Hi there, The Bible doesn’t say that.
That commandment is referring to YOUR parents.
In your interpretation it doesn’t. There are links on the homepage of Catholic Answers that discuss this however much more clearly than I can. (I don’t know how to post links)
And Mary is my mother. (Catholics hold Mary to be our mother, in case you didn’t know that).
Mary is the mother of Jesus. The Bible refers to her that way. How can she be your mother?
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Hey becka!
Well, why not? It’s not a game. That’s what the Bible says we should do.Mickey said:
smileys.smileycentral.com/cat/36/36_11_6.gifbelievers said:
I am having a lot of trouble understanding how you make a connection between justification by faith and the Marian doctrines of the Catholic faith. The Catechism of the Catholic Church states in paragraph #1996 “Our justification comes from the grace of God. Grace is favor, the free and undeserved help that God gives us to respond to his call to become children of God…” . With regard to Mary, see paragraph #490 which says “To become the mother of the Savior, Mary was enriched by God with gifts appropriate to such a role”. How could the Savior of the World have anything less than a perfect mother? How could the Spouse of the Holy Spirit be anything less than holy and blameless?
Paula, you misunderstand either me or the Catholic Church… So I will assume you misunderstand me.
Hi Becka,
Consider this analogy, Before Jesus, the default address for ALL Gentiles (uncircumsized) was hell. Now, by the blood of Jesus through His work on the cross, our new address can be Heaven if we believe in His death, burial, and His resurrection. That’s called the preaching of the cross which was given to Paul in a revelation from God. If we truly believe and obey (Jesus’ Commandments of Love), We are now saved by grace through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast.Hi Becka,
I was raised with protestant beliefs, and am now learning about Catholicism.
I also had difficulties and doubts (regarding Mary and the Saints) which were similar to those you’ve expressed on this thread.
My understanding is this (and Catholics, please correct me if I’m wrong):
When we pray to Mary and the Saints, we’re asking them to pray for us … just as I might tell you about a problem that I’m having, and then ask you to pray about this problem for me. Asking you to pray for me doesn’t take away any glory from God
I noticed that the topic of the Immaculate Conception was raised on this thread, also … that one was another sticking point for me, until I read this wonderful piece from Catholic Answers (excerpt below):
catholic.com/library/Immaculate_Conception_and_Assum.asp
*"Fundamentalists’ chief reason for objecting to the Immaculate Conception and Mary’s consequent sinlessness is that we are told that “all have sinned” (Rom. 3:23). Besides, they say, Mary said her “spirit rejoices in God my Savior” (Luke 1:47), and only a sinner needs a Savior.
Let’s take the second citation first. Mary, too, required a Savior. Like all other descendants of Adam, she was subject to the necessity of contracting original sin. But by a special intervention of God, undertaken at the instant she was conceived, she was preserved from the stain of original sin and its consequences. She was therefore redeemed by the grace of Christ, but in a special way—by anticipation.
Consider an analogy: Suppose a man falls into a deep pit, and someone reaches down to pull him out. The man has been “saved” from the pit. Now imagine a woman walking along, and she too is about to topple into the pit, but at the very moment that she is to fall in, someone holds her back and prevents her. She too has been saved from the pit, but in an even better way: She was not simply taken out of the pit, she was prevented from getting stained by the mud in the first place. This is the illustration Christians have used for a thousand years to explain how Mary was saved by Christ. By receiving Christ’s grace at her conception, she had his grace applied to her before she was able to become mired in original sin and its stain.
The Catechism of the Catholic Church states that she was “redeemed in a more exalted fashion, by reason of the merits of her Son” (CCC 492). She has more reason to call God her Savior than we do, because he saved her in an even more glorious manner!"*
Isn’t that wonderful? The above is just an excerpt, and it’s well worth reading the entire piece at the link above.
Syele,Paula, you misunderstand either me or the Catholic Church… So I will assume you misunderstand me.
I have read the Catechism and I don’t think Catholics worship Mary… never have thought that. I also don’t think you believe in justification by works. Both Protestants and Catholics believe justification comes from the grace of God so I’m not sure why you bring that up.
I do believe that Catholics believe that faith justifies initially, but works perfect and complete justification. The protestant believes that God Justifies us completely at the time if saving faith and are sanctified by works. This is a huge difference when determining if Mary was perfect enough to have Jesus in her womb.
If one is not completely justified by faith alone (please realize ‘alone’ does not exclude grace), then Mary would have to be perfect in her own right to need no furthur Justification. If she is justified completely by faith, then she was as perfect as necessary at the moment of her surrender of her life to God.
Justification comes through grace by Faith. I have believed this all my life and no protestant Church I ever attended denied it. How can you say “Not so?” We can do nothing apart from God, not even have Faith in Him. You just spent a paragraph in your last post telling me Catholics believe Justification comes through grace. This statement is correct.
Or how about the Council of Trent:
Protestants believe that “works are the fruits and signs of Justification obtained, but not a cause of the increase thereof” and that “after the grace of Justification has been received, to every penitent sinner the guilt is remitted, and the debt of eternal punishment is blotted out in such wise, that there remains not any debt of temporal punishment to be discharged either in this world, or in the next in Purgatory, before the entrance to the kingdom of heaven can be opened (to him)”
I’m not saying they are “Made up”, I simply think they are incorrect(To think otherwise would force me to be Catholic) but also that they are logical and necessary if you believe in the Catholic version of Justification. I had read that before even Morwenna posted it. That article though does not cover that the Immaculate Conception and Assumption of Mary are completely incompatible with the Protestant doctrine of Justification. the objection is not just that Mary was a sinner as the article claims it has more componets than that. “For all have sinned” Is just the beginning of the explaination. the analogy about the pit there and Mary being Saved from falling into it does not stop her from needing to be saved. So the question then becomes, “well how is one saved?” Protestants and Catholics have a different answer to this question, so everything that follows this point is going to be different and based on different assumptions. Attempting to make the two agree would require that the answers become the same somehow.
It is “by grace through faith”. But I know that is what you meant.
And afterbelievers said:
The Word of God contains absolutely no mention of traditions, except where it contains mention of traditions. I have to say that I have never heard that argument before. Interesting. Interesting indeed.
