Mary – Page 4 – Restless Pilgrim

Music Monday: Requiem

November 9, 2015 pilgrim One comment

We’re taking a little break from Contemporary Christian Music (CCM) this week. Today’s video is of Eliza Gilkyson from her album “Paradise Hotel”:

Mother Mary, full of grace, awaken.
All our homes are gone, our loved ones taken.
Taken by the sea –
Mother Mary, calm our fears, have mercy.
Drowning in a sea of tears, have mercy.
Hear our mournful plea.
Our world has been shaken,
we wander our homelands, forsaken.

In the dark night of the soul,
bring some comfort to us all –
Oh, Mother Mary, come and carry us in your embrace;
that our sorrows may be faced.

Mary, fill the glass to overflowing.
Illuminate the path where we are going.
Have mercy on us all.
In funeral fires burning,
each flame to your mystery, returning.

In the dark night of the soul,
your shattered dreamers, make them whole –
Oh, Mother Mary, find us where we’ve fallen out of grace;
lead us to a higher place

As I was listening to this in YouTube, I found an arranged version of this song which is delightful…

Music

Friday Frivolity: The First Rosary

October 16, 2015 pilgrim 6 comments

Rosary

Humour

See you in January…

November 30, 2014 pilgrim Leave a comment

I’m going to be taking a bit of a sabbatical from blogging.

I’m going to take a break for all of December. Advent will be beginning and I think I could do with a bit of time off. Also, the next few weeks are going to be rather busy, involving a lot of travel, as well as the wedding of my housemate, Nathan.

I’ve got a couple of special things planned for the New Year, but if there are any particular topics you’d like me to tackle when I get back, please feel free to leave a comment below.

If you’d still like something to read every day next month, simply “Like” my Facebook page. Each morning I’ll still be sharing an old post (“Classic Pilgrim”) which should then appear in your newsfeed. See you in January 🙂

Catholicism

Quick Apology: Catholics think Mary is divine

October 14, 2014 pilgrim Leave a comment

This should be the last Marian “Quick Apology” I’ll be doing for a while. After all, I have other things I want to write about! However, before we leave the subject of Mary, I wanted to address the claim that Catholics think that Mary is divine…

Objection

On this blog I’ve received comments like the following:

“Catholics basically think that Mary is divine. It’s like the Trinity has been replaced with a quartet – Father, Son, Spirit and Mary”

How might you respond?

Response

The simplest way to respond to an assertion like this is to ask for any official Church document which teaches this. Can the objector produce a reference in the Catechism, a Council or a Papal Encyclical? I can guarantee you they cannot.

When they are unable to provide the evidence you request, I would suggest that you then point them to the binding teaching of the Catechism:

488 “God sent forth his Son”, but to prepare a body for him, he wanted the free co-operation of a creature. For this, from all eternity God chose for the mother of his Son a daughter of Israel, a young Jewish woman of Nazareth in Galilee…

The Father of mercies willed that the Incarnation should be preceded by assent on the part of the predestined mother, so that just as a woman had a share in the coming of death, so also should a woman contribute to the coming of life.*

[This is a beautiful teaching from the Early Church, where the Fathers referred to Mary as being a kind of “New Eve”]

489 Throughout the Old Covenant the mission of many holy women prepared for that of Mary…Eve…Sarah…Hannah…Deborah; Ruth; Judith and Esther….

Mary “stands out among the poor and humble of the Lord, who confidently hope for and receive salvation from him. After a long period of waiting the times are fulfilled in her, the exalted Daughter of Sion, and the new plan of salvation is established.”

Lutheran Army Chaplain speaks about “Protestantism’s Great Heresy”

September 21, 2014 pilgrim Leave a comment

Catholicism

How do you honour Mary?

September 13, 2014 pilgrim 4 comments

When doing apologetics, I personally find it best to vary the approach I take. Every person is wired differently and a well-crafted explanation which would convince one person may completely fail with someone else.

Often when Catholics and Protestants talk about Mary, they jump straight into the “big” topics: the Immaculate Conception, the Assumption, Intercession, the title “Mother of God” etc. However, I have often found it helpful to rewind the conversation when I see things moving in this direction. Instead of speaking about specific doctrines, I like to talk about Marian devotion at its most a basic level.

So, in today’s post I would like to present a dialogue between a Protestant (“Pete”) and a Catholic (“Catherine”), modeled on some conversations I’ve had where I have used this approach…