Posted on 03/04/2003 10:23:26 AM PST by Pyro7480
Thanks for this clarification. Also, see my explanation in my post above (#8).
Same here! My collection of Mary Foundation tapes and novels have been a wonderful method of evangelization. I try to follow their Rosary tape on either my morning or evening commute, and I've distributed dozens of their other tapes (my favorite is "The Mass Explained" by Fr. Larry Richards) to friends, family and the couples we meet when teaching NFP.
No the question is why do so many dishonor the Son of God thinking that He cannot answer for Himself? If He is the Creator God of the universe (John 1, Col 1), and He hears our every prayer, knows our thoughts and needs before they are even uttered, why interpose Mary into the process?
Judaism teaches in the Ten Commandments to "honor your mother and father." Jesus was raised in this environment (even though He was God and already knew this law). Since He was without sin however, He was still obedient to them. Do you think that this suddenly ended when He entered into His kingdom? He didn't suddenly become just divine. He still honors His mother and foster father even in Heaven.
This is almost too much of a stretch to acknowledge. I guess the debate should revolve around the word "honor." "Honor" doesn't carry with it the sense that if Mary asks something for you that Jesus is more beholded to her than he is to us, and would therefore more readily answer it.
She answers prayers in the sense that she "has the ear" of her Divine Son in Heaven. When Catholics and Orthodox Christians pray to Mary, we ask her to act as an intercessor, because "all ages will call her blessed" (Luke 1: 48). This is the duty of a mother of a king (the Queen Mother), to act as an advocate for the people that He rules.
First, the title "Queen" is applied by implication...there is no scriptural warrant for this.
Second, there is no scriptural warrant for saying that Mary acts as an advocate for us. The Scripture say that we have AN ADVOCATE, and it is Jesus Christ the Lord; it doesn't say we have two advocates: Mary to Jesus, and then Jesus to the Father. This is extra-biblical nonsense that compounds the process of prayer.
Just barely.
Come back home, Steven. ;o)
Are you stalking me? :-)
Who ... me? ;o)
So "honor your mother and father" means "treat them exactly the same as anyone else?"
Interesting.
SD
How does one dishonor God in Holy Trinity when one turns to the Mother of the Son for help in their prayers? You have prayed in a group before, haven't you, for "where two are gathered in My Name, I am there among them." How does it dishonor Jesus to turn to the one who is closest to His own heart, His mother? I'm not following your argument.
First, the title "Queen" is applied by implication...there is no scriptural warrant for this. Second, there is no scriptural warrant for saying that Mary acts as an advocate for us. The Scripture say that we have AN ADVOCATE, and it is Jesus Christ the Lord; it doesn't say we have two advocates: Mary to Jesus, and then Jesus to the Father. This is extra-biblical nonsense that compounds the process of prayer.
What's your point at the beginning? The word "Trinity" doesn't appear in the Bible, but most Christians believe in that doctrine, for Jesus said to baptize "in the name of the Father, of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit." Note what Jesus says here. He says "in the name of...," not in the names of..., for They are One. It is by implication that we use the word "Trinity."
How can Mary be a "mediator" of prayer intentions, while Scripture says we one advocate or mediator? In 1 Cor. 3:9, Paul says that "We are God's coworkers." Why would Christ need coworkers if He is the only mediator? Paul also says "I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh I complete what is lacking in Christ's afflictions for the sake of His body, the Church" (Col 1: 24)." If we are united to Christ's sorrowful Passon on the Cross through our own sufferngs, we become coworkers in His redemption. What makes Mary a particular noted coworker is that she suffered much because of her Son's Passion, but stayed with Him all the way to the foot of the Cross. Everyone else, other than John the Beloved Apostle abandoned Him in His time of suffering. How "unbiblical" is that concept?
I'm sure people have asked you to pray for them and you do so. As Catholics, in addition to asking our friends to pray for us, we also ask the Blessed Virgin Mary and other Saints. Intercessory prayer is biblical.
What is the scriptural basis for this? Where does it say that those in heaven can hear your prayers, and have the ear of our Lord?
"When he had taken the scroll, the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb. Along with their harps, the elders were holding vessels of gold filled with aromatic spices, which were the prayers of God's holy people."
Revelation 8:3-5
"Another angel came in holding a censer of gold. He took his place at the altar of incense to deposit on the altar of gold in front of the throne, together with the prayers of all God's holy ones. From the angel's hand the smoke of the incense went up before God, and with it the prayers of God's people. Then the angel took the censer, filled it with live coals from the altar, and hurled it down to the earth. Peals of thunder and flashes of lightning followed, and the earth trembled."
And while I'm at it...........
Revelation 20:12,13.
"I saw the dead, the great and the lowly, standing before the throne. Lastly, among the scrolls, the book of the living was opened. The dead were judged according to their conduct as recorded on the scrolls. The sea gave up its dead; then death and the nether world gave up their dead. Each person was judged according to his conduct."
I read the article an we seem to be getting different messages. You perceive Bus and Bai Macfarlane as a Mary worshipers, I perceive them as a family uniting themselves to the mystical body of Christ.
Read the book of Revelation. Also from Psalms 103:20-21:
"Bless the Lord, O you his angels, you mighty ones who do his word, hearkening to the voice of his word! Bless the Lord, all his hosts, his ministers that do his will!"
What is your understanding of the Communion of the Saints?
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