Catholic Caucus: Mary, The Power of Her Name [The Most Holy Name of the Blessed Virgin Mary]

Holy Wounds Apostolate ^ | unknown | Holy Wounds Apostolate

[Campion]

LOL - it looks like they're sitting in Villa Philbrook, in Tulsa.

St. Luke painting the Blessed Mother in Tulsa is at least as believable as St. Luke painting the Blessed Mother in Italian Renaissance style, while wearing Italian Renaissance clothing and seated next to a bull. :-)

[ELS]

That painting is on the cover of Alive and Well, a quarterly magazine put out by the Archdiocese of New York.

[TomSmedley]

The demonic aura surrounding the cult of the BVM is the one thing that most convincingly bars my road back to Rome.

[Campion]

The demonic aura surrounding the cult of the BVM

... is a figment of your imagination. The devil hates and fears the Mother of God, and is happy to keep you in the same state.

[AnAmericanMother]

Oh, horse feathers.

I was an Episcopalian for years, not because I was worried about the Blessed Virgin - just because I was a sixth generation Piskie.

Anyhow, after being a Piskie all those years in an extremely liberal diocese, I have a very well developed antenna for the nasty stuff - the more radical priests and priestesses were bringing crazy practices and even people like that in off the street. I don't get that in our Catholic parish or in our archdiocese -- our tough old no-nonsense Irish rector wouldn't stand for it.

Any "demonic aura" you perceive is probably generated by well-meaning (I hope) but ignorant protestants who are opposed to what they think they "know" about the Church and Mary.

[AnAmericanMother]

Glad somebody else likes and appreciates that painting. It manages to be otherworldly and at the same time utterly grounded in Dutch realism.

[murphE]

The demonic aura surrounding the cult of the BVM is the one thing that most convincingly bars my road back to Rome.

Now that's the most demonic statement I've read on this thread.

I will put enmities between thee and the woman, and thy seed and her seed: she shall crush thy head, and thou shalt lie in wait for her heel. Genesis 3:15

Who hates Our Lady more than Satan? Who hates her children more than he does? Who hates to see Our Lady get the honor that she is due more than he? How pleased he must be when people fail to love and honor her the way Our Lord does.

[murphE]

Just a simply awesome post.

[Tax-chick]

This is true.

[Tax-chick]

To me, one of the "otherworldly" parts (in addition to the bull in the salon, of course) is the lack of diapering.

(Okay, I'll stop now!)

[AnAmericanMother]

St. Luke painting the Blessed Mother in Tulsa is at least as believable as St. Luke painting the Blessed Mother in Italian Renaissance style, while wearing Italian Renaissance clothing and seated next to a bull. :-)

Well . . . why not? LOL!

(the torch looks pretty dangerous to me . . . but at least St. Luke has put a halter on his bull in the illumination!)

[AnAmericanMother]

The poor fellow who's over there grinding the paint is thinking, "Oh, rats! Next I have to go get the shovel and the broom . . . "

Here's another De Vos . . . I like how he paints the "little guys" - the folks around the edges of the action, and the servant leaning down to catch the Virgin's whispered, "Do whatever he tells you to."

[Tax-chick]

Those don't look like "stone jars, each holding 20 or 30 gallons" to me! But what's a little artistic license among friends ...

I don't care for the pictures where the Baby Jesus looks like a miniature adult - especially that one where He looks like a tiny Arnold Schwartzenegger!

[NormB]

I see that you have attracted some flames for telling the truth about Mary Worship.

They lift the name of Mary up to the very same pinnacle where only God's name belongs.

To even state "The Most High" to describe her name is heretical, then they attack YOU as the demonic one. They are truly blind, and will not accept instruction from anyone but their own church.

That article is yet another horrific example of how they try to link the power of Christ to Mary as though the work of Christ as insufficient.

I think your statement is very well put and accurate. It is demonic. We should shrink back from idolatry and from anything that takes away from the glory that rightfully belongs to Christ.

But don't even think you can convince them of this. The powerful grip of this idolatry is almost insurmountable. I know first hand how hard it is for people, especially older people with a Catholic background to get freedom from the FEAR and anxiety of idol worship in Catholicism. Very much like breaking the grip of a cult like Mormonism. In fact the two operate very similarly.

[AnAmericanMother]

LOL! No doubt they took the wine OUT of the stone jars to bring it to the table . . . or something like that.

I guess some artists couldn't find a baby who was willing to hold still long enough.

[AnAmericanMother]

You call that FLAMES? Good gracious, you are too sensitive for FR!

I'm sure there are some Catholics, probably the elderly and credulous, who mistakenly worship Mary. But since when do we judge a church on the flights of fancy of some of its members? The Catechism is abundantly clear regarding the status of Mary, and it is nothing like you describe. Read for yourself.

[TomSmedley]

I'll say a Hail Mary for you.

Seriously, I'd rather you didn't invoke "alternate deities" on my behalf. Sorry you find "God the Father, maker of heaven and earth, and of all things visible and invisible" an inadquate object for devotion and petition.

[TomSmedley]

But don't even think you can convince them of this. The powerful grip of this idolatry is almost insurmountable. I know first hand how hard it is for people, especially older people with a Catholic background to get freedom from the FEAR and anxiety of idol worship in Catholicism. Very much like breaking the grip of a cult like Mormonism. In fact the two operate very similarly.

Yes. In both cases, you have a self-aware spiritual entity putting on a mask in order to hijack devotional energies that properly should be directed to God. The demonic can be beautiful, in a weird kind of way. Answering prayers, granting mystical experiences, exhorting to righteous living, all in the name of a substitute deity. But the weirdness around the edges sort of gives it away. You keep seeing a cloven hoof sticking out from the hem of the blue robe.

[Tax-chick]

I guess some artists couldn't find a baby who was willing to hold still long enough.

So they just shrank a local bodybuilder ...

Well, it makes as much sense as the livestock underfoot in the palazzi ... not to mention the fact that Jesus is the only one wearing anything even suggestive of Judean dress, while every other participant has been shopping in Mantua ...