Sharon”
  • “the Bright in the Morning Star”
  • sing the song “Jesus, Jesus, Jesus … there’s just something about that name…”
  • “Emmanuel, God with Us”
  • “King of Kings”
  • “Lord of Lords”
  • skip sometimes and pray a normal Hail Mary
Click to expand...

Mary and Jesus must be delighted. I know I am and will give it a try myself.
 
This is from another thread.
I don’t think anything in Scripture is by chance, it all has a purpose. I’m not a quoter, I feel giving exact verses often results in taking things out of context, so I will only site chapter, read it all, it won’t hurt.
I find it interesting that, Mt and Lk approach the annunciation (of the birth of Jesus) from different perspectives. Mt, Chap 1 addresses the annunciation from Joseph’s side, while Lk Chap 1 addresses it from Mary’s. I think this is very significant when viewed from the OT book of Numbers.
We know Mary is a young teenager engaged to be married to Joseph. We know they are both good and pious Jews. We know Mary has knowledge of how children are conceived (I know not man). We know that at that time it was not unusual for engaged couples to have sexual relations, actually being engaged was considered a part of being married. We also know that Mary and Joseph did not yet have sexual relations. The question we must ask ourselves is, did Mary and Joseph intend to have sexual relations after their marriage? Now before you go ballistic, it was not uncommon to dedicate yourself to God, actually if we read Numbers chaps 27-30 we’ll find there were even laws concerning these vows. So the question we need to ask ourselves is, did Mary and Joseph intend to have normal sexual relations after their marriage?
First we’ll take the position of yes, they intended to have sexual relations. When we read the rendering in Lk, the angel greets her, and tells her she is to conceive in her womb and bare a son. Sounds simple enough doesn’t it? Put yourself in Mary’s place. So, I’m engaged to Joseph, we will marry, and have a child, it will be a son. Any question? Shouldn’t be “if” we intended to have sexual relations after marriage. “If” we didn’t intend to have sexual relations after our marriage then we’d ask “how can this be”?
The question “how can this be"? makes absolutely no sense if they intended to have sexual relations, remember she knew “how”. So why did she ask “how can this be”?
Now we’ll take the position of no, they did not intend to have sexual relations, Mary was a consecrated virgin, under a vow of virginity. Read Lk again. The angel greets her, and tells her she is to conceive in her womb and bare a son. Wait a second!!! I’m a dedicated virgin, under a vow of virginity, “how can this be?” This question of her’s only makes sense if she did not intend to have normal sexual relation, if she were under a vow of virginity. Now read Numbers chap 30 about a man taking a woman into his house as his wife who is under a vow. This is the reason Mt talks about Joseph’s side, to insure he knows of the vow, to make sure he knows the true “Father” of the child, to make sure he knows the intimate relationship between Mary and God.
 
As an RCIA teacher, by all means continue attending Mass. The understanding of the Church regarding is something that you will grow into with continued study and PRAYER! The above posts give many good suggestions. I would echo those, but especially suggest that you pray the rosary. In your parish I am sure there are pamphlets instructing you how to pray it. Just be open to the Holy Spirit. If you really think about it, the rosary points you to the gospels…the mysterys are the gospel stories about Jesus birth, passion, life, and his glorious resurection and assension. Keep the faith!

Bless you
 
As a Convert, I, too, had reservations about the Marian doctrines/dogmas. Then one night, I wakened at 2:00 a.m. with the words pounding in my head: “Pray my rosary. Pray my rosary.” I picked up “Mary’s lasso” and began with the Creed. I stopped at the words: “Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord, conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary.”

That was the end of my difficulty. I certainly didn’t understand all the Marian doctrines (and still don’t) but I suddenly knew with almost mystical insight that Jesus, wherever he is found, is “conceived by the Holy Spirit” and “born of the Virgin Mary.”
 
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