And I have repeatedly stated that I accept the Virgin birth and that Mary is 'mother of God'
I think earlier she did agree that Mary was theotokos, mother of God. Her issue is a smaller one than that, that she does not see that Mary has a role in salvation.
I would like you to consider a few things. First, the definition of co-mediator (and any of the other 'co-' words) applied to Mary. It is natural to assume that the action is split 50-50 with those words, but that would be wrong. Maybe more like 99-1 or something like that. Maybe even co-mediators on a whole different minor level so it's really 100+0.01. You and I are co-mediators with Jesus in the same way every time we pray for a person. We co-mediate, but without Jesus as the mediator with the Father, our mediation would be nothing at all. So to with Mary as co-mediator. She gets no mileage at all without Jesus as the mediator.
Well, what can I say? The Cana thing is in the Bible. And it's not like a whole religion is built on that. Catholics get the complaint that we're too into Mary, too much emphasis on her. But then when it comes to Christmas we give it a whole octave. In fact the Christmas season only officially closes with the feast of the baptism of the Lord in a few days. When it comes to Easter, again a whole octave, and the Easter season goes all the way to Pentecost. And we have whole preparatory seasons of Advent and Lent to boot. Other Christians may, or may not, observe those days, but when the day is over, it's all done. They think we overdo it. So many things they think we overdo. But if you look at the whole in perspective, there is a balance. Mary is not exalted, but taken alone it may look that way. St. Barnabas even gets his day. That might be seen as him being exalted, but in perspective it comes down to Jesus and His Father and Their Spirit are overwhelmingly exalted, worshiped, adored, and loved. That is the balance. It looks like a wild and uncontrollable party. In reality it is the wedding feast of the Lamb, and everyone is celebrated in celebrating the bride and groom. That's why it is a good party. We have a few excesses, but we're not somber.
Lol.. i like it that you go 'overboard' on christmas etc. That's a good thing. But I see what you are saying.
Do you have a role in salvation? Do all believers have a role in salvation's story? Salvation is in Christ alone but as believers we are all given gifts, which are to be administered to the lost. Her gift is in her own song.
Yes. We go overboard on most things. Which is to say we maintain the balance. One way of looking at heresy is that it pays attention to one little truth to the exception of all others. We do the whole thing in a balance that looks wild, but ... it's like an ecosystem with a million species vs an ecosystem with three species. The more stable and resilient one has the million species. So too the Catholics with all of their excesses are the better at balance, even if sometimes it looks crazy out of balance.
Praying to saints is not necromancy. That is even condemned by the Catholic Church.
Icons may not be your cup of tea, but you could figure it out. You could do icons. As I sit here there is an icon I can see of Mary and the infant Jesus. Also a new icon of the 21 martyrs beheaded by ISIS being granted the crowns of eternal life by Jesus. As to Orthodox liturgy being middle eastern, yes mostly it is. But then the Maronite and Melchite Catholic liturgies are as well. Maronite, I think is done in Aramaic. But then there are Orthodox liturgies done in English. Ethnicity is a powerful thing, but one should not be locked into it so that one has to have an exclusively Anglican or Aramaic or Greek or Russian or Latin experience. The Catholic Church isn't locked into any one ethnic worship. We do have the Aramaic and now even the Anglican. The latter, I may have mentioned to you already, is called the Anglican Ordinariate. It is basically a non-geographical diocese made up of those who are former Anglicans and Episcopalians who follow the old Cranmerian Prayerbook (with some tweaks to make it Catholic again). There are churches like St. Barnabas in Omaha that were founded as Episcopalian a century or so ago and continue on in the Anglican tradition, but now as Catholics. HistoryI started out seeking Orthodox since Hank Hannegraft converted last april.. but the icons. I cannot do the icons
Also their service seems middle eastern (well it IS middle eastern) and I am used to Episcopal and in the past, Baptist.
The Orthodox had admitted that the pope was 'first among equals' but then some Orthodox don't even accept that the pope (or you or I) is a validly baptized person, so that's a mess. If and when the Orthodox can come to an agreement among themselves on accepting Catholic baptism, then it might be worth it to talk about what they think of the patriarch of Rome.
The word 'petra' means rock. People argue about this word because it's normally a feminine word in Greek, but then Peter was male. The argument goes round and round. But only in a few places in the Bible has God changed a person's name. Abram and Sara and Simon are about it. (Paul? anyone else?) The name change is ontologically a big deal. I take it to mean that Simon has a new big deal role as head of the apostles. Not dictator, but then again not the nothing that Protestants (and some Orthodox) believe either.
Some day it will all come out in the wash. I won't live that long, so I have to go with what has been given to me to understand. And that is that there is truth in the Catholic Church. Yes there is truth in Orthodoxy and even among the Protestants, which is undeniable. But the whole Catholic thing does hang together. And try as we may, after almost 2000 years of trying, we have not yet destroyed it. To me THAT is the biggest God thing about it.
Of course. A tiny role, but a real one. I am in that way an actual co-redeemer with Christ. Not that I could do it alone. Not that God requires my help. But that I have been allowed to assist in a small way in the salvation of those I meet along the way.
