Happy Mother's Day

As I knelt in prayer before Mass started this morning, I started thinking about Jesus and his mom Mary. Today is Mother's Day and the Church recognizes May as a month to honor His mom and our own earthly mothers.
I thought back to my 30 plus years as an evangelical Christian when I accused the Catholic Church of worshipping Mary and displacing devotion from Christ to her. It's been two years now as a convert (revert) to Catholicism and I have never felt more in love with Jesus and the incredible love He has shown me. I have also started to "warm up" to His Mom and have been thankful for the sense that I have she has been pointing me towards her Son! When I pray the rosary I am actually using the words of Scripture in the "Hail Mary" prayer and fulfilling Scripture "that all generations will call me blessed." Do I worship her? No, that would be evil and the Catholic Church has always made the distinction in honoring versus worship. But I do feel some remorse for the years that I disdained her due to my incorrect views of Catholicism. Bottom line here: Jesus truly is both God and Man. Mary is Jesus' mother, hence she is the Mother of God, and at the very least deserves our honor, not our disdain. We too can echo the words of Elizabeth in Luke 1: 43 "and why is this granted to me that the mother of my Lord should come to me?" If, Jesus is our spiritual brother then Mary, therefore, is our spiritual Mother. Not blasphemy, "goddess worship", medieval inventions or the like, just truth from Scripture. Happy Mother's Day!

Our prayer should include the Mother of God . . . What the Hail Mary says is that all glory should be given to God, using these words: "Hail Mary, full of grace. The Lord is with thee; blessed art thou among women and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus Christ. Amen!" You see that these words are not concerned with prayer but purely with giving praise and honor . . . We can use the Hail Mary as a meditation in which we recite what grace God has given her. Second, we should add a wish that everyone may know and respect her . . . He who has no faith is advised to refrain from saying the Hail Mary.
( Martin Luther Personal Prayer Book, 1522)

http://www.ourladyweb.com/mary-defended.html