Are We As Catholics, Obsessed with Mary? - Page 5

Luvtosew · #61 May 4, '12, 3:25 pm

Quote:

Originally Posted by lucien123

Do not get me wrong here, I totally and fully believe everything that is written, the fact that she is the mother of god, as well as a saint, etc, etc, etc.

BUT Lately I'm beginning to be tired, Everywhere I go there's something to do with Mary, I live in europe, everytime something happens the old people are like "Oh Maria" (Oh Mary), I go to church the people pray the rosary, repeating "Mary",

I pray the rosary very devotedly myself but I'm just saying that I tired of "Mary", everywhere I go, I walk in a church> There's a statue of Mary, I go to Confession> I must say hail Marys, People get stressed > The say "Oh Mary", I look to my left> There is a picture of Mary. What baffles me the most the consecration of Churches is done in the Name of Mary. I was also visiting a monastery for a Few days, and there was a statue of her on every corner.

It's getting on my nerve, every single person I meet, place I go, mass I attend is just, Mary, Mary, Mary, Mary, Mary, Mary, Mary, over and over and over.

Can people not Just use other comments, like "oh god, or jesus or St. Michael or whatever? Am I the only one who feels this way?

Please advise,
Thanks
Lucien

Yes I agree, its too much.

Jeanne S · #62 May 4, '12, 3:42 pm

Quote:

Originally Posted by Brooklyn

Thank you for this post. I think that the devil hates Mary above all of God's creation because 1) he was never able to tempt Mary. She never sinned, meaning she never once, not even in her mind, gave in to him 2) Satan thought he had defeated God through a woman and instead, God defeated Satan through a woman. 3) First and foremost, it was through Mary that the world received its Saviour. Eve said no, but Mary said yes, AND THE WORD WAS MADE FLESH.

God bless you, Benedict. You are must assuredly on the right path.

yes!

YoungTradCath · #63 May 4, '12, 5:25 pm

I do not think we are obsessed with Mary. At least, I don't know any Catholics who are. I imagine some are overzealous, but they are probably rare.

TimothyH · #64 May 4, '12, 7:35 pm

Quote:

Originally Posted by JRKH

This indeed is proper teaching. However, this does not prevent certain individuals from improper devotion to Mary....

Peace
James

Quote:

Originally Posted by Brooklyn

You can't prevent individuals from doing anything. People are going to do what they are going to do.

The Church has always and will always promote devotion to Mary. The saints tell us that it is impossible to honor Mary too highly. She is the Mother of our Lord, the most perfect, most magnificient of all God's creation. It was her "yes" that gave our Lord his human nature and allowed Him to come to earth and die for us. She was always with him from the moment of his conception to his last breath on the cross. She held his mulitilated, battered dead body in her arms. She never once even considered disobedience. And down through history she has always been there for us. As I have posted, her love far surpasses any love we can know on this earth.

I can only tell you that in my experience, those with a deep devotion to Mary have never gone off the deep end. They have always stayed true to the Church and have a great love for our Lord and the teachings of the Church. So all of this "obsessive" and "disordered" stuff is not something I can speak to because I have not personally seen it.

I echo Brooklyn's sublime words here.

The more one is devoted to Mary, the more one is drawn into the heart of her son's body, the Church. There are few things more traditional than deep devotion to Mary.

Little more can be added to his post.

-Tim-

mab23 · #65 May 4, '12, 7:44 pm

Quote:

Originally Posted by GRATEFULONEjim

Don't forget, May is a month devoted to the Blessed Virgin. May Crowning, Queen of May, Flores de Mayo (Flowers of May). I can never become "tired" of any part of our faith.

This!

Cat Herder · #66 May 4, '12, 7:53 pm

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bezant

If you want to bring non-Catholics closer to the Church, you have to convey or modify your outward practices in ways they'll more easily understand and accept. It has nothing to do with changing yourself to please them, but everything to do with meeting people where they are.

I have to respectfully disagree with this. Minimizing or hiding Mary is not going to help bring anyone to the Church. Mary is there because She defines Who Jesus is: the Christ, the Messiah, the Son of the Living God. She is part of the fulfillment of the prophecies that identify Christ as being the Messiah. When one rejects Mary as the fulfillment of these prophecies, Jesus starts to lose His identity.

For example, rejecting Her perpetual virginity destroys Christ's identity as the Son of God Who alone enters the Temple Gate (Mary's womb) in Ezekiel 44. Further, rejecting Her Immaculate Conception destroys Christ's identity as the Seed of the Woman (Mary) Who smashes the head of the serpent. And removing the Assumption causes Christ Himself to utter an unfulfilled prophecy. Thus, in their zeal to glorify Christ by minimizing Mary, they end up stripping Christ of His glory altogether.

fred conty · #67 May 4, '12, 8:02 pm

We as catholics believe in the communion of saints, those in heaven, those on earth, and those in purgatory, are members of one body of Jesus Christ. We help one another, and ask help from one another out of love. This is the way our Lord wants it, that is, that we care about one another. So when we talk to one another(pray) then we give a helping hand. Mary is the holiest of all saints since she is Jesus' mother, and Jesus himself gave Mary to us to be our mother.

At certain times, the church(body of christ) prays the litany of the saints beginning with invoking the Trinity, then Mary, then the rest of the saints. It is the church herself who invokes the saints, and especially special attention is given to Mary up front. Can we do better than what the church thinks of Mary? The church even honors Mary with special holy days.

Some will say that they want to pray to God directly. Well certainly you can, and in many instances that is exactly what all of us do. But there are other times when we are alone and desperate and in pain. Those are the times when we need help and support desporately. And so we go to our "go to" person, Mary, for if anyone will understand our need, it is certainly our own mother that Jesus gave us. And then we ask her to pray with us for then...

"...the heartfelt prayer of a good man works very powerfully." James 4;16-17

"...but he listens to the prayers of the virtuous." Proverbs 15:29

And she stands by us and prays with us as our mother and His mother. What an amazing person to hold our hand to help us know which way to turn. And I believe that is pretty much when we go to her.

In the hail mary, the first half of this prayer are the words of Angel gabriel to Mary, and the words of St. Elizabeth to Mary. In the first half of the second half, this is from the litany of the saints. And the second half of the second half is asking Mary to pray for us today and at our death. It is a well designed and biblical church prayer. And that is what the rosary is and why so pleasing. Almost every scene or mystery of the rosary is taken right from our sacred scripture.

This is the month of May, the month of Mary, and a perfect time to pray the rosary every day.

ConstantineTG · #68 May 4, '12, 9:17 pm

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bezant

I definitely agree with you, Constantine. I feel the problem, from the Church's side, is failing to teach lay people the distinction between devotion and obsession. As much as outsiders should not assume what Catholics believe about Mary, Catholics must also be careful with Marian devotion because outsiders may misunderstand it as worship.

Yes. Anything can be taken to the extreme and become bad, become harmful. Great devotion is not wrong unless how the devotion is done is wrong in itself. The problem some people have is not the intensity of their devotion, but how they live it and how they believe in it.

Bezant · #69 May 4, '12, 9:59 pm

Quote:

Originally Posted by Cat Herder

I have to respectfully disagree with this. Minimizing or hiding Mary...

But I never said that Catholics need to "minimise" or "hide" Mary.

I said, for the sake of drawing non-Catholics to the Church, Catholics need to represent Marian veneration 1) according to Church teaching, clearly distinguishing between veneration and worship and 2) "convey" or "modify" outward devotion in ways non-Catholics may find easier to accept or understand. There's more than one way to venerate Mary and educate outsiders, without taking away Mary's honour or anyone's right to private devotion.

Bezant · #70 May 4, '12, 10:01 pm

Quote:

Originally Posted by ConstantineTG

Yes. Anything can be taken to the extreme and become bad, become harmful. Great devotion is not wrong unless how the devotion is done is wrong in itself. The problem some people have is not the intensity of their devotion, but how they live it and how they believe in it.

Yes.

WFS5801 · #71 May 5, '12, 12:30 am

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bezant

But I never said that Catholics need to "minimise" or "hide" Mary.

I said, for the sake of drawing non-Catholics to the Church, Catholics need to represent Marian veneration 1) according to Church teaching, clearly distinguishing between veneration and worship and 2) "convey" or "modify" outward devotion in ways non-Catholics may find easier to accept or understand. There's more than one way to venerate Mary and educate outsiders, without taking away Mary's honour or anyone's right to private devotion.

Quite bluntly I'm tired of Catholics watering down their Faith and God-revealed doctrines to placate others. What happens when you usher Protestants into the Church by our muted and "reasonable" veneration to the Queen of Heaven, and then they start reading how unashamed and openly our Saints were in their devotions to Our Lady? Now do we apologize for these saints' "unreasonable" behavior? -- do we say they should have "modified" their devotion to the Mother of Our Lord? -- that it was an "embarrassment" to us more "enlightened" modern Catholics? Because that's the way compromise goes ... always a little more give. And pretty soon you find that you've compromised away your Faith.

In his introduction to The Glories of Mary, St. Alphonsus De Liguouri wrote:

"Worldly lovers often speak of those whom they love, and praise them, in order that the object of their affections may be praised and extolled by others. There are some who pretend to be lovers of Mary, and yet seldom either speak of her or endeavor to excite others to love her: their love cannot be great. It is not thus that true lovers of this amiable Lady act; they desire to praise her on all occasions, and to see her loved by the whole world, and never lose an opportunity, either in public or in private, of enkindling in the hearts of others those blessed flames of love with which they themselves burn towards their beloved Queen."

http://www.marys-touch.com/Glories/introduction.htm

Bezant · #72 May 5, '12, 10:25 am

Quote:

Originally Posted by WFS5801

Quite bluntly I'm tired of

Nope, that's not my argument.

Did you read and understand my post, or are you reacting to what you think I'm saying?

KateKimmer · #73 May 5, '12, 10:32 am

I LOVE Mary! She has helped me so many times!

I dont think there could ever be too much of her!

that being said, I do know someone who pretty much only prays the Hail Mary.
not saying that is wrong or anything.

KateKimmer · #74 May 5, '12, 10:38 am

Quote:

Originally Posted by BenedictFTW

I should have said, "the Rosary is the most powerful of all prayers, imho and in my experience". Most of the holiest priests I have ever met had a deep devotion to Our Blessed Mother. I speak as I find

Let us not forget St Padre Pio. He said many rosaries a day. Truly devoted to Mary and a most wonderful priest.

I_am_Iron_Man · #75 May 5, '12, 11:39 am

no, but we respect her more than the other religions.