To set the Record straight Catholics do not worship Mary!

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Protestants,

The Truth is that nowhere in Catholic literature or in Catholic History since Pentacost to this day will you ever find a document which directs Catholics to WORSHIP Mary. You will, however, find many documents which say we VENERATE her.

Protestants the definition of WORSHIP and VENERATE in the dictionary

Venerate: “To regard with respect, reverence, or heartfelt deference.”

Worship: “The reverent love and devotion accorded a deity, an idol, or sacred object.”

The Fifth Commandments is “Honor your Father and your Mother.”

Protestants, do you honor your father and mother? Do you respect them? Of Course you do.

This is what we Catholics do we honour/respect our parents, and for the Blessed Virgin Mary being our Mother we do the same.

Protestants, do you worship your parents? Of course not, and neither do us Catholics worship our parents. However, it is the Fifth Commandment that we should Venerate/Honor them as we do Virgin Mary our Heavenly Mother for all eternity.

Worship and Venerate according to the definition found in the Dictionary and in Every Catholic Heart, these two words have quite different meanings.

Through the Grace of God, I have been a Catholic 44 years and Counting and I have many family members and friends also who are strong Catholics never once have we Worshiped Virgin Mary

Protestants, I know for a fact you heard all this before, but you have your eyes and mind closed to the Truth! You must believe that we worship Mary, you must in order to try to justify your disobedience To Mary, in which you are breaking the Fifth Commandment for she is Our Mother and she deserves to be venerated/honored daily! “All GENERATIONS WILL CALL ME BLESSED.” Is calling Mary Blessed, is this only for Chistmas time, if that, is this the only time you remember to call her Blessed. If it is Shame on you.

There is not a day that goes by that I forget to call Mary Blessed and that goes for the Catholic Church as well.

Protestants, will you leap for Joy for Mary? Doing so would you consider this being Worshiping or Venerating Mary?

John the Baptist in the Womb of Elizabeth LEAPT for Joy when he heard Mary’s Voice. Is John worshiping or venerating Mary? John, is venerating Mary and if a “baby” has the Knowledge/Grace form God to venerate Mary, then I think you Protestants should to.

Then again if God Has Not given you the Grace to have this Knoweldge such as a Baby, then You should all ask God for it.

Protestants, show me this document/teaching of the Church that tell us Catholics that we should worship Mary?

44 years being Catholic, I never came across this Teaching of the Church.

Truth is you can’t find this Document/Teaching it does not exist and since it does not Exist, you will Never find it! Case Closed!

Ufamtobie
 
hi, my name is luis and i’m a portuguese catholic. in general i did like what you wrote. yes, we do worship Mary. i do it every single day. i love to consecrate my life to Her. this pleases God. She is the one who’s gonna defeat satan. God gave the Virgin Mary the power to combat the power of darkness, with the great help of our Arcangel Michael. She is the most humble person who walked on earth and so and due to that humility that satan is gonna be defeated. it’s that example of humility that ultimately is gonna humiliate satan and defeat him.
just a detail, pray for protestants instead of using confrontation. this will only lead to further divisions and resentments. remember, the catholic church is the best way to reach salvation, but not the only one. they also worship the same God and the same Jesus. their purification will have to be more pailful, but they are not doomed.
our obligation is to pray for everyone, including those who don’t believe in God or have different ways of worshiping.
God bless you
 
ufamtobie said:
Protestants,

The Truth is that nowhere in Catholic literature or in Catholic History since Pentacost to this day will you ever find a document which directs Catholics to WORSHIP Mary. You will, however, find many documents which say we VENERATE her.

…

Ufamtobie
Click to expand...
This is non-issue but nevertheless do keep it up. There may be others who have not heard yet. 🙂
 
ufamtobie said:
Protestants,

The Truth is that nowhere in Catholic literature or in Catholic History since Pentacost to this day will you ever find a document which directs Catholics to WORSHIP Mary. You will, however, find many documents which say we VENERATE her.

Protestants the definition of WORSHIP and VENERATE in the dictionary

Venerate: “To regard with respect, reverence, or heartfelt deference.”

Worship: “The reverent love and devotion accorded a deity, an idol, or sacred object.”

The Fifth Commandments is “Honor your Father and your Mother.”

Protestants, do you honor your father and mother? Do you respect them? Of Course you do.

This is what we Catholics do we honour/respect our parents, and for the Blessed Virgin Mary being our Mother we do the same.

Protestants, do you worship your parents? Of course not, and neither do us Catholics worship our parents. However, it is the Fifth Commandment that we should Venerate/Honor them as we do Virgin Mary our Heavenly Mother for all eternity.

Worship and Venerate according to the definition found in the Dictionary and in Every Catholic Heart, these two words have quite different meanings.

Through the Grace of God, I have been a Catholic 44 years and Counting and I have many family members and friends also who are strong Catholics never once have we Worshiped Virgin Mary

Protestants, I know for a fact you heard all this before, but you have your eyes and mind closed to the Truth! You must believe that we worship Mary, you must in order to try to justify your disobedience To Mary, in which you are breaking the Fifth Commandment for she is Our Mother and she deserves to be venerated/honored daily! “All GENERATIONS WILL CALL ME BLESSED.” Is calling Mary Blessed, is this only for Chistmas time, if that, is this the only time you remember to call her Blessed. If it is Shame on you.

There is not a day that goes by that I forget to call Mary Blessed and that goes for the Catholic Church as well.

Protestants, will you leap for Joy for Mary? Doing so would you consider this being Worshiping or Venerating Mary?

John the Baptist in the Womb of Elizabeth LEAPT for Joy when he heard Mary’s Voice. Is John worshiping or venerating Mary? John, is venerating Mary and if a “baby” has the Knowledge/Grace form God to venerate Mary, then I think you Protestants should to.

Then again if God Has Not given you the Grace to have this Knoweldge such as a Baby, then You should all ask God for it.

Protestants, show me this document/teaching of the Church that tell us Catholics that we should worship Mary?

44 years being Catholic, I never came across this Teaching of the Church.

Truth is you can’t find this Document/Teaching it does not exist and since it does not Exist, you will Never find it! Case Closed!

Ufamtobie
Click to expand...
Tell that to Pope Pius XII and Cardinal Strosmeier.
 
Unfortunately, many Catholics do not seem to understand the proper handling of this issue. I cannot tell you how many times I have been asked by Protestants why we worship Mary. When I tell them we love and venerate her, but worship is for God alone, I hear something along the lines of the questioner having been told by whatever Catholic that we really do worship her. It turns many off who may be putting a toe into the Tiber.
 
Georgia said:
Unfortunately, many Catholics do not seem to understand the proper handling of this issue. I cannot tell you how many times I have been asked by Protestants why we worship Mary. When I tell them we love and venerate her, but worship is for God alone, I hear something along the lines of the questioner having been told by whatever Catholic that we really do worship her. It turns many off who may be putting a toe into the Tiber.
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Whether one calls it worshipping Mary or not, many of the things Catholics believe and practice regarding Mary are seen by many as either wrong or unnecessary. When I was Catholic, a friend of mine attended a Good Friday Stations of the Cross with me and afterward asked a quite insightful question. Why does the priest lead everyone in the Hail Mary prayer while kneeling at every single station? Ans also, why is there so much invocation of what Mary is doing and who she was at every station? Wasn’t it Jesus who suffered a horrible death for us and for our sins? Isn’t it he alone who saves us and who deserves our attention, our worship and our praise especially at Good Friday? I can’t remember what I said to him then and it matters not. But at this time, I couldn’t agree with him more.
 
ufamtobie said:
44 years being Catholic, I never came across this Teaching of the Church.
Click to expand...
And even as a (Catholic) youngster, I was never confused about whether God or Mary is in charge.
Truth is you can’t find this Document/Teaching it does not exist and since it does not Exist, you will Never find it! Case Closed!
Click to expand...
Good luck with that!!!
 
SIA said:
Whether one calls it worshipping Mary or not, many of the things Catholics believe and practice regarding Mary are seen by many as either wrong or unnecessary. When I was Catholic, a friend of mine attended a Good Friday Stations of the Cross with me and afterward asked a quite insightful question. Why does the priest lead everyone in the Hail Mary prayer while kneeling at every single station? Ans also, why is there so much invocation of what Mary is doing and who she was at every station? Wasn’t it Jesus who suffered a horrible death for us and for our sins? Isn’t it he alone who saves us and who deserves our attention, our worship and our praise especially at Good Friday? I can’t remember what I said to him then and it matters not. But at this time, I couldn’t agree with him more.
Click to expand...
 
SIA said:
Whether one calls it worshipping Mary or not, many of the things Catholics believe and practice regarding Mary are seen by many as either wrong or unnecessary. When I was Catholic, a friend of mine attended a Good Friday Stations of the Cross with me and afterward asked a quite insightful question. Why does the priest lead everyone in the Hail Mary prayer while kneeling at every single station? Ans also, why is there so much invocation of what Mary is doing and who she was at every station? Wasn’t it Jesus who suffered a horrible death for us and for our sins? Isn’t it he alone who saves us and who deserves our attention, our worship and our praise especially at Good Friday? I can’t remember what I said to him then and it matters not. But at this time, I couldn’t agree with him more.
Click to expand...
I think the key here is that they are kneeling and worshiing God not Mary. Mary serves to lead us to God, not be worshiped herself. Any Catholic should be aware of that. Unfortunately, many Catholics are not prepared to answer questions from non-catholics and may not truely understand why they do certain things or follow certain traditions. It is very easy to become a “mechanical Catholic” and just follow the process because that is what everyone else is doing and not question why we are doing it. To grow in faith we do need to question. This results in more confidence in our beliefs. If you have no basis for your belief in your heart it will not be able to sustain the test when it comes and nor will you be able to defend the Catholic position. This would result in substansiating the non-Catholics position. And odds are you are not going to remain Catholic because you will be susceptable to what any one else tells you who is convicted in their own beliefs.
 
ufamtobie said:
Protestants,

The Truth is that nowhere in Catholic literature or in Catholic History since Pentacost to this day will you ever find a document which directs Catholics to WORSHIP Mary. You will, however, find many documents which say we VENERATE her.​

Truth is you can’t find this Document/Teaching it does not exist and since it does not Exist, you will Never find it! Case Closed!

Ufamtobie
Click to expand...
Ufamtobie,
I understand and agree with you. I do not see what Catholics do regarding the BVM as worship. Here is the problem:

luis_rcoelho wrote:
hi, my name is luis and i’m a portuguese catholic. in general i did like what you wrote. yes, we do worship Mary. i do it every single day. i love to consecrate my life to Her. this pleases God. She is the one who’s gonna defeat satan. God gave the Virgin Mary the power to combat the power of darkness, with the great help of our Arcangel Michael. She is the most humble person who walked on earth and so and due to that humility that satan is gonna be defeated. it’s that example of humility that ultimately is gonna humiliate satan and defeat him.
Click to expand...
Now I’m sure that, since Luis is portuguese and is using English, there may be a language issue here, but some Protestants will read this and say, “See? Catholics do worship Mary! Here’s one who says he does.”
I, for one, believe that Luis means venerate here. He can speak for himself, but I doubt he means latria. Nevertheless, one can see why some protestants might have trouble reconciling what you stated (quite well, I might add), to what Luis says.
I might also contend, without being contentious, that there are many Catholics who, as a result of poor catechesis I would guess, don’t recognise the difference between latria and hyper dulia. So while I respect the pious Catholic veneration of the BVM, I am also concerned that in practice, sometimes the line between latria and hyper dulia get blurred, for which Catholics should be alert to avoiding.

Jon
 
SIA said:
Tell that to Pope Pius XII and Cardinal Strosmeier.
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What about Pope Pius XII? Yes he had a devotion for The Blessed Virgin Mary but that was all. Can you please support this claim with any writings by either Pope Pius XII or Cardinal Strosmeier that Mary should be worshiped?
 
ufamtobie said:
Protestants,

The Truth is that nowhere in Catholic literature or in Catholic History since Pentacost to this day will you ever find a document which directs Catholics to WORSHIP Mary. You will, however, find many documents which say we VENERATE her.

Protestants the definition of WORSHIP and VENERATE in the dictionary

Venerate: “To regard with respect, reverence, or heartfelt deference.”

Worship: “The reverent love and devotion accorded a deity, an idol, or sacred object.”

The Fifth Commandments is “Honor your Father and your Mother.”

Protestants, do you honor your father and mother? Do you respect them? Of Course you do.

This is what we Catholics do we honour/respect our parents, and for the Blessed Virgin Mary being our Mother we do the same.

Protestants, do you worship your parents? Of course not, and neither do us Catholics worship our parents. However, it is the Fifth Commandment that we should Venerate/Honor them as we do Virgin Mary our Heavenly Mother for all eternity.

Worship and Venerate according to the definition found in the Dictionary and in Every Catholic Heart, these two words have quite different meanings.

Through the Grace of God, I have been a Catholic 44 years and Counting and I have many family members and friends also who are strong Catholics never once have we Worshiped Virgin Mary

Protestants, I know for a fact you heard all this before, but you have your eyes and mind closed to the Truth! You must believe that we worship Mary, you must in order to try to justify your disobedience To Mary, in which you are breaking the Fifth Commandment for she is Our Mother and she deserves to be venerated/honored daily! “All GENERATIONS WILL CALL ME BLESSED.” Is calling Mary Blessed, is this only for Chistmas time, if that, is this the only time you remember to call her Blessed. If it is Shame on you.

There is not a day that goes by that I forget to call Mary Blessed and that goes for the Catholic Church as well.

Protestants, will you leap for Joy for Mary? Doing so would you consider this being Worshiping or Venerating Mary?

John the Baptist in the Womb of Elizabeth LEAPT for Joy when he heard Mary’s Voice. Is John worshiping or venerating Mary? John, is venerating Mary and if a “baby” has the Knowledge/Grace form God to venerate Mary, then I think you Protestants should to.

Then again if God Has Not given you the Grace to have this Knoweldge such as a Baby, then You should all ask God for it.

Protestants, show me this document/teaching of the Church that tell us Catholics that we should worship Mary?

44 years being Catholic, I never came across this Teaching of the Church.

Truth is you can’t find this Document/Teaching it does not exist and since it does not Exist, you will Never find it! Case Closed!

Ufamtobie
Click to expand...
The Catholic Church doesn’t teach “Mary worship,” nor do Catholics place their faith in Mary instead of God. To say they do advertises your ignorance of Catholic teaching (or, if you know better, your willingness to propagate a lie).
 
I’m a word geek.

“Worship” is one of many English words that has morphed into a lesser meaning, thanks to our habit of hyperbole.

Think of “awesome.” Most of us here can remember when it had only one meaning, and it wasn’t describing something we liked. Now… “Gas is down to $1.50? Awesome!” It’s got nothing to do with awe.

The same thing has happened to “worship.” It now has the meaning of something we merely admire more than almost anything else, in addition to its old meaning of what we owe to God. “I worship the ground she walks on!” Hyperbolic, not literal.

When a Catholic says he “worships Mary,” chances are he’s using the lesser meaning. If he’s not, then he is badly catechized, to put it mildly. :tsktsk:

And the same thing happens with “pray.” I “pray” the Hail Mary, but I’m not asking her to do anything but intercede for me. “Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners…”

God bless us all,

Ruthie
 
ufamtobie said:
Protestants, Truth is you can’t find this Document/Teaching it does not exist and since it does not Exist, you will Never find it! Case Closed!
Click to expand...
mark_a said:
Good luck with that!!!
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Yes. Good luck with that. This is something that just keeps going round and round with Protestants. The case will probably never be closed in that regards.

I admire the OP in trying to present his argument, but you cannot make someone listen if they do not want to listen.

Just for the record, Martin Luther still prayed to Mary and venerated her after he formally split from Rome. So, I do not understand why Protestants have an issue with this and have to “bash” Catholics for it the way they do.

God Bless,

Jean
 
Ruthie said:
I’m a word geek.

“Worship” is one of many English words that has morphed into a lesser meaning, thanks to our habit of hyperbole.

Think of “awesome.” Most of us here can remember when it had only one meaning, and it wasn’t describing something we liked. Now… “Gas is down to $1.50? Awesome!” It’s got nothing to do with awe.

The same thing has happened to “worship.” It now has the meaning of something we merely admire more than almost anything else, in addition to its old meaning of what we owe to God. “I worship the ground she walks on!” Hyperbolic, not literal.

When a Catholic says he “worships Mary,” chances are he’s using the lesser meaning. If he’s not, then he is badly catechized, to put it mildly. :tsktsk:

And the same thing happens with “pray.” I “pray” the Hail Mary, but I’m not asking her to do anything but intercede for me. “Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners…”

God bless us all,

Ruthie
Click to expand...
As a self-proclaimed word geek, you should also be aware that 100+ years ago (even up until the mid-20th century) worship had another meaning. That of deep devotion and honor. Hence, English judges are referred to as “Your Worship”. This is a case of a word getting narrower in meaning. The same thing happened with ghost, once meant to mean a spiritual being it became almost exclusive to a paranormal specter, a goblin, something that haunts houses. Hence the Church changed the Holy Ghost to Holy Spirit to better reflect in modern usage what is meant.

It is difficult because often Protestants will present old books and documents that affirm that we should worship Mary and they say “haha, I knew it!”. But they do not realize that what is meant by the word worship then is not what is meant today. For example, in the papal encyclical Fulgens Corona we are told:
  1. It is therefore, a pleasure for us, a full century having passed since the Pontiff of immortal memory, Pius IX, solemnly proclaimed this singular privilege of the Virgin Mother of God, to summarize the whole doctrinal position and conclude in these words of the same Pontiff, asserting that this doctrine “vouched for in Sacred Scripture according to the interpretation of the Fathers, is handed down by them in so many of their important writings, is expressed and celebrated in so many illustrious monuments of renowned antiquity, and proposed and confirmed by the greatest and highest decision of the Church” (Bull Ineffabilis Deus), so that to pastors and faithful there is nothing "more sweet, nothing dearer than to worship, venerate, invoke and praise with ardent affection the Mother of God conceived without stain of original sin. (Ibidem.)
But, if you look at the original Latin you see that this is an old translation. The Latin, which reads: « dulcius, nihil carius, quam ferventissimo affectu Deiparam Virginem absque labe originali conceptam ubique colere, venerari, invocare et praedicare »

The Latin colere was then rendered as worship, today in modern English is better translated as “to cherish or honor greatly”.
 
JW55 said:
I think the key here is that they are kneeling and worshiing God not Mary. Mary serves to lead us to God, not be worshiped herself. Any Catholic should be aware of that. Unfortunately, many Catholics are not prepared to answer questions from non-catholics and may not truely understand why they do certain things or follow certain traditions. It is very easy to become a “mechanical Catholic” and just follow the process because that is what everyone else is doing and not question why we are doing it. To grow in faith we do need to question. This results in more confidence in our beliefs. If you have no basis for your belief in your heart it will not be able to sustain the test when it comes and nor will you be able to defend the Catholic position. This would result in substansiating the non-Catholics position. And odds are you are not going to remain Catholic because you will be susceptable to what any one else tells you who is convicted in their own beliefs.
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Not that way for me at all. I left Catholicism because of what I DO know and what I learned in being an ex-cradle Catholic for three and a half decades.
 
JW55 said:
Could you please elaborate on your comment about Pope Pius XII and cardinal Strosmeier?

Thank you.
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Well, it was Pope Pius XII who prayed the very controversial prayer to Mary professing that she has powers and qualities which only belong to Christ and The Holy Spirit respectively in Scripture. For the most part, I don’t believe that the vast majority of Catholics worship Mary but what Pope Pius XII said in his prayer to Mary in the Marian year which he proclaimed absolutely was worship plain and simple. I know the prayer well and there is just no way that I could ever be convinced of otherwise.

Cardinal Strosmeier openly exclaimed that the Catholic church had made a Goddess of Mary.
 
SIA said:
Not that way for me at all. I left Catholicism because of what I DO know and what I learned in being an ex-cradle Catholic for three and a half decades.
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SIA-

So what was the “straw that broke the camel’s back” so to speak that made you decide to leave the faith? I ask this not to be antagonistic, but out of curiosity. Was it bitterness with the church’s teachings or something speciific you felt that it could not provide you the answer you sought.
 
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