We have all heard this hymn 'Ave Maria', a beautiful one indeed, addressed to Our Blessed Mother, the first Christian, the first disciple who points the way to Christ. Through Her intercession Jesus performed His first miracle, and stood beside Him at the foot of the Cross. In fact She should be our source of unity among the separated brethren, yet to protestants,.(especially the 'fun' ones,..y'know the rabid anti-Catholic, 'I don't believe in dinosaurs crowd,..) She becomes tantamount to idol worship, and the above mentioned beautiful hymn, sounds like a wiccan incantation towards Gaia.
Now,.Do we post about how we as Catholics do not worship Mary for the 165 357 999th time? I would love to think that within the ecumenical arena, that we would be able to move past this issue. Guess that's not the case. First off, to my sincerely misguided Bible believing protestant brethren,..WE DO NOT WORSHIP MARY!!!!!!! (165 358 000 time) We honour Mary as Our Mother,.the same way we honour our own mothers,..its that simple. Notice how I didn't have to go into Latria (Worship) as opposed to dulia? (Honour) I can however use the Bible to show the Marian doctrines,..albeit implicitly,..then again there are also other implicit doctrines,..one of them being the Trinity!...We can begin with Genesis 3:15, (protoevangelium) continue on to Is 7:14, next up we go to Luke 1: 28,..(the Greek here says, Kecharitomene or 'Full of Grace'.... O Protestant,..do explain how Mary is 'full of Grace' (Her title by the way,..angels are messengers from God..) if the Cross hasn't happened yet? Btw, its NOT 'highly favoured.' But nice try though!) Shall I continue?,..Luke 1:48 (All generations will call me Blessed,..) ..We also have Her only command in John 2: 5,.. More?? Sure! We have John 19: 26-27,.Woman, behold your son,..(The 'Woman' is used throughout John as a title for the Blessed Mother, the new Eve..It is not used in a derogatory sense, because Jesus, being a good Jewish boy wouldn't disobey the fourth commandment.) Aaaaaaaaand here is a good one, Revelation (Apocalypse) 12,..read the entire thing,..see if you can now draw the parallel from Genesis 3:15! ,..
Aside from that we also have the Testimony of the Church Fathers, and well, they were the original Bible commentators,.cause well,..some of them wrote and helped canonize the New Testament! So 'Theotokos', we have St Cyril of Alexandria, St Ireneaus and St John of Damascus to name a few. For the 'Immaculate Conception' we have St Ephreim, and we have St Augustine!!! On a side note, we also have your founders,.Luther and Calvin! Both had great devotion to the Blessed Mother! As far as intercessary prayers go? The Old Testament Psalms 103 and 148 come to mind whereby the angels are invoked. We invoke the saints to pray with us,..not to communicate and bend them to our will, that is forbidden. In the New Testament, through Christ, we read that we are all members of the Church and death does not separate us. This was also recognized by the Early Church Fathers, particularly Clement of Alexandria and Cyprian of Carthage.
To conclude this little apologetic on Mary and the Saints,. I would encourage all those seeking Truth with a sincere heart to open yourselves up to the teachings of the early Church Fathers. If a verse comes down to interpretation, definetly consult those, who in many cases knew the Apostles personally,..or you can continue to quote the Rev. Cletus Archibald Lovejoy III from the 1st reformed pentecostal baptist church in the Ozark mountains, with his 19 PHDs (from non accredited schools.)
Our Lady of Fatima,.....................ora pro nobis!
Now,.Do we post about how we as Catholics do not worship Mary for the 165 357 999th time? I would love to think that within the ecumenical arena, that we would be able to move past this issue. Guess that's not the case. First off, to my sincerely misguided Bible believing protestant brethren,..WE DO NOT WORSHIP MARY!!!!!!! (165 358 000 time) We honour Mary as Our Mother,.the same way we honour our own mothers,..its that simple. Notice how I didn't have to go into Latria (Worship) as opposed to dulia? (Honour) I can however use the Bible to show the Marian doctrines,..albeit implicitly,..then again there are also other implicit doctrines,..one of them being the Trinity!...We can begin with Genesis 3:15, (protoevangelium) continue on to Is 7:14, next up we go to Luke 1: 28,..(the Greek here says, Kecharitomene or 'Full of Grace'.... O Protestant,..do explain how Mary is 'full of Grace' (Her title by the way,..angels are messengers from God..) if the Cross hasn't happened yet? Btw, its NOT 'highly favoured.' But nice try though!) Shall I continue?,..Luke 1:48 (All generations will call me Blessed,..) ..We also have Her only command in John 2: 5,.. More?? Sure! We have John 19: 26-27,.Woman, behold your son,..(The 'Woman' is used throughout John as a title for the Blessed Mother, the new Eve..It is not used in a derogatory sense, because Jesus, being a good Jewish boy wouldn't disobey the fourth commandment.) Aaaaaaaaand here is a good one, Revelation (Apocalypse) 12,..read the entire thing,..see if you can now draw the parallel from Genesis 3:15! ,..
Aside from that we also have the Testimony of the Church Fathers, and well, they were the original Bible commentators,.cause well,..some of them wrote and helped canonize the New Testament! So 'Theotokos', we have St Cyril of Alexandria, St Ireneaus and St John of Damascus to name a few. For the 'Immaculate Conception' we have St Ephreim, and we have St Augustine!!! On a side note, we also have your founders,.Luther and Calvin! Both had great devotion to the Blessed Mother! As far as intercessary prayers go? The Old Testament Psalms 103 and 148 come to mind whereby the angels are invoked. We invoke the saints to pray with us,..not to communicate and bend them to our will, that is forbidden. In the New Testament, through Christ, we read that we are all members of the Church and death does not separate us. This was also recognized by the Early Church Fathers, particularly Clement of Alexandria and Cyprian of Carthage.
To conclude this little apologetic on Mary and the Saints,. I would encourage all those seeking Truth with a sincere heart to open yourselves up to the teachings of the early Church Fathers. If a verse comes down to interpretation, definetly consult those, who in many cases knew the Apostles personally,..or you can continue to quote the Rev. Cletus Archibald Lovejoy III from the 1st reformed pentecostal baptist church in the Ozark mountains, with his 19 PHDs (from non accredited schools.)
Our Lady of Fatima,.....................ora pro nobis!
2 comments:
Whoa Optimus! You just owned the sola scriptura people at their own Biblical game. Nice to see a Catholic can cite scripture too!
Thanks dude! I usually shy away from apologetical type encounters, as I don't find that they bear much fruit,..
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