I took this picture today in Pueblo, Colorado. They also bought the other side of the billboard and it has a different message.
The thing that is just so painfully obvious to me is that Catholics do, in fact, worship Mary. Talking to someone who is dead, and expecting them to be able to help you, seems a lot like worship to me. I realize they don’t think of Mary as God or a god, but they think she can hear millions of prayers at once, and she can at least attempt to persuade her Son to do something.
While it’s obvious to me that they’re attributing abilities to Mary that belong only to God, and that prayer is an act of worship to be reserved for God alone, I’ll just quote a couple of standard Catholic prayers to Mary, and everyone can decide for themselves.
Hail Mary
Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee; blessed are thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus. Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death.
Amen.
Morning Consecration to Mary
My Queen, My Mother, I offer
myself entirely to thee.
And to show my devotion to thee,
I offer thee this day, my eyes,
my ears, my mouth, my heart,
my whole being without reserve.
Wherefore, good Mother,
as I am thine own, keep me,
guard me as thy property and possession.
Amen.
Christ Alone Wyoming 
I wonder even if Catholics would agree with that billboard? Seems even they have sects that are trying to water down their doctrines to seek to appeal to more people; even to Protestants it would seem.
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Last I heard they made her a co-redeemer!! SHEESH.
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I know…I was raised in the Catholic denomination………..I am sure there a Catholics who are truly saved, but if they were in The Word…they would not want to stay there.
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[quote]”We don’t worship Mary… We honor her…”[/quote]
That devours time one could use to worship and honor Jesus Christ, who suffered, bled and died as a propriation for their sins. Mary didn’t do that.
…as for the transubstantiation, it contradicts scripture, and is therefore, a lie.
The book of Hebrews, in the Bible states: “Without the shedding of blood, there is no forgiveness of sin,” and “Jesus died once for all,” and “There is, therefore, no further sacrifice for sin.”
Jesus, therefore, is NOT perpetually dying as a sacrifice over and over in thousands of masses held round the world. He died ONCE for all.
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I am catholic, I don’t worship mary, I honor her, and there is no doctrine on CoReedemer. I hate to digress but about transubstantiation
As Catholics we do not believe that Christ is Sacrificed all over ago
If you read in Hebrews 9
But when Christ appeared as a high priest of the good things [f]to come, He entered through the greater and more perfect [g]tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say, not of this creation; 12 and not through the blood of goats and calves, but through His own blood, He entered the holy place once for all, [h]having obtained eternal redemption.
His sacrifice happened once and for all
And later in Hebrews 9
4 For Christ did not enter a holy place made with hands, a mere copy of the true one, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us; 25 nor was it that He would offer Himself often, as the high priest enters the holy place year by year with blood that is not his own. 26 Otherwise, He would have needed to suffer often since the foundation of the world; but now once at the consummation of the ages He has been manifested to put away sin [s]by the sacrifice of Himself.
It is clear from scripture that the sacrifice and suffering of Christ was a one time event in History and he no longer suffers nor is he sacrificed all over again.
Our Understanding of the “Sacrifice of the mass” is twofold in that it is a memorial and and offering. It is done in the same way that the Isrealites experienced the Passover, where they make present the real events that took place at the exodus so that their lives may be changed in the present by that past reality. Exodus doesn’t happen again at the passover, but the events are in a way “made present” to them in a very real way.
Likewise in the mass, the Once and for all sacrifice of the Cross is made present to us. Chris is the eternal High priest. He presents himself to God as the spotless lamb, the perfect offering through the Cross, and God our Father raised him to new life and we now celebrate that sacrifice each time we go to mass where we not only remember, but actually enter into that mystery in a real way as it is made present to us through this memorial.
I hate to quote Trent to my reformed brothers and sisters but this seems very appropriate in this moment
[Christ], our Lord and God, was once and for all to offer himself to God the Father by his death on the altar of the cross, to accomplish there an everlasting redemption. But because his priesthood was not to end with his death, at the Last Supper “on the night when he was betrayed,” [he wanted] to leave to his beloved spouse the Church a visible sacrifice (as the nature of man demands) by which the bloody sacrifice which he was to accomplish once for all on the cross would be re-presented, its memory perpetuated until the end of the world, and its salutary power be applied to the forgiveness of the sins we daily commit.
And note The ancient prayer of the church….
“O sacred banquet in which Christ is received as food, the memory of his Passion is renewed, the soul is filled with grace and a pledge of the life to come is given to us”
lex orandi lex credendi – The law of prayer is the law of belief
It is also and offering! It is also important to note that some misunderstanding can come from the term “sacrifice of the mass” when it is taken out of context, for in this phrase we include both the concept of “memorial” but also the more specific term sacrifice meaning the church’s offering of bread and wine. The sacrificial work of human hands, our offering to God.
And finally I want to emphasize an important Catholic mindset about God’s timelessness. Christ is the perfect High priest, and his perfect priestly Sacrifice knows no boundaries of time. It is eternally present and real and true. It happened once and for all on Calvary, but made present to us at each Liturgy. To me that is Awesome, to know how powerful and eternal that sacrifice was and it beckons me to remember it in a very real way each day as I receive our Lords, body and blood, soul and divinity at daily Mass.
Thank you also for posting those beautiful Marian prayers.
Mary can pray for us, I know in Revelation it says the elders offer up the prayers of the saints,
“the twenty-four elders [the leaders of the people of God in heaven] fell down before the Lamb, each holding a harp, and with golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints” (Rev. 5:8)
It is logical conclusion that Mary also can pray for us, as I chrisitan I believe scripture when it says that “death has no power over us” We are not praying to the dead, but those alive in Christ who are with him now. Time holds no boundaries for them.
I wish you well
Stephen
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So glad I got saved out of all of that nonsense. When I opened a Bible someone gave me and started to read, I was so surprised to find no mention of Mary being conceived without sin or being assumed into heaven rather than dying a natural death. I searched and searched but I could find no basis at all for praying to her. The focus of the Bible is Jesus and Him only. The scales fell off my eyes…39 years ago… and I was set free from that apostate religious system. If only Catholics would read and believe the Bible and stop trusting in the traditions of men.
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I discovered a really good website for Bible studies…..www.jesusplusnothing.com. So far I have found it to be very good.
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Thanks, LouAnn for the link to that website. Many sermons downloads there. They also have a page called ‘The Heaven Test’ which would be a good link to send to unsaved friends and family…maybe some who are Catholic will take the test.
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You are welcome. I just discovered this site myself and find it ti be very sound doctrine.
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I read a great snarky statement, and I think it applies here as a good reason not to pray to mary or any other mortal.
“It is foolish to rely on the dead for assistance; if they were powerful enough to help us, they wouldn’t be dead.”
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EXACTLY why I praise and pray to my Father THROUGH The RISEN Christ Who Lives IN me <3.
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There may be individual Catholics who do not worship (or don’t THINK they’re worshiping) Mary, but google for the pic of PJPII bowing before a statue of her. That was worship, and if they’re right for not worshiping her, then their ex-Pope was wrong for doing so.
He also reportedly shouted out to Mary when the assassin’s bullet hit him. If that’s not true worship, nothing is.
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Stephen is lying by denying the Co-Redemptrix doctrine of Romanism:
http://www.ewtn.com/library/MARY/coredemedadv.htm
http://www.fifthmariandogma.com/articles/are-you-afraid-of-mary-co-redemptrix/
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Catholic Answers on the Co-Redemptrix: http://www.catholic.com/magazine/articles/mary-mother-of-salvation
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James White wrote a helpful book on the subject: http://www.amazon.com/Mary-Another-Redeemer-ebook/dp/B00AKHM91G/ref=tmm_kin_title_0?ie=UTF8&qid=1375884139&sr=1-1
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Stephen’s explanation of the Sacrifice of the Mass is also revisionist. Here is what Rome actually teaches:
“When the priest announces the tremendous words of consecration, he reaches up into the heavens, brings Christ down from His throne, and places Him upon our altar to be offered up again as the Victim for the sins of man. It is a power greater than that of saints and angels, greater than that of Seraphim and Cherubim.
Indeed it is greater even than the power of the Virgin Mary. While the Blessed Virgin was the human agency by which Christ became incarnate a single time, the priest brings Christ down from heaven, and renders Him present on our altar as the eternal Victim for the sins of man—not once but a thousand times! The priest speaks and lo! Christ, the eternal and omnipotent God, bows his head in humble obedience to the priest’s command.
Of what sublime dignity is the office of the Christian priest who is thus privileged to act as the ambassador and the vice-gerent of Christ on earth! He continues the essential ministry of Christ: he teaches the faithful with the authority of Christ, he pardons the penitent sinner with the power of Christ, he offers up again the same sacrifice of adoration and atonement which Christ offered on Calvary. No wonder that the name which spiritual writers are especially fond of applying to the priest is that of alter Christus. For the priest is and should be another Christ.” (O’Brien, The Faith of Millions, 255-256)
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Nicholas:
Actually, Stephen’s explanation of the Mass is accurate. It’s Father O’Brien’s explanation that is inaccurate. Here is a relevant quote from paragraph 1104 of the Catechism of the Catholic Church: “Christian liturgy not only recalls the events that saved us but actualizes them, makes them present. The Paschal mystery of Christ is celebrated, not repeated. It is the celebrations that are repeated, and in each celebration there is an outpouring of the Holy Spirit that makes the unique mystery present.”
Essentially, because Christ’s Sacrifice is an eternal truth, even though it happened once on earth, its reality and grace are eternally present, for all time. The Mass connects us to that one original sacrifice of Christ, and allows those of us who were not there on Calvary in 33ish AD to continue to experience it today.
I’m a big fan of Doctor Who, so I like to think of the Mass as a TARDIS – transporting us back in time and space to that one original sacrifice of Christ.
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The heresy of transubstantiation continues to drive much of Roman Catholicism. The Lord’s Supper is merely an observance, not a sacrament whereby the partaker gains some grace or merit before God. I know the Catholic church teaches that without the taking of the “sacrament of communion” there can be no salvation. This places the means of salvation in the hands of the priest and the partaker.
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Mark,
Can you help me find a really early (in history) refutation of transubstantiation?
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truthseeker, I have a question for you. Why are you looking to early history to refute false teaching? This is the problem in the world today, instead of people going directly to the Word of God and seeking to understand through the aid of the Holy Spirit, they are more interested in traditions, creeds, and the opinions of man. Also, even if I were to share a refutation, would it really make a difference in what you believe about transubstantiation? I am trying to determine where you are coming from here. Thanks.
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