Catholics Obeying Scripture
Here's a beautiful video clip of a generation of Catholic believers obeying Scripture and honoring the Mother of God. Yeah, their not worshiping the statue, that would be idol worship and devout Catholics are into obeying the Big Ten as well as the rest of Scripture. I get chills thinking that if this is how they revere the mother of our Lord, think of how they must worship Him!
"All generations shall call me blessed"
When was the last time you called her blessed?
When was the last time you called her blessed?
posted by Russ Rentler, M.D. | 11:02 PM
19 Comments:
Beautiful and a wonderfully accurate description of what is happening here... like a little piece of heaven on earth!
Amen Sis! We shouldn't treat the Queen of Heaven with anything but with honor and respect.
A beautiful and moving scene. As a Catholic working with a number of judgmental and self-righteous born-again Christians, I'm a bit tired of hearing that I am sinning and that the scriptures do not support our love for Mary. The scriptures are certainly the word, but He gave us the capacity to use the word as a basis to generate acts of love and kindness. There is no human closer to Jesus than Mary. She is special; selected by God the Father to bear his son. Our love and respect for her is righteous and just.
Hmmm... what inspired this post? I wonder.
Yes, me too. :-)
I have a very, very, very strong love of Christ. (Thank you Catholic Church). He is everything to me. I can't imagine loving Jesus without that love extending to those associated with Him, let alone the woman who made Him possible. A love of Christ, coupled with a hatred or scorn of Mary or even a noncommittal attitude toward her? No way!
I am perplexed by the hardened, Scripture-narrow vision of using one's own view of the Word to bash other Christians. There is a fullness in Christianity, that once you embrace it, brings the greatest joy.
Our love of Jesus is not LESS because we want to thank his mother for Him and love her for Him. It is greater. It is dysfunctional to think she has to be put aside in order to love Him fully. And no, we don't WORSHIP her! Many times, since my mother died, I know she is in heaven, and I have talked to her and asked her to tell Jesus I love Him. That is how I also see Mary. (And my mother's name was Mary!)
Well, if people can get incensed (no pun intended!) when "artists" reveal their "masterpieces", such as crucifixes swimming in a vat of urine, or icons of saints covered in feces...
... I guess people can get just as outraged when Catholics venerate crucifixes and icons of the saints. Respect can be mistaken for idol worship, certainly, but I know I'm not worshipping an idol. I'm honoring a role model in Christ, and that honor only redounds to the greater glorification of God.
And seriously, if Catholics worshipped Mary and the Saints, wouldn't we be putting ourselves in serious jeopardy every time we denied it?
japhy:
Excellent point!
I don't really think that non-Catholics instinctively hate Mary. I suspect the veneration of Mary probably comes fairly easy to cradle Catholics. As a young boy I said the rosary and didn't think twice about it. I have been asking Catholics for three and one half years now about their relationship to Mary, and never has the word worship ever been associated with her.
However, she "poses" as the easiest and quickest target because of their "she's not in the Bible very much" viewpoint. It's so sad when anti-Catholics bash Mary, the mother of our Lord, and our Mum too, since Jesus is our brother. They really are attacking the wrong target, which is The Church.
Too many protestants are completely ignorant concerning the Virgin Mary.
I spent many years in the Churches of Christ and except in passing, she was never mentioned....how sad. American protestanism today is far removed from the early church. I was apart of it for too many years and too finally return to historic/orthodx christianity is a God send. Martin Luther had love and adoration for her, protestants of today should follow suit.
patient doc:
well said!
Julie, thanks for the post, that's a neat connection with your Mom. My mom's name was Virginia Mary. Can you imagine?
JP,
Have even studied Martin Luther? I'm curious. You posted what I told you about Martin Luther's Marian devotion without finding out what he was quoted as saying later in his life? Are you getting all of your Christian knowledge from blogs?
I'm not trying to be condescending, I just think that, if my suspicions are true, you are really confused and are opening yourself up to receive a great amount of potentially harmful information.
Tiber, please feel free to block this post if you believe it to be inappropriate.
I apologize...
"Have you even studied..."
Joseph:
I am probably not the best judge of what not to post! As long as the goal is to provide some clarity, or to get our non-Catholic brother bloggers thinking critically, I think it's fair. If you are saying something to rip for the sake of ripping, you are the best judge of that. Obviously my blog often uses the sardonic sand of irritation to stimulate critical thinking, though
I really can't say if there is any fruit born as a result.
I will delete comments as I always do when either side of the river starts with the "you are an apostate" stuff, though you can guess who I hear more of that from.
Thanks for posting.
Tiber, another great post and conversation. My thoughts.
John 19:26-27
When Jesus saw his mother and the disciple there whom he loved, he said to his mother, "Woman, behold, your son." Then he said to the disciple, "Behold your mother." And from that hour the disciple took her into his home.
How much more need to be said about the importance of Mary? He uplifted her to the world and gave her as mother, rather than give, for example, one last lesson or parable or prayer. Jesus felt it important enough to say while dying on the cross, immediately before saying "I thirst" and "It is finished."
Great point MMF.
Why didn't he say "Now John, you go and proclaim the gospel and do not under any circumstance care for THAT WOMAN?"
We too often neglect the significance of Jesus final words and action.
JP: I have to disagree with you. When I posted a similar thought long ago on my blog regarding Luther's positive view of Mary, I was quickly trounced upon by a protestant who accused me of distorting Luther's Mariology to defend Catholicism.
He explained that Luther's theology of Mary had "developed" over time from this:
“O blessed mother! O most worthy virgin! Remember us, and grant that the Lord do such great things to us too.” “...call upon the holy angels, particularly his own angel, the Mother of God, and all the apostles and saints”
to this:
“those who bless her with many rosaries and constantly mouth the Hail Mary… speak evil against Christ’s word and faith in the worst way.”
So according to protestant scholars of Luther,
Martin Luther may have once had "love and adoration" for her as you say but he ended his life soundly opposed to Marian doctrines, and formulated the groundwork for the hardy anti-catholic responses found ubiquitously on the internet today.
Maybe if Luther lived longer, he may have changed his mind again regarding his Mariology as well as other theology, Who knows?
Tiber, you apostate!
Seeing that I'm a life-long Catholic who worships with Christians of other communions, I can't help but wonder: Am I also an apostate or simply confused?
Seriously though, in the end (and I do mean "the end") don't you think all of this controversy will simply fade when seen in the light of the glory of God's beatific vision?
Once we stand before the great throne of the Almighty Father, with every heart joining the unending hymn of praise (Holy, Holy Holy, Lord God of Hosts, Heaven and earth are filled with Your Glory!), won't the very core of heaven and earth see that even the most "over the top" veneration of any saint to the greater glory of God's good work in us nevertheless pales in comparison to the worship of our Lord?
Notice that amid this great Gloria of the liturgy is a benediction upon all who act according to God's will:
Hossahana to God in the highest! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. Hossahana to God in the highest!
In this model, when we venerate those who do God's will it is always in the midst of the infinately greater veneration of God Himself.
Your Bro (There ain't no state like Apos-state.),
-- Theo
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