I was brought up a Roman Catholic. I was curious about other religions and Christian denominations, but the default mode was just to assume that whatever everyone around you believed was true. In my teens, I got into the Beatles music. And because they were my heroes, maybe reading interviews and their history was the first time that I started hearing other opinions. There was John Lennon’s famous quote about the Beatles being more popular than Christ. He wasn’t boasting about the Beatles. In some ways, at that stage, he was getting quite frustrated with the hysteria about the Beatles. He just observed that there was little real enthusiasm for Christ or Christianity in the UK. And I could say the same for Ireland in the 1970s, and more so now..
I was also interested in the fact that the Beatles visited India, and they were interested in transcendental meditation. Despite Roman Catholicism being our cultural religion, religious people were quite rare. Those who were religious tended to be older and were more into the Mary cult than the Bible. Many visited Knock, Lourdes and Fatima, and people sometimes hoped for miracle cures for illness.
People who weren’t devout were often curious about aspects of other beliefs and religions, such as reincarnation, astrology, getting magical mental powers, UFOs, visits from aliens and so on. I was impressed with George Harrison and his devotion to God. He looked East, so it was Krishna rather than Jesus. But it set me searching for a personal relationship with God. Here are a couple of his songs that I remember from the 1970s:
By the time I reached my teens, I was quite cynical about Roman Catholicism, but I always loved to hear about the Bible, and I loved to watch movies about the life of Jesus.
Then I started meeting evangelicals. I had little knowledge of Protestantism. We respected Protestants, but we saw them as a little bit posh 😀and separate from us. And I was a little bewildered by the fact that they seemed to be split into so many denominations and sects. What I liked about evangelicals is that unlike the cults (to be kind, I won’t mention who I mean), evangelicals did believe in the historical doctrines of Christianity. It wasn’t something created by some 19th century cult leader. But unlike Roman Catholicism, there was a much heavier emphasis on sticking to the Bible rather than building religion on traditions or speculations. And unlike much of modern Protestantism, they actually believed the Bible to be verbally inspired. My problem with liberal and modernist Protestants is that many of them see the Bible as just a book of stories created by humans. Maybe they believe that God is somehow behind it, but their main focus is on doing social good in the community. But you can have that without religion. When I go to church, I want to worship and meet and hear from people that love God’s word.
Anyway, what seems particularly ridiculous to me now, is devotion to Mary. It was all normal to me as a kid. But when I read the New Testament, it was clear that worship, and anything like worship, should be directed to God alone. We can admire humans, but we can’t contact them when they’re dead, and we shouldn’t pray to them or devote ourselves to them.
The last that we hear of Mary in the New Testament is her presence in a church meeting after Jesus ascended into heaven.
Acts 1:14
14 They all joined together constantly in prayer, along with the women and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with his brothers.
We don’t know anything about her later life. But in the centuries following the New Testament, all sorts of legends developed, and included in them was the notion that Mary was assumed body and soul into heaven. I don’t understand how such a legend found its way into Roman Catholic doctrine. the Assumption was formally defined as Catholic dogma only on 1 November 1950 by Pope Pius XII, but it was believed in popular culture for many centuries before that.
Now to be clear, I’m not against Mary herself. She did nothing to foster devotion to herself. And perhaps in medieval times, if some dubious beliefs or practices found their way into the church, it wasn’t easy to eradicate them.
I remember speaking to a Pentecostal man many years ago and he mentioned that he often tells people about Mary’s advice and Mary’s example. Here are the verses that he quotes:
Mary’s Advice (referring to Jesus at the wedding feast of Cana)
John 2:5
5 His mother said to the servants, “Do whatever he tells you.”
Mary’s Example
Luke 1:46-47
46 And Mary said:
“My soul glorifies the Lord
47 and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior,
Some people used to tell me that you’d have a better chance of God hearing your prayers if you prayed to Mary. But Jesus encouraged us to pray to the Father. And there’s nothing in the Bible to indicate that anyone can hear our prayers apart from God Himself, is present everywhere and all knowing.
Two things can stop our prayers being answer – if we have the wrong attitude towards God and if our prayers aren’t aligned to God’s purposes. But generally speaking, God is pleased to hear and answer our prayer – although He might not always answer them in the way that we expect.
We pray to the Father in the name of Jesus, but Jesus emphasized that we don’t need to “twist the arm” of the Father to get Him to answer us. He loves us.
John 16:26-27
. 26 In that day you will ask in my name. I am not saying that I will ask the Father on your behalf. 27 No, the Father himself loves you because you have loved me and have believed that I came from God.
Matthew 7:7-11
7 “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. 8 For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened. 9 “Which of you, if your son asks for bread, will give him a stone? 10 Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake? 11 If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him!
In defending prayer to Mary, Roman Catholic sometimes argue that it’s mainly about getting Mary to pray for us in the way that we’d ask other people in the Christian community to pray for us. And we’d probably be happier if a very godly person prayed for us. But as I mentioned, there’s nothing in the Bible that suggests that we can communicate with people in heaven apart from God Himself. You could even argue that attempts to do so is forbidden. Surely it’s a form of spiritism, which is condemned.
One verse that’s sometimes mentioned in relation to praying to saints is Hebrews 12:1
Hebrews 12:1
Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us,
In Hebrews 11, the writer mentions some inspirational Old Testament heroes of faith. And they should spur us onto run the great race. I just think of people, past and present, who inspire me. I don’t think that I’m literally surrounded by them or that I can communicate with them. But this verse is sometimes used to attempt to justify praying to saints. When people asked Jesus to teach us to pray – He provided the “Our Father” as the example – it wasn’t “Our Abraham” or “Our Moses” – our “Our Mary”. 😀
I sometimes wonder if we’ll ever reach a stage where Roman Catholics will be free to reject or ignore the various dogmas about Mary. I can understand why they didn’t listen to Martin Luther. If I’m leading a church and some smart Alec starts canvassing against me and approaches me with his list of suggested reforms, I can perfectly understand why I’d reject him. I don’t think I’d burn him at the stake, but I’d see him as a troublemaker. Yet, I could also see how in coming months or years, I might realize that some of his complaints were legitimate. And maybe then, I’d start to make changes. I probably wouldn’t want to give him the credit though 😀.
Here’s what Co-pilot answered when I asked it about current teaching:
Catholic Mariology has always had two internal “parties”:
- Maximalists: enthusiastic about expanding Marian doctrine
- Minimalists: cautious, skeptical, or resistant
This tension is acknowledged in contemporary Catholic analysis, which notes that the “minimalist” tendency is currently stronger in Rome.
But in Ireland, in my lifetime, if you were religious, you were big into Mary. But back in 1980, when I was heading towards being an evangelical, I remember asking a priest in college why people are more prone to pray to Mary rather than God, and he told me that he just prays to God. The funny thing is, when I was about to do my exams that summer, I started praying “Hail Mary” simply because that’s how I was taught to pray. And later that summer, when I became an evangelical, I started just praying to God in my own words.
So the Assumption of Mary is just one of many assumptions I made as a kid. I later began to think and pray things through for myself. And it’s something that I should continue to do. I should never assume that I’m right about everything or that my beliefs and practices shouldn’t be open to change.
Here are a few hymns based on Mary’s prayer:
Hibernia Gospel 