A Case For Mary (A Catholic Apologist's Response)

[emdistortion]

A Case For Mary (A Catholic Apologist's Response)

Please forgive my boldness as I am a so-called “newb” here. I have lurked on these pages for many years and never posted but have been moved to do so after a recent thread. The thread concerned the commonly held notion that Mary, the mother of Jesus, is worshiped by some Christians.

Let’s now have an understanding. No one worships Mary. Let me repeat: no one worships Mary. This is a misunderstanding. It may appear as worship - especially in cultures where Christianity has replaced, or “conquered”, native pagan beliefs.

Doctrines or other Christian teachings have never supported this, or if they have they have done so fallaciously. Let’s be clear, there is but one God, only one. He revealed himself to Abraham, created spiritual nations of his children Isaac and Ishmael, and gave to us Gentiles the salvation of baptism which washes away the curse of original sin. The children of Abraham do not require baptism as they are Chosen.

So, back to Mary, the basic idea is that when we die – if we are “good” (let’s not pick apart the already digested Christianese) – we go to heaven, right? There are schools of thought that say we’re sent to heaven, purgatory, hell, or nowhere. If we get sent to nowhere we’re generally GOING to be judged for our actions somehow whether right away or on some distant judgment day, right?

Ok, so stay with me, if you believe that souls go to heaven and are with God then there is no reason why they can not be with us in our hearts just as we hold God in our hearts, they’re together after all, right? Do they not watch over us like the Angels themselves? How many times have you heard said that the dead watch over us like guardians or some other loving gesture?

So, just as we speak to those around us we can communicate with those in heaven. This is a sticking point with many anti-Mary or Protestant believers. We can communicate with those with God just as we do with God Himself. When we speak to those in heaven, we ask them to pray for us, just as we ask those around us to pray for us. You have obviously heard the expression “I’ll pray for you” or “Will you pray for me?”.

So, those of us who speak to Mary do not worship her. We ask her to pray for us. Can not those in heaven pray for us? Is not Mary surely in heaven?

Then let’s not be naïve or condescending, there is no intentional worship of Mary. That is not what is meant by veneration or “intercession”. We ask that someone who is most definitely in Heaven to have compassion on us and please pray on our behalf, assuming we pray to ourselves to begin with. That is all.

There may be many differing opinions now and throughout history concerning this matter but I can assure you that the prevailing spiritual understanding of this issue is basic and essential to just about all Christian faiths. I welcome dissentions on this.

The Catholic faith practices a gesture of ecumenicity, or unity of all Christians in brotherhood. We are all brothers in Christ, he did not mean for us to fight bitterly amongst ourselves for supremacy in faith.

So please, I ask humbly of all of you who call yourselves Christians, stop this infighting which poses to tear our faith apart into so many sects, and which has done so violently for so many hundreds and hundreds of years.

No one worships Mary. I pray that those who think we do see the light of their errors and join us in asking all those in heaven to pray for us as we are definitely in need of prayer.

Thank you all and I will include the Hail Mary prayer here:

Hail Mary,
Full of Grace,
The Lord is with thee.
Blessed art thou among women,
and blessed is the fruit
of thy womb, Jesus.
Holy Mary,
Mother of God,
pray for us sinners now,
and at the hour of death.

Amen.

Thank you all.

[Kajsa]

1. Our minister made a very interesting point

in his sermon on the fourth Advent Sunday.

" If you are trying to make points with someone
( Jesus) you don't bash his mother"

Amen!

[emdistortion]

2. That's a wonderful point.

And so succinctly made, I have to remember that.

[ZombieHorde]

3. I am not Catholic, but I was raised Catholic,

and I agree Catholics are sometimes falsely accused of worshiping Mary.

Some Catholics ask Mary to pray for them, some Catholics pray for Mary, but I don't know any Catholics which actually worship Mary.

I believe the accusation comes from a misunderstanding of the Hail Mary prayer.