Haha i hope i am not too late... but anyway... just wondering
how much of openess would everyone be willing to listen to the
other side of the story.... 
Oh well...
Role of Mary...
I think one of the users have rightly say that because Christ is
GOd... and Mary is the mother of God.. and hence... we call her
Mary our mother, Mother of God.
I don't think protestants in general would be able to accept Mary,
a mere human, as someone catholics give much honor and respect
to...
In the first place why do catholics think so highly of her... From
the greeting of the angel when he said, "Hail Mary, Full of grace
the lord is with you" to the greeting of Elizabeth, "Blessed are u
amongst women and blessed is the fruit of your womb Jesus". And not
forgetting the magnificat Mary proclaimed right after the
visitation.
Subsequently, at the wedding of Cana, Mary noticed that the wine is
running out and approached jesus to do something about it, and even
though jesus said "it's not my time yet", Mary just told the
servants to "do whatever he tells you to". Later at the cross,
before Jesus died, he told John, "behold your mother" and to mary,
"behold your son".
Firstly, let me clarify that the wedding of cana is a good example
as to show what a powerful mediator mary can be.. Don't be
mistaken, Catholics do not recognise that Mary answers prayers,
What she does is basically to pray for us too, like how we ask our
friends to pray for us. Now then the arguement would be extended
out to saints and all... some say they are dead.. BUT are they?
Scientically maybe... spiritually doubt it.
I'm sure when we die, we will say something really important... or
do we say something real dumb? Jesus, before he died, gave us a
special gift... someone he held very dearly when he was alive.. his
mother.. When someone gives us a gift, we can
either accept or reject it.. but if you don't like it, don't hurt
the giver by saying nasty things about the gift...
Sure, everyone can go straight to god... No one is doubting that...
and no one is arguing against it.. but putting it in humans terms,
in a normal family, the father is the head at most times, but do we
go to the father always? I'm sure, here and there, we go through
our siblings and our mum or whatsoever.. Point is, who's to say
what's the right route to take when every way leads back to the
same source?
Purgatory
The catholic church believes that it's more a state rather than a
place or whatsoever. Please understand the catholics do not just
come up with a dogma or doctrine and just accept it immediately...
it follows with the holy spirit and the group of believers then..
And for donkey years, catholics do believe in this thing called the
purgatory. It used to be thought as a place but under the new
vatican and new enlightenment, it seemed to come in the form of a
state.
Many protestants argue here from the verse "I am the way the truth
and the life, no one can come to the father accept through me"
which seemed to be highly supportive of the first arguement about
mary. However, i guess, what is neccessary to point out is not the
exact words of the bible, but the message it had. The language then
and now is different though the message remained the same.
Purgatory is a state of time where souls, after they died and are
not ready to meet god, prepare for that encounter. Not everyone can
forgive themselves, even when God forgives you. Or likewise, they
are not ready to let go to leave their loved ones behind. And for
people who are not exactly saintly and have little blotches here
and there.. it's a place for them to "wash their robes".
Priesthood
It seems cruel huh that to be a priest you can't have a family.
Oh well, the vatican had this ruling NOT because
the bible said so, but for practical reasons.
it was known that most of the disciples had families, only one. So
what's wrong? No one said it's wrong, but it's not practical.
one of the reasons why we respect priests because they can give
this up to serve. Put it this way, if you are a priest, you got a
family, your family wants to spend time with you but your parish
needs you.. who's more important? Many would say parish.. but then
how much of a dad, a husband can you play?
Priests renew their vows every year to mark their determination to
cont to want to serve christ in church. Not everyone though has the
vow of poverty. This is only for certain orders of the priests.
When i say orders it would mean the Franciscans, Jesuits,
Carmalites, Diocese etc. They are not the same as denominations,
they are just different parts of the one body working in different
ways to pass that message of Christ. Franciscans are one of them who take the vow of poverty.
vow of poverty is not that they have to be poor and all... though
some would want to live that vow in their everyday lives, vow of
poverty would be more to give up what they have if needed to their
brother who needs it more than them. In singapore it's quite hard
to achieve that but in other countries, certain orders are really
strict about this and even live poorly.
Staying commited to someone or something you love in these
sacrifices you make, may not be a sacrifice to those who are called
to the religious vocations. Afterall, marriage is something you
give wholeheartedly, why not the "Holy orders" (Sacrament catholics
call for men becoming priests)
Hmm... now as to why we go to confessions... hmm.. ok.. we take
from the bible that jesus said to Peter (whom we thought to be the
1st pope) that 'whatever you bind shall be bound, whatever you
loose shall be loosen" or so... we take it that peter representing
all priests, that jesus gave peter the authority to absolve us from
our sins. But he's just the physical mediator/instrument, god uses
to speak to us.
Also, the priest represents the one big catholic community. When we
sin, we not only hurt ourselves, but the bigger whole. Thats why
during mass, catholics say "i confess to almighty god and to you my
brothers and sisters that i've sinned through my own fault"... It's
a sorry to our bigger family for failing to be a christian at times
and hurting you with my actions intentionally. It's impossible to say sorry to the big family without
going through the priestss for practical reasons.
I guess i will stop here... I don't say what i say is the absolute
truth. and i used to be unconvinced by catholics because not many
know what they are doing. and i used to pin point catholics for
whatever they do, but i've learnt that what i am not comfortable
with may not be wrong. I don't intend to convert anyone in my
posting neither do i wish to have both sides bashing each other
up... till now there's more important things to do like praying for
peace and for change of hearts to terrorism and lesser killings...
Maybe as christians or as just a being, part of this world, we
should start doing something about that instead.
