Struggling with devotion to Mary

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I am a Catholic convert from protestantism. When I think of devotion to Mary, I still hear the little protestant voice inside my head say, “Jesus died for your sins, not Mary.” That is absolutely true.
I have an intellectual understanding of devotion to Mary, yet emotionally, I’m still afraid that Jesus will take a back seat.

Can someone please help me with this?
 
Credendum said:
I am a Catholic convert from protestantism. When I think of devotion to Mary, I still hear the little protestant voice inside my head say, “Jesus died for your sins, not Mary.” That is absolutely true.
I have an intellectual understanding of devotion to Mary, yet emotionally, I’m still afraid that Jesus will take a back seat.

Can someone please help me with this?
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The Annunciation

"Hail full of grace, the Lord is with thee, blessed art thou amongst women"

Luke 1:28

I think GOD though most high of Mary to give birth to the Son Of God!
 
I have to deal with the protestant, " Mary was just a woman that gave birth. Just a human like me and you."

No! She was special in the eyes of GOD!

And the angel continued and said: "Fear not, Mary, for thou hast found grace with God. Behold thou shalt conceive in thy womb, and shalt bring forth a son; and thou shalt call his name Jesus. He shall be great, and shall be called the Son of the Most High; and the Lord God shall give unto him the throne of David his father; and he shall reign in the house of Jacob forever. And of his kingdom there shall be no end."
 
Not having been through this, I have no concrete advice to give you. But I have known many converts that have struggled similarly. So I just wanted to tell you that you are not alone in this struggle.
 
“Devotion to the Blessed Virgin in no way detracts from the Glory of God. Rather, it leads us directly back to that Author of all good, Who has willed her to be so great and so pure”. - Pope Pius Xll

“Let us not imagine that we obscure the glory of the Son by the great praise we lavish on His Mother. The more Mary is honored, the greater is the glory of her Son.” - Saint Bernard of Clairvaux

“The Blessed Virgin Mary is called the Star of the Sea. Those who sail the ocean seas are guided to the port they seek by carefully observing the stars. In the same way, Christians are guided to heavenly glory by keeping their eyes on Mary.”- Saint Thomas Aquinas
 
Credendum said:
I
I have an intellectual understanding of devotion to Mary, yet emotionally, I’m still afraid that Jesus will take a back seat.

Can someone please help me with this?
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will try to help, if in turn you can help me with something I simply cannot wrap my brain around:
how on earth does honoring a man’s mother lessen honor paid to him? no one can seriously think Jesus would be miffed at attention paid to her. he is not a jealous 4-year old human.

point 2, and this is scriptural, John’s gospel. Jesus gave Mary to us as our mother and mother of the Church as almost his last dying words. How on earth then can regarding her as such, with all the love and devotion that connotes, be construed as taking anything away from worship of Christ himself?
 
“True Devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary” St. Louis de Montfort
 
prettiefly said:
“Devotion to the Blessed Virgin in no way detracts from the Glory of God. Rather, it leads us directly back to that Author of all good, Who has willed her to be so great and so pure”. - Pope Pius Xll

“Let us not imagine that we obscure the glory of the Son by the great praise we lavish on His Mother. The more Mary is honored, the greater is the glory of her Son.” - Saint Bernard of Clairvaux

“The Blessed Virgin Mary is called the Star of the Sea. Those who sail the ocean seas are guided to the port they seek by carefully observing the stars. In the same way, Christians are guided to heavenly glory by keeping their eyes on Mary.”- Saint Thomas Aquinas
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Thank you.
When I read the last quote, I was immediately reminded of what is stated in the book of Hebrews - “Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.” Hebrews 12:2 NIV

I grew up in a fundamentalist church in which knowledge of Scripture was paramount. This is good; however, my upbringing was so sola-scripture-oriented that that’s where my mind goes first, like a knee-jerk reaction.

I’m not here to argue against devotion to Mary; I want all objections to devotion to Mary to be out of my mind and heart. That’s why I’m bringing up the protestant objections that linger in my mind, so that I can deconstruct them.
 
puzzleannie said:
will try to help, if in turn you can help me with something I simply cannot wrap my brain around:
how on earth does honoring a man’s mother lessen honor paid to him? no one can seriously think Jesus would be miffed at attention paid to her. he is not a jealous 4-year old human.

point 2, and this is scriptural, John’s gospel. Jesus gave Mary to us as our mother and mother of the Church as almost his last dying words. How on earth then can regarding her as such, with all the love and devotion that connotes, be construed as taking anything away from worship of Christ himself?
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On point 1, honouring a man’s mother does not lessen honour paid to him.

On point 2, my mind still has a protestant knee-jerk reaction that says Jesus’ words to John and Mary were to them as individuals.

I don’t want my mind to do this! As crazy as this may sound, it feels like I’m arguing with another version of me. 😦
 
It may sound overly simplistic, but have you asked God to help you develop an authentic devotion to Mary? Have you told Him of your concerns?

The only reason I ask is because so many time I too have looked to others to help me with my hang-ups during my revertion, but completely forget to keep Christ in the equation.

My post is a sincere one and in no way is ment to be condecending.

God Bless!! 🙂
 
Mary is quoted very rarely in the Gospel. The last time is in the story of the Wedding at Cana. What does she say? “Do whatever He tells you.” there is no possibility that authentic devotion to Mary can lead to any other path.
 
“I have to deal with the protestant”
Dear surveyor your above comment comes over a bit caustic. You also put words in Credendum’s mouth that he did not utter! " Mary was just a woman " and she was " just like me and you "
No one here is denying that Mary was and is blessed among woman. Perhaps you would like to show Credendum some understanding and nurture his growth in the Roman Catholic Church instead of cutting of his new found growth before his roots have set.
Your brother in Christ,
Richard
 
Mary does not detract from Jesus. She points to Him. My favorite quote of her’s from scripture is :

[BIBLEDRB]John 2:5[/BIBLEDRB]
 
Marie5890 said:
It may sound overly simplistic, but have you asked God to help you develop an authentic devotion to Mary? Have you told Him of your concerns?

The only reason I ask is because so many time I too have looked to others to help me with my hang-ups during my revertion, but completely forget to keep Christ in the equation.

My post is a sincere one and in no way is ment to be condecending.

God Bless!! 🙂
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No worries! Your post is not condescending at all. 🙂
I have not prayed about this issue. I pray the rosary almost on a daily basis. Thanks for your (name removed by moderator)ut.
 
Credendum said:
I am a Catholic convert from protestantism. When I think of devotion to Mary, I still hear the little protestant voice inside my head say, “Jesus died for your sins, not Mary.” That is absolutely true.
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Yes, this is absolutely true, but we wouldn’t have had Jesus if Mary had not said yes to God. Just like Eve before her, Mary had a choice to make and all of heaven waited to hear what she would say because she had been preserved free from original sin from the moment of her conception she was the only woman prepared to be the Mother of God the Theotokos. If she had said no, Jesus would not have been born. This is why Mary is called the Second Eve by the Church.
I have an intellectual understanding of devotion to Mary, yet emotionally, I’m still afraid that Jesus will take a back seat.
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Can someone please help me with this?
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I too struggled with this when I was in the process of becoming Catholic. I learned that the more devotion I gave to Mary the more I understood the love of Christ and the more I loved him.

We humans think in such narrow terms about love–as if we only have just so much to give. But the truth is the more we love the more we want to love and to give love. Mary could never receive more praise than Christ, her Son. What he did for us was incomparable and ineffable. What she did was live her life for him, giving herself to him utterly and completely. God has honored her because of this and given her the highest place in heaven. Not just because she gave birth to Jesus but because she was his perfect disciple. As Jesus said when the woman declared his mother blessed for bearing him, he countered that those who do the will of his Father are to be blessed, meaning that his mother was truly blessed not merely for consenting to bear him but all the more for doing his Father’s will throughout her life.

I would recommend to your reading St. Alphonsus de Liguori’s “The Glories of Mary” in which he explains these things, quoting Church Fathers and many saints. As you live your Catholic life and honor Mary as the Church prescribes, in devotion and in the prayers of the Church, you will find her a constant prayer companion, friend, example, and helper in time of need. For God wants us to aid one another and pray for one another here and more especially when we are no longer dealing with sin in this life but have won the crown of life and can do nothing else buth abide by God’s will when we are with him, alive in Christ, alive in heaven.

You also need to purge your mind of the interpretations of various Bible verses you learned. I too learned much of the Bible as a Pentecostal. I even have a B. A. in religious education from an Assemblies of God Bible college. But, my Protestant training never gave me the whole truth nor the right interpretation of many of these verses, plucked from their historical, liturgical, and theological context and made to say what the Apostles never intended. That’s the reason you doubt when reading Sciripture. You need to renew your mind into the whole truth and that is going to take time, study, and prayer.
 
With a simple mind that I have, I see the Virgen Mary as:
The *first *christian.

She not only said “yes” to God’s plan for her life, but indirectly, yes to life for all of us, and our eternal salvation through Jesus, yes to love, obedience and faith (without knowing the exact details on how the single teenager would approach her parents regarding a pregnancy, back in those days!).

Blessed is She, her nursed Our Lord! and loved Him! ’

She was also invited to the wedding at Cana (should She be invited in our lives?), and when wine was running out (because life throws us lemons at times), She again said to the servants “Do whatever He Says” (FYI: follow Jesus).
(Is it silly for me to think that Our Lady even gently invited Her Son to start His Work, and thus, the first public miracle of Jesus at this wedding occurred where Her Son turned water to wine (sweet stuff of life, don’t u think?–Jesus being wine in our lives).

She is our example of what it is to have faith, strong faith that will be tested with fire and still…She is there, suffering His Passion, His Crucifixion. She is there next to Him.

I do not see Her in my way towards Christ. Actually, I see Her gently keeping me focused on Him.

trying to be a servant, pomegranate
 
Also, I recommend praying directly to Mary about it…be totally honest with her and tell her all your difficulties in your relationship to her…and ask her to help you with it! Ask her to teach you how to be close to her…she will!!!
Also, there is a new group on CAF called Consecration to Mary…
Blessings to you!
 
I’ve been doing research in the past several minutes about the protestant objections to devotion to Mary, and I came across this amazing article with respect to the issue. Here’s an excerpt:
Worship of anything but the Trinity is idolatry. This is the teaching of the Bible and the Catholic Church. But there are many nuances that are missed on Americans and modern Evangelical Protestants which have happily been retained in the Church.
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Weakness in language, lack of knowledge of history (especially of hierarchies and kingdoms), leveling of our social consciousness, lack of respect for elders, nobility, and heroes, reflected in the fact that most “heroes” today are not the kind of heroes venerated in generations past, those moral and principled folks who stood for goodness, truth, and beauty even at the expense of their own lives at times. Heroes today are simply those who are famous for being well known, such as sports figures, rock stars, and the like. This shameless lack of heroes and a sense of respect and homage due those who truly deserve it lends to the Protestants’ lack of understanding the ancient Catholic tradition. Protestant tradition, especially that born out of the Pietist movements and free church schisms, flowered in the United States (e.g., Pilgrims, Puritans, Baptists, etc.) held to an anti-monarchical creed as almost equal to the dogma of the Trinity. Thus, this abhorrence of royalty, nobility, and monarchy led to a leveling of humanity.
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We have learned to hate kingdoms and love nations, to despise monarchy and promote democracy, to abhor hierarchies in favor of “the people”. This is not all bad, but in the violent overthrow of such time-honored institutions and protocols, we in America have taken on somewhat of a beggarly component and a discontinuity with our past, both European and Christian. We have forgotten our history and have been disconnected with language and practices, leaving us culturally illiterate.
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Jesus, as a good Jew and one who understood the economy and government of God, frequently talked of “the Kingdom of God” or the “Kingdom of heaven”. Jesus never intended to establish a democracy—the “democracy of God”. In fact, the word “kingdom” is mentioned seventy-six times in the gospel of Matthew alone and the word “democracy” is nowhere found.
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The very thing that makes it difficult for an Evangelical Protestants to accept the hierarchical authority in the Church is also their to hinder them from understanding such things as Saints with a capital “S”, veneration of Mary, kissing of icons, or honoring the leaders and heroes of the faith with means and gestures forgotten by Americans but well and alive in more “ancient and civilized” societies.
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Unhappily, we Americans are at a great disadvantage. We don’t think like Jews, we don’t have a Jewish or early Christian “literacy”, we have forgotten about kingdoms and honor, we have jettisoned the protocol or respect and veneration long cherished by other lands and times. We have blurred all the distinctions and the language of worship, veneration, honor, respect, homage, and the bodily and mental actions due in a more biblically-likened society. Ours is a brand new experiment on the governmental scene and we have forgotten our past and the customs that were inherent in it. And so, we have been handicapped in understanding the faith. We have been blinded to the beautiful nuances and customs of our Christian forbears. We have turned a blind eye to what was clearly understood in ages past, and with our new Evangelical Protestant fervor to be loyal to the Bible alone (though we have been cut off from its culture and life), we have cursed and denounced the customs of wiser and more ancient traditions. It is too our shame (and I speak as an Evangelical for my first thirty-nine years).
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The Catholic Church is an amazing society. It has retained the best of the ancient cultures, including Jewish ideals and the early Church, as well as adapting to modern democratic societies. It has the wisdom that comes from age and the vitality that comes from youth. She is forever old, yet always young. She understands the language and culture of the past with its nobility and monarchy, yet thrives in the modern age of democracy. But we differ from the Protestant in that we retain the Apostolic Tradition in all its riches and depth, with all its language and practice, without trashing it for modern concepts of what worship should be and what language and actions are accepted by our limited American, democratic, Bible-only, newly invented Protestant tradition.
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Contrasting our limited American and Protestant cultures, I am all the more impressed with the tenacity and duration of the Mosaic tradition and later, the Apostolic Tradition which has lasted in the first case for 3500 years and in the second case is still strong and uncompromised in the Catholic Church after 2,000 years. Whereas in America, with only two hundred years under our belts, we have already forgotten our monarchical history and we have been victims in many cases of a revisionist history. Even our “Protestant tradition” has fragmented and split into thousands of competing schemes and sects.
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from this webpage: catholic-convert.com/2011/06/04/do-catholics-worship-mary-3/

This is helping me a great deal. Thanks folks for your encouragement and understanding. 🙂
 
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