Devotion to Mary

Having been a former Roman Catholic always leads me back to my devotion to Mary - a broken devotion that will never be restored. I remembered how I was soon chastised so severely in my crisis of faith when I broke the glass shrine that enshrined an image of "Mama Mary". I did it because I prayed and I prayed and none of the promises came true. I was so disgusted that my "mother" wouldn't do anything. I just thought that my crisis of faith in Roman Catholicism was shattered - even more shattered than the glass shrine that enshrined the idol. I was so mad at God that I stopped going to Mass, hated the Bible, and wonder what was right or wrong. I wanted to make peace with God yet I thought of ever going to Buddhism, Islam, or even nearly went to atheism.

I was told that I have insulted the "Mother of God". Mother of God? God doesn't have a mother! Genesis 1 already tells us that the Blessed Trinity was already there. When God said, "Let us create man in our image..." - did He talk to angels? Angels can't create. God exists as three Persons namely the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit meant that He came beforeMary. John 8:58 has Jesus saying, "I am telling you the truth,” Jesus replied. “Before Abraham was born, ‘I Am’." Jesus was above Mary. Why are they praying to Mary when Jesus became before Mary? Mary herself is human and the idea of her being sinless is nowhere in the Scriptures. Neither the Scripture nor history mentions that Mary ascended bodily into heaven to be crowned as the queen of heaven. Nowhere!

Roman Catholics say they don't elevate Mary above. However, from the books Litany of the Blessed Virgin and Litany of Loretto - Mary herself was given these titles:
  • Mother of God
  • Conceived without sin (please check on 2 Corinthians 5:21)
  • Our intercessor (please check on 1 Timothy 2:5, Hebrews 7:21-25)
  • The ark of the covenant
  • Gate of Heaven (please check John 10:1)
  • Our life, our hope, our salvation
  • Queen of Heaven (please check Jeremiah 44)
  • Glory of Israel (please check 1 Samuel 5:29)
  • Morning star (please check Revelation 22:16)
  • Our Help (please check Hebrews 13:6)
  • The way, the truth and the life (please check John 14:6)
  • Author and finisher of our faith (please check Hebrews 12:2)

Roman Catholics may say that they don't worship Mary. However, one of the people who they regard as a saint (Alphonsus Liguori) had written this prayer:
Most Holy and Immaculate Virgin! O my Mother! Thou who art the Mother of my Lord, the Queen of the world, the advocate, hope, and refuge of sinners! I, the most wretched among them, now come to thee. I worship thee, great Queen, and give thee thanks for the many favors thou hast bestowed on my in the past; most of all do I thank thee for having saved me from hell, which I had so often deserved. I love thee, Lady most worthy of all love, and, by the love which I bear thee, I promise ever in the future to serve thee, and to do what in me lies to win others to thy love. In thee I put all my trust, all my hope of salvation. Receive me as thy servant, and cover me with the mantle of thy protection, thou who art the Mother of mercy! And since thou hast so much power with God, deliver me from all temptations, or at least obtain for me the grace ever to overcome them. From thee I ask a true love of Jesus Christ, and the grace of a happy death. O my Mother! By thy love for God I beseech thee to be at all times my helper, but above all at the last moment of my life. Leave me not until thou seest me safe in heaven, there for endless ages to bless thee and sing thy praises. Such is my hope. Amen.  

The great excessive idolatry is right there. They say they don't worship Mary, they say it just simply brings them "closer to Christ". They have read the passage of John 2:1-11. They went to Mary hoping they would get for answers. Roman Catholics have already read Mary's only command yet they continue to jump into devotion for her. Mary herself said, "Do whatever He tells you." The Good News Translation has Jesus politely rebuking His earthly mother by saying, "Do not tell me what to do. My time has not yet come." Note that Jesus no longer called her mother but woman. Calling her as such was a respectful term.

The example of the beloved Mary is something to follow. Luke 1:47 has Mary praising God her Savior. If she was sinless then she wouldn't need a Savior. The visitation was a terrifying thing. Although she was a godly woman - she is no sinless person. Mary was a very willing handmaiden and Luke 1:38 verifies that. Mary herself would not be the Proud Madonna that exalts herself. Rather, Mary herself had never invited people to herself. Rather, Mary invited people to Jesus and told them to do whatever He tells them. Mary shows a good example that mothers should follow. However, Mary is not someone who can mediate for people in the afterlife. She is too busy praising God with the other saints before her.

When Jesus was at the foot of the cross - did Jesus make Mary the mother of humanity in John 19:26-27? Rather, Just for Catholics in the article "Mary Our Mother" states the following:
There were several other disciples beneath the cross. If He meant to appoint Mary the mother of His church, surely He would have addressed all the disciples present. But instead He addressed Mary and John as individuals. At the hour of His death, the Lord asked His beloved disciple, John, to take care of Mary with filial affection and comfort her in her loneliness as a true son would. That John so understood the Lord's words is clear from his own explanation in the sentence immediately following: "And from that hour the disciple took her to his own home."

After Jesus' ascension, I really read through Acts 1-2. That is the last time that we see Mary the mother of Jesus in Scripture. Mary herself was praying with not prayed to by the disciples. Mary silently moved away from the pages of the Scripture after that. The Bible is quite silent on Mary after that proving she had completed her mission. Perhaps, she had spent most of her time as a missionary declaring Jesus over herself. I wouldn't imagine Mary accepting prayers from anyone. She was another godly woman but never worthy of veneration.

Even Augustine who Catholics consider as one of their saints had written this about Mary:
It is written in the Gospel, of the mother and brethren of Christ, that is, His kindred after the flesh, that, when word had been brought to Him, and they were standing without, because they could not come to Him by reason of the crowd, He made answer, “Who is My mother? or who are My brethren? and stretching forth His Hand over His disciples, He saith, These are My brethren: and whosoever shall have done the will of My Father, that man is to Me brother, and mother, and sister.” What else teaching us, than to prefer to kindred after the flesh, our descent after the Spirit: and that men are not blessed for this reason, that they are united by nearness of flesh unto just and holy men, but that, by obeying and following, they cleave unto their doctrine and conduct. Therefore Mary is more blessed in receiving the faith of Christ, than in conceiving the flesh of Christ. For to a certain one who said, “Blessed is the womb, which bare Thee,” He Himself made answer, “Yea, rather, blessed are they who hear the Word of God, and keep it.” Lastly, to His brethren, that is, His kindred after the flesh, who believed not in Him, what profit was there in that being of kin? Thus also her nearness as a mother would have been of no profit to Mary, had she not born Christ in her heart after a more blessed manner than in her flesh. 
NPNF1: Vol. III, Of Holy Virginity, §3.