... So, Catholics. What do you ACTUALLY believe about Mary?...
You've had about a million responses already, so I don't suppose one more is going to make much difference, but here goes.
When I first became Catholic after being a Protestant, the business about Mary went into the "too hard" basket for a while.
However I have a few comments to make, and I'll begin with one by my old PROTESTANT pastor, some years
before I became Catholic.
1. His comments, put briefly about (approved) Marian apparitions were "They line up with Scripture", "There's been a lot of them", and "I think they're a judgment on a divided church!" Mary has been giving us some pretty tough warnings, but because the church is divided, a lot of Christians aren't taking any notice.
He also commented on Protestants and Catholics (and bear in mind he was a PROTESTANT pastor), that "When it comes to theology, Protestants couldn't agree how far to spit!"; "Protestants tell a lot of lies about Catholics and the Catholic Church", and
"Protestants are often arrogant about Catholics and the Catholic Church".
Those were his comments.
2. Personal thoughts - When Christ was close to the end on the cross, it's reported that He looked down and saw His Mother, and the "disciple who He loved", traditionally believed to be John. His next words apply to ALL of us, as John stood in as proxy for ALL disciples, whom Jesus loves. Christ essentially told ALL of us to take Mary into our homes as our SPIRITUAL mother, and He told His mother she was the Spiritual Mother of all disciples.
Christ wasn't making that declaration for two people only, any more than His declaration about Peter being the Rock on whom He would found His Church was meant to start and stop with Peter. He was setting up an office, which is still going 2000 years later, and it will continue to endure because Christ was the One who made the declaration. Christ's words are eternal, therefore his intent is eternal.
3. On the Immaculate Conception and the Assumption I think both doctrines are correct. God had a specific woman in mind from the beginning who was going to be the mother of His Son, and He went so far as to send an archangel Gabriel to declare her "full of grace". Otherwise Christ would have inherited a sinful nature from his own mother, and been brought up under the care of a sinful mother.
Ditto the Assumption, and she would not be the first person to have been "assumed". Moses body couldn't be found, and Elijah was taken up into heaven in a chariot drawn by flaming horses. Both Moses and Elijah turned up at the Transfiguration, and nobody else.
This doesn't mean Mary didn't die - it does mean she wasn't allowed to see decay. For some evidence of declared saints not decaying, see the attached link, but they were not the Mother of God in the form of the Son, a singular privilege indeed -
Incorrupt Bodies
4. Finally what is Mary's primary role now, when she's not turning up now and again to give us another warnnig?
I have a Catholic psychiatrist whom I see 2 or 3 times a year, mainly due to depression some time ago, but which has now lifted, so it's mostly a chin wag these days. He's a convert from Protestantism as well. We got talking about this, and his comment was "It took me years to work out where Mary fits into the scheme of things. Basically she intercedes on the behalf of those in Purgatory."
Which brings to mind the closing verse of the "Hail Mary", "...
pray for us
sinners, now and
at the hour of our death."
It's also noteworthy than whenever exorcisms are carried out by Catholic priests, the one and only person
never blasphemed by the demon or demons is Mary. Everyone else is fair game - the victim, the priest, the bishop, even Christ and God. But
never Mary.
It seems God holds her in so much respect, He will not allow
even the Devil to sully her reputation.
She's more than just a singular Jewish girl who just happened to be at her prayers when the archangel arrived,.
