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homeschoolmom

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homeschoolmom

Okay, the questions from my Protestant friends are coming. And of course the first one is, "okay so what's with Mary?" For anyone who can think like a Protestant... (and that lets 99% of you off this one :P ) how can I answer this without speaking Catholicese? I know there are lots of pretty good books and links, but I like to hear it from "real people." I think I may have my approach sorta formulated, but I need a starting off point. Thanks.

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homeschoolmom

I was going to, but he's already spent one and a half days contemplating such things today... I thought I would give him a break!!

:rolling:

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IcePrincessKRS

Aw man.... Laudate Dominum, I think it was, made a great post about Mary today..... I think it may have been under Paladin's "Is it ok to tell Mary thank you and I love you" thread in teh Debate Table. Check that thread out, it might give you a couple answers.

I'd probably be bad at this question in my own words as I often forget to translate from Catholicese to Protestantese. lol

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Ok this may sound really silly, but as a protestant I hadn't even really thought about Mary at all other than the 'small part' (!!) she played in the nativity play - I accept this may have been my fault rather than the protestant churches I was attending, though I have no memories of ever being 'taught' anything other than that about her! So the [i]reality[/i] of giving birth to Jesus and raising Him as a child when He would have been entirely dependent on her hadn't occurred to me. When you start to think about that, and her complete obedience to God in totally accepting her role, it's just incredible! I've tried to imagine what it must have been like to have had an angel appear before you (I'm not given to fainting but....!!) and then hear the news that God wants you to do this amazingly difficult thing - remember her cultural background - and be so full of faith and trust in God that you say yes! She is such an example to us....

I've also come to see that it's perfectly understandable that Jesus should want His mother to be honoured. Scott Hahn's book 'Hail, Holy Queen' covers this beautifully; talking about the custom and practice during that time, of kings who honour their mothers - the mothers are not more important than the king, it's the king who rules, but he listens to his mother, he honours her and she is given status by the people, and they know that often by approaching her first about something they can ask her to speak on their behalf to the king.

It has also occurred to me that there was a recent example of honouring the mother of the monarch if anyone finds it difficult to understand, in the British royal family, with the Queen Mother who was not more important than Queen Elizabeth, who didn't rule above her, but was given honour and respect and was some one the Queen sought advice from. She was incidently also respected and loved by people!

Why would Jesus want anything less for His mother? Why would we?

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littleflower+JMJ

[quote name='Ellenita' date='Mar 11 2004, 05:45 AM'] Ok this may sound really silly, but as a protestant I hadn't even really thought about Mary at all other than the 'small part' (!!) she played in the nativity play - I accept this may have been my fault rather than the protestant churches I was attending, though I have no memories of ever being 'taught' anything other than that about her! So the [i]reality[/i] of giving birth to Jesus and raising Him as a child when He would have been entirely dependent on her hadn't occurred to me. When you start to think about that, and her complete obedience to God in totally accepting her role, it's just incredible! I've tried to imagine what it must have been like to have had an angel appear before you (I'm not given to fainting but....!!) and then hear the news that God wants you to do this amazingly difficult thing - remember her cultural background - and be so full of faith and trust in God that you say yes! She is such an example to us....

I've also come to see that it's perfectly understandable that Jesus should want His mother to be honoured. Scott Hahn's book 'Hail, Holy Queen' covers this beautifully; talking about the custom and practice during that time, of kings who honour their mothers - the mothers are not more important than the king, it's the king who rules, but he listens to his mother, he honours her and she is given status by the people, and they know that often by approaching her first about something they can ask her to speak on their behalf to the king.

It has also occurred to me that there was a recent example of honouring the mother of the monarch if anyone finds it difficult to understand, in the British royal family, with the Queen Mother who was not more important than Queen Elizabeth, who didn't rule above her, but was given honour and respect and was some one the Queen sought advice from. She was incidently also respected and loved by people!

Why would Jesus want anything less for His mother? Why would we? [/quote]
awesome post ellenita!

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WCC_Catholic

Going to a protestant school (college) i have learned some very interesting ways of talking about Mary. i tell them that if God is our father and Jesus :jesus: is our brother and his mother also has to be our mother! then there is the one that i dont pray to mary i ask for her help, i tell them that it is like asking other people for pray requests but they (she) is all reay there and is able to help me better that a sinful human! not that human prayers dont help but those are some intersting ones that i like i also like this one I know that I am a PRINCESS my father is the King of Kings :king: and my mother is the Queen of Angels :queen: !!!!!



Ou LAdy of Guadalupe pray for us

Sarah Marie :banana:

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mom25angels

In my 11yr old's words
Q. What's with Mary?
A. Jesus is with Mary. If we love our Mothers, He loved her more because He was perfect . He loved her perfectly and wants us to, too.

Sometimes a protestant is like a child in their understanding of Mary. present it to them like you do your kids.( I'm not saying prot. aren't smart or anything just that they don't know).

Hope that helps.

Sarah

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mom25angels
:( Hey Homeschoolmom, I often open my mouth and insert my foot. Just noticed on another thread that you're a convert. I love converts and I'm an embarressed fool re: my last post just above. No offense? After all Jesus asks us to be like a child in our faith. You are so very lucky to be learning the faith as an adult, it's taken me a long while to relearn mine from a rather rocky Catholic education as a child.
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homeschoolmom

[quote name='Ellenita' date='Mar 11 2004, 05:45 AM'] It has also occurred to me that there was a recent example of honouring the mother of the monarch if anyone finds it difficult to understand, in the British royal family, with the Queen Mother who was not more important than Queen Elizabeth, who didn't rule above her, but was given honour and respect and was some one the Queen sought advice from. She was incidently also respected and loved by people!

Why would Jesus want anything less for His mother? Why would we? [/quote]
Thanks, Ellenita... that's a perfect analogy... I wonder how well schooled my friends are in the details of the British Royal Family. I will add it to my mental arsonal of "what's with Mary?" stuff...

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homeschoolmom

[quote name='mom25angels' date='Mar 11 2004, 02:58 PM'] :(  Hey Homeschoolmom, I often open my mouth and insert my foot. Just noticed on another thread that you're a convert. I love converts and I'm an embarressed fool re: my last post just above.  No offense?  After all Jesus asks us to be like a child in our faith.  You are so very lucky to be learning the faith as an adult, it's taken me a long while to relearn mine from a rather rocky Catholic education as a child. [/quote]
Um... hmmm.... oh, okay, I guess I can forgive you. As long as you remember that there are a lot of very knowledgeable Protestants who are absolutely as wild about Jesus as you are... :lol:

Oh, and there's that wonderful "edit" button to edit your posts... found myself using that one a lot around here... :rolling:

Edited by homeschoolmom
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Thy Geekdom Come

Mom25, I don't know if anyone took that offensively, but there are a few Protestants on here...

I'm not one, though.

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homeschoolmom

[quote name='Raphael' date='Mar 11 2004, 04:34 PM'] Mom25, I don't know if anyone took that offensively, but there are a few Protestants on here...

I'm not one, though. [/quote]
Well.... not exactly... but.... There does tend to be a "we're smarter than you" attitude both ways when dealing with converts... like sort of a "second class citizenry"... that's one thing I really don't like...

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