Some things never change. My friend Susan attended Mass on Sunday and listened to a sermon that reduced Mary to the level of an "ordinary girl." It's not surprising considering the source and background of the priest and his affiliation with Call to Action (CTA). CTA, which is rapidly aging into irrelevance, is one of the faux Catholic organizations undermining the faith. They promote alternative liturgies, some led by women, and stand for every lunatic progressive ideology under the sun. Is Fr. Walsh still affiliated with CTA? It would be interesting to know. As for CTA, they've gone absolutely bonkers identifying their staff with preferred pronouns. Please pray for Fr. Walsh and the poor deluded members of CTA; and also for the diocese of Orlando. It has a sordid history. I know nothing about the current archbishop, but, if he's a reformer and I hope he is, he has a Herculean task.
Here's the email and letter to the diocese Susan sent:
Here's the email and letter to the diocese Susan sent:
I sent this email to Fr Walsh (pastor of St Margaret Mary) and the other 2 priests at St Margaret Mary as well as the 4 deacons there. One to the cathedral in Orlando as the diocesan website has no email for the bishop [Archbishop John Gerard Noonan]. One to Archbishop Wenski [former archbishop of Orlando]. Of course no one answered back. Fr Walsh is the priest who secretly hosted Call to Action 15-20 years ago. I went to that meeting. The big wigs from Chicago were there as well as the nun in charge of vocations for the Diocese of Orlando. They were all so stupid that they elected me as Orlando's CTA secretary. I still have in my files all their names and addresses and emails...every one written in their own handwriting.
Dear Fr. Walsh,
Sometime during the Christmas holidays I attended Mass at St Margaret Mary with a friend. During the sermon you stated that the Blessed Mother was "just an ordinary girl. Mary was an ordinary girl. She was just like we are."
Therefore I thought I'd enlighten your liberal protestant view of the Spouse of the Holy Spirit and the Mother of God.
1) Surely you know that Mary was conceived without original sin. She's the Immaculate Conception. Therefore, for starters, she wasn't "just an ordinary girl" who God swooped down and made her His Mother, picking her out of thousands of other ordinary girls. Is that what you think? If so, then you deny the Immaculate Conception.
My friend was astounded when I explained the meaning of what you had said and that by doing so, you guide your flock into error.
2) St Anselm said: "In no other world however more perfect could the Creator have formed a creature so pure as the Virgin Mother of God, a creature therefore whose created purity qua love matches as God desires the purity of uncreated love." "Uncreated love" is the Holy Spirit.
Therefore her created purity and love matched that of the uncreated purity and love of the Holy Spirit. Please tell me which of the ordinary girls in your parish has that. Or ordinary girls all over the world today. Or ordinary girls 2000 years ago.
3) St Bonaventure pondered the unique sanctity of the Virgin, assigning the Mother of God a position or rank or order in creation above all others and unique to her.
4) I could go on and on in vastly more depth but I know that you full well know that what you said is the protestant version of Mary. Protestants think that Mary was just an ordinary girl, God picked her for no reason in particular other than she was a virgin and had a womb he could use. After she gave birth to Jesus they think she had several other children and just wafted into the clouds of time, died and was buried somewhere. No one knows where she was buried because she was just ordinary. Yeah, that's it. That's what happened to the ordinary girl who birthed Our Redeemer.
May God have mercy on you for leading Catholics into protestant error.
Susan Matthiesen
The Covid-con era changed me, profoundly, thank God. For one, I found this website, for which I am thankful. When the churches reopened for Mass, I started the First Saturday devotions and grew more disciplined in my prayer life ESPECIALLY the Rosary. I carry a Rosary with me at all times, and even if I don't have one close by, I still have my 10 fingers. By the way, an MRI is generally 7 decades worth. I hope to keep learning more and more about the heart of our Blessed Mother as it points me directly to Jesus. One of my favorite Twitter priests, Father Joe, frequently posts #talkedtotheBoss. I post back #talkedtotheBossesMom. Thank you for what you do.
ReplyDeleteIf God had to give her special graces to make her special then she is not special on her own. If ahe was made sinless by grace infusion not but hwe own effort then she is a mere flesh robot. So I think the Catholic position blasphemes her even more than the ordinary girl position. You make her a docetic person with no freewill.
ReplyDeleteHer greatness lies in her correspondence to God's grace through her free will,and her faith.Adam and Eve were also created in a state of grace ,they used their free will to eat the forbidden fruit.
DeleteIs anyone "special" on their own? In one sense yes. The saints begged God for the grace to become saints. Their desire to conform themselves entirely to God's will was an act of free will on their part. God never says no to the soul's desire to conform to His will. He provides grace according to our zeal in asking for it. "The kingdom of heaven suffers violence and the violent bear it away." [Matthew 11:12] refers to the violence of the soul's love for God. If anyone had that zeal to the fullest, it was Mary. Your comment doesn't conform to biblical reality.
DeleteOh, good grief, Anonymous @ 1:42 PM. Everybody knows that Mary said, "Yes" of her own free will.
ReplyDeleteIf Mary was not human then how was Christ human? This idea that she was some "order in creation above all others and unique to her" eradicates the humanity of Christ and destroys the incarnation.
ReplyDeleteYour comment makes no sense at all. Of course she was human. If your father gives you a special gift does that make you more human than your friends and neighbors? Mary received a special gift, the immaculate conception. She was freed from original sin at conception. The rest of us receive that gift at baptism. Mary's love for God and her profound humility and gratitude are greater than those virtues in any of us. It is simply envy that would make someone want to claim to be equal to her in virtue and say, "She's no better than I am."
DeleteAnonymous @2:24 PM...see how you liberals are! ...always taking phrases out of context thereby making the original phrase mean something other that what it was supposed to mean. St Bonaventure said that the Blessed Mother was in a POSITION ABOVE other humans. A RANk ABOVE other Humans. In ORDER ABOVE other humans...meaning of course in common sense language, that she's listed #1 in order of human beings...as in she's above all others. In sanctity she's above all the saints, all the angels, all humans who ever lived. So yep. She's above you. And way far above me.
ReplyDeleteIts you who are unfamiliar with his meaning because he means she is an angel; this is where the title "queen of angels" came from.
DeleteProof please. Show me where he says that she's an angel. Send the quote.
Delete