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
Thanks, I’ll look for the DeWohl book...
Does it help that St. Paul calls the body of any Christian a “Temple of the Holy Spirit”?
Or, when Mary visits her cousin Elizabeth, according to Luke, “And when Elizabeth heard the greeting of Mary, the baby leaped in her womb. And Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit, ...” Mary, of course, has already been visited by and filled with the Holy Spirit.
This is just what occurs to me immediately from the Bible. I’m sure a lot more could be made of it.
Paul calling believers temples of Holy Spirit
is an indictment
AGAINST
all the Marian excesses vs a support of them.
It is a declaration that all believers are equal before The Cross and before God in such regards.
NO special stature or status for Mary inherent there, at all.
The author is now a Roman Catholic..."Mills, a convert from the Episcopal Church..."
The only thing Protestants discover about Mary is that she was a simple Jewish girl blessed by God to carry the Christ child to term.
Beyond that, Jesus tells us if we are looking for His mother and brothers and sisters we must look to His many followers who are His true family.
Mariology is pagan. It is the most obvious error of the church in Rome. And Rome will have to account for every person it leads into idolatry.
AMEN!
Quix, Doesn’t make sense to me.
Not an indictment. Otherwise, you could not claim to be a charismatic and enflamed with the gifts, fruits and charismatic gifts of the Holy Spirit.
Scripture tells us there is only "one God and one mediator between God and men, Christ Jesus."
“for, behold, from henceforth all generations shall call me blessed.”
—Luke 1:48
Nevertheless, Christ as God censured them most fiercely for layering on top of God's commandments commandments of men . . . and engineering excuses thereby to render God's law and will of no effect.
RELIGION does that.
The tedious rationales for a lot of the Marian stuff
SOUNDS logical to a point, particularly when one puts one’s self as best as one can within the frame of reference and skin of a Roman Catholic et al.
However, building such enormous sky-scrapers of EXTRABIBLICAL MARIAN STUFF [to put it politely] on top of the
Biblical toothpick ‘foundation’ of “Mary full of Grace . . . “
is horrific.
From Mary ‘temple of God’ we end up by incremental evolutionary steps to
“6 - ‘As Mother of the Word Incarnate, Mary was elevated to a certain equality with the Heavenly Father.’”
ni•hil ob•stat (n h l b stät , -st t , n -)
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
--John Ferraro's TEN . . . MEDITATIONS . . . OF THE ROSARY
That level of UNMITIGATED IDOLATROUS BLASPHEMY is screamingly outrageous, to me. I have difficulty understanding how even any Roman Catholic et al/Vatican associate who puts God first would fail to see it similarly.
No.
As Scripture declares . . .
OPEN REBUKE IS BETTER THAN SECRET LOVE.
INDEED.
MUCH AGREE.
Sad realities.
Have said repeatedly . . .
I only write for those for whom Holy Spirit enlivens my poor words redemptively in their minds, hearts, spirits, lives.
Others are encouraged to trash them.
Ahhhh the other tootpick foundation for umpteen skyscrapers of idolatrous, blasphemous Marian excesses.
Huge edifices teetering on a toothpick or even on two toothpicks are horrifically spiritually hazardous.
** only write for those for whom Holy Spirit enlivens my poor words redemptively in their minds, hearts, spirits, lives.**
This isn’t making sense to me. This is a public forum. When you write on it, it is open for any and all to read.
Why would anyone ever want to trash prayers?
God doesn’t.
Or are you talking about opinions?
Are you saying that I am not free to respond to you?
Let me try again . . .
I understood your post that I was replying to
to delcare that you did not understand my writings.
And there was a line about my being Charismatic etc. which I wasn’t quite sure what you were trying to say.
My thoughts on reading your post was, again, that
I’m NOT one size fits all.
I am NOT surprised that not everyone understands my poor words.
[though I am surprised that you do not understand more than you seem to assert that you do.]
I think it’s quite reasonable that my poor words are destined to enliven, enlighten, encourage, edify . . . exhort . . . those ONLY FOR WHOM GOD’S HOLY SPIRIT opens their understanding thereto—gives them eyes to see and ears to hear those particular combinations of poor words.
I have no . . . animosity . . . toward those for whom my poor words are too mystifying . . . no animosity for their trashing what they do not understand . . . as worthless to them.
Perhaps I was too oblique in asserting my welcome to such folks to trash said poor words that were of no use to them.
Is that any clearer?
EVERYONE HEREON
with posting privileges!
is free to respond to me.
And quite welcome.
Some have doggedly and energetically earned the ‘honor’ of being on my ignore or my mostly ignore list, however. That merely means I decline to or mostly decline to respond to their responses.
You are not on either list.
It’s not a toothpick. It’s the Bible.
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