Take the LOG from Your Eye – Part 3 – Veneration of Mary

Header-Solemnity of the Mother of God

Catholics celebrate the Solemnity of Mary Mother of God on January 1. ‘Calling Mary mother of God is the highest honor we can give Mary. Just as Christmas honors Jesus as the Prince of Peace, the Solemnity of Mary Mother of God honors Mary as the Queen of Peace.”

Catholics will vehemently argue that they do no worship Mary.  The will explain that they only give her special honer as they feel she deserves.  They use the term veneration.  Before we take a look at that word I would like to make two points.   

1) When I was unsure as to whether or not I should celebrate Christmas, I asked GOD. His answer was “If there is EVER ANYTHING about which you want to be certain if you should be connected with, find the ROOT.  The ROOT is the ONLY thing that matters.  Everything else is a cover up, a lie, a deception.”  I soon learned just how wise God is, because if He had just answered that one question in the affirmative or the negative, there would have been an end.  But, because he advised me to research and discover, I learned how to determine future dilemmas and save myself from many heartaches and calamities. So we must look at the root and only the root.

2) The Catholic Church has a reputation of changing the meaning of things to suite their purposes.  I know that if you are Catholic you probably don’t accept this point.  But, hopefully by the end of this series you will have a more open mind about that.  

So let’s take a look at etymology or root of the word VENERATION.  

venerate    vocabulary.com

To venerate is to worship, adore, be in awe of. You probably don’t venerate your teacher or boss; however, you may act like you do!

The word hasn’t come far from its Latin roots in venerari, “to worship.” Although you can certainly venerate a deity, a person can deserve it, too. We don’t usually venerate our friends: instead, we usually save this feeling for deities or remarkable people who inspire awe. Mother Teresa was venerated for her work with the poor, and Gandhi was venerated for his efforts for peace, but most people aren’t venerated for normal stuff like taking out the trash or hanging out on a Saturday.

 

The term hyperdulia indicates the special veneration due to Mary, greater than the ordinary dulia for other saints, but utterly unlike the latria due only to God. The term “Mariolatry” is a Protestant pejorative label for perceived excessive Catholic devotion to Mary. Source: wikipedia

What is the origin of the “veneration” meaning of dulia?

The word dulia comes from the Greek doulia (meaning “slavery” or “servitude”). But in Catholicism, the word has taken on a theological meaning, as described in the Catholic Encyclopedia, “signifying the honour paid to the saints.”   This definition/usage is only found in the Catholic Church.  It is a twisting of the word to meet their purposes.  

Mariolatry –  this term as stated was clearly by made up and applied to the manner in which the Roman Catholic church was idolizing Mary.  

In the 18th and 19th centuries various groups of Protestants began to use the term Mariolatry to refer to the CatholicAnglo-Catholic, and Eastern Orthodox practices of Marian veneration and devotion. In their view, the attention paid to Mary is extreme, and may not only distract from the worship of God, but actually border on idolatry.[19][20]

This trend has taken various directions over time, in that while some Protestants have at times softened their attitude towards it, others have strengthened their opposition in the 21st century. For instance, during the May 2006 celebrations at Our Lady of Walsingham in England, as Anglicans and Catholics held a Marian procession, Protestant hecklers held banners that condemned Masses, idolatry, and “Mariolatry”.[21][22]

I know for certain that little exercise was not sufficient to convince any loyal Catholic.  I hope you know that it is not my intent to offend anyone.  Let me be clear, I am not trying to bring anyone to my way of thinking.  I am just doing my best to reveal truth.  So, let’s go deeper into this adventure and see what we find.   

 

Image result for twitter logo

May the Virgin Mary always be our refuge, our consolation, and the way that leads to Christ.

Without the Church, Jesus ‘is at the mercy of our imagination,’ Pope says

Pope Francis celebrates New Year's Day Mass in St. Peter's Basilica for the Solemnity of Mary, the Mother of God of Jan. 1, 2015. Credit: Bohumil Petrik/CNA.
Pope Francis celebrates New Year’s Day Mass in St. Peter’s Basilica for the Solemnity of Mary, the Mother of God of Jan. 1, 2015. Credit: Bohumil Petrik/CNA.
.- In his homily on New Year’s Day, Pope Francis said that Jesus and his mother Mary are “inseparable,” just like Jesus and the Church, who is the mother of all humanity that guides her children to God.

“To separate Jesus from the Church would introduce an ‘absurd dichotomy,’” the Pope told Mass attendees who were present in St. Peter’s Basilica for his Jan. 1 Mass celebrating the solemnity of Mary, the Mother of God.

(The Church) is like a mother who tenderly holds Jesus and gives him to everyone with joy and generosity…Without the Church, Jesus Christ ends up as an idea, a moral teaching, a feeling,” he said.

Without the Church and her guidance, our relationship with Christ “would be at the mercy of our imagination, our interpretations, our moods,” the Roman Pontiff continued.

It is not possible to understand the salvation offered by Jesus without also appreciating the motherhood of the Church, he explained, adding that it is also impossible to love and belong to Christ without loving and belonging to the Church, because the Church is God’s family who brings Christ to humanity.

“Our faith is not an abstract doctrine or philosophy, but a vital and full relationship with a person: Jesus Christ” who lives among us and can be encountered inside the Church through her sacraments, Pope Francis explained.

“No manifestation of Christ, even the most mystical, can ever be detached from the flesh and blood of the Church, from the historical concreteness of the Body of Christ.”

In his reflections, Pope Francis noted how the Church, in celebrating the solemnity of Mary as the Mother of God, reminds us that she, more than anyone else, has received the Lord’s blessing by giving a human face to the eternal God.

At Jesus’ birth, he and his mother Mary “were together, just as they were together at Calvary, because Christ and his mother are inseparable: there is a very close relationship between them, as there is between every child and his or her mother,” the Pope observed.

Mary is capable of being so close to her son due to the knowledge of heart and faith that she received from him, as well as her experience of motherhood and her openness to allowing God to enter into her own plans, the pontiff noted.

“She is the believer capable of perceiving in the gift of her Son the coming of that fullness of time…that is why Jesus cannot be understood without his Mother,” he said, reiterating that it is not possible to understand Jesus without the Church either, “because the Church and Mary always go together.”

By giving us Jesus, the Church offers humanity the fullness of God’s eternal blessing, he said, noting that Mary is the “first and most perfect” disciple of Christ, and is the one who opens the path to receive the Church’s motherhood.

Mary is the model of the pilgrim Church and is the one who sustains the Church in her maternal mission, he observed, noting that her “tactful witness” has accompanied the Church since its beginnings.

She, the Mother of God, is also the Mother of the Church, and through the Church, the mother of all men and women, and of every people,” the pontiff said, and prayed that Mary would obtain the Lord’s blessing for all of humanity.

Pope Francis then noted how Jan. 1, in addition to the Marian solemnity, also marks the World Day of Peace, which this year holds the theme: “No Longer Slaves, but Brothers and Sisters.”

He prayed that the Lord would generate peace in individual hearts, within families and among nations, and called on each person, according to their capabilities, to combat modern forms of slavery and foster solidarity with the help of Jesus, who became our servant.   WHAT?????

The Roman Pontiff concluded his homily by drawing attention to a statue of Mary and the child Jesus at the side of the altar, and noted how her title as “Holy Mother of God” dates back the Council of Ephesus in 431 A.D.

“What a beautiful greeting for our mother,” he said, and invited the congregation to join him in standing and honoring her by reciting aloud the title “Mary, Holy Mother of God” three times.   

 Pope Francis invites us to “look upwards” because, thanks to Mary’s assumption: “Heaven is open” and we need no longer be afraid.

In St Luke’s Gospel on this Solemnity of the Assumption, the Evangelist records the words of Our Lady as she prays: “My soul magnifies the Lord and my spirit rejoices in God my Saviour”. Before reciting the Angelus, Pope Francis reflected on the two verbs in that prayer: to rejoice and to magnify.

To rejoice

“We rejoice when something so beautiful happens that it is not enough to rejoice inside, in the soul, but we want to express happiness with the whole body”, said the Pope. “Mary rejoices because of God… she teaches us to rejoice in God, because He does “great things”.

Pope expresses his closeness to people affected by monsoon rains

To magnify

“To magnify means to exalt a reality for its greatness, for its beauty”, continued Pope Francis. “Mary proclaims the greatness of the Lord… she shows us that if we want our life to be happy, God must be placed first, because He alone is great”. The Pope warned of getting lost in the pettiness of life, chasing after things of little importance: “prejudices, grudges, rivalries, envy, and superfluous material goods”. Mary, on the other hand, invites us to “look upward at the ‘great things’ the Lord has accomplished in her”.

The Gate to Heaven

“Mary, who is a human creature, one of us, reaches eternity in body and soul”, said Pope Francis. This is why we invoke her as the “Gate of Heaven”.There she awaits us, just as a mother waits for her children to come home”. The Pope said we are like pilgrims on our way home to Heaven. Seeing that “in paradise, together with Christ, the New Adam, there is also her, Mary, the new Eve, gives us comfort and hope in our pilgrimage down here”.

Heaven is open

For those who are afflicted with doubts and sadness, “and live with their eyes turned downwards”, the Feast of the Assumption is a call to “look upwards” and see that “Heaven is open”, continued Pope Francis. It is no longer distant, and we need no longer be afraid: “because on the threshold of Heaven there is a Mother waiting for us”. Mary constantly reminds us that we are precious in the eyes of God, and that we are made for the great joys of Heaven. “Every time we take the Rosary in our hands and pray to her”, he said, “we take a step forward towards our life’s great goal”.

The greatness of Heaven

“Let us be attracted by true beauty”, said the Pope, “let us not be drawn in by the petty things in life, but let us choose the greatness of Heaven”. Pope Francis concluded by praying that the Blessed Virgin Mary, Gate of Heaven, may help us daily to fix our gaze with confidence and joy “on the place where our true home lies”.

JESUS IS THE GATE!!!!!  THANKS TO JESUS HEAVEN IS OPEN!!!  NOT THANKS TO MARY!

 

“Very truly I tell you Pharisees, anyone who does not enter the sheep pen by the gate, but climbs in by some other way, is a thief and a robber. The one who enters by the gate is the shepherd of the sheep. The gatekeeper opens the gate for him, and the sheep listen to his voice. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out.  John 10:1-3

Therefore Jesus said again, “Very truly I tell you, I am the gate for the sheep. All who have come before me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep have not listened to them. I am the gate; whoever enters through me will be saved.[a] They will come in and go out, and find pasture. 10 The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.     John 10:7-10

We have no need for ANYONE to bring our prayers to Jesus or to the Father. 

Seeing then that we have a great high priest, that is passed into the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our profession. For we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin. Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need.  Hebrews 4:14-16

We do not have to wait to get to heaven to be comforted.  Through HIS SACRIFICE Jesus made the way for us to receive the HOLY SPIRIT who is our COMFORTER on earth, and our guide and teacher.  

If you love Me, you will keep My commandments. And I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Advocate to be with you forever— the Spirit of truth. The world cannot receive Him, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him. But you do know Him, for He abides with you and will be in you.

…the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have told you.   John 14 

BEGINNING AND END

“As it was in the days of Noah, so shall it be also in the days of the Son of man.”

Roman Catholic Church Mystery Babylon | Is Pope Francis the False Prophet
Pope Francis bowing before a statue of Mary while the cross of Christ sits in the background,

In the latest example of wildly heretical doctrine, Pope Francis announced in his 2019 New Years address that prayers to Mary are a requirement for all Christiansand tweeted a prayer to Mary to protect her followers in the new year. The Pope continues to make statements that are not in line with Biblical doctrine and is leading many down paths of spiritual error and idolatry that are the hallmarks of the prophesied falling away of the church, the Bible predicted would occur in the final era before the Second Coming of Jesus Christ.

According to reports:

“Devotion to Mary is not spiritual etiquette; it is a requirement of the Christian life,” the Pope said Jan. 1. “The gift of the Mother, the gift of every mother and every woman, is most precious for the Church, for she too is mother and woman.” (source).

He pointed to the Salve Regina, also known as the “Hail, Holy Queen,” which refers to Mary as “our life.” He acknowledged that the words of the Marian tune might seem exaggerated because Christ is life, but said that Mary is “so closely united” to Christ and His people that “we can do no better than to put our hands in hers, and to acknowledge her as our life, our sweetness and our hope.

JESUS THE MESSIAH OF ISRAEL is THE HOPE.   HATIKVAH!  THE HOPE! Praise HIS NAME FOREVER!

“Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.”  John 14:6

Hail, holy queen, mother of mercy/hail our life, our sweetness and our hope/to thee do we cry,” Catholics recite in the Salve Regina, which is also stated to be the last prayer in the rosary.

Our lady is not optional; she has to be welcomed into our life,” Bergoglio said to those gathered. “She is the queen of peace, who triumphs over evil and leads us along paths of goodness.” (source).

“THANKS BE TO GOD WHO LEADS US IN HIS TRIUMPH THROUGH CHRIST”!!!   2 Corinithians 2:14

Blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us, and took it out of the way, nailing it to his cross; And having spoiled principalities and powers, he (Christ) made a shew of them openly, triumphing over them in it.  Colossians 2:14

Rome Mystery Babylon | Woman riding the beast of Revelation Catholic Church
Pope Francis called Mary “the biggest influencer in history.”

While his sentiments may sound kind, this is extreme doctrinal error. Mary, the mother of Jesus was a normal woman given a miraculous role by God – to give birth to the Messiah, Jesus Christ:

“And in the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent from God unto a city of Galilee, named Nazareth, To a virgin espoused to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David; and the virgin’s name was Mary. And the angel came in unto her, and said, Hail, thou that art highly favoured, the Lord is with thee: blessed art thou among women. And when she saw him, she was troubled at his saying, and cast in her mind what manner of salutation this should be. And the angel said unto her, Fear not, Mary: for thou hast found favour with God.

And, behold, thou shalt conceive in thy womb, and bring forth a son, and shalt call his name Jesus. He shall be great, and shall be called the Son of the Highest: and the Lord God shall give unto him the throne of his father David: And he shall reign over the house of Jacob for ever; and of his kingdom there shall be no end. Then said Mary unto the angel, How shall this be, seeing I know not a man? And the angel answered and said unto her, The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee: therefore also that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God.

And, behold, thy cousin Elisabeth, she hath also conceived a son in her old age: and this is the sixth month with her, who was called barren. For with God nothing shall be impossible. And Mary said, Behold the handmaid of the Lord; be it unto me according to thy word. And the angel departed from her.” – Luke 1:26-38

There was nothing supernatural or divine about Mary. Just like Abraham, Moses, Joshua, Deborah, Jeremiah and many other believers in Scripture, Mary was called upon by God to take on a task. But hers would be to carry the Son of God in her womb.  This was fulfilling the prophecy from the book of Isaiah, written 700 years before the birth of Christ:

“Therefore the Lord himself shall give you a sign; Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.” – Isaiah 7:14

MARY – AN ORDINARY WOMAN WITH AN EXTRAORDINARY MISSION FROM GOD

Why Do Catholics worship Mary? | Is praying the rosary in the Bible
The real Mary – as described in the Bible was a brave believer who worshiped God
.During the earthly ministry of Jesus, an attempt was made to elevate Mary for her role:

“And it came to pass, as he spake these things, a certain woman of the company lifted up her voice, and said unto him, Blessed is the womb that bare thee, and the paps which thou hast sucked. But he said, Yea rather, blessed are they that hear the word of God, and keep it.” – Luke 11:27-28

Notice that while Jesus was preaching, a woman in the crowd tried to utter a praise to Mary for her “womb” and nursing of the infant Jesus. And Jesus immediately corrected her saying “rather, blessed are they that hear the word of God, and keep it.” Yet Pope Francis says that Mary “so closely united” with Jesus she is basically “Queen of life” and that it is Mary who “triumphs over evil” and “leads us.”

This is blasphemy and has no Biblical support. At no point are Christians in the Bible ever taught that Mary “triumphs” or “leads us.” Mary is dead and has no active role in the life of a Christian. The Bible teaches that believers are not to communicate with the dead – a practice called necromancy:

“There shall not be found among you any one that maketh his son or his daughter to pass through the fire, or that useth divination, or an observer of times, or an enchanter, or a witch. Or a charmer, or a consulter with familiar spirits, or a wizard, or a necromancer. For all that do these things are an abomination unto the Lord: and because of these abominations the Lord thy God doth drive them out from before thee.” – Deuteronomy 18:10-12

Additionally, Mary does not intercede between humanity and God. That is a role specifically reserved for Jesus Christ:

For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus;” – 1 Timothy 2:5

It is Jesus who came took on human form and now serves as the Mediator for humanity to God. Mary has no role in this at all and we are never to pray to anyone but God.

The Roman Catholic Church continues to preach the error of Marian worship despite this. The Bible predicted that much of the Church would fall victim to false doctrines and teachings:

“Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils; Speaking lies in hypocrisy; having their conscience seared with a hot iron; Forbidding to marry, and commanding to abstain from meats, which God hath created to be received with thanksgiving of them which believe and know the truth.” – 1 Timothy 4:1-3

Notice that the Bible places full blame for the false teachings on the preachers – they are not merely making an error; their consciences are so seared they have no concern for the truth of the Bible. This is precisely what the Pope is doing in directing his millions of followers to worship and pray to Mary.  Interestingly, the Roman Catholic Church forbids its priests to marry and commands the entire Roman Catholic Church to abstain from meats for Lent. Thus, the entire passage confirms the grave spiritual error of their teachings. Beginning and End detailed Pope Francis previously calling Mary “The queen of Heaven” and even crowning a statue of her. He also invited a Muslim Iman to pray to Allah from a pulpit at the Vatican. And his predecessor Pope Benedict stated that if aliens came to Earth they could be baptized and accepted into the church.

Many, many people have followed the Catholic Church’s man-made doctrines of working your way to Heaven and purgatory – a fabricated “interim home for the dead” where a person who was condemned before God can potentially work their back into Heaven. None of these concepts have any Biblical support. Do not be deceived.

PRAY FOR REPENTANCE

Catholic Church Pope Francis Mystery Babylon Harlot | Are Roman Catholic Christians?
“Ye shall make you no idols nor graven image, neither rear you up a standing image, neither shall ye set up any image of stone in your land, to bow down unto it: for I am the Lord your God.” – Leviticus 26:1

If you are a born-again Christian, pray for the Pope to repent of these unbiblical teachings. Mary was given arguably the greatest honor to a human in the entire Bible – birth mother of the Messiah. However, she was in no way Divine, superhuman or god-like being that we today should be praying to and “venerating.” Pray for the Catholic Church to believe the Biblical Gospel of free forgiveness of sin, look to the Bible – and what it says in context to break free from the heretical teachings of Pope Francis. And that their hearts, minds and words will look to the true Messiah, Intercessor and God of Earth, Heaven and the universe, Jesus Christ.

 

spacer

Chains of Freedom: A Uniquely Catholic Antidote to Masturbation

2008BU5294Satan hates the Blessed Virgin Mary. In fact, he has been doing everything in his power to discourage devotion to her and instill hatred for her for two millennia. Have you ever noticed that it is Marian dogmas and devotions that stir the strongest reactions in those who reject the Church? Even some good Catholics are embarrassed by devotion to our Lady, and they feel we should not be too extreme in our veneration of her.

Perhaps you, too, have wondered why the Church holds the Immaculate Virgin in such high regard. Perhaps you have wonder why God has chosen to use her in the work of redemption. Today, I’d like to take a look at why the devil hates the Blessed Mother so much, and why we should be her devoted knights.

She will crush your head    what???  WRONG!

The scene is the garden of Eden. The characters are God, the serpent, Adam, and Eve. The devil is smirking in triumph. He has just deceived Eve, and through her, Adam. Oh, he is proud of himself. You can almost feel the demonic pride in destruction, for he has successfully marred God’s handiwork of creation, and dragged human beings—for whom God has a special love—into death and misery.

God has appeared on the scene to clean up the mess, declaring the tragic curse that has arisen from sin, but also to proclaim the protoevangelium, the first hint at the Gospel and the devil’s doom.

God starts by addressing Satan, telling him he is going to eat dirt for the rest of his days. Then he reveals something that makes Satan cringe in horror—his ultimate defeat will come at the hands of a woman.  SO WRONG!!!

And I will establish a feud between thee and the woman, between thy offspring and hersshe (it does not say she , the word says “it” meaning the Prophesied SEED) is to crush thy head, while thou dost lie in ambush at her heels (Genesis 3:15, Knox)   WRONG SO WRONG!! 

Now, scholars argue about whether or not the pronoun is masculine or feminine in the sentence, “She is to crush thy head”—that is, whether it refers to the Virgin Mary or Jesus Christ. But I’m going to let you in on a little secret: it doesn’t matter. You see, Jesus is going to crush Satan through Mary.She is the instrument Jesus is going to wield when he destroys his ancient enemy.    WHAT BLASPHEMY!

With that in mind, it is just as legitimate to say, “he will crush your head” as it is to say, “she will crush your head.” It’s kind of like telling an armed assailant, “One more step and I will shoot you” and “One more step and my .44 magnum will blow you away.” They are both true statements.   THIS IS TO HILARIOUS!  WHAT DECEIT! 

So why does being defeated by Mary pain the devil so much? Why does God want to use Mary to defeat Satan? I’ll explain.

“He has put down the mighty from their seat…”

The devil hates, I mean he loathes the fact that his ultimate defeat will come at the hands of a lowly handmaiden. In a way, his proud heart could handle being defeated by God himself because he’s almighty and omnipotent. But being crushed by a little Lady from Nazareth? The thought is absolutely humiliating. It drives him crazy. For if there is one thing the most proud creature in all of creation hates, it is being humiliated.

Satan finds his defeat by the Virgin Mary humiliating because she is a woman, and women are the weaker sex (1 Peter 3:7), and he despises weakness. He loves nothing more than to see women abused, degraded, and objectified. Not to mention that our Blessed Lady is a human, and Satan hates humans because we have bodies, and he is a pure spirit that thinks bodies are disgusting. But there’s another, more profound reason Satan hates being defeated by Mary: She is his replacement in heaven.

You see, Lucifer was originally God’s finest achievement. He was more beautiful, more powerful than all the other creatures that God has made. And as we all know, it went to his head. He was so gorgeous, so mighty that he really thought he could be better than God. The defining marks of Satan are pride and envy of the Almighty.

And what are the defining characteristics of our Lady? First and foremost, she is supremely humble. In fact, she is the most humble creature that has ever existed. For every ounce of pride the devil has, Mary has twice as much humility. For every drop of hate-filled and bitter envy in Satan’s black heart, Mary’s heart is filled with twice as much praise, worship, and love. For every bit of warped and destructive depravity in the devil’s soul, Mary’s heart is filled with more purity and fruitfulness. And by grace, God has made her the most exquisite and most glorious creature in all the universe—the title the devil used to claim.

In every way, the Immaculate is Satan’s polar opposite. In every way, she is his replacement, and he knows it. This Divine exchange of Mary for Satan is revealed in our Lady’s hymn of praise, the Magnificat. 

WOW, THIS IS SO EVIL!  SO MUCH DECEIT.  THE DEVIL KNOWS HOW TO PULL YOUR STRINGS! 

My soul magnifies the Lord;
my spirit has found joy in God, who is my Saviour,
because he has looked graciously upon the lowliness of his handmaid.
Behold, from this day forward all generations will count me blessed;
because he who is mighty, he whose name is holy, has wrought for me his wonders.
He has mercy upon those who fear him, from generation to generation;
he has done valiantly with the strength of his arm,
driving the proud astray in the conceit of their hearts;
he has put down the mighty from their seat, and exalted the lowly;
he has filled the hungry with good things,
and sent the rich away empty-handed.
He has protected his servant Israel,
keeping his merciful design in remembrance,
according to the promise which he made to our forefathers,
Abraham and his posterity for evermore.

In the Magnificat, we see the role of Mary in salvation summarized beautifully:

  • Mary’s humility- “he has looked graciously on the lowliness of his handmaid”
  • God’s marvelous work of grace in her: “Because he who is mighty, he who name is holy, has wrought for me his wonders”
  • God’s casting out of Satan: “Driving the proud astray in the conceit of their hearts, he has put down the mighty from their seat”
  • His exalting of Mary in Satan’s place: “He has…exalted the lowly.”

Worst of all for Satan, his replacement in heaven is none other than the mother of the Eternal Word, Jesus Christ, whose passion and death redeemed the very humanity he has worked so hard to destroy. Her Yes to God undid the disobedience of Eve, paving the way for the saving work of the New Adam. The very weakness of Eve that Satan so scorned was replaced by the humble obedience of Mary, an obedience to the will of God that has made her powerful beyond limits. 

This is the Divine plan for the defeat of his enemy. This is Satan’s humiliation and his doom.

WOW!  DEAREST CATHOLIC FRIENDS… DO NOT BUY THIS LIE!  BREAK FREE.  GOD NEVER SAID ANYTHING IN HIS WORD THAT WOULD LEAD YOU TO BELIEVE THESE THINGS.  NOTHING!

Surely the Lord GOD will do nothing, but he revealeth his secret unto his servants the prophets.  Amos 3:7

Do you really think that GOD would not have mentioned anything even remotely related to such a story?  Seriously, reading these fables from the Catholic church it sounds like they believe that MARY is everything and Christ is just arm candy.  THESE FAIRY TALES WOULD BE LAUGHABLE, IF ONE DID NOT REALIZE THAT PEOPLE BELIEVE THIS STUFF, AND THAT IS SO SERIOUSLY TRAGIC!

Hasta la vista, Satan

In case you didn’t realize it, Satan hates you. His bitter envy inspires him to destroy God’s creation, to drag it down into the abyss of hell. He would love nothing more for you—image bearer of God—to join in him in the eternal flames of the lake of fire, for misery loves company.

But fear not. The ancient serpent is powerless against the Immaculate Virgin, for in God’s plan, she is the instrument that Jesus will use to humiliate and demolish him. Do you want to crush the head of the devil in your life? Do you want to make it safely through trials, temptations, and storms to our eternal Home? The answer is simple: Call on Mary. Love her, be her devoted servant. Be her knight, her defender, her apostle. Consecrate yourself to her totally and completely—for nothing that belongs to her will be lost. As St. John Damascene said so beautifully, “To be devoted to thee, O holy Virgin, is an arm of salvation which God gives to those whom He wishes to save.”

Satan is on a rampage, wreaking as much havoc as he possibly can—because he knows his time is running out. He is afraid and he is angry, for he knows that one day very soon, he will be crushed by the Woman who makes his heart quake, the woman who “looks forth like the dawn, fair as the moon, bright as the sun, terrible as an army with banners” (Song of Solomon 6:10).

Well, in those last few passages were some truths spoken that being that SATAN hates you.  He knows his time is short and he is out seeking whom he may devour.  His only goals are to steal, kill and destroy.  YOU dear friends need to seek the face of JESUS CHRIST our only savior.  He and the Father will commune with you.  The Holy Spirit will guide you and comfort you, leading you to all truth.  DO NOT PRAY TO MARY!  DO NOT WORSHIP MARY!  DO NOT DEDICATE YOURSELF TO MARY!  

For heaven’s sake, look at the fruit!  Look at what this POPE is saying and doing.  You know that the WORLD is turning away from GOD and his Patriarchal system and turning to FEMINISM and GODDESS worship.  That ought to be your clue right there.  The WORLD is at enmity with GOD.   If you are like the world you cannot be GOD’s children.  

Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Whoever therefore wants to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.  James 4:4 

IT IS NOT MARY WHO WILL CRUSH THE HEAD OF SATAN.  JESUS CHRIST THE SEED PROPHESIED WAS THE ONE WHO CRUSHED THE HEAD OF SATAN!!  

13 And the Lord God said unto the woman, What is this that thou hast done? And the woman said, The serpent beguiled me, and I did eat.

14 And the Lord God said unto the serpent, Because thou hast done this, thou art cursed above all cattle, and above every beast of the field; upon thy belly shalt thou go, and dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life:

15 And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.

16 Unto the woman he said, I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception; in sorrow thou shalt bring forth children; and thy desire shall be to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee.  Genesis 3:13-16

spacer

 

VIRGIN MARY GODDESS AGAIN ELEVATED BY POPE FRANCES

Evangelicals cozying up to Rome got more evidence that this is a counterfeit church. Pope Francis recently decreed a “new feast day on the liturgical calendar for Mary, ‘Mother of the Church.'”

Can it be “just another denomination” when it encourages Roman Catholics to go to the “Virgin Mary” for favors instead of Jesus? And by what authority can she be installed as “Mother of the Church?”

As with the Eucharist, the popes take a simple scripture and invent a huge inverted pyramid of dogma. In this case, Christ’s tender care for His mother, assigned on the cross to the beloved Apostle John becomes the shaky scriptural springboard. (See John 19:26-27.) When Jesus simply asked the Apostle, John, to look after His earthly mother after His death, Catholicism sees this as giving Mary goddess-like authority over the church.

The new decree states: “Indeed, the mother standing beneath the cross (Jn. 19:25), accepted her Son’s testament of love and welcomed all people in the person of the beloved disciple as sons and daughters to be reborn unto life eternal. She thus became the tender mother of the Church which Christ begot on the cross handing on the Spirit.   WHAT THE HELL DOES THAT MEAN???

Christ, in turn, in the beloved disciple, chose all disciples as ministers of his love towards His mother, entrusting her to them so that they might welcome her with filial affection.WHAT BS!!!

Mary is the mother of the members of Christ, because with charity she cooperated in the rebirth of the faithful into the Church, while the latter says that the birth of the Head is also the birth of the body, thus indicating that Mary is at once mother of Christ, the Son of God, and mother of the members of his Mystical Body, which is the Church.

“These considerations derive from the divine motherhood of Maryand from her intimate union in the work of the Redeemer, which culminated at the hour of the cross.”

WOW, I have to interject here for a moment.  This stuff is so insane.  I just cannot contain my disgust.  It reminds me of something that happened to me when delivering our first child.   My mother-in-law was unable to bear children.  She actually stole my husband, but that is another story.  I allowed her to come into the labor and delivery rooms with me.  I will never forget what she told me the next day.  SHE told me, that she believed that my baby was hers. that GOD brought that baby to her through me.  She said that in that she had experienced every pain that I had.  She said she delivered that baby and that GOD meant him to be her baby.  I about fell out of my chair.  She was deadly serious!  

That is how ridiculous this idea that we were all reborn through Mary, and that she was equally participator in the redemptive work of the Cross, that when Jesus asked John to look after her he made her mother of all who were alive and were to come.  THAT IS INSANE!!! Please, I pray, do not fall for this insanity!!

From this quote it is obvious how high-sounding words are used to snare the unwary. In Catholic and Eastern Orthodox circles, Mary is also widely referred to as the “Mother of God.”

This designation of an additional feast day for her is only one of a string of elevations of her goddess image over the centuries. In 1854 she was decreed by the popes to have been born without original sin; her “Immaculate Conception.” Later, in 1950 Pope Pius XII declared that she was “assumed” bodily into heaven; The Assumption.

This example of stretching of scripture is one of two that the popes have used to weave a fantastic web of lies to construct the counterfeit, prostitute “church” described with astonishment by the Apostle John in the book of the Revelation.

The other is the idolatry of the wafer god, the Eucharist. The supposed scriptural source of this “re-sacrifice of Christ” is Jesus’ sermon recorded in John 6. Here He spoke symbolically of eating His flesh and drinking His blood, but is interpreted literally by the popes. Using a baptized pagan ritual from ancient Egypt, the wheat wafer is “consecrated” by an “ordained” priest, converting its “species” into the actual body, blood and divinity of Christ.

Both of these perversions of the Bible narrative are covered at length in the book, Babylon Religion: How a Babylonian Goddess Became the Virgin Mary, researched and written by David W. Daniels and illustrated by Jack Chick.

Few Bible believers are aware of the magnitude of this idolatry by Roman Catholicism. Rome has been hugely successful in convincing Protestants that they are already Christian, blocking any soul-winning efforts.

But Satan is smiling with glee because these precious souls who trust their “church” with their eternal life will flunk the Great White Throne judgment and end up in hell instead of purgatory.

It is amazing to me that a Church who claims to worship Our Heavenly Father, refuses to honer the APPOINTED FEASTS that HE ordained and yet continue to manufacture feasts and holydays of their own and demand that people observe them!!  

May Crowning & Devotion to Our Blessed Mother Mary

The custom fell out of vogue in many places during the 1970s-80s, but has since made a comeback along with many other traditional Catholic practices. An image or likeness of the Blessed Virgin Mary is ceremonially crowned to signify her as Queen of Heaven and the Mother of God.

 

  • May Crowning & Devotion to Our Blessed Mother Mary

    May Crowning & Devotion to Our Blessed Mother Mary

    Have you ever wondered why Mary has so many names, titles and feast days? It’s because she is the Mother of God and our heavenly mother as well. She is the star of the Saints and the most beautiful rose that you could ever find in any garden. Devotion to our Blessed Mother Mary originates in the earliest days of our Catholic Church and special devotions to honor Mary continue all over the world.

    A few years ago, our four parish churches reinstituted the traditional Roman Catholic ritual of a “May Crowning” on the first Sunday in May. The ritual includes a procession with children, a hymn, a devotional prayer and the crowning of a statue of the Blessed Virgin Mary with a wreath of flowers. We recognize Mary as Queen of Heaven, Queen of Earth and Queen of Peace. It is a beautiful and heart-warming ritual!

    Join us this Sunday, May 5, at our May Crowning Masses:
    8:30 am St. Gregory;   9:30 am St. Jude
    10:30 am Holy Martyrs;   11:00 am Sacred Heart

    Why is Mary called the “Queen of May”? Throughout the year, there are close to 40 feast days honoring Mary! The month of May has so many because toward the end of the 18th century, Rome dedicated the month of May to our Blessed Mother. From Rome, the May devotion spread throughout Jesuit colleges, and eventually throughout the whole church. May also marks several feast days to honor our Blessed Mother:

    Our Lady, Queen of Apostles (the Saturday following the Ascension)
    Our Lady of the Most Blessed Sacrament (May 13)
    Our Lady of Fatima (May 13)
    Mary, Help of Christians (May 24)
    Mary, Mediatrix of All Graces (May 31)
    The Visitation (May 31)

    Marian May devotions were also revitalized by the four, Church-approved apparitions of our Blessed Mother:

    · 1830, Mary appears to St. Catherine Labouré in France, instructing her to have the Miraculous Medal inscribed, “Mary, conceived without sin, pray for us who have recourse to thee.”
    · 1846, Mary appears to children at La Salette, France, and tearfully laments the lax practice of the faith.
    · 1858, Mary appears to St. Bernadette at Lourdes, France, identifying herself as the “Immaculate Conception.”
    · 1917, Mary appears to the three children at Fatima, Portugal, where she instructs the people to pray the rosary daily for peace.

    “Father, you have given us the Mother of your Son to be our Queen and Mother. With the support of her prayers, may we come to share the glory of your children in the kingdom of heaven. We ask this through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the, one God, forever and ever. Amen.”

    —Georgette B. Dionne, POTHE Director of Lifelong Faith Formation

May Day Myth and Ritual: The Virgin Mary as the May Queen

Since May 1 lies about halfway between the vernal equinox and the summer solstice, our ancestors considered it a good time to mark the transition into summer. Indeed, in most of medieval northern Europe, which observed the Celtic calendar, May 1 was considered the beginning of summer, hence for example the Beltane festival. At the same time, importantly, May Day falls within the 50-day Easter liturgical season. As noted in my May Day post of April 29, 2015, about the goddess traditions of May Day, the Virgin Mary too is venerated on May Day, but I did not elaborate in that post. Now I will, detailing the mythology, ritual, and archetypal psychology behind the “Crowning of Mary” ritual.

Goddess Mythology and May Day

The Goddess of the festival that became May Day goes back to ancient times, in Anatolia, Greece, and Rome. The Roman Empire is important here because it took over much of Europe and the British Isles. Its mythology, associated rituals, and holidays spread there and were assimilated into local religion, mythology, holidays, and customs.

The Greeks held an annual spring festival for Rhea, the Titaness who was considered the mother of the first gods, including several Olympians, and thus was the great Mother called Queen of Heaven. We don’t know much about her festival, but she became identified with the Phrygian goddess Cybele, whose mythology and spring festival is well known from after she entered Rome, to which we can now turn.

Cybele and her son-lover Attis, a dying and rising god, were at the center of the Roman Hilaria festival (from Greek hilareia/hilaria (“rejoicing”) and Latin hilaris (“cheerful”), held between the vernal equinox and April 1. In this festival, a pine tree (that of Attis) was cut and stripped of its branches, wrapped in linen like a mummy and decorated with violets (Cybele’s flower, because in the myth violets were said to have sprung from the blood of Attis). It was then brought before Cybele’s temple on wagons in what resembled a funeral cortege, since Attis was “dead” inside the tree. This was followed by days of frenzied grief and mourning (including scourging) known as the “blood days,” when the tree was symbolically buried in a “tomb.” Attis then resurrected (rose out of the tree) on the day of Hilaria and was reunited with Cybele, symbolizing spring. The tree was then erected before Cybele’s temple, and the people celebrated around it (a “hilarious” celebration). This has obvious parallels with the Maypole and May Day celebrations.

The second of these holidays was the Floralia, named after Flora (Greek Chloris), goddess of flowers and spring. When she married Zephryos, the West Wind, as a wedding gift he filled her fields (her dowry in the marriage) with a flower garden, the flowers in which were said to spring from the wounds of Attis and Adonis. Zephyros, as the West Wind, brings the spring rains that grow the flowers. They had a son, Karpos (“fruit” or “crop’). Flora/Chloris became the goddess having jurisdiction over flowers, which she spread (by spreading their seeds) all over the earth, which until then was monochrome. More generally she became goddess of spring. In Rome, in the late 3rd century BCE a festival was instituted in her honor that lasted from April 28 to May 2. It included theater, a sacrifice to Flora, a procession in which a statue of Flora was carried, as well as competitive events and other spectacles at the Circus Maximus. One of these involved releasing captured hares and goats (both noted for their fertility) into the Circus, and scattering beans, vetches, and lupins (all fertility symbols) into the crowd. The celebrants wore multi-colored clothing symbolizing flowers and spring, as later was customary on May Day in Europe.

May Day also took on Christian trimmings. In Germany, on May Day Eve (April 30), called Hexennacht (”Witches Night”), famously dramatized by Goethe in Faust, witches were said to gather on the Brocken, the highest peak in the Harz Mountains, to foment their evil plans. After the advent of Christianity, the witches were said to meet with the Devil. Their plans were then foiled through apotropaic May Day rituals. Eventually that Eve became known instead as Walpurgis Night, named after the abbess St. Walpurga (ca. 710-778), who is said to have been instrumental in bringing Christianity to Germany in the 8th century. Most importantly, the Catholic Church developed its May Day “Crowning of Mary” ritual. To understand how Mary’s ritual fits in, we must first summarize May Day rituals in general.

May crowning3

May Day Rituals

May Day rituals began with apotropaic bonfires on May Day eve, as described in my post of May 1, 2015. Then during the night youths of both sexes would go into the forest and gather flowers to be made into garlands for May Day decorations, and also procure a tree trunk to be used for the Maypole, which was erected in town the next morning. In the morning the youths would go house-to-house around town, singing songs and decorating the outside of houses and thorn bushes with the flowers that they had gathered. (Thorns represent suffering (cf. Christ’s crown of thorns) and thus winter; covering them with flowers represents the end of the suffering of winter.) Sometimes they also carried a doll or a small statue of the May Queen. The festivities around the Maypole later in the day typically included a mock contest where the May Queen defeats the Queen of Winter and marries the May King, a Green Man figure covered with foliage. Then the pair would be crowned, followed by dancing and singing around the Maypole.

May Day and the Crowning of Mary Ritual

In the Catholic Church’s liturgical year the entire month of May became devoted to the veneration of the Virgin Mary. The high point has always been the ritual known as “The Crowning of Mary,” said to have been instituted by St. Philip Neri in 16th century Italy, after which it quickly gained widespread grass-roots popularity. This ritual is usually performed on May Day, but alternatively on another early day of the month including Mother’s Day (always the second Sunday of May), and remains popular in Catholic congregations today. Ever since its inception, the ritual has involved a group of young boys and girls proceeding to a statue of Mary and placing a crown of flowers on her head to the accompaniment of singing. After Mary is crowned, a litany is sung or recited in which she is praised and called the Queen of Earth, Queen of Heaven, and Queen of the Universe, among other titles and epithets. (Order; Marian Year) (In the ritual in some places there is also a figure of her son Christ, who also is crowned.) Some Marian hymns also call her the “Queen of May.” In light of these traditions, in 1954 Pope Pius XII officially proclaimed the Queenship of Mary. To be sure, no official Catholic Church documents ever deem Mary quite divine, but the actual popular veneration of her tells a different story. It is not possible to detail the full scope of Mary veneration and Mariology here, so I’ll focus on just the May Day example.

In Catholic thinking, Mary is called Queen “because she is the perfect follower of Christ, who is the absolute crown of creation. She is the Mother of the Son of God, who is the messianic King. . . . Thus, in an eminent way, she won the ‘crown of righteousness’ ‘the crown of life,’ ‘the crown of glory’ promised to those who follow Christ.” (quoted from Order) Indeed, the crown symbolizes such things in New Testament scripture (Jas 1:12 (“crown of life”); 2 Tim 4:8 (“crown of righteousness”); 1 Pet 5:4 (“crown of glory”); Rev 2:10 (“crown of life”); see also Rev 12:1 (“a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars”). Thus, in Christian art Mary was sometimes depicted with a regal crown as early as the 4th century CE. The flowers in her crown are said to represent Mary’s virtues, and the ritual is held in spring because she brought life into the world. Venerating Mary in May also makes sense to Christians because much of May falls within the 50-day Easter season ending with Pentecost –the descent of the Holy Spirit upon the apostles and other followers of Christ – and Mary was with the apostles waiting for the Spirit to descend (Acts 1:12-14).

As a matter of psychology and religious history, however, the May crowning ritual emerged organically as one of popular devotion on the date of more traditional May Day celebrations, to which the Church reacted with formal declarations in order to more formally Christianize and legitimize it. This ritual also has non-Christian roots in traditional May Day mythology, floral rituals of spring, goddess veneration, and the crowning of the May Queen described above. In particular, psychologically speaking, in part it is a later iteration of the perennial early-May goddess traditions in which elements of the mother archetype are expressed in terms of the fertility and fruitfulness of springtime in full swing (see Jung, pp. 81-82), which accounts for why this ritual and the Mary figure in general have stood the test of time: She touches something deep inside our psyche. Calling Mary “our mother” reflects an instinctive and universal identification with her as an archetypal figure, even though it is inevitably difficult for us to consciously articulate the particulars of what this epithet means. Mary is in all of us, which is to say she is important and deserves our attention, whatever one’s religious position. Interestingly, the Catholic manual Book of Blessings, in explaining why the veneration of images of Mary and other Christian figures is not idolatry, states that such images are venerated “because the honor shown them is directed to the prototypes that they represent.” Well, there we have it.

Sources and Bibliography

Ad Caeli Reginam, Encyclical of Pope Pius XII on Proclaiming the Queenship of Mary. Available on the Vatican website at: http://w2.vatican.va/content/pius-xii/en/encyclicals/documents/hf_p-xii_enc_11101954_ad-caeli-reginam.html

Jung, Carl. “Psychological Aspects of the Mother Archetype,” in The Archetypes and the Collective Unconscious. Collected Works, Collected Works vol. 9.1, pp. 73-110.

National Conference of Catholic Bishops, Order of Crowning an Image of the Blessed Virgin Mary (here cited as “Order”), part of the aforementioned Book of Blessings.

National Conference of Catholic Bishops, Celebrating the Marian Year (here cited as “Marian Year”).

See also my 2015 May Day posts:

The Mythology of May Day I: The Goddess of May Day

The Mythology of May Day II: The Bonfire Rituals of May Day Eve

The Mythology of May Day III: Maypoles and their Rituals

If you have any doubt about the fruitlessness of the Current Roman Catholic Church and the Blasphemy of Pope Francis watch this video.   YOU WILL KNOW THEM BY THEIR FRUITS!

Relevant Rex   October 28, 2019

A message to the Amazon Synod priests and prelates who support the Synod, and Using my indigenous Igorot, American, and Catholic roots to navigate through life’s messy waters.    CLICK  TO: VIEW THE VIDEO