CSJ:
I’m a Protestant with some pro-Catholic beliefs. However, do not begrudge me when I say that I do not understand the full extent of Marian adoration.
Ok, first thing to clear up. Catholics do not and never have “adored” Mary. Mary is merely a saint (though a uniquely important one). She is not God, and only God is adored.
CSJ:
From my own personal studies, I believe that she does deserve a special place of honor. After all, she did say “yes” to God and she is the one who bore, fed, raised, and taught Jesus, my Savior. I’m still uncertain on praying to (or through) her and the saints for intercession though - I really struggle with this. This is the “biggie” for most Protestants.
Actually, it’s very simple. God answers all prayers. If you pray to him, God will provide you with what you objectively
need. This objective
need could be addressed in any number of ways, however and, as a special grace, God will sometimes fulfill our righteous wishes when we pray selflessly for others. He does this as a reward for praying together as a community.
Intercession is merely the joining of our prayers to those of others. We can ask
any member of the Church, whether living or dead, to pray for us. In fact, we are enjoined in scripture to do so and to intercede for others. Even the Apostles asked others to pray for them.
The Church teaches that the living and the dead are united in Christ’s Church through him. Thus the righteous dead can hear our prayers (as angels can) and intercede for us by joining their prayers to ours. We can also intercede for them (though strictly speaking only those still in Purgatory have needs we can intercede for).
The saints, Mary most prominant amongst them, are God’s chosen to a special degree. They are uniquely sollicitous on our behalf and so are particularly disposed to intercede for us. When Catholics pray to Mary for her intercession they do not “pray” in the sense of worshiping her. They pray in the sense of communicating with her, as someone with a formal turn of speech might say “pray tell me”.
Catholics feel a particular connection to Mary as the mother of their Saviour, but also because they believe she is unique as a
non divine human being in never having sinned or shared in the corruption of the Fall. Through her unquestioning submission to God she negated Eve’s rebellion and became for us the new Eve. Catholics particularly value her intercession in consequence.
Christ came to us at a specific and particular time in human history in which we were most disposed to be receptive to his coming. Mary’s sinlessness and willing submission was a fundamental and integral part of this receptivity. God did not create Mary
for the Incarnation. The Incarnation was made
possible by Mary’s consent. If she had not consented, Christ would not have forced himself on us because God respects the gift of free will he has given all of us. So in the same way we fell as a result of Eve’s rebellion, we have been redeemed through (though not “by”) Mary’s faith.
When you look at them carefully all the marian dogmas hang together. The angel Gabriel greets Mary as “Full of Grace” even before Mary’s submission. Hence she must have been free from sin or corruption from the very beginning of her existence (Immaculate Conception). Because death is the wages of sin and Mary remained sinless all her life, she was accepted bodily into Heaven without death (Assumption). In testimony to the antiquity of these beliefs, no church has ever claimed bodily relics of Mary. If any had, everyone would have immediately known the claim would have been fraudulent.
Basically, Protestantism fails to do justice to the truly extraordinary role of Mary by portraying her merely as a good woman who was willing to be pregnant for nine months and raise the child.
Irenicist
shock I got when I grew up & found out that other people in Methodism didn’t believe in the assumption…It was a given at my house. (If I could remember the Bible verse my grandmother used to prove it, I’d tell it to you…)
other Methodists throwing things at me.)