Why don't protestants bless Mary?

[bbbbbbb]

Apparently this notion of a pre-annunciation vow has its roots in the Protoevangelium of James, in which Mary is dedicated to work in the Temple as a lifelong virgin. Did Judaism even have such temple virgins? I've sent off an email to the Ask a Rabbi website.

The thing is, even if she were a temple virgin, she would not have married. It is the Law that a Jewish man must "be fruitful and multiply."

I wouldn't say this belief is common. I know LOTS of fellow Catholics, and never heard of this before this week.

I am entirely unaware of anything remotely like a temple virgin in Judaism. Most religions that had temple virgins (men or women) had them for sexual intercourse as part of the temple rites. IMO this is really perverse and entirely against Judeo-Christian morality.

I agree that this view is not common among Catholics I know, but then most Catholics i know are not very well informed about their faith.

 

[Open Heart]

I agree that this view is not common among Catholics I know, but then most Catholics i know are not very well informed about their faith.

That's true about Christians in general. It used to drive me nuts when I was young and Evangelical. Now I'm 54 and Catholic and I just sigh*. People in general are uneducated in general.

 

[bbbbbbb]

That's true about Christians in general. It used to drive me nuts when I was young and Evangelical. Now I'm 54 and Catholic and I just sigh*. People in general are uneducated in general.

Quite true.

 

[LoveofTruth]

So you never ask other Christians for their prayers? Not scriptural. But I think you are kidding.

He didn't say that he said "I'll will pray to God rather than other Christians". he did not say he wont ask other Christians alive on earth to pray with him and for him etc.

 

[Aldebaran]

He didn't say that he said "I'll will pray to God rather than other Christians". he did not say he wont ask other Christians alive on earth to pray with him and for him etc.

Yes, exactly! We can ask other Christians to pray for us, but it's the praying to people who are dead that I'm addressing. Praying to Mary is something I never understood the reason for other than the idea that she is to be looked at as a part of the Holy Trinity (or quadrinity, as it would be).
I actually have a cousin that is Catholic, and she lost her mother to leukemia some time ago. They were very close. So close in fact, that my cousin has actually posted on Facebook that she prays to her mother.
I sincerely hope that after I die, people don't start praying to me!

 

[LoveofTruth]

Yes, exactly! We can ask other Christians to pray for us, but it's the praying to people who are dead that I'm addressing. Praying to Mary is something I never understood the reason for other than the idea that she is to be looked at as a part of the Holy Trinity (or quadrinity, as it would be).
I actually have a cousin that is Catholic, and she lost her mother to leukemia some time ago. They were very close. So close in fact, that my cousin has actually posted on Facebook that she prays to her mother.
I sincerely hope that after I die, people don't start praying to me!

I agree, and Jesus said "come unto me", he never said get to to me through my mother?

And Jesus said "when you pray say, Our Father..."

Never "our Mother..."

 

[Open Heart]

it's the praying to people who are dead that I'm addressing

But why? It's just asking, a request. Pray simply means to implore.

 

[JCFantasy23]

To me prayer is reserved for God and a way to communicate with God.

I see your reply above to my question on how to bless Mary - in answer to that and the topic, I do think protestants bring up Mary and I have never heard her insulted. I am not sure how she can be blessed beyond that with current protestant belief system (and with that I mean a lot of protestants, not all of them)

 

[Berean777]

To glory God because he sent the Virgin to bring the hope of redemption into the world is what constitutes a common orthodox Christian practice. When it is extended beyond glorifying God to venerating the Virgin herself and interceding through her, this practice leads to a path of idolatry.
There is a very thin line when people cross it, the reverse happens where Mary is glorified in giving birth to the Son.
When glory switches from the Creator to the creature the focus object becomes the idol, therefore Mary is idolised through her works.

Mary didn't say those things, rather she said, "let the Lord do as he pleases and to consider me as his handmaiden, meaning servant".

Protestants should bless Mary because it is a correct practice but at the same time don't idolise her the way other sects have done unwittingly.

 

[Berean777]

Blessed are though Mary and thy womb that brought forth the Son of righteousness to the glory of God the Father.

 

[Open Heart]

I have never heard her insulted

You've never heard her called an incubator?

 

[JCFantasy23]

You've never heard her called an incubator?

No, I really haven't, at least not till this thread. I can see how that would be offensive.

 

[Berean777]

Protestants don't call her the mother of God for the basic understanding that the Living Word begat Mary and not the other way around. Mary bore the human vessel that the Holy Ghost brought to life by his Holy Spirit and filled that human vessel with the fullness of his Godhead bodily.

Colossians 2:9
For in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily.

The church in Babylon always contended that Mary is the mother of the flesh but not of the mother of the fullness of the Godhead who indwelled that human vessel. She bore the flesh enabling the Holy Spirit of God to come into the world as a human being.

Luke 1:35
The angel answered, "The Holy Spirit will come on you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the holy one to be born will be called the Son of God.

The angel says he is the Son of God. The angel didn't say that Mary was to be the mother of God, as she herself declared that the Lord can do as he pleases and that she is the handmaiden of the Lord. Handmaiden means servant and through this servant God entered into the earthly realm by incarnating himself through the Virgin by his miraculous works alone, without Mary's or Joseph's input as male and female. It is a miraculous conception by the Holy Ghost alone.

Therefore Mary bore the flesh of the man Jesus of Nazareth who is the embodiment of the Godhead bodily. Mary could never be the mother of the Devine because Mary is not Devine, she is the creature of the Creator, where the Living word inside of her is according to John 1:1-4 the Creator.

That is why Protestants don't venerate Mary as the Catholics and therefore do not call her the mother of God for scriptural reasons notwithstanding church doctrine that came hundreds of years later.

Again when you make Mary the mother of God you can idolise her as mediatrix, Lourdes and so on and this to the Protestant is idolatry pure and simple.

 

[Berean777]

Protestants should bless Mary and say blessed is the womb that brought forth the hope of the world and the blessed redeemer of all humanity and all this is to the glory of God the Father of Jesus, Mary, you and me. Thank you kindly.

 

[Berean777]

Mary is not the mother of the Eternal Son/Word because the Living Word existed before Mary existed. The Eternal Word existed with the Father in Genesis when he said let us make man in our own image. Where was Mary then? You see the creature cannot be the mother of the Devine by the human definition of mother by simply having bore the child. The Devine is the Holy Spirit that overshadowed Mary. The Devine is the Creator. Just because Mary bore the child doesn't make the Living Word who was from the beginning now all of the sudden by human definition a son of Mary.

The reason why Protestants don't bless Mary is because they have been turned off by a sector of Christainity that imposes the word mother on the Creator. I find it offensive and I am sure that Protestants also find it offensive without directly saying that they are offended.

Anyways Protestants should learn to ignore that sectar of Christianity who hold their own belief and should reconsider that through this blessed women amongst all women God choose, blessed and came into the world as the Emmanuel, therefore she has to be blessed and saying blessed be Mary is something that would please God because God said she was blessed full stop.

 

[Berean777]

We are blessing each other all the times when ever couples have children or are healed from sickness and so if we today do it so easily to bless one another through these smaller miracles of joy and wonder of God then how much more should we bless the Virgin who bore the Son of righteousness. So let us all give her a special blessing in your prayers and don't be obnoxious because of a small sectar of Christainity who turn you off from saying those things in your prayers.

Women especially should bless Mary as they too are being blessed when they are given children by the Creator and so we mustn't forget this brilliant and wonderful women who is blessed amongst all women.

My own mother before having me asked in prayer a blessing from Mary to bless her with a child and so ladies we mustn't forget blessings is not worship but looking at Mary as the blessed one so that you too will be blessed by God.

 

[Aldebaran]

You've never heard her called an incubator?

That may sound disrespectful, sure. But the fact is, she was a servant of God. So are the angels; one of whom said that he also is not to be worshiped. See Rev. 19:10: Then I fell at his feet to worship him. But he said to me, "Do not do that; I am a fellow servant of yours and your brethren who hold the testimony of Jesus; worship God. For the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy."

Is Mary higher than the angels?

 

[Open Heart]

But the fact is, she was a servant of God.

Of course she is. But it's not okay to disrespect even the servants.

 

[Albion]

Of course she is. But it's not okay to disrespect even the servants.

It's not 'disrespect' merely to decline to heap excessive accolades upon anyone.

 

[Open Heart]

It's not 'disrespect' merely to decline to heap excessive accolades upon anyone.

It's disrespect to call her an incubator, which is what my reply was about.