- Jan 31, 2005
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This might be a bad title for the thread, because what I am about to discuss may in fact be very important to people's prayer lives and thus may not be "light" in the sense of a light beer or something that is less substantial. It may be just as substantial or more substantial. I was just having a hard time with words for a subject line that would get what I'm talking about across any better.
A lot of people tend to have trouble with some of the more extreme teachings of St. Louis De Montfort where Mary seems to hold such a central places and where pledges of complete consecration to Mary are encouraged, and the theology that some hold where some say Mary is the Mediatorix of *all graces* or the co-redemptrix. Similarly, people might have trouble swallowing the idea of apparitions of the Virgin Mary, especially those that depict the Virgin as a very stern hell-threatening figure urging fasting on bread and water to avoid the whole world going to hell or something.
Yet, it is very imaginable that there could be a contingent of folks who, while rejecting all that, admire the soft loving holy biblical figure of Mary, who perhaps may be without sin, but is wholly human and not a figure who is imposing or stern, and who isn't the direct of cause of our redemption or person through who all graces flow. Maybe some believe that the Mary's body was assumed into heaven after her death or with her in a deep coma, as is believed in the east, depicted in ancient artwork, and technically not in conflict with the dogma of the Assumption as stated by the Pope who made it dogmatic (Modern western artwork aside). Such people might have a statue of Mary, they may pray the rosary without the Fatima prayers, and so on and so forth.
Often we get this picture of a Marian devotion having to be to a figure who has undergone a lot of, let's say character development, since her time on earth, the Marian equivalent of an angry God, complete with an almost godlike role in the universe and in the plan of salvation and in grace. Then we get this other picture of folks who would never say a "Hail Mary" or believe that Marian devotion is not for them or somehow not ideal for whatever reason.
I wonder if there is a middle ground of people devoted to a simpler version of Mary, who was a scared unwed mother and said "Be done to me according to thy will", and who Jesus in his dying breaths asked St. John to take care of. A woman who cried as her son died, and was an empathetic figure, but who's tears didn't somehow save us from our sin (i.e. was not the co-redemptrix). Who Jesus loved, and is in heaven, but is not the person through whom all graces to earth flow. Someone with a statue, but not necessarily a crown (Figuratively speaking).
Anyone out there like that?
A lot of people tend to have trouble with some of the more extreme teachings of St. Louis De Montfort where Mary seems to hold such a central places and where pledges of complete consecration to Mary are encouraged, and the theology that some hold where some say Mary is the Mediatorix of *all graces* or the co-redemptrix. Similarly, people might have trouble swallowing the idea of apparitions of the Virgin Mary, especially those that depict the Virgin as a very stern hell-threatening figure urging fasting on bread and water to avoid the whole world going to hell or something.
Yet, it is very imaginable that there could be a contingent of folks who, while rejecting all that, admire the soft loving holy biblical figure of Mary, who perhaps may be without sin, but is wholly human and not a figure who is imposing or stern, and who isn't the direct of cause of our redemption or person through who all graces flow. Maybe some believe that the Mary's body was assumed into heaven after her death or with her in a deep coma, as is believed in the east, depicted in ancient artwork, and technically not in conflict with the dogma of the Assumption as stated by the Pope who made it dogmatic (Modern western artwork aside). Such people might have a statue of Mary, they may pray the rosary without the Fatima prayers, and so on and so forth.
Often we get this picture of a Marian devotion having to be to a figure who has undergone a lot of, let's say character development, since her time on earth, the Marian equivalent of an angry God, complete with an almost godlike role in the universe and in the plan of salvation and in grace. Then we get this other picture of folks who would never say a "Hail Mary" or believe that Marian devotion is not for them or somehow not ideal for whatever reason.
I wonder if there is a middle ground of people devoted to a simpler version of Mary, who was a scared unwed mother and said "Be done to me according to thy will", and who Jesus in his dying breaths asked St. John to take care of. A woman who cried as her son died, and was an empathetic figure, but who's tears didn't somehow save us from our sin (i.e. was not the co-redemptrix). Who Jesus loved, and is in heaven, but is not the person through whom all graces to earth flow. Someone with a statue, but not necessarily a crown (Figuratively speaking).
Anyone out there like that?
