Catholic Teens 5-2-06
Hey All---
Today is the Feast of St. Athanasius, one of my favorites along with little William's patron saint. He spent his life teaching that Jesus was God, and not just a mortal man. And he suffered greatly for it, but never gave up. It appears we could use some people like that today, given the many who now teach the same thing, ( i.e. the DaVinci Code and the Gospel of Judas).
Then again, God has already given us two amazing saints in our lifetime, John Paul II and Mother Teresa! :-)
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Question O' the Week:
I get into these discussions at school all of the time about the Catholic religion. There are a lot of people that I know that are confused about the Catholic religion and I know how to "straighten them out" most of the time but a few days ago we started to talk about Mary. They thought that we idolize her and I know we don't, we just pray to her, right? Why do we do this?
--I love that "straighten them out" good for you! :-)
Catholics idolize no one but God. He alone is the One we adore and worship. So how does Mary fit in? God thought pretty highly of her for one. Recall how the Angel Gabriel greets her at the Annunciation and then again at the Holy Spirit's words at the Visitation of Elizabeth, "Hail, favored one..." and "blessed are you among women..." Now there are only 2 people in the Scriptures talked about so highly--Jesus...and Mary. That's some good company! Look at Rev. 12:1..where it refers to "the woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars." That's Mary. Not a bad image.
Who was the first Christian? Mary. She was the first one to say "yes" to God, when she agreed to have Jesus. We do well to imitate her.
Similarly, who prompted Jesus to do his first miracle? Again, Mary, at the Wedding of Cana, where Jesus turned water into wine.
So we do not worship Mary, but we do honor her and imitate her. We ask her to pray for us and her intercession for us(the same way you ask your friends to pray for you when something bad happens or someone is ill.) She helps lead us to Jesus.
In essence, why do we attach so much importance to Mary? Because God does. If someone doesn't like it...they have to take it up with the Big Guy Himself :-)
Hope that helps!
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Prayer Intentions:
-For a friend of mine whose grandmother passed away on Sunday afternoon.
- For the help of the Holy Spirit , to enlighten all the SPACS teachersand administration to the promise of deepening the Roman Catholic faith, in our schools, thru prayers and devotions!!
---------------------------------------
Announcements:
Next Generation JPII Youth Group this Sunday, May 7th. 6-8pm. Fr. Louis will talk about the spiritual world and demons. Promises to be an interesting topic!
God bless you!
Phil Lawson
Today is the Feast of St. Athanasius, one of my favorites along with little William's patron saint. He spent his life teaching that Jesus was God, and not just a mortal man. And he suffered greatly for it, but never gave up. It appears we could use some people like that today, given the many who now teach the same thing, ( i.e. the DaVinci Code and the Gospel of Judas).
Then again, God has already given us two amazing saints in our lifetime, John Paul II and Mother Teresa! :-)
----------------------------------------------------------
Question O' the Week:
I get into these discussions at school all of the time about the Catholic religion. There are a lot of people that I know that are confused about the Catholic religion and I know how to "straighten them out" most of the time but a few days ago we started to talk about Mary. They thought that we idolize her and I know we don't, we just pray to her, right? Why do we do this?
--I love that "straighten them out" good for you! :-)
Catholics idolize no one but God. He alone is the One we adore and worship. So how does Mary fit in? God thought pretty highly of her for one. Recall how the Angel Gabriel greets her at the Annunciation and then again at the Holy Spirit's words at the Visitation of Elizabeth, "Hail, favored one..." and "blessed are you among women..." Now there are only 2 people in the Scriptures talked about so highly--Jesus...and Mary. That's some good company! Look at Rev. 12:1..where it refers to "the woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars." That's Mary. Not a bad image.
Who was the first Christian? Mary. She was the first one to say "yes" to God, when she agreed to have Jesus. We do well to imitate her.
Similarly, who prompted Jesus to do his first miracle? Again, Mary, at the Wedding of Cana, where Jesus turned water into wine.
So we do not worship Mary, but we do honor her and imitate her. We ask her to pray for us and her intercession for us(the same way you ask your friends to pray for you when something bad happens or someone is ill.) She helps lead us to Jesus.
In essence, why do we attach so much importance to Mary? Because God does. If someone doesn't like it...they have to take it up with the Big Guy Himself :-)
Hope that helps!
------------------------------------------------------
Prayer Intentions:
-For a friend of mine whose grandmother passed away on Sunday afternoon.
- For the help of the Holy Spirit , to enlighten all the SPACS teachersand administration to the promise of deepening the Roman Catholic faith, in our schools, thru prayers and devotions!!
---------------------------------------
Announcements:
Next Generation JPII Youth Group this Sunday, May 7th. 6-8pm. Fr. Louis will talk about the spiritual world and demons. Promises to be an interesting topic!
God bless you!
Phil Lawson
posted by Phil Lawson at 9:14 AM
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