I’ m always confronted with the question, Let “why do the Catholic kneel in front of the moulded image of Mary and pray?”
My response:
The truth is that, I also have problem when people attach so much importance to the images such that for them they begin to feel as if it is their everything. I preach against that. But as usual, you must always have some “over-do” Catholics, just as we have some “over-do” Protestants/Pentecostals, who see everyone who do not carry bible in their hands everywhere they go as people destined to hell.
Then on kneeling before statues…my simple response will be on using my example on what I occasionally do when I miss my late dad. I go to where his picture is, I kneel and with tears I say things like, “I miss you. . . Please wherever you are, don’t leave me. Till we meet.” Then I feel consoled.
My heart and soul is not in the image but my mind is thinking about him and all the good memories we had. Someone who is looking at me from afar may think I am kneeling before my dad’s picture and may tag it idolatry. It is only me that knows what goes in me and to those that I explain it to that care to see it the way I see it.
Some people have attachment to Mary the mother of Christ, after reading about how she bored all the pains of her son’s death. How she watched him die at the age of 33. It is only a good mother that understands the pains.
So, when a woman goes before the statue of Mary and start crying. . . Don’t judge her quickly. She might just be saying “Mary, how did you manage to bear those pains seeing your son die. Right now, I am watching how my son is struggling to make it in life and how he cries everyday and I can’t bear the sight. How did you survive it. I wish I can have your grace. I don’t want to have HBP.”
To an outsider, it may seem she is kneeling before a statue…but it is not so, she has something beyond that. People are seeing her and the statue… she is seeing her problem and someone who has gone through something worst than hers and she is trying to draw inspiration.
Meanwhile, today the Church celebrates the nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary. What Birthday Gift can we give to our Beloved Mother on this special day of hers? I think that what She demands of us are simply; total obedience to her Son Jesus Christ and complete emulation of her virtues.
Dear Friends, Let us run to Mary, and, as her little children, cast ourselves into her arms with a perfect confidence. (Saint Francis de Sales).
Happy Birthday to you Our Blessed Mother and Happy Birthday to you Children of Mary!
Join me and celebrate the Queen of Heaven and Earth.
Happy birthday to the beautiful mother of all mother’s.