P
PetraG
Guest
OK, so–the short answer is that you can only do what you can do. Once you’re baptized, you’re Catholic, and you just do your best. It is an indelible mark.
We’re all a work in progress. The best advice I’ve heard is to examine your conscience often and do the best you can. Certainly there is NO moral law that says you have to feel a certain way or that it is your job to manufacture feelings or faith that you don’t have. It is required to assist to Mass and there are prayers at Mass that ask for Our Lady’s intercession or say that we’re praying with the saints, but nobody here prays every prayer at Mass perfectly and there is no explicit precept of the Church that requires prayers to the saints.
The most thorough explanation of Mary’s place in the Church that I know of is the last chapter in Lumen Gentium, the Dogmatic Constitution on the Church, one of the main documents of the 2nd Vatican Council. It is, I suppose, an anatomy of the Body of Christ–what we are as a Church and why we are that way. If you have never read it through, I’d suggest reading it through at least once in your life. I would suggest reading that last chapter that explains Mary in the context of all the other chapters before it. Besides, it is a really awesome read and too few Catholics have ever read it.
http://www.vatican.va/archive/hist_...s/vat-ii_const_19641121_lumen-gentium_en.html