Posted on 03/14/2010 12:14:46 PM PDT by NYer
Romano Guardini wrote in his book on the Rosary, “To linger in the domain of Mary is a divinely great thing. One does not ask about the utility of truly noble things, because they have their meaning within themselves. So it is of infinite meaning to draw a deep breath of this purity, to be secure in the peace of this union with God.”
Guardini was speaking of spending time with Mary in praying the Rosary, but David Mills, in his latest book, Discovering Mary, helps us linger in the domain of Mary by opening up to us the riches of divine revelation, both from tradition and Scripture. Mills, a convert from the Episcopal Church, former editor of the Christian journal Touchstone and editor of the 1998 book of essays commemorating the centennial of C.S. Lewis’ birth The Pilgrim’s Guide: C. S. Lewis and the Art of Witness, as well as the author of Knowing the Real Jesus (2001), has written a rock-solid introduction to the Blessed Virgin Mary, and done so with intellectual rigor and an affable tone.
His book begins with an introduction in which he describes how he came to discover the riches of the Church’s teachings on Mary: “I began to see how a sacred vessel is made holy by the sacred thing it carries,” he writes. “I began to feel this in a way I had not before. I found myself developing an experiential understanding of Mary and indeed a Marian devotion. Which surprised me. It surprised me a lot.”
Unfortunately, he notes, he did not learn about Mary from contemporary Catholics, nor in homilies, “even on Marian feast days.” It seems he learned on his own by reading magisterial documents and going back to Scriptures in light of those documents.
This book shares the fruit of that study. Mills examines the life of Mary, Mary in the Bible, Mary in Catholic doctrine, Marian feast days and the names of Mary. He includes an appendix full of references to papal documents and books on Mary.
Most of the book is done in a question-and-answer format, which usually works well, although at times it feels awkward. Would someone really ask, for instance, “What is happening in the liturgy on the Marian feast days?”
But most of the questions are natural. “What is the point of Marian devotion?” Mills asks. It is “to live the Catholic life as well as we can,” he answers. “This means going ever more deeply into the mystery of Christ, to become saintlier, more conformed to his image, by following Mary’s example and by turning to her for help and comfort.”
Next question: “Does devotion to Mary detract from our devotion to Christ?”
“Christians since the beginning of serious Marian devotion have been careful to emphasize Mary’s subordination to her son,” Mills replies. “In fact, they have said it so often that the reader begins to expect it. In the fifth century St. Ambrose put it nicely: ‘Mary was the temple of God, not the god of the temple.’”
David Mills, with the same radical clarity he showed in Knowing the Real Jesus, has written what has to be one of the best, if not the very best, short introductions to Catholic teaching on Mary, the Mother of God. Discovering Mary is ideal for those wanting to know more about her, whether they be skeptics, Protestants, or Catholics who don’t know the Mother of the Church well enough.
Franklin Freeman writes from Saco, Maine.
DISCOVERING MARY
Answers to Questions About the Mother of God
By David Mills
Servant Books, 2009
148 pages, $12.99
To order: servantbooks.org
We Catholics DO pray to God. Attend one of our Masses if you doubt me, and listen attentively to what the priest says, and what the people respond. We also pray on our own to God. And then, we put in extra time saying the Rosary. As I noted before, the Hail Mary says, “Holy Mary, mother of God, pray or us.” You can hardly accuse us of not spending enough time praying to God. Give us credit for going the extra step by asking His mother to also pray to him for us.
***There is a **lot** right about the Catholic Church. I would be THRILLED if every Catholic in this nation actually practiced what is taught in their catechism. Our nation would be far stronger if they did.***
Thank you, child of God.
I beleive the Mary stuff has occurred like the frog in the warming bucket over centuries . . . and like the thickening curtain hiding the Holy of Holies . . . to reportedly 2 feet thick at the time of the Crucifixion.
And, there are those champing at the bit to dogmatically formalize her presumed status as joint-Mediatrix.
THAT ENORMOUSLY whether the Catachism or encyclicals or widely officially published, officially sanctioned items with such as
ni•hil ob•stat
n.
1. Roman Catholic Church An attestation by a church censor that a book contains nothing damaging to faith or morals.
2. Official approval, especially of an artistic work.
WITH
RICHARD CARDINAL CUSHING’S IMPRIMATUR
in John Ferraro's TEN SERIES OF MEDITATIONS ON THE MYSTERIES OF THE ROSARY by the very officially sanctioned and kosher Daughters of St Paul publishers.
"The Faithful"
Are encouraged to persist in spiritually damning glorifications of a mortal in competition with glorifications of God.
When I surveyed the names of Vatican affiliated churches in LA county . . . depending on how one defined it . . . IIRC . . . Mary et al TRUMPED GOD 20-70%!!!
There was much wailing on FR about how inconsequential that was in the over all scheme of things.
I beg to differ. That was raw proof that the MARY MENTALITY has superceded Christ in degrees and ways that are horrific--in the Vatican umbrella'd system.
The
"6 - 'As Mother of the Word Incarnate, Mary was elevated to a certain equality with the Heavenly Father.'"
on p83 of Ferraro's book is but one of dozens of similarly horrific Mary exaltations above her God-given station in that one volume. And most of those outrageous exaltations are taken from a wide range of more or less officially sanctioned, applauded, published and propagated documents, booklets, books from the long history of the Vatican system. Ferraro's book is not an isolated example. It is a SUMMARIZING COMPILATION indicting the whole of the Vatican literature from which it draws.
And, sadly, this is not merely a philosophical/theological thing isolated in pseudo-lofty towers with little impact on daily lives of the masses--particularly in countries such as Mexico and the Philippines--but also, clearly, as the rabid rants on FR attest--also in America.
Souls and lives are being put eternally at risk for their UNBIBLICAL AND SPIRITUALLY HAZARDOUS FOCUS ON MARY vs on Christ.
The Scripture is clear, we cannot serve two masters. Morphing Mary into part of the God-head IS NOT A SOLUTION! IT IS MORE BRAZENLY THE PROBLEM.
Throughout the Old Testament, God's fiercest condemnations were for idolatry. The new testament affirms that attitude on His part.
Yet the Vatican/Roman Catholic et al rationalizations, slippery justifications, excuses, slight of intellectual hand . . . junk . . . about Mary is endless. Methinks they doth protest far too much. That much smoke and no fire would be irrational. That much smoke signals deep rooted bone marrow idolatry pure and simple.
It is as though . . . EVEN WITH BLESSED ROMAN CATHOLIC ET AL FOLKS I RESPECT AND ADMIRE THE CHRISTIANITY OF--EVEN WITH FOLKS SUCH AS y'all . . .
It IS AS THOUGH there's a cloud over your thinking and perceptions which prevents a thoroughly candid, objective, ruthlessly honest view even of your own attitudes toward Mary.
SORRY, BUT THAT'S FRIGHTFUL TO SOME OF US ONLOOKERS.
What must it be for those rank and file Roman Catholic et al pew sitters who don't think very deeply but just go along with the system and rituals as that's all they know and all the deeper they care to think????
God have mercy.
And the wail that such is not part of the Catachism is nonsense.
We have a Constitution in the USA. Yet, we daily observe how shredded it has become at government levels and at street levels. This is still the only America we have. This is still the only realities extent in the US of A.
WHEN THE VATICAN ALLOWS A TEXT LIKE FERRARO'S TO BE PUBLISHED BY SUCH A REVERED PUBLISHING HOUSE WITH THE OFFICIALLY INCLUDED SANCTIONS--THE NET EFFECT TO THE AVERAGE PEW SITTER IS THE SAME AS THOUGH IT WERE WORD FOR WORD FROM THE CATECHISM. 100's of millions of average Roman Catholics et al will have no concept of any distinction between such and the Catechism WHATSOEVER, AT ALL.
EVEN IF THE VATICAN CAME OUT TOMORROW AND BEGAN A WIDELY PUBLICIZED CAMPAIGN to eradicate all such heretical Marian stuff from every Vatican umbrella'd organization and publication--it would be decades if not centuries before such a change really reigned complete and effective with 100's of millions of Roman Catholics et al.
And we can bank on the fact that the Vatican is NOT ABOUT TO negate in the least ANY of the Marian idolatries and blasphemies. The move is WHOLESALE in the direction of embellishing and adding to them.
God have mercy.
Good catch. The usual suspects spreading their usual false histories.
WELL PUT.
It's a sham. There's no equality between asking ungraduated mortals to pray for us vs asking Mary et al on the other side of the GOD'S FIERCELY ESTABLISHED GULF, to pray for us--at all.
There's NO EQUALITY AT ALL. Claiming otherwise is a disingenuous [at best] sham.
The Original Post included:
". . . for those wanting to know more about her, whether they be skeptics, Protestants, or Catholics who don’t know the Mother of the Church well enough."
. . . WELL ENOUGH FOR WHAT?
Well enough to respect her God given station and go on down the road as Christ indicated folks needed to do when HE was notified of His mother and BLOOD BROTHERS AND SISTERS waiting for him . . . DO THE WILL OF THE FATHER.
or
WELL ENOUGH TO EXALT HER BEYOND HER STATION INTO SPIRITUALLY HAZARDOUS IDOLATRY AND BLASPHEMY.
NO THANKS.
I am not doing dogma fights in Lent.
BUT when I read that somebody “discovered Mary” I remember the joke about the bad boy whose mother sent him to talk to the pastor.
He went in, and the pastor bellowed, “Son, have you got Jesus in your life?”
The boy ran home and hid in his closet. When his mom asked why he said, “The Pastor is angry; Jesus is missing, and he thinks I took him!”
Unmitigated rationalizations for
idolatry and blasphemy
don’t impress
GOD ALMIGHTY favorably
AT ALL.
Thanks for your many excellent posts on this thread. Spot on.
yes! It’s incredible how they repeat their falsities!
Great post. I’m sure most people ralize that our loving Savior could never be jealous of His mother - She isn’t the Egyptian Sun God “Ra”, she is the opposite. She is the perfect Christian woman, selected by God, as the who continues to care for her children.
LOL.
I’ve always enjoyed that one, too.
Thx.
Health and wholeness to you, Bro.
great post; but seldom was so much wisdom and use of facts wasted on those whom love living in the land of Make-Believe too much to ever possibly hear ya.
As a recovering RC, I can't agree more.
Here's what I tell people still trapped in Catholicism: Let's go praise and worship our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
And when we have done that to the extent of our human ability, when we are through, when we think He has had a sufficient amount of thanksgiving and gratitude...then we'll meet back here and pray to Mary.
(Hint: bring a book and a snack. I might be a while)
VERY WELL PUT.
I suspect you get a few “harumphs!”
It is damnable, blasphemous, idolatrous fantasy and make-believe to
remotely even hint
at morphing Mary into ANY hint of a part of the God-head.
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