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
take care arguing with people who live so deeply in their own world that 53% represents a “vast MAJORITY” - when of course it suits their cute little purposes that it be so...
I don't understand where you get "hatred". What a wonderfully, blessed young woman Mary was! We evangelic Christians are looking forward to meeting her in heaven.
And PS: God doesn't have a mother, nor a father. God is God.
This can't be said often enough!
Discuss the issues all you want, but do not make it personal.
Then she drew a little tiny rowboat surrounded by rough waves. This represented a protestant, who *MIGHT* make it into heaven, but the chances were slim. Only if he were very, very, very, very good AND had never really had a chance to become Catholic. Even at the age of nine, this stuck in my craw.
That and the unbaptised babies who could never go to heaven but floated around in Limbo for eternity. I NEVER bought that, even as a little kid.
still, it took me almost 50 years to do my homework and learn the truth for myself.
Luther was a Catholic scholar so it would only seem strange if he didn't refer to Mary in Catholic terms. When the confessional documents of Lutheranism were written, Marian doctrines of the type here were not included because they didn't have biblical warrant and support.
Very good!
“Ignorance is bliss, tis folly to be wise” On this thread thats for sure.
bookmark for later read
As a recovering RC, I can't agree more.
Amen. God is good and knows His own. He did not leave them comfortless.
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.
What a GREAT response. Just perfect.
(Hint: bring a book and a snack. I might be a while)
Cheese puffs, root beer and "The Institutes."
Mormons went straight to Goddess rather than try to sneak a Goddess in through the back door.
Plenty true.
I don’t feel hatred for any Roman Catholic et al hereon.
I don’t even hate the whole of the Vatican edifice.
I do join God in hating idolatry and blaphemy. That’s wisdom.
However, I do notice a LOT of blood dripping bitterness, hostility, resentment, anger, mean-spirited viciousness and vengeance directed towards me and towards my personhood by folks claiming to be Roman Catholics et al.
I guess that’s a fruit of all that adoration and veneration of Mary stuff.
I think you believe we Catholics think Mary, alone, can answer our prayers.
"Alone," or in a jeep with six Marines, Mary cannot save anyone, mediate anything nor answer anyone's prayers.
He shall feed his flock like a shepherd: he shall gather the lambs with his arm, and carry them in his bosom, and shall gently lead those that are with young. Who hath measured the waters in the hollow of his hand, and meted out heaven with the span, and comprehended the dust of the earth in a measure, and weighed the mountains in scales, and the hills in a balance? Who hath directed the Spirit of the LORD, or being his counsellor hath taught him?... But they that wait upon the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint." -- Isaiah 40:10-13;31"Behold, the Lord GOD will come with strong hand, and his arm shall rule for him: behold, his reward is with him, and his work before him.
Christ alone.
Quite a number of other supposedly Christian groups have similar problems. It’s just that the Vatican has been at it for 16 centuries and is thereby layers worse, in most respects.
As I recall, the percentages were fiercely debated between Roman Catholics et al hereon.
I’m happy to be wrong [Have often noted that I was wrong hereon. if my guess is remotely accurate, I probably have admitted wrong hereon 8 DOZEN times for every single time of a Roman Catholic et al hereon. Curious, that. I realize what the Roman Catholic et al explanation for that would likely be. LOL].
Let’s pretend it was 10% or 25% . . . any such number voting for the abortionist Congress critters and OThuga is still an indictment at the voters’ Christianity and Christian organizations housing them regardless of the labels thereon.
It is a very curious thing.
It APPEARS that many Roman Catholics et al hereon IDENTIFY SO INTENSELY with the ORGANIZATION, dogma, rituals, structure, hoopla etc
vs
IDENTIFYING WITH THE CRUCIFIED AND RISEN CHRIST
that any PERCEIVED slight or insult or MERE DISAGREEMENT with the VATICAN EDIFICE MUST be met with bitterness dripping hostility projecting their hatred onto the Prottys involved.
Certainly the rife projection aspect is persistently brazenly obvious.
WOW.
You were a bright and discerning kid.
CONGRATS.
INDEED.
Not even in a gold plated Humvee.
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