Worship Mary?
I saw in a Facebook discussion group a little while ago a Protestant post the above picture as definitive proof that Catholics worship Mary. The problem is that “worship” here doesn’t mean the kind of worship you give to God. Even today in the Church of England wedding vows, husband and wife will say “…with my body, I thee worship…”.
Speaking personally, I don’t like this elaborate poetic language in Marian devotion for just this reason – it’s too easy for non-Catholics to misunderstand what we believe.
What many people don’t realize is that the word actually has a broader definition than what we normally ascribe it to today. It can, and does in the literature pictured above, include what we call veneration today.
Yeah, rather like the word “pray”.