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
Whatever :-)
Well said!
What perfect nonsense! God the Father says of Himself that He is a jealous God. He doesn't change.
It is plain to see that the Roman "Mary" is patterned after Isis, not Ra. It is Isis who was the forgiving mother, and queen of heaven.
Show me in the Bible where all this "perfect Christian woman, selected by God, as the who continues to care for her children" is. It isn't there - made of whole cloth.
whole cloth INDEED.
Thx.
Fatima—— witnessed by 70,000 people in 1917.
Obama - received 67 million votes for president in 2008.
So What?
Oh, and it’s estimated that 53% of Catholics were included in that 67 million Obama voters.
I’m just sayin...
Don’t let facts get in the way of your hatred for God’s Blessed Mother.
Read all the evidence . . .
not just the morphed, sanitized, mass hypnosis sorts of narratives.
The FACTS remain . . . it was basically, foundationally and in key details . . .
a fairly standard DRAMATIC VERSION of typical UFO incidents.
. . . certainly one the king of hell and his fallen deceiving angels of light could have easily managed.
Virtually ALL the ‘supernatural’ aspects have been repeated multiple times in standard UFO incidents.
I am so happy you found the life preserver.. one drowns in the tiber
See post #127
What "facts?"
Don't you know that Lucifer and his demons can seem to be angels of light?
And PS: God doesn't have a mother, nor a father. God is God.
INDEED.
AS WE’VE SEEN WITH OTHUGA and the last “SElection,”
more than what . . . 200 million people—including a vast MAJORITY of the Roman Catholics et al
were CLEARLY WRONG as well as, evidently, being easily influenced by
OThuga’s Neuro Linguistic Programming mass hypnosis techniques.
I’m not real impressed with the ‘faithful’ Roman Catholics et al’s resistence to deception—at Fatima nor in SElections of OThuga, Kennedy, Puhlousey, et al
67 million OThuga voters. I figured it had to be less than 200 million . . . lol 340 million people . . . 2/3 would still not be the OThuga voters.
Thanks
70,000 PEOPLE
deceived [though clearly not all were, thankfully]
is nothing compared to the 62 million voters deceived about OThuga in the last SElection.
Besides . . . back then . . . folks knew and understood far less about the typical fallen angel/UFO deceptions and demonstrations.
Don't be too hard on them - they work under the burden of a handicap when it comes to spiritual things... Having a world where everything spiritual is represented by objects has it's effects.
The falsity of Fatima is found in the form and nature of the prophesying therein. As to the rest of it, I could give a rip.
Hatred indeed overrides facts.
It is a cult-like trap! I was taught that the Roman Catholic Church was the **only** true church and to leave what was taught to be the truth was to be condemned to a flaming hell.
That is a powerful and emotionally trapping cult belief to impose on people and it is especially abusive when this teaching begins in infancy.
Then to make matters worse, no matter how morally or spiritually corrupt the leadership or bizarre the practices, there is no mechanism for the lay person to reform the organization. Is this not the very definition of a cult?
I thank God that I am free of that.
It was a very pleasant drowning with lots of sincere, well-meaning company :-( God really had to deal me a blow to get my attention. I praise and thank Him!
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