mother of God question?

[mercygate]

Huguenot:

We don’t take the passage from John “personally” : for us, he left his mother in the care of John, not in ours …
If I understand well, you were Protestant and you converted to Catholicism ; and when you were Protestant you were anti-Catholic ; well, I’ve been brought up in an atheist family, that was anti-Catholic because it was anticlerical and since Catholics represent at least 80% of the population in France, anticlerical people are …anti-Catholics because they very often don’t have an occasion of meeting …Protestants ( we form about … 2 % of the population, it is very difficult to “find us” !!! sometimes it is even difficult for us to find each other …especially in some regions … ) ; but they were not anti-catholics for the same reasons as some Protestants in your country.
I don’t remember having had aggressive feelings against the Catholic Church, even when I was an atheist too …or maybe I had aggressive feelings against Christianity in general…
When I became a Christian I was baptized in an Evangelical Church…now some of my folks who are still atheists have turned …anti-Protestant because of me ( maybe I’m the first one they’ve met ) ; well, it gives the Catholic Church a rest !!!

I agree with you : we must honour our parents, which I do, and the fact that I don’t pray Mary ( or other saints ) doesn’t mean that I don’t respect them …

Whew! What a story! And let me be the first to thank you for taking a share of the heat on behalf of Jesus’ name!

Religion in France? A difficult history. NOT being an atheist in France (unles you’re Muslim) seems to have been and still to be one of the greatest challenges known to man.

 

[Huguenot]

mercygate:

Whew! What a story! And let me be the first to thank you for taking a share of the heat on behalf of Jesus’ name!

Religion in France? A difficult history. NOT being an atheist in France (unles you’re Muslim) seems to have been and still to be one of the greatest challenges known to man.

Although there are more atheists in France than in the US, it’s OK to be , not only a Muslim, but a Christian too, don’t worry for us !!!
It’s just a bit harder if you are an Orthodox or a Protestant, not because people “harass” you, they don’t, but the problem is to find fellow-Orthodox believers or fellow-Protestants in some regions precisely because we are so few ( the Orthodox form an even smaller minority ) but no one is persecuted, discriminated or harrassed because of his / her religion …

 

[mercygate]

Huguenot:

Although there are more atheists in France than in the US, it’s OK to be , not only a Muslim, but a Christian too, don’t worry for us !!!
It’s just a bit harder if you are an Orthodox or a Protestant, not because people “harass” you, they don’t, but the problem is to find fellow-Orthodox believers or fellow-Protestants in some regions precisely because we are so few ( the Orthodox form an even smaller minority ) but no one is persecuted, discriminated or harrassed because of his / her religion …

Have you ever visited the cathedral at Chartres?

 

[Huguenot]

mercygate:

Have you ever visited the cathedral at Chartres?

I think I did, when I was very young, with my parents, but I’m not really sure …
Have you ?
I’ve visited other ones, for example the Sacré-Coeur in Paris : I’ve got relatives there, inclusive one who lives very close to it, and I’ve been there several times ( inclusive last December ) ; I try to go there everytime I go to Paris ; in Paris I’ve been to Notre-Dame too ( but not so often because it is quite far from the place I stay at when I’m in Paris … )
If you’ve been to France, I hope you liked it …

 

[mercygate]

Huguenot:

I think I did, when I was very young, with my parents, but I’m not really sure …
Have you ?
I’ve visited other ones, for example the Sacré-Coeur in Paris : I’ve got relatives there, inclusive one who lives very close to it, and I’ve been there several times ( inclusive last December ) ; I try to go there everytime I go to Paris ; in Paris I’ve been to Notre-Dame too ( but not so often because it is quite far from the place I stay at when I’m in Paris … )
If you’ve been to France, I hope you liked it …

Never been there. My daughter loves it.

I’m sure I would like France if I met you there.

 

[Huguenot]

mercygate:

Never been there. My daughter loves it.

I’m sure I would like France if I met you there.

Maybe we’ll have an opportunity … I’m glad your daughter loves it …
I’ve never been to the States, maybe I’ll have an opportunity but at the moment there are problems with our passports : my country is unable to provide the type of special passports ( biometric or I don’t know what ) your country wants !!! :banghead: so those of us who want to visit you have to cancel their visit and …they really bang their heads !!!

 

[mercygate]

Huguenot:

Maybe we’ll have an opportunity … I’m glad your daughter loves it …
I’ve never been to the States, maybe I’ll have an opportunity but at the moment there are problems with our passports : my country is unable to provide the type of special passports ( biometric or I don’t know what ) your country wants !!! :banghead: so those of us who want to visit you have to cancel their visit and …they really bang their heads !!!

Your English is superb. I’m impressed. My guess is that the passport thing has to do with your large Muslim population. We’ve become nervous since they flew airplanes into a couple of buildings here in New York . . .

Now back to your regularly scheduled thread: Mother of God.

 

[StMarkEofE]

Taken from the OCA Q&A section:

QUESTION:

What are your beliefs about the Virgin Mary – most particularly do you pray to her?

ANSWER:

We believe that the Virgin Mary is the Mother of God. Through her He Who was God before the ages took on our human nature without relinquishing His divine nature or confusing or “meshing” it with the human nature in any way. The Mother of God is often referred to as the “New Eve,” for she said “yes” to God whereas the first Eve said “no.” We believe that the Mother of God was sinless of her own free will, that she remains ever-virgin, and that she is the “living tabernacle” of God inasmuch as her womb, as one hymn states, becomes “more spacious than the heavens” by carrying within it the Savior of the world, Jesus Christ.

Properly speaking, Orthodox Christians do not “pray to” the Mother of God instead of God; we seek her intercession before her Son, asking her to pray on our behalf; another Orthodox hymn states that “the prayers of a mother availeth much before her Son.”

 

[Huguenot]

mercygate:

Your English is superb. I’m impressed. My guess is that the passport thing has to do with your large Muslim population. We’ve become nervous since they flew airplanes into a couple of buildings here in New York . . .

Now back to your regularly scheduled thread: Mother of God.

I know … we have about 10% Muslims in France …And one is being judged right now in your country, he says he was the “20th hijacker”…
In one of your airports, your authorities have even “detained”, for a couple of hours, a French minister ( I don’t mean “Protestant minister” , I mean member of our Governement, do you say “secretary of state” or something like that ? ) ; his name is Azouz Begag, he’s of Arab origin …

 

[TobyLue]

We don’t take the passage from John “personally” : for us, he left his mother in the care of John, not in ours …

Huguenot, I’m going to jump in to give a reply to this.
I see where Protestants really have a great love for the word of God. They study it and memorize more so than Catholics. However, we must understand that everything that Jesus said was/is of great importance. Have you ever heard about the “Seven Words of Christ”? Words here means passages, not just single words. When Jesus was on the Cross he spoke seven words or passages that were of great importance to all mankind. Protestants, at least those that I know, take all but one of these passages to heart. John 19:26-28: “Seeing his mother and the disciple he loved standing near her, Jesus said to his mother, ‘Woman, this is your son’. Then to the disciple he said, ‘This is your mother’. And from that moment the disciple made a place for her in his home. After this, Jesus knew that everything had now been completed,…..” . Why would Jesus on the cross just be making just a slight family arrangement and this passage not have any meaning for us? Are you a disciple of Jesus? If so, please make a place for her in your home. That is in your heart as God makes His home in our hearts.

 

[Kitty_Chan]

Huguenot:

Maybe we’ll have an opportunity … I’m glad your daughter loves it …
I’ve never been to the States, maybe I’ll have an opportunity but at the moment there are problems with our passports : my country is unable to provide the type of special passports ( biometric or I don’t know what ) your country wants !!! :banghead: so those of us who want to visit you have to cancel their visit and …they really bang their heads !!!

hello Im going to keep derailing this thread a bit

Im from Canada and we had to start to change our passports as well, more security, holograms etc and bar codes, I think its all about centralizing us all on computers, is what it seems the changes are about. Before all we needed was a drivers licence now its changing and soon it will have to be a passport.

Only because you mentioned its hard to find protestants I’ll bring it up that Im one, although I dont usually use that name. I find it amazing that what you post, lines up with what I understand. In some ways how I would say it. God does speak to us, amazing.

 

[Kitty_Chan]

Mickey:

Mary is the daughter of the eternal Father.
Mary is the mother of the begotten Son.
Mary is the spouse of the Holy Spirit.

She is full of grace.
She is blessed.
She is the bridge between heaven and earth.
She deserves honor and veneration.
She is our mother.
She is an example for all Christians.

But she is not divine.

Spouse of the Holy Spirit?
and
bridge between heaven and earth?

these 2 stand out for questions

Whats the Holy Spirit do, purpose? I thought it was to bridge God and us, the comfortor, but Mary does instead??

 

[Huguenot]

TobyLue:

Huguenot, I’m going to jump in to give a reply to this.

I see where Protestants really have a great love for the word of God.  They study it and memorize more so than Catholics.  However, we must understand that everything that Jesus said was/is of great importance.  Have you ever heard about the “Seven Words of Christ”? Words here means passages, not just single words.  When Jesus was on the Cross he spoke seven words or passages that were of great importance to all mankind.  Protestants, at least those that I know, take all but one of these passages to heart.  John 19:26-28: “Seeing his mother and the disciple he loved standing near her, Jesus said to his mother, ‘Woman, this is your son’.  Then to the disciple he said, ‘This is your mother’.  And from that moment the disciple made a place for her in his home.  After this, Jesus knew that everything had now been completed,…..” . Why would Jesus on the cross just be making just a slight family arrangement and this passage not have any meaning for us? Are you a disciple of Jesus?  If so, please make a place for her in your home.  That is in your heart as God makes His home in our hearts.

Yes, for me it’s what you call a “family arrangement”…
It shows that His love for His mother was so great that He thought of her well-being even at the hardest moment for him …
But she is not MY mother …

 

[Huguenot]

Kitty Chan:

hello Im going to keep derailing this thread a bit

Im from Canada and we had to start to change our passports as well, more security, holograms etc and bar codes, I think its all about centralizing us all on computers, is what it seems the changes are about. Before all we needed was a drivers licence now its changing and soon it will have to be a passport.

Only because you mentioned its hard to find protestants I’ll bring it up that Im one, although I dont usually use that name. I find it amazing that what you post, lines up with what I understand. In some ways how I would say it. God does speak to us, amazing.

You know what ??? I think we’ll have to start a thread about passports …
Otherwise this thread is going to derail totally …
Do you mean it’s hard to find Protestants in Canada too ??? ( I was speaking for France … )
Have a nice day !

 

[Huguenot]

Kitty Chan:

Spouse of the Holy Spirit?
and
bridge between heaven and earth?

these 2 stand out for questions

Whats the Holy Spirit do, purpose? I thought it was to bridge God and us, the comfortor, but Mary does instead??

I totally agree with your questions, it’s the same problem for me …

 

[mercygate]

Huguenot:

I totally agree with your questions, it’s the same problem for me …

Your difficulty is not specifically with Mary; you have a broader issue which involves the doctrine of the Communion of Saints.

I am completely ignorant about the Huguenot tradition. All I know about it is that the Huguenot cross is very beautiful and that the Huguenots who fled to England were among the finest weavers in the world.

Do Huguenots embrace the Apostles’ Creed, which contains the article “I believe . . . in the Communion of Saints”? And if so, what how do they interpret the phrase?

 

[Kitty_Chan]

mercygate

what about the question? that I posted that Huguenot is also wondering about???

is it to do with communion of saints ?? or ??

 

[mercygate]

Kitty Chan:

mercygate

what about the question? that I posted that Huguenot is also wondering about???

is it to do with communion of saints ?? or ??

Kitty, can you please re-state the question (preferably in 100 words or fewer)? I apologize but I’ve lost it.

 

[Huguenot]

mercygate:

Your difficulty is not specifically with Mary; you have a broader issue which involves the doctrine of the Communion of Saints.

I am completely ignorant about the Huguenot tradition. All I know about it is that the Huguenot cross is very beautiful and that the Huguenots who fled to England were among the finest weavers in the world.

Do Huguenots embrace the Apostles’ Creed, which contains the article “I believe . . . in the Communion of Saints”? And if so, what how do they interpret the phrase?

I am very surprised you know the Huguenot cross because it is something linked with the specific history of French Protestants : it was designed during a period in which Protestantism was completely forbidden in France for a bit more than a century …it was a kind of sign of “recognition” for them, the problem is …it also became a sign of recognition for the authorities after a while …

Originally the term Huguenot refers to Reformed Protestants, and it still does when used “seriously”, I mean in history books ; it means Reformed Protestants of the 16th-17th-, maybe also 18 th century ; but it is also used to speak about Protestants in general, and I took this username with this meaning, that is why I cannot tell you the position of the Reformed Churches about the communion on saints ; I am Evangelical and we don’t use the creed you mention although we agree with much of it …
We believe all believers are in communion with God, those in Heaven too, of course, but we don’t believe we can address prayers to them …

 

[Mickey]

Kitty Chan:

Spouse of the Holy Spirit?

From the Nicene Creed:
Who for us and for our salvation (I Timothy 2: 4-5)
came down from the heavens ((John 6: 33,35)
and was incarnate by the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary, (Luke 1: 35)
and became man. (John 1: 14)
Kitty Chan:

bridge between heaven and earth?

Sacred Scripture and Sacred Tradition tells us that Jesus, the Word made flesh, was incarnate by the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary. Jesus came into this world through the womb of His mother, Mary. That is where the language of Mary being a bridge between heaven and earth comes from.

Hope I cleared that up for y’all!