What do YOU think about Us Catholics and our veneration of Mary

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I don’t have a problem with Mary being a very important person. It is the assumption of her ever-virgin, assumption of her assumption to heaven. We know Moses and Elijah are in heaven, why not ask them for their intercessions? Forgive me if this was said already.
 
omgriley said:
It isn’t done nearly as much as it needs to be.

This is the opinion of Mary herself:

“See, my daughter, my Heart encircled by thorns with which ungrateful men pierce it at every moment by their blasphemies and ingratitude. Do you, at least, strive to console me.”

And Our Lord:

“Have pity on the Heart of your Most Holy Mother. It is covered with thorns with which ungrateful men pierce it at every moment, and there is no one to remove them with an act of reparation.”

As a whole, we generally do not honor Our Mother nearly as much as we should
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Very well done!

THANK you

Patrick [the OP]
 
GML3 said:
I don’t have a problem with Mary being a very important person. It is the assumption of her ever-virgin, assumption of her assumption to heaven. We know Moses and Elijah are in heaven, why not ask them for their intercessions? Forgive me if this was said already
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😀 Actually we could.

So why Mary over them?

Hmmmm, maybe it’s because SHE alone is the very Mother of OUR God [Luke 1"26-35]

Thanks for asking,
Patrick
 
I think proper veneration is great …

I’m sometimes saddened by excesses and abuses of devotion/veneration to our humble Mary
 
PetraG said:
“Blessed is the womb that bore you, and the breasts at which you nursed!”
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Yes! Blessed means ‘made holy’. God made Mary holy.

I imagine Mary thinking about her good fortune of being Jesus’ mother the way we often say things like ‘we are blessed to be able to attend this parish’ or similar stafement. Of course, with Mary’s good fortune, it is magnified 1000 times over.
 
Luke 11:27-28 “Blessed is the womb that bare thee, and the paps which thou hast sucked, But he said, yea rather, blessed are they that hear the word of God, and keep it”. Jesus does not say, also, or in addition to. He says “yea rather”.

Matthew 22:37 “Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and all thy mind”. He does not say love the Lord thy God, and Mary.
 
PJM said:
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lilypadrees:
I agree. I love Jesus.
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OK 🙂

BUT not as much as Mary His Mom did [does]🤔

GBY
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No one loves Jesus as much as His Mother does (except for His Father, of course).
 
PJM said:
Dear friend in Christ,

What do YOU think about us Catholics and our veneration of Mary?
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I think it safe to say that all Christians whether Catholic or not hold Mary is high regard. My question as a non-Catholic Christian is why do Catholics believe that Mary lived a sinless life?

Romans 3:23 says that all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God
Luke 1:47 records Mary saying “my spirit rejoices in God my savior”.

Why would a sinless being be looking for her own savior, when the point of a savior is to cleanse oneself from sin?
 
Mary was certainly a special women, chosen by God, to bear and raise His Son, Jesus Christ. However for many reasons, I find it very troubling that she is prayed to in a worshipful manner such as this:

"Morning Consecration to Mary

My Queen, My Mother, I offer
myself entirely to thee.
And to show my devotion to thee,
I offer thee this day, my eyes,
my ears, my mouth, my heart,
my whole being without reserve.
Wherefore, good Mother, as I am thine own, keep me, guard me as thy property and possession.
Amen."

That would be a beautiful prayer if it were to be directed to God, in His name instead of Mary’s. As a Christian, I belong to God alone and am His alone. Is it not a very dangerous thing to regard oneself as property of, and be possessed by Mary without being considered by God as unfaithful to Him?
 
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I’m (you can say returning, cafeteria) Catholic and am just now beginning to understand (again) the whole veneration vs worship of Mary and the saints. Slowly thru homilies (particularly the advent ones) I see how important it is to respond to the Lord’s call like Mary. Same with the stories of the saints. But I still cannot bring myself and sit down and pray for their intercession. Most of my private prayer and praise and worship is directed to Jesus/Father. It makes me uncomfortable that there are instances I see and hear more fire and fervor for Mary and the saints than for Jesus. I think this is what the protestant communities see as outsiders (or even former Catholics) - - the feasts and festivals for Mary and saints…The statues…But do they hear Catholics say the name of JESUS as boldly as often with the same fire and fervor? Not always.
 
Contender4TheFaith said:
That would be a beautiful prayer if it were to be directed to God, in His name instead of Mary’s. As a Christian, I belong to God alone and am His alone. Is it not a very dangerous thing to regard oneself as property of, and be possessed by Mary without being considered by God as unfaithful to Him?
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I was just curious on your thoughts if I woke up in the morning and replaced the words Queen and Mother with my wife’s name?

Jacki, My dear wife, I offer
myself entirely to thee.
And to show my devotion to thee,
I offer thee this day, my eyes,
my ears, my mouth, my heart,
my whole being without reserve.
Wherefore, good Wife, as I am thine own, keep me, guard me as thy property and possession.
Amen."

Would these words to my wife in the morning take anything away from God?

God Bless
 
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Is your wife still alive? Then love her as Christ loves the church, but keep God above all others in your heart. He knows where He stands.

If your wife has unfortunately passed on, then scripture must be adhered to which strictly forbids the contacting of the dead.
 
Contender4TheFaith said:
Is your wife still alive? Then love her as Christ loves the church, but keep God above all others in your heart.
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She is and I do.
Contender4TheFaith said:
He knows where He stands.
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I believe He does. I believe He also knows the heart of the person saying the “Morning Consecration to Mary”.

It seems you also believe that God has granted you the ability to know what is in this persons heart by claiming they are worshiping Mary when they say this pray.
Contender4TheFaith said:
If your wife has unfortunately passed on, then scripture must be adhered to which strictly forbids the contacting of the dead.
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We must read scripture a little differently. Not sure why you believe prayer and contacting the dead are synonymous activities?

Sure necromancy is forbidden. Totally agree, but prayers to the saints isn’t necromancy because they aren’t dead, they are alive in Christ and we aren’t asking them to foretell the future we are asking them to intercede on our behalf.

If my wife had passed on you can darn well bet I’m going to look up to heaven and say honey I know you are much closer to God than I can even imagine. I’m having a hard time here without you, could you please pray that God will give me the strength to go on in this world without you.

If you think that prayer takes anything away from God I feel bad for you, because your vision of God doesn’t seem to be the same vision of Loving Father that I have.

God Bless
 
Contender4TheFaith said:
"Morning Consecration to Mary

My Queen, My Mother, I offer

myself entirely to thee.

And to show my devotion to thee,

I offer thee this day, my eyes,

my ears, my mouth, my heart,

my whole being without reserve.

Wherefore, good Mother, as I am thine own, keep me, guard me as thy property and possession.

Amen."
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I thought the proper way to understand Marian consecration is actually consecration to Jesus Through Mary… Jesus isn’t even mentioned in this… I’d never do it.
 
Most of the Catholics I’ve known have seemed to be good people. Some of the most Christlike people I know have been Catholic.

I don’t really have much of an opinion about your veneration of Mary. Fine by me.

Mormons have “Articles of Faith”, and one is “We claim the privilege of worshiping Almighty God according to the dictates of our own conscience, and allow all men the same privilege, let them worship how, where, or what they may.”
 
Sounds fair enough… I would only engage in this if it were explicit, but to each their own.
 
TheNeutral said:
I’d rather an Angel (like Michael) or Adam/Eve be above me than someone who literally came out of nowhere in x point in time and got gracehax (x999) to become perfect despite the established rules… Which points to the question of why those rules exists (and thus, starts the rabbit hole).
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Mary was unique for many reasons…
We were all born with Original Sin and suffer it’s consequences. (the loss of the preternatural gifts and supernatural life that our first parents possessed before the fall) The only way we could be saved was to have someone who did have the supernatural power of life over death to be willing to enter into the death that was our fate and deserved by our personal sin to resurrect and break the chains of death. No human could do this because even if they offered to do it out of love for humanity, they would still be receiving their just due and besides would not have the power to resurrect and defeat death. Only the power of divine love could do that. Christ gives us opportunity to share in His cross and sufferings for our own perfection but by no means are we supernaturally capable of saving ourselves.

Mary is unique but still needed saved by the power of the cross, just as we do. However, because God is not bound by time, He could apply the saving grace of the cross to Mary at the moment of her conception and preserve her free from original sin. Although Mary was highly favored to be chosen, it wasn’t for her benefit, but for the benefit of us all. We were in need of that Savior and God chose to have Him born of a woman, to fully enter into our humanity, from conception until death, to redeem the totality of our lives. He, himself, could not be born with the stain of Original sin, so it was necessary that the one who would give birth to Him, be free of it and preserved from passing it down.

If it seems unfair that she is “above us all” even though she received special graces and was preserved from the sin that taints the rest of us, it’s because you are assuming she reigns in heaven on her own merit when she got a free “head start” that the rest of didn’t get. Rest assured, she doesn’t reign because she was sinless and perfect by her own power but because she willingly cooperated with the grace given her on behalf of all of us who were in need of a Savior. She was saved by the cross that saved us all but that cross wouldn’t exist without her cooperation, so thank God, she was granted the graces necessary to enable her cooperation but she also had to make use of her free will to assent to it. “May it done to me according to your Word.” “For behold, from now on all generations will call me blessed;
for he who is mighty has done great things for me,”
 
TheNeutral said:
Personally, I dislike Mary’s Veneration. It inevitably lends itself to jealously and agitation.
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Perhaps you feel this way because you misunderstand why we venerate her. She was necessary for our salvation by God’s Holy Will. Where would we be without her cooperation in our redemption? Where would we be without God giving a woman the necessary graces so that the supernatural, divine Savior could enter into our humanity without being tainted by it?

Don’t be jealous and agitated. Her “gracehax” (whatever that is) made your salvation a possibility. We owe her veneration for her free cooperation.
 
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