God Is Eternal

There is a web page entitled The History of the Rosary. On this page there is a capsule summary of how the Rosary came to be and some of the forms it has taken over the years since 1208, when a guy named Dominic had a visionary encounter with the spirit being Catholics call Mary.

According to fantasy, Catholicism's Earth Mother Goddess made a quite high-level promise to Dominic:

One day through the Rosary and the Scapular I will save the world' These were the words spoken to Saint Dominic by the Blessed Virgin Mary in the year 1208 when she appeared to him. -- The History of the Rosary, Author/copyright owner not identified

What follows next is a short version of the Rosary's mutations down through the centuries to 1568, when this Catholic mantra was more or less standardized. Well, not terribly standardized, as the following paragraph from the same article manifests:

In 1568 the Hail Mary was added to the Our Father to become the prescribed form exactly as we pray it today. The Glory-Be to the Father, to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost and the O my Jesus portion of the Rosary have been added and approved by the Church through the years to arrive at it's present form as it is prayed today. Each prayer having it's own history of Praise, Glory, and Worship of God. – Ibid.

As the short history of the Rosary dwindles down, that section of the page closes with these pithy words informing that there is: “. . . much more for one to explore and discover about the Rosary, this most pleasing prayer to God.”

"Most pleasing prayer to God?" Of the bazillion repetitions of prayers chanted by Catholic faithful as they drone their way through the decades of the Rosary, one cannot but observe that the great bulk of the monotonous repetitions are directed to Mary, not to God. I realize that it is not uncommon for Catholic faithful to be abysmally ignorant concerning the Sacred Scriptures, but one should think they would notice the disparity between the number of prayers rendered to God and those offered to Catholicism's Queen of Heaven and Earth. One would think that they would at least have some working familiarity with the Ten Commandments, which start out thusly:

1 And God spake all these words, saying,
2 I am the LORD thy God, which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.
3 THOU SHALT HAVE NO OTHER GODS BEFORE ME.
4 THOU SHALT NOT MAKE UNTO THEE ANY GRAVEN IMAGE, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth:
5 THOU SHALT NOT BOW DOWN THYSELF TO THEM, NOR SERVE THEM: FOR I THE LORD THY GOD AM A JEALOUS GOD, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me;
6 And shewing mercy unto thousands of them that love me, and keep my commandments. -- Exodus 20:1-6, KJV [My emphasis]

Forget all those newspaper photos of John Paul II bowing before a statue representing Catholic Mary, even kissing the thing. I reckon we are supposed to believe that God was only kidding when He carved the above words into the stone tables that He gave to Moses. Or should we adopt a more Catholic-friendly position and believe that God made a special dispensation to permit bowing down to and serving Catholic Mary? Yeah. Sure He did.

Above, I quoted words allegedly uttered by Catholic Mary in which she promised to "save the world." Whoa! That's big time stuff. Kinda gives one pause to wonder why the Holy Spirit would have inspired the Beloved Apostle to write the following words if Mary was going to do the saving:

16 For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
17 For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; BUT THAT THE WORLD THROUGH HIM MIGHT BE SAVED.
18 He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. -- John 3:16-18, KJV [My emphasis]

Again, I ask whether Catholics believe that God was just kidding when He gave us these words?

Not likely; particularly when one considers the next inspired verse in that passage:

And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. -- John 3:19,KJV

If one continue to read at the Rosary page, he will learn about the vision of Simon Stock in 1251, and more Marian promises to save folks who worship her

Receive My beloved son, the Scapular of thy Order, as a distinctive sign of My Confraternity. Whoever dies invested with this Scapular shall be preserved from the eternal flames. It is a sign of salvation, a sure safeguard in danger, a pledge of peace and of My special protection until the end of the ages. – Ibid.

In 1322, Pope John XXII got into the act when he established the Sabbatine Privilege, which was another Marian get-out-of-jail-free card. I guess the old boy didn't want to be left out of the spiritualistic good times that were going on in those medieval years. The Rosary web page explains why the pope did what he did:

This was the result of a vision he had of Our Blessed Mother holding the Scapular of Mount Carmel, in which she said, "Those who have been invested with this Holy Habit will be delivered from Purgatory the first Saturday after their death." In it indulgences are granted to the members of the Carmelite Order and to its secular members. – Ibid.

Sure seem to have been a lot of visions and things in those days. I wonder if that was the result of too much communion wine or poor dietary hygiene. If you go there, it might be a good idea to take along an airsick bag or something similar.

Catholics love their "Mary". They love to pray to her with their "hyperdulia" worship (which isn't 'really" worship--yeah sure wink wink) They think that they are honoring God by honoring "His mother". Yes, Mary was the birth-mother of Jesus but she was not the mother-creator of God. As part of God's redemptive program, the Eternal Being we call the Second Person of the Trinity took residence within the virgin womb of Mary. Mary certainly carried and nurtured the God-Man Jesus and delivered Him through her birth canal, but she is not the Mother of God, who is eternal.

Now unto the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only wise God, be honour and glory for ever and ever. Amen. -- 1 Timothy 1:17, KJV

For thus saith the high and lofty One that inhabiteth eternity, whose name is Holy; I dwell in the high and holy place, with him also that is of a contrite and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart of the contrite ones. -- Isaiah 57:15, KJV

For Catholic Mary to have been the Mother of God means that she must have pre-existed God, Who has always been, in order to be His mother. If this were true, would not Catholic Mary be more god than God? This calls to mind the Mormon doctrine that Jesus Christ, who is a god, was conceived by a spirit mother and a spirit father.