Icon of Mother of God 1 by Michael O'Brien
For Sacred Sunday, I get to do the blog takeover! I am going to talk about The Blessed Virgin Mary.
Now, many people are confused about why we, as Catholics, venerate Mary. Some misunderstand and believe that we worship her. This, however, is quite far from the truth.
Catholics do not, in fact, worship Mary. We do venerate her though.
Let’s take the saints as an example. We pray to the saints so that they could lift our intentions up to the Lord. We do this because they are in Heaven with Him and they could… put in a good word for us, so to speak.
Recognizing this, Mary is the Lord’s own mother. She is the only human known to be born free of original sin, thus making her worthy to be the Mother of God. Because of her sinless nature, she was assumed into heaven, body and soul, to be with her son. Therefore, who is better to carry our intentions to the Lord? Who is better than His own mother?
In the Bible there is proof of this. There is a Gospel story called The Wedding at Cana. This is where Jesus and Mary went to a wedding and the wine ran out. So Mary went and told Jesus to transform the water into wine. When he denied the first time, she turned to the servers and said “Do whatever he says.” It was then that Jesus obeyed his mother and converted the water into wine. And thus began His ministry.
Mary is a highly important figure to Catholics, and is the holiest of all saints, but she is not to be worshipped like God.
I hope this cleared up things!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Thank you Bethany. That was simple and to the point. If readers are interested in more of Bethany's ponderings and musings, feel free to hop on over to her personal blog, Dear Charlie.
16 comments:
This is a very concise way of explaining why Mary is important in Catholic faith..
I knew many people praying to her for guidance, this includes my mom, who absolutely believes in her mercy.
Your daughter did a wonderful job explaining it without making it over complicated.
I'm not a Catholic, but I enjoyed this post - it helped me understand the meaning of the term "venerate". I was born an Orthodox, and in this religion we worship Mary as a Saint - as the Greatest of Saints, in fact.
I am not much of an Orthodox now, but I still believe in her merciful ways, because of her human nature. To me, she represents The Mother, and because of this great role, I have great respect and faith in her.
Great Job!!! Very clear...I'm going to have to go visit your daughter's blog. You must be so proud....if only I could get my child to church!!! Wasn't that lucky this week. I'm such a sinner. :P
Your daughter really did an excellent job, Polly .
As about the meaning "venerate" very well said.
Have a great Sunday , Polly! :O)
xx
I love all the themes of "mother" in the religious traditions that have them.
It really does and thank you sweetie! *hugs*
I like that little interaction between Mary and Jesus at the wedding. Being a mother and having a mother, I can totally relate to the relationship.
Thank you! Great explanation. I like that you clarified that you don't worship her, this can be confusing to us Protestants.
Is there a Biblical reference for Mary being "the only human known to be born free of original sin, thus making her worthy to be the Mother of God", I had never heard that before.
Great job, Bethany! Wonderfully written.
Great post!!!
Wonderful job, Bethany. I think sometimes it takes youth to make things simpler for some of us adults who tend to over-complicate things.
Beautifully explained. It certainly cleared things up for me, a Methodist. Thanks, Bethany, for putting this into such a wonderful explanation. You have your mother's flair for writing.
What a wise girl...concise and uncomplicated...just the way I like it...and i learned something.
I love it when your children guest post. I think Bethany did a great job of simply stating her beliefs so that others can understand.
What a great job of simply explaining Mary. You are very blessed.
Post a Comment