PRAYING BEFORE A STATUE OF MARY... Question Continues...

How can I explain that praying before a statue of Mary doesn't constitute idolatry?

Full Question

I took my Evangelical friend to Mass with me last weekend, and after Mass she noticed a woman praying before a statue of Mary. She took the woman's action as proof that Catholics worship idols. I've given her all the arguments in your tract "Do Catholics Worship Statues?," but she still doesn't buy it. How else can I respond?

Answer

Perhaps a little logic will help open some doors. Ask for her reaction to this comment from a Catholic: "While I was attending a Protestant service the other day I noticed a woman praying to the Bible!" What would she say about that characterization? Would she say the Catholic misconstrued what was going on, that the woman was not praying to the Bible which she held in her hands with her eyes closed and the Bible pressed to her heart as she prayed, but to the God who inspired the Bible?

No one would jump to the unwarranted conclusion that this woman is treating her Bible as an idol. So why would she jump to the unwarranted conclusion that the woman she saw treated the statue of Mary as an idol? The same goes for having a picture of a deceased relative on the mantelpiece of her home. Would any reasonable person accuse her of ancestor worship? Of course not, so encourage her to use the same logic when she watches Catholics pray.

You might want to read Patrick Madrid’s book, Search and Rescue: How to Bring Your Family and Friends Into, or Back Into, the Catholic Church.

-Catholic Answer-

CELEBRATION - MARIANIST WORLD DAY OF PRAYER

Members of the Family of Mary gathered at Nirmal Deep, Ranchi on the occasion of Marianists world day prayer. This was a great occasion for the members of the Family of Mary to gather together to pray and worship our Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, become Son of Mary for the salvation of all. Mainly, Marianists Lay groups from Binda, Singhpur, Ranchi and Kolambi joined for this wonderful gathering. Marianist brothers, deacon and priests from Patna, Barh, Binda, Singhpur, Gyan deep and of course from Nirmal Deep were present. Marianist Sisters from Shanti Deep and Nazareth Nilaya along with their candidates, postulants and novices were the other participants. Bro. Dan Stupka SM from the Province of United States and Bro. Augustus Surin SM, the District Superior India enhanced the gathering with their presence. 

MLC Members after their Promises

It was a great day for the Marianists to gather as one family under the banner of Mary to pray for peace, unity and for Marianist vocations. On this occasion some of the Marianist Lay members made their promises. A cultural feast supplemented the gathering for the Marianist Wold Day of prayer. This gathering enriched mutual relationship and family spirit among the members of the Family of Mary.

Procession Towards the Chapel

MLC Members with Marianist Brothers

Dance Performance by the Postulants 

Novices Performing their Modern Dance

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FMI candidates showing their talents!

A Song by the Members of Lay Group and Marianist Brothers

Fellowship Meal

Dance...Dance...Dance!

  

Our Lady of Jharkhand, who was in the news last few months for wrong reasons! Our Lady of Jharkhand, Pray for us!

Thanks!
       By Fr. Birendra Kullu, SM

FESTA - OUR LADY OF PILLAR!

Our Lady of Pillar, Saragosa

The tradition tells us that seven years after the death of Jesus, on January 2, 40 A.D., The Apostle St. James the Elder, brother of St. John, sat tired and disappointed by the bank of the Ebro River in what is now Zaragoza, Spain. The people of the Roman province of Hispania (Spain/Iberian Peninsula) were not open and receptive to the Good News of Jesus and St. James was ready to give up his efforts to evangelize them. On that January day the Blessed Virgin Mary, still living in Palestine, appeared to James atop a column or pillar of stone. With encouraging words, she assured him that the people of Hispania would become Christians and that their faith would be as strong and durable as the pillar on which she stood. To remember the visit and promise of the Virgin Mary, the first Marian shrine was built around the pillar. And James began to convert the pagans of early Spain. (Excerpts from The Marian Page)

 

Inside the Basilica

MARIANIST CONNECTION

 View of the Basilica from the Ebro River

During the French Revolution Blessed William Joseph Chaminade was exiled in Spain in the city of Saragossa (Caesar Augustus) and he frequented the Church of Our Lady of the Pillar and prayed almost daily at the foot of her statue called Our Lady of the Pillar (Nuestra Senora del Pilar). This is the first sanctuary to have been dedicated to Mary.  There is a tradition that has been handed down that James the Greater, the brother of the Beloved Disciple, was in Saragossa but had few who responded to his preaching of the Gospel.  Only eight people surrounded him when Our Lady appeared on a pillar and told him to build a church there in her name.  She strengthened his faith and trust that people would enter the church and they did. They became strong in numbers and in their faith.  Blessed Chaminade some 1800 years later had a supernatural experience of being called by Mary to found the Marianist Family.  It is reported that he saw “in a twinkling of an eye” all who would become members of the Marianist Family.  St. John Vianney said about the Society of Mary that “it is a beautiful society and would last to the end of time and anyone who dies in it will be in heaven.”  John Vianney (1786-1859) was contemporaneous with Blessed Chaminade (1761-1850).  (taken from the homily of Fr.Bertrand Buby SM)

A moment of Prayer at the foot of Our Lady of Pillar

OUR LADY OF THE PILLAR

Feast day: October 12

Traditional date of apparition: January 2, 40 A.D.

Shrine church: This is the first church built in Mary's honor. The present basilica church was built between 1681 and 1961. The previous church was destroyed by fire in 1434. The frescoes were done by Francisco Goya in the early nineteenth century.

Statue: The statue atop the pillar of stone is about one foot in height and depicts the Virgin Mary with the Infant Jesus, who is holding a dove in his hand. The original statue was destroyed in the 1434 fire. The present statue dates from the mid-fifteenth century. Mantos are skirt-shaped cloaks that drape the pillar on which the statue stands. The use of mantos began in the early sixteenth century, and currently number about 300.

Significant miracle: During the Civil War of the 1930s, two aerial bombs were dropped on the shrine church, but neither exploded. Those bombs now hang on the shrine wall.

Patroness titles: Patroness of Spain, Patroness of All Hispanic Peoples--by declaration of Pope John Paul II in 1984.

Part of the Column that we can touch or kiss

(Excerpts from The Marian Page)

A street view of the Basilica

HAPPY FEAST DAY TO YOU ALL!

Compiled by Bro. Jinu Muthukattil SM

"THE FINGER OF GOD"

Joel 1: 13-15, 2:1-2; Psalm 9; 11:15-26

“But if it is by the finger of God that I cast out demons, then the kingdom of God has come upon you”

            The leaders and the priests of the time of Jesus didn’t know who Jesus really is, and they didn’t show any interest to know him either. However they were afraid of losing their authority because of the good deeds of Jesus. People regarded Jesus as a prophet, some considered him as Elijah, some John the Baptist and some Messiah and of course the disciples as the Son of God. The leaders were so blind that they didn’t want to know who Jesus really is. They were not seeking him out most of the time to learn from him or know him but to persecute him. They were looking for a chance to get rid off him from the society. When they found no chances they tried to create chances by accusing him for healing the sick on the Sabbath, eating with sinners, casting out evil spirits, especially today we heard that they accused him saying that he casts out demons by the power of Beelzebul, the prince of demons.

            When the leaders challenged Jesus about his authority or accused him or doing any good deed, in many occasions, he didn’t try to convince them by explaining what was doing and why he was doing. However, in today’s reading we encounter Jesus who explains how he casts out demons. By doing so, he not only announces them the good news that the Kingdom of God is at hand but also says that he casts out demons by the “finger of God” and if one realizes it then he or she will know that the Kingdom of God is upon them.

            Jesus’s reference to the finger of God points back to the important events of the salvation history of Israel. The psalmist says that the heavens are the work of the God’s fingers in Psalm eight verse three. In Exodus chapter eight verse nineteen we sees the magicians of Pharaoh realized that it is the ‘finger of God” that brought about the plagues and wants to save Israel from the clutches of Pharaoh. Further, Exodus chapter thirty-one, verse eighteen tells, “When God finished speaking with Moses on Mount Sinai, he gave him the two tablets of the covenant, tablets of stone, written with the finger of God. In the gospel today Jesus stresses that his works are the works of the finger of God, which give evidence that God’s kingdom has come that God wants to save his people.

            In line with the explanation of casting out the demons he talks about the vacant house being occupied by an evil force, powerful than before. He teaches us that it is not enough to banish evil thought and habits of our lives. It is not enough to cast out the evil spirits from us. We must also fill the void with God who is the source of all that is good. St. Augustine once said that our lives have a God-shaped void, which only God can fill satisfactorily. If we attempt to leave it vacant or to fill it with something else, we will end up being in a worse state in the end.

            We are invited to ask this question today, Is my life void? Or do I fill my life with something else than the Lord Jesus our Lord?

Our Lord wants to fill our hearts and minds with the power of his life-giving word and healing love. He wants to touch us with the finger of God. He wants to be in us that we may be with Him and for him and not against him. Let us then pray for the grace that Jesus may live in our house, the inner core of our true being, that he may occupy and be enthroned as Lord and Savior and that we may leave no room for the evil spirit to fill our lives.

Amen

Bro. Jinu Muthukattil SM