Mother of God

St. Mary's Church, Kuravilangad
My hometown church

As a cradle catholic growing up in a town filled with devout catholics and with a church dedicated to the name of the Holy Virgin, I had no problem assuming that everything about the Blessed Mother was a no-brainer. Mary is the mother of God and she deserves to be respected. As far as I knew, nobody had any problems with the Divine Motherhood, Perpetual Virginity, the Immaculate Conception, or the Assumption - the Marian dogmas. I have seen people regardless of their religious beliefs coming to my hometown church to pray to Mary. And that's right - I grew up praying to Mary, so did every other person I knew (I will get to this at a later time) . As I grow older and as my knowledge of the world expanded, Mary became a problem. I came to face some questions about the Holy Mother and I was at a total loss for answers. And this was totally unexpected. I began hearing things like catholics got it all wrong about Mary, and Marian worship is nothing more than goddess worship. I had no answers for such harsh accusations against the Holy Mother I grew up loving. It was easier for me to just walk away from Mary rather than doing the hard work of learning about her and defend my faith. 


Looking back, I believe my move away from Mother Mary acted as a catalyst for my agnostic lifestyle that followed. Somehow, abandoning the Blessed Mother gave me the courage to turn my face away from God. Even after God picked me up from the deep pit of agnosticism, I was slow in my reaction to the Holy Virgin. Then while attending a retreat, I experienced a beautiful fragrance during the Rosary. I thought somebody had actually sprayed a can of air freshener in the room. When somebody in the room asked if anybody else experience the fragrance, to my surprise, only a few hands went up. I didn't understand how everybody couldn't sense a fragrance that strong. Then somebody explained that that the scent during the Rosary represents Divine presence and not all get to experience it always. Anyway I left the Retreat with a much stronger devotion to Mary - one much stronger than my childhood one. I felt like the Mother telling me that though I walked away from my faith and abandoned her Son, she never quit praying for me and her Son never stopped searching for me. 

Until now, I never bothered to seek answers to some of the things that took me away from Theotokos, the Mother of God. I think I was too afraid to delve into those questions that once took me away from her. I feared that it might open some of the wounds back up again and I might quit again. But I also understood that God works differently for it is written, "There is nothing concealed that will not be revealed, nor secret that will not be known" (Luke 12:2). When you pray to God about a fear you are facing, He doesn't simply remove the object of fear, rather He gives us the courage to face it. He operates and we cooperate. I think I am ready to talk about the Most Blessed Virgin Mother.

Catholic devotion to Mary is a very confusing subject - something beyond my limited knowledge. Starting tomorrow, I will be doing several posts from some well known Catholic theologians about the truth in Catholic Church's relationship to the Blessed Mother. I will only post simple articles, so don't look for too many quotes from St. Augustine or Aquinas. Many of you follow my blog may already have a good relationship with the Holy mother, but are you knowledgeable enough to defend her unlike me? Some of you might be struggling with Mary, then I hope I could be of some help. With that I pray, "Hail Mary, full of grace. The Lord is with you. Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb Jesus. Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death. Amen"