- Nov 30, 2003
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O Lord my God! When I awesome wonder
Consider now the works Thy hands have made
I see the stars; I hear the rolling thunder
Throughout the world Thy hands thy works displayed
This was one of my favorite Protestant songs, How Great Thou Art.
Notice that the focus is more on His creation, not on God Himself. It sings of the stars and the rolling thunder. Is this idolatry. Can we praise the work of His hands?
If you should know an artist, and you see one of his greatest works. You may go and on praising that works. What use of colors! What brilliance! What magnificence! Do you think think that artist would be mad at you? Is he thinking to himself "This person is going on and on about how great my work is! But what about me? Should he not instead say how great I am instead of saying how great my works are?"
This would be very foolish. And yet many Christians think that God is that foolish. True, idolatry is when we love what God has created more than we love God. But the author of above song is using creation to fall more in love with God - then sings my soul, my Savior God to Thee. How great Thou art! How great thou art! We love God through His wonderful acts. Israel loved God for saving them from Egypt. We love God for sending His Son to die for us. There is another song - "When I survey the wondrous Cross on which the Prince of Glory died". It is not idolizing the Cross. It is using the wondrous cross to fall more in love with Jesus.
This is how we Catholics view Mary. We only praise Mary because we love her Son. And we seek to get closer to Mary because we want to get closer to her Son. Jesus is all in all.And it works! Never I have I had more love for my Jesus than when I started to have a devotion to Mary!
The Bible says that man is the crown of God's creation. Imagine that! All the stars in heaven, and we are His crown of creation. And the crown of the crown of creation is Mary. Why? Because of Jesus. Of all the women in the world, God chose this woman to be the mother of God the Son. What was so great about her? It was her lowliness. She said "He has regarded the lowlinesss of his maidservant". Notice, that she did not say "He has regarded his maidservant in spite of her lowliness". He regarded her BECAUSE she was so lowly. Another word for lowliness is humilty. God resists the proud but gives grace to the humble. Lucifer was at one time the closest angel to God. But that made him proud, and that was his downfall. Mary is utterly humble. That is why the Bible says little about Mary. She did nothing great except to say "yes" to God concerning her motherhood. And yet in contrast to the Twelve, she never abandoned her Son, even at the Cross.
So I have a devotion to Mary. The more I am devoted to Mary, the more I see the value of humility. I do not have to do great things for God. I just need a great heart for God. Correction: I need to have a lowly heart. Jesus will take care of the rest.
Consider now the works Thy hands have made
I see the stars; I hear the rolling thunder
Throughout the world Thy hands thy works displayed
This was one of my favorite Protestant songs, How Great Thou Art.
Notice that the focus is more on His creation, not on God Himself. It sings of the stars and the rolling thunder. Is this idolatry. Can we praise the work of His hands?
If you should know an artist, and you see one of his greatest works. You may go and on praising that works. What use of colors! What brilliance! What magnificence! Do you think think that artist would be mad at you? Is he thinking to himself "This person is going on and on about how great my work is! But what about me? Should he not instead say how great I am instead of saying how great my works are?"
This would be very foolish. And yet many Christians think that God is that foolish. True, idolatry is when we love what God has created more than we love God. But the author of above song is using creation to fall more in love with God - then sings my soul, my Savior God to Thee. How great Thou art! How great thou art! We love God through His wonderful acts. Israel loved God for saving them from Egypt. We love God for sending His Son to die for us. There is another song - "When I survey the wondrous Cross on which the Prince of Glory died". It is not idolizing the Cross. It is using the wondrous cross to fall more in love with Jesus.
This is how we Catholics view Mary. We only praise Mary because we love her Son. And we seek to get closer to Mary because we want to get closer to her Son. Jesus is all in all.And it works! Never I have I had more love for my Jesus than when I started to have a devotion to Mary!
The Bible says that man is the crown of God's creation. Imagine that! All the stars in heaven, and we are His crown of creation. And the crown of the crown of creation is Mary. Why? Because of Jesus. Of all the women in the world, God chose this woman to be the mother of God the Son. What was so great about her? It was her lowliness. She said "He has regarded the lowlinesss of his maidservant". Notice, that she did not say "He has regarded his maidservant in spite of her lowliness". He regarded her BECAUSE she was so lowly. Another word for lowliness is humilty. God resists the proud but gives grace to the humble. Lucifer was at one time the closest angel to God. But that made him proud, and that was his downfall. Mary is utterly humble. That is why the Bible says little about Mary. She did nothing great except to say "yes" to God concerning her motherhood. And yet in contrast to the Twelve, she never abandoned her Son, even at the Cross.
So I have a devotion to Mary. The more I am devoted to Mary, the more I see the value of humility. I do not have to do great things for God. I just need a great heart for God. Correction: I need to have a lowly heart. Jesus will take care of the rest.
