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I visited a website called Catholic.org to find info on the Rosary Mysteries and found a first person account by the Virgin Mary which I find distasteful. I emailed them asking for an explanation but there was no reply. Here’s an excerpt…

was in prayer: it was evening. I was praying towards Jerusalem because my people prayed three times a day, morning, noon, and evening facing Jerusalem. I was praying for the Liberation of my people. I was praying that soon the Messiah would come to take away all hatred: to take away all sins from my people. As I was praying, there suddenly appeared an angel. At first I was afraid because it was the first time an angel had ever come to me. When I heard him say “Hail, full of grace, the Lord is with you” I was very confused at this greeting and yet I was very humbled that an angel would call me full of grace: that I had gained favor from God: that I was called to bear His Son. I asked the angel how this could happen? I am a virgin: I had intended to be a virgin the rest of my life even though I agreed to live with Joseph. The angel assured me, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you: the shadow of the Most High will enwrap you and the child to be born of you will be called Son of God.” At that instance, I remembered the prophesy of Isaiah. The prophesy of the Messiah. The prophesy that He would be a suffering servant. A servant rejected by His own people and yet raised by God. Knowing that, I said, “Behold the handmaid, the servant of the Lord: be it done to me according to Your word.”

My children, be always open to seek the will of God in your life no matter what it is. Never be afraid of God’s will. God’s will always does contain suffering but God’s will also brings peace. God’s will contains Joy. Pray to the Heavenly Father: pray that He will give you the grace through my prayers to accept His will in all things. Place yourself at God’s disposal and He will do great things for you and with you.
 
John1360 said:
I visited a website called Catholic.org to find info on the Rosary Mysteries and found a first person account by the Virgin Mary which I find distasteful. I emailed them asking for an explanation but there was no reply. Here’s an excerpt…

was in prayer: it was evening. I was praying towards Jerusalem because my people prayed three times a day, morning, noon, and evening facing Jerusalem. I was praying for the Liberation of my people. I was praying that soon the Messiah would come to take away all hatred: to take away all sins from my people. As I was praying, there suddenly appeared an angel. At first I was afraid because it was the first time an angel had ever come to me. When I heard him say “Hail, full of grace, the Lord is with you” I was very confused at this greeting and yet I was very humbled that an angel would call me full of grace: that I had gained favor from God: that I was called to bear His Son. I asked the angel how this could happen? I am a virgin: I had intended to be a virgin the rest of my life even though I agreed to live with Joseph. The angel assured me, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you: the shadow of the Most High will enwrap you and the child to be born of you will be called Son of God.” At that instance, I remembered the prophesy of Isaiah. The prophesy of the Messiah. The prophesy that He would be a suffering servant. A servant rejected by His own people and yet raised by God. Knowing that, I said, “Behold the handmaid, the servant of the Lord: be it done to me according to Your word.”

My children, be always open to seek the will of God in your life no matter what it is. Never be afraid of God’s will. God’s will always does contain suffering but God’s will also brings peace. God’s will contains Joy. Pray to the Heavenly Father: pray that He will give you the grace through my prayers to accept His will in all things. Place yourself at God’s disposal and He will do great things for you and with you.
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Catholic.org is a very good site.
Mary would have had questions. The writer is only attemting to relate the experiance of Mary to us today. She lived in trouble times, so do we, her faith was waiting for the Messiah, we are waiting for his return. They are saying that as Mary said yes to God, so must we.
Visualizing a part of scripture, in this case the angle’s apperance to Mary, imagining the place, the time and even waht the thoughts of the persons in the scripture is a very valid form of reflection and prayer with the scriptures.

Peace,
FAB
 
I concur that in general it is a good site. I get RSS feeds from it.

Of course, it isn’t perfect. A couple of its regular writers somewhat overuse polemics and truth-stretching/disingenuous framing, but on the whole their reporting is very credible. It is the best Catholic news outlet I am aware of (I have no relationship with it other than as a satisfied costumer) Whether you appreciate the taste of that particular one is of course your call. YMMV.
 
Perhaps this is a case of " don’t throw out the baby with the bath water " but my disdain for this type of sacrilege is very strong. To diseminate this type of material without a disclaimer of some sort is not on in my book regardless of the motives involved.
 
Um, could you explain what you find offensive about this meditation. I have read it four times. It would not be how I might imagine the annunciation but I don’t think it unusual that a Jewish girl at that time would pray that the messiah would come soon to liberate her people. We believe that Mary had intended to remain a virgin so it was reasonable that she would be confused at the angel’s words. Where do you see a sacrilege?

It is valid to imagine that Mary would entreat us to accept God’s will.

Unless someone on this site posted this meditation as being private revelation (that Mary actually said this to them), I see nothing wrong with it although it doesn’t appeal to me personally.
 
If the Blessed Virgin Mary had never actually spoke in the Her own words ( which She has) then there would probably be no need for a disclaimer. Personally if the author stated here’s what I think The Virgin Mary’s reaction would have been based on this scripture I would have no problem with it.

Guess we are going to agree to disagree with each other.
Peace be with you.
 
John1360 said:
I visited a website called Catholic.org to find info on the Rosary Mysteries and found a first person account by the Virgin Mary which I find distasteful. I emailed them asking for an explanation but there was no reply. Here’s an excerpt…
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You are very fortunate that this helpful meditation is the only thing in life which troubles you, John1360. Now, if the author claimed to be a ‘lay apostle for our age’ then that would become an issue in itself, but someone writing a meditation on Gabriel’s Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin is most commendable. When you look around you will notice a lot of such good and helpful writings. There’s even a plethora of wonderful artwork celebrating and meditating on this mystery, too.

Maybe the catholic.org website people will respond to you soon. When they do please let us know what they write.

http://www.brigidmarlin.com/Images/JoyfulMysteries/Annunciation.jpg

.
 
John1360 said:
If the Blessed Virgin Mary had never actually spoke in the Her own words ( which She has) then there would probably be no need for a disclaimer. Personally if the author stated here’s what I think The Virgin Mary’s reaction would have been based on this scripture I would have no problem with it.
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Should the obvious have to have a disclaimer, though? Are you seriously thinking that a meditative creative writing appears to be some sort of factual report of what the mind of Mary was thinking, not necessarily to you but perhaps to others who need to be led by the hand lest they be deceived somehow? Who would be responsible for enforcing such a religious discalimer policy?

Your post does bring to mind the real problems faced by immigrants whose first language is not English, as they receive a flood of media messages of all sorts, whose messages are rife with nuance and double-meanings and associations which they generally have to struggle with (or shrug over).

Your post also brings to mind the seriousness of our communications to others and how easily we can be misunderstood, and I apologize if I’ve implied anything about you personally.

.
 
John1360 said:
Perhaps this is a case of " don’t throw out the baby with the bath water " but my disdain for this type of sacrilege is very strong. To diseminate this type of material without a disclaimer of some sort is not on in my book regardless of the motives involved.
Click to expand...
Sacrlege is a pretty strong word. I am not seeing it based on the section you quoted. :confused:
 
My reaction to this is not based on content, it was based on form - putting words ( any words ) in the mouths of Sacred Icons I find distastefull. However it was amplfied by my own personal failings - looking for the splinter in someone elses eye instead of the beam in my own. And now I’m going to climb down off my soap box & clean-up my own act.
Peace be with you
 
I visit this site regularly, almost daily, and can’t find this particular article for some reason, can you still locate the link?
 
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