All right guys. This is a continuation of the thread from Veneration vs Worship. My personal opinion is that all of them should be given to god. The totality of Veneration and worship is to be directed at god.
While I regard saints as heroes of faith what the reasons for devotion to mary?
hi Kingtroll1,
Here’s my answer.
Saints in the Roman Catholic Church are
venerated – not worshiped – as some mistakenly believe.
English language tends to fall short when it comes to the use of certain words. For example, we have one word for love, yet we use this word interchangeably to describe many different “feelings” of love. We say, “I love my parents”, or “I love chocolate” or even, “I love my spouse”, yet all these different phrases of love do not have the same definition.
Centuries ago, it may have been said that a saint gets “worship”, because the word came from the Old English
weorthscipe, which simply meant “worthy of honour” or “worthy of respect”. That is why British speakers of English used to say “Your Worship” as a title of courtesy to people in a position of honour or power (such as Kings), and why we still address a judge as “Your Honour”.
Today, of course, worship means only our attitude to God Almighty,
and it is to God alone whom we give all highest honour and supreme worship.
In Latin, which is richer than English in meanings of words, the worship owed to God alone is called
LATRIA, a word that has its roots in the ancient Greek word, latreía,
meaning the adoration that humans owe to the divine. It’s a matter of acknowledging your total dependence upon God. The respect that we owe to the saints is a totally different kind of attitude; it’s called
DULIA, which means “appropriate” or “fitting and proper” as when you say that someone acts dutifully, or that a trial was handled with due process. In an everyday sense of the word,* dulia is our demeanor in court or meeting the President; it’s much more like what you’d call courtesy than what you’d call worship.* Dulia comes from the Greek word douleia, meaning “service” or “slave”. In Luke 1:38, 48 Mary’s description of herself as doule translates as “handmaiden” / “female slave” – (Slave more in the sense of “servant”).
For Mary, the Mother of God, we have a variation of dulia that is often misunderstood:
HYPERDULIA. This is a higher kind of reverence that’s given only to Mary, who is considered first among the saints. Note that this is basically dulia, only higher. [The word hyper comes from the Greek: hypér “over”,” above”]. It is an entirely different thing from latria, and it can’t lessen the unique honour owed to God.
It’s never correct to say that the Church worships Mary or the Saints – it hasn’t been correct since people stopped speaking Old English, anyway. In recognition of Mary’s unique relationship with God, the Church gives to Mary a unique reverence notably higher than the respect given to other saints.
Reverence means: a feeling or attitude of deep respect tinged with awe; veneration; honour.]
From the beginning of the Church era, Christians began to venerate the martyrs as saints.
Venerate means to hold in deep respect and honour in recognition of qualities of holiness, excellence, wisdom, etc.] They believed that the martyrs, (the word comes from the Greek, meaning WITNESS) who suffered and died for their unshakable belief in Christ, went straight to heaven and could therefore be effective as intercessors for the living. By the 3rd century the veneration of the martyr saints was already common. [An intercessor is one who will intercede (plead or request) or offer petitionary prayers to God on behalf of others.]
In Revelation we are told that the Saints and angels in heaven hear, and carry our prayers to God.
You may have heard non-Catholics saying that there is only one intercessor between man and God, and that is Jesus, himself not only divine, but human, (see 1 Timothy 2:5), therefore, they say, it is wrong to pray to the Saints or angels in heaven, but this in no way means we cannot or should not ask our fellow Christians to pray with us and for us as 1 Tim 2:1-4 tells us to:
1 First of all, then, I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for everyone, 2 for kings and all who are in high positions, so that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and dignity. 3 This is right and is acceptable in the sight of God our Saviour, 4 who desires everyone to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.
Others may say that Saints are dead, and cannot hear us, and we are to only pray to God. However, there are many passages in Scripture that tells us to pray for one another, and that the angels and saints in heaven carry our prayers to the heavenly altar of God.
God made it clear that those who died are still alive (in their spirit/soul), for He is the God of the living. When Christ had the Transformation, the spirits (souls) of Moses and Elijah appeared beside Him. Same when the witch was told by King Saul to conjure up the soul of the dead prophet Samuel. (See 1 Sam 28:8-14) We were created to be immortal, the soul is the part that animates our corporeal matter, and upon death the immortal soul leaves the body, the body returns to “dust”. However, one day, when Christ returns, the bodies of the dead will be resurrected and are eternal, reunited with the immortal soul. This is all Biblical.
Blessings,
CEM
If one of my folks said no - you can bet the other would say no also.
