WHO'S MORE POWERFUL, SATAN OR THE VIRGIN MARY?

I would like to have written this, but it is a very well put together article, so here's the link:
https://www.catholic.com/magazine/online-edition/is-satan-more-powerful-than-mary

From the article:

So this raises the question: who’s more powerful, the Virgin Mary in heaven or the devil in hell?Strangely, some Protestants seem to believe it’s Satan. Of course, this is rarely something that Protestant Christians consciously or explicitly profess, but consider some of the objections to Catholics praying to Mary. We’re told, for example, that Mary can’thear our prayers because she’s a finite creature, and so she can’t hear everyone’s prayers at once, and she can’t understand the different prayers uttered in different languages. Michael Hobart Seymour (1800-1874), an anti-Catholic polemicist, put the objection neatly:
It seems difficult to understand how she or any saint in heaven can know the wishes, the thoughts, the devotion, the prayers of the millions, who are praying to them in so many different parts of the world at the same time. If she or they were omnipresent—if omnipresent as the Godhead, all would be easy to conceive, all would be intelligible; but as they are no more than finite creatures in heaven, this cannot be.
We find the same argument used today. In A Woman Rides the Beast, for example, Dave Hunt objected to the line, “Turn then, most gracious advocate, thine eyes of mercy toward us” from the Salve Regina on the grounds that “Mary would have to be omnipotent, omniscient, and omnipresent (qualities of God alone) in order to extend mercy to all mankind.”
So Mary and the saints, being “finite creatures in heaven,” are too limited and weak to hear your prayers. Satan, on the other hand . . .

Why love God?

Why love God?  Because He loved us first and even became one of us to give all and die as a mortal.

Image from http://uploads0.wikipaintings.org/images/jacopo-bellini/the-crucifixion.jpg


I must say, the longer I am a Catholic the more I am "blown away" (as said 'back in the day'...) by what our Lord has done for us, especially through the Church He established.

Not only did he create the entire universe and time itself, he chose to become one of us for our salvation.  God has never been an angel.  He has never been any of the other heavenly hosts.  But he became a human being, and after his death his human body was glorified and ascended into heaven.  The Word of God has a human body in heaven.

Can you imagine that?  God himself thinks so highly of us, who he created in his image, that the Second Person of the Holy Trinity sits on his throne with his crucified then glorified human body!

God condescended to become a humble man, born of a virgin, and mixed with us sinners.

Although sinless, he took our sins upon him and suffered and died for us. He died for us sinners.  Wow.

In 1996, at the age of 38, I came home to the Catholic Church.  I grew up as an Anglican and in university I had a lot of contact with evangelical Christians.  What I began to realize was that Jesus did not leave us a bible.  He established a Church.  He left the deposit of faith with his Church.  
This Church is a Church that teaches with Divine Authority.  There is no 'wiggle room' in the Church established by God!
His Church wrote the books of the New Testament and eventually, through the Holy Spirit, compiled the Canon of Scripture.

The early Christians had the Jewish scriptures and the oral teachings of the Apostles.   The written teachings and the oral teachings/traditions are what the Holy Spirit uses to communicate Truth to the Body of Christ.  Never scripture alone.  That idea is a somewhat 'modern' invention, largely thanks to a former disobedient priest named Martin Luther.

Since we have both the Scriptures and Tradition the Holy Spirit has taught us more.
We now know that God crowned a mere human as the Queen of heaven.  
Oh how God loves us!!! 

Image from:  https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgsmM7-6ffKfgmG7h-DF_wi_F0S7q-uko_D1iSfHN-phPQbRKabw0Yeoh6jBaix7nhk5wPDFbriVz0k0Gz48eb4ff4UJOCCrMFVUGopkiwcrkN-4xr8Cuv2y1bVk-DLYzsNzEFTmOPi0Ls/s1600/CoronationMary.jpg

Through Apostolic succession, this Church, the Body of Christ, has as its earthly head the successor of Peter, the Pope.  Jesus did not leave us alone.  Through the succession of his Apostles the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass is still offered every day on all Catholic and Orthodox altars.  Jesus is still present in his Body and Blood, Soul and Divinity here on earth.

God gave the power to his Apostles and their successors to forgive sins.

When I assist at Mass I witness a genuine miracle.  A time where God intervenes with nature.  Mere bread and wine, through the power of the Holy Spirit and by the actions and words of the successors of the Apostles, become the Body and Blood, Soul and Divinity of our Lord and Saviour.  We are "re-present" and the one sacrifice that Jesus made for us at Calvary.

Image from my computer; originally from somewhere on the Internet ...

We have so much to be thankful for.  So many reasons to love God with all our hearts, souls, and with all our actions.
The saints learned to hate sin ... to prefer death to committing even one mortal sin.

Let us remember daily to direct all our thoughts, words and actions heavenward.

To start your day you can use the 'morning offering' that I've been using for years:

Most Holy and adorable Trinity, One God in three Persons, I adore You with the most profound humility.  I praise you and give you thanks for the favours you have bestowed on me.
Your goodness has brought me safely to the beginning of this day.

Behold, O Lord, I offer you my whole being, together with such crosses and contradictions as I may meet with in the course of this day.
Give them, O Lord, Your blessing.  May Your Divine Love animate them, and may they tend to the greater honour and glory of your Holy Name.   

   [One of the things I love about this prayer is the line "May Your Divine Love animate them".]

God be with you!

Dominus vobiscum, Reg. 

Pope Francis: "The Word of God Precedes the Bible and Surpasses It"

That title comes from Scott P. Richert's blog and is the truth as proclaimed by our new holy father.

More is expressed at MARY, OUR MOTHER .  

 

From  the Pope's address:

 “Sacred Scripture,” he reaffirmed,“ is the written testimony of the divine Word, the canonical memory that attests to the event of Revelation. However, the Word of God precedes the Bible and surpasses it. That is why the centre of our faith isn't just a book, but a salvation history and above all a person, Jesus Christ, the Word of God made flesh. It is precisely because the Word of God embraces and extends beyond Scripture that, in order to properly understand it, the Holy Spirit's constant presence, who guides us “to all truth”, is necessary. It is necessary to place ourselves within the great Tradition that has, with the Holy Spirit's assistance and the Magisterium's guidance, recognized the canonical writings as the Word that God addresses to his people, who have never ceased meditating upon it and discovering inexhaustible riches from it.”

As Catholics we do not believe in Jesus because we believe in the bible.  We believe in the bible because we believe in Jesus, the Word of God incarnate.
Oral Tradition predates the bible by hundreds of years.  The Catholic Church did not decide what writings were canonical until almost 400AD. From TRUE CHURCH and BIBLE:

In 397 AD, the Catholic Church gave a definitive decision as to which writings and books should be admitted into the Bible and which should be rejected, and every book which is in the Protestant New Testament today, was put there by Pope Siricus and the Catholic Bishops in the year 397 AD

We cannot even begin to think that we can understand the true meaning of Scripture if it is divorced from Tradition.  Jesus established a Church to record His words that one day would become the Gospels.  If you really want to know the meaning of Scripture go to its source: the Catholic Church.  The Holy Spirit continually guides the Church. 
 For Truth we need BOTH Scripture AND Tradition.

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