A response to a common protestant argument.
A response to a common protestant argument.
My response to a “discussion” on social media:
Many protestants make a terribly mistaken assumption when they claim that "Prayer is worship. It is a supplication made to a perceived higher spiritual authority. The act of prayer itself is an implicit confession of divinity since it presumes (i) Omnipresence; (ii) Omniscience; (iii) sufficient divine power to grant the requested plea."
Prayer is in no way "worship". I can see that, somehow, to some protestants that is the assumption, as they do not want to even APPEAR to be worshipping anyone but God alone.
How can the Blessed Virgin and the saints in heaven hear our prayers? Only by the grace and power of God almighty!
Mary and the saints are closest to God. He hears their prayers for us, as they are so close to Him, even as we live here on earth. Mary, though a mere creature, is still the very Mother of God, the Mother of her Creator. How can that be? Because God gave Mary alone the power to produce a human body for the Second Person of the Holy Trinity ... thus she is "the Mother of God". (That title has been very important to me even before my conversion to the Catholic Church three decades ago, as it affirms Jesus' divinity.) We get hints of how Mary's will was perfectly conformed to God's Will when we read the Gospel according to St. Luke. God assumed Mary's body into heaven so that, as Queen Mother to her Son the King, she could be as close to Him as she was when He was a newborn infant.
To paraphrase St. Louis de Montfort’s work "True Devotion to Mary": Mary, being a mere creature is less than an atom, in fact she is, compared to God Almighty, basically nothing at all, because only God is the holy “I am."
The great saint also explains that: "God the Father gave Mary the power to produce a human body, through the power of the Holy Ghost, for the the Father’s only begotten Son. In Mary’s womb He would “work in secret the marvels of His grace”. We give greater glory to God and please Him when we follow Jesus’ example of submitting ourselves to her. (I wish I had the copyright approval to quote St. Louis, as he is so eloquent here. I encourage everyone to get a copy of True Devotion to Mary.)
If you peak outside of Sacred Scripture into all that God has revealed through His Church and His saints you begin to find answers. The person I was corresponding with insisted that “saints” are only those Christians still alive on earth, and that the dead cannot hear our prayers. Once again on the Internet I had to explain that there are two "kinds" of saints, so to speak: the saints here on earth (the Church Militant) and the Saints who have gone before us and are now so very close to God Almighty and are only waiting for the resurrection of their bodies.
I gravitate to Catholic sites, but so do many protestants. Some go there for a good reason: they are convinced that Catholics are in danger of losing their souls and go to push anything learned from Sola Scriptura. Others seem to be there only to argue and insult Christ and His Spotless Bride, The Catholic Church.
LOVE: Anyone can love another person. Merely human love can be between two criminals. It can be between husband and wife. It can even come out of a desire to help those less fortunate. But those are all examples of love that can be had without God
CHARITY: Charity, however, consists the love of one's neighbor OUT OF ONE'S LOVE FOR GOD.
From Topics on Tradition by Father Chad Ripperger:
Always pray for and train yourself to practice charity, not just love for its own sake. Do all things out of love for God.
Whether you are going to, say, volunteer at a food bank or pray for the holy souls in purgatory, learn to do so because you love God first. A great sinner could perform selfless acts of love without loving God. As Christians our first duty is always to love God above all created things. Out of our love for God we perform acts of charity ... but we only love others BECAUSE we love God first.
Today I heard a seven-year-old sermon that is still very relevant today.
The Church has been in crisis for a number of decades now. But we still have to place our trust in God, who always has everything under control.
My main takeaway from this sermon is the analogy of The Church being like a boat caught in a terrible storm.
While the sailors (IE, the laypeople) are hanging on for dear life, the men in the wheelhouse are having a drunken brawl. One could jump out of the boat and into the storm, but that would be rather stupid, especially since, in this analogy, the boat is The Church established by Jesus Christ. The only hope is to remain inside the boat. In other words, NEVER LEAVE THE CHURCH!
What we are experiencing in The Church since "the spirit of Vatican II" took over is overshadowed by some of the events in the past. The video highlights the "Cadaver Synod" of 897, where Pope Stephen VII staged one of the strangest trials in history.
I never knew about this terrible piece of Church history:
ORIGINAL POST:
The Catechism No. 766 says: “ ‘The origin and growth of the Church are symbolized by the blood and water which flowed from the open side of the crucified Jesus.’ ‘For it was from the side of Christ as he slept the sleep of death upon the cross that there came forth the “wondrous sacrament of the whole Church.”’ As Eve was formed from the sleeping Adam’s side, so the Church was born from the pierced heart of Christ hanging dead on the cross.”
Pope Leo XIV was announced when I was alone praying the Rosary. I therefore read a few short articles about him before retiring for the night ... eventually.