Protestant/Catholic stance on Mary

[Disciple2]

I just want to say, who did our Lord Jesus love more than any other creature on this earth and heaven, and lets all remember He is God, one with the Father and the Holy spirit, well Mary, I think I will try to imitate Him also in that regard.

Greetings Giovanni,
You believe Jesus loves Mary more than He loves you and me?

respectfully,

 

[LilyM]

but don’t you think the three of them are responsible for christianity, the mother, the father and the son who made it all possible? if mary hadn’t given birth to jesus, i wonder what would have happened?

apologies if i’m offending, its my simple take on things…

No offence taken at all

I would say all members of the Trinity together with Mary were all instrumental.

But we do have to be careful of being seen to detract from the Almighty, His only begotten son and the Holy Spirit by putting them on the same level as any of their creatures. Even as perfect a one as Mary.

 

[LilyM]

Greetings Giovanni,
You believe Jesus loves Mary more than He loves you and me?

respectfully,

Loves? Who knows.

Honours? He followed and follows perfectly the command to honour thy mother. He’s not so commanded to honour any of his followers.

 

[Julianna]

Mary is to me…as woman, wife and mother…a refuge.

She is the queen of been there, done that, got the t-shirt.

When I feel harried, hassled…strung-out…by kids, husband, work, bills, my own mother…siblings…

I think to myself…“Juli…could you…at 17…become pregnant…get engaged to a man way older…that you barely know…are told you are blessed fruit in your womb…and now you have to leave your home,…travel to Bethlehem…on a donkey through the desert…don’t know a soul in Bethlehem…let alone Joseph…and some freakazoids are out to kill you…and because of the census you find out there isn’t a hotel to be had…and you end up having your baby in a barn…? Then 30 yrs later watch him die on a cross? (sorry, but I’d take on half those Roman soldiers for my baby boy)”

Nah…my life ain’t so bad after all! Mary reminds me how much her son loves and appreciates women and all the things we can do at one time. We can work, not work, stay home, go out to work…we can juggle almost anything…once we have children…we can get by on very little sleep…doesn’t matter if they are 3 or 23… if they get lost in the store and can’t find our child…Mary can certainly relate to that…she was frantic when Jesus took off to the temple at age 12 and didn’t tell her where he was going…(someone would have to sit in time out for that)

Imagine raising a kid (the Messiah)…our Father in heaven knew exactly what He was doing when He chose Mary to be the mother of his Son…Mary has true grit…she’s not a wallflower…she put up with alot…but she knew it was for the greater good. That is why I honor Mary…a woman…an example for all women.

 

[LilyM]

Loves? Who knows.

Honours? He followed and follows perfectly the command to honour thy mother. He’s not so commanded to honour any of his followers.

I meant of course to say any of his OTHER followers, since Mary was his most perfect disciple as well :angel1:

 

[Katholikos]

Well Mary was Jesus mother, as a protestant i respect her, however i believe Jesus will not condemn me if i never send my prayer via Mary to him. Coz i prefer to speak directly to Jesus, so is not a wrong thing to do that either.

“I respect your Mother, Jesus, but I won’t speak to her.”

This contains an incorrect understanding of Catholic prayer. I do speak directly to Jesus. But I also ask Mary to pray for me, just as I would ask my own mother to pray for me. Jesus is my brother; therefore, Mary is my mother. Who has more influence on Jesus than His Mother, both when they were on earth (e.g., Cana) and especially now that they are both in heaven? Those who feel as you do are missing one of heaven’s most powerful intercessors.

I ask all my friends to pray for me. I also ask all of God’s special friends, His saints, including His Own Dear Mother, to pray for me. “For the fervent prayer of a righteolus person is very powerful” James 5:16 NAB.

 

[Koopa]

I’m a little late to the party. Whoops.

I think the issue most Protestants have with Mary is that they think that it is much more beneficial to go directly to Jesus and Mary is a distraction from that direct connection with Him.

This is, in fact, quite to the contrary! Mary is the most perfect road to Christ. If we are to imitate Jesus as perfectly as possible, then we need to spend every second of our lives devoted to her, just as he so perfectly demonstrated.

Someone brought up the point of spending 20 minutes with Jesus and 40 minutes with Mary might be a great detriment to their connection with Jesus. In fact, I spend all 60 minutes with Mary! This is because When we pray to Mary, we are not getting distracted from Christ, but rather are being focused on Christ.

I think praying directly to God is a wonderful, wonderful thing to do, but just think of how perfect Mary can make your prayers if you pray to her. She will, being perfected in all virtues, most generously perfect and even embellish your prayers and then offer them to God. Who could know God better and what pleases Him the most more than his Holy Mother? Mary knows exactly how to give the most glory to God, and we don’t. Since we’re certain she won’t reject our requests (if they be in accordance with God’s will), why not ask her to make our prayers perfect?

Since Mary’s greatest wish is that we please God as much as possible, spending time with her will only allow us to more perfectly please her Son, Jesus.

If we imagine Jesus as the sun, then we can imagine Mary as the moon. The sun is so bright and so brilliant that we’ll be blinded if we look at it too long. But the moon only reflects that light, and so it is much more comfortable to look at. In the same way, Mary reflects God’s light, and so I am much more comfortable speaking to her. How unworthy we are to approach God! But when we approach Mary, we know we are only approaching a human being, just as we ourselves are. She can talk to God on our behalf.

Although talking directly to God has absolutely no bad aspects to it, speaking to Him through Mary shows Him your humility in recognizing your unworthiness to speak straight to Him.

Being the spouse of the Holy Spirit, Mary was given all the graces possible (“Hail, full of grace”). God has given her the power to dispense these graces to whomever she wills and in whatever amount she wills.

So, let’s not be afraid of being “too devoted” to Mary. It’s practically impossible to overdo it (short of worshipping her, of course).

Lastly, I thought it would be pertinent to explain the levels of honor we give to the saints, Mary, and God.

Latria - Worship; given to God alone
Hyperdulia - “Hyper-praise”, given to Mary
Dulia- Praise, given to the saints (or anyone you like, really)

“If they will permit her to do so, she will mould them into perfect images of her Son. Let a man melt the self-love in him and throw it onto the desert sands; then let him pour the molten gold of his love into the heavenly mould of the Mother of God. The gold will be shaped into perfection.” - Wisdom’s Fool - A biography of St. Louis de Montfort.

 

[Koopa]

Edit:

Now that I think of it, I’m pretty sure dulia is given only to saints and not to anyone living.

Meeeeeee a dumdum.

P.S. I’m pretty sure someone was asking whether stopping to light a candle and pray in front of a statue of Mary during Holy Communion was acceptable or not. In my opinion, that is certainly NOT acceptable. It is an interruption of the Mass since we are not participating the way we are taught to participate (to receive the Eucharist or else to kneel in your pew and pray). But that person probably just didn’t know. Also, I can hardly understand why that person would decide to pray in a different direction than the Eucharist when Christ is right in front of them! He’s literally present at the Mass and so that’s one instance in which I think we should pray directly to him, being that it would seem a little weird to talk about someone in the third-person as if they’re not actually present.

Of course, I could be wrong about all of that, because, as you know, meeeeeeeeeee a dumdum.

 

[SIA]

**I put this in the Non-Catholic Religions forum, because this has to do with the Protestant church- I can repost it somewhere else if this is not the appropriate forum.

I was raised as an Evangelical- my parents left their churches (Catholic and Methodist) and went to an Evangelical church. I was raised to believe that the Catholic church had good intentions, but was just misguided. Someone made a comment one day that led to a study of the differences between the Protestant and Catholic churches. For me, it has removed a lot of the misconceptions that I’ve had about the Catholic church, and I am continuing with my studying.

There are a lot of misconceptions between the Catholic and Protestant churches (we all know there are a lot of them) but one of the biggest ones is about Mary. The first thing you will hear from a Protestant about the Catholic church is “Oh, they worship Mary!” Now I don’t usually get into discussions about the misconceptions, because I’m suddenly opened up to a lot of harsh criticism (why would I even consider the Catholic church) as well as it putting me in the position of defending the Catholic church (something I’m not prepared or qualified to do). However, on occasion and with close friends that I know won’t condemn me, we’ve been able to discuss the differences between the two churches.

From what I’ve found in my studying, the Catholic church teaches that Mary is to be respected for who she is, the woman that God chose to bear and raise his Son. She is an intercessor for us, and should be revered.

The problem that many Protestants have with Mary is that it doesn’t seem like that’s where it ends. I was recently reading a profile about someone’s faith on a Catholic site, it is as follows (in its entirety):

“I’m glad I was raised as a Catholic because we get to honor the most beautiful being ever created, our Mother Mary. She is truly amazing! I try my best to honor her by praying the rosary every night and fast every Friday for the peace of the world. Having said that, I am a conservative Catholic and I stand up for what I believe.”

This is a perfect example of what freaks Protestants out. I realize that this is one profile and is not an end-all example, but it seemed to encompass exactly what Protestants fear. They (we) worry about putting Mary on too high of a pedestal, and that the focus isn’t completely on Jesus anymore, that Mary and the saints are distracting from the real focus.

As I mentioned before, I will defend the Catholic church in the bigger misconceptions that Protestants have, but I’m having trouble with this one. I know the crux of what the Church teaches (far from extensive), but I have to admit that when I talk to some Catholics and read things such as what is above, I’m inclined to think that maybe what the Catholic church teaches and what many Catholics do are two completely different things. It wouldn’t be the first time something like that has happened within a church (just look at the issue of birth control) but its something that raises a lot of red flags for Protestants.

I’m not sure what I’m asking for here- just some thoughts on the issue?

If you’re going to explain to me my stupidity in being unable to completely wrap my mind around this, please don’t. This is as hard for Protestants to understand, as it is for Catholics to understand why we don’t. I’m looking for opinions on this issue, preferably opinions given in a kind and loving manner.

Thank you!
Becka

It’s very difficult to respond in a fruitful way when you seem to not understand that there are vast differences amongst Protestant churches. Your statement of “the Protestant church” leads me to believe that you either do not realize or possibly do not care about the differences between different churches which are Protestant.