I haven’t been able to bring back my walk with Christ in the manner I had with sharing with the LDS… Even with fellow Catholics. I am pleased with the news that the Pope is allowing the Latin mass to be celebrated. I love the Mass and I know that it is true. But I also love the strength of testamony, Womens Institute, Relief Society….If Joseph Smith had been a Catholic lad in Ireland, say….would he be St. Joseph now?

Most Holy and Immaculate Virgin, Help of the Christians, we place ourselves under your motherly protection. Throughout the Church’s history you have helped Christians in times of trial, temptation and danger. Time and time again, you have proven to be the Refuge of sinners, the Hope of the hopeless, the Consoler of the afflicted, and the Comforter of the Dying. We promise to be faithful disciples of Jesus Christ, your Son, to proclaim His Good News of God’s love for all people, and to work for peace and justice in our world. With faith in your intercession, we pray for the Church, for our family and friends, for the poor and abandoned, and all the dying. Grant, O Mary, Help of Christians, the graces of which we stand in need. (Mention your intentions.) May we serve Jesus with fidelity and love until death. Help us and our loved ones to attain the boundless joy of being forever with our Father in heaven. Amen.

The “Canticle of Mary” or “Magnificat” is sung in the celebration of Evening Prayer each day. The text is taken from the Gospel according to Luke 1:46-55.

My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord,
my spirit rejoices in God my Savior
for he has looked with favor on his lowly servant.
From this day all generations will call me blessed:
the Almighty has done great things for me,
and holy is his Name.
He has mercy on those who fear him
in every generation.
He has shown the strength of his arm,
he has scattered the proud in their conceit.
He has cast down the mighty from their thrones,
and has lifted up the lowly.
He has filled the hungry with good things,
and the rich he has sent away empty.
He has come to the help of his servant Israel
for he remembered his promise of mercy,
the promise he made to our fathers,
to Abraham and his children for ever.

The “Alma Redemptoris Mater,” which dates from the eleventh century, is one of the four antiphons sung after Night Prayer. It is used in the Advent Season.

Loving mother of the Redeemer,
gate of heaven, star of the sea,
assist your people who have fallen yet strive to rise again.
To the wonderment of nature you bore your Creator,
Yet remained a virgin after as before.
You who received Gabriel’s joyful greeting,
have pity on us poor sinners.

The “Salve, Regina” is one of the four Marian antiphons sung at the end of Night Prayer, according to the season. It was possibly written by Hermann the Lame, a monk of Reichenau (1013- 1054), or by Adhemar, bishop of Le Puy (d. 1098). The “Salve, Regina” was also used as a processional antiphon at the Abbey of Cluny (France) from around 1135.

Hail, holy Queen, Mother of mercy,
hail, our life, our sweetness, and our hope.
To you we cry, the children of Eve;
to you we send up our sighs,
mourning and weeping in this land of exile.
Turn, then, most gracious advocate,
your eyes of mercy toward us;
lead us home at last
and show us the blessed fruit of your womb, Jesus:
O clement, O loving, O sweet virgin Mary.

Grace and divinity are not the same, but you’re thinking rightly in that they’re very related. Grace (ask any third grader in a Catholic school) is a share in God’s life. That is, it’s His divinity given to us the way we’re able to receive it, sanctifying us, making us partakers of His nature. When we receive divinity we do so in a mode according to our finite nature; as finite beings we cannot possess divinity in its fullness. Only God does (He is the definition of divinity, if I may put it that way).

It is true that Jesus progressed in His humanity. We do hold that humanity and divinity are not the same; or not on one continuum as in Mormonism. The human nature of the Son of God was a real and true human nature. He didn’t begin walking and preaching right out of the manger. He didn’t exercise the powers of His divinity to skimp on anything. He was truly a man, and man do progress during their lives.

I don’t know about Mary (or the veiled Heavenly Mother) in Mormonism. However, in Catholic theology, Mary is the perfect model of partaking in the divine nature. Yes, she was free of sin her entire life. She perfectly reflected God’s life, and is our prime example of being a Christian. Part of the dogma of the Assumption is to show the destiny of human creatures, what Mary has already fully attained in body and soul, the fullness of grace in Heaven.

1.#493 is a puzzler to me that “Mary remained free of every personal sin her whole life long.” Does that mean she never committed any sin and was essentially perfect?

Yes, this is our belief. But Mary was still made perfect because of the merits of Christ, by the way of the cross.(She is Creature, Created by God) I could go deeper into that but can’t right now. Adam and Eve were also made perfect / sinless before the fall. Christ has always been perfect as he is God the eternal Son. He is / has always been perfection / Love. Any perfection / Grace we have is gifted, it is from God. Think of the Moon, it has no light yet the light from the Sun reflects off of it. We are like the moon. The Son of God is the light. All glory is His alone.

While Mormon thought doesn’t accept some of the details, I can admire what some of high respect for Mary accomplishes and how it protects the circumstances of Jesus’s birth from non-Christian mockery. I get offended by accusations that denigrate Mary.

Yes, this is Good. She is very special to us, blessed among women. She is the mother of our Church, the mother of Jesus, Emmanuel, God with us. But she is never to be worshipped, just adored and loved.

I think Catholics catch an undue amount of flack for asking Mary to pray for them.

Yes, but this is just a lack of understanding. It’s ok…..
We ask all of the angels and saints to pray for us, heaven is very much open, very much alive. More so at Mass than any other time as they are with us there for sure. It is a very big family.

I personally, as most Mormons, address all my heavenbound communiques to the Father, but I am always looking for ways to make my petitions more likely to be granted. I would hope saints and angels pray for me of their own accord and that God makes use them as a means of answering prayers, when possible.

All of our prayers as Catholics are directly to God through Jesus. Praying together, for each other is all within the Circle, the one body of Christ. God being the creator of such Circle. We are the body of Christ you know, each parts of it.

Got to go… if you get the time come to the late night Mass. As you know it is for all, it is Christ-Mass / Christmas. God Bless

God Bless
Rich

“Full of grace” is an interesting phrase. I wonder how much of it represents Mary’s state beyond the time interval she experienced the heavenly manifestation. In Christ’s mortal situation, Mormon scripture has him progressing from grace to grace during his lifetime, voluntarily emptying himself of some of his divinity, especially so at his birth. But I get the impression that Catholic thought sees divinity and humanity of fixed sets of complementary properties that one either fully has or doesn’t. But I am probably mix and matching concepts of grace and divinity here. I wonder how much Mary’s role in both Catholic and Mormon theology show that other persons besides the members in the Godhead(Trinity) can be partakers of the divine nature.

#493 is a puzzler to me that “Mary remained free of every personal sin her whole life long.” Does that mean she never committed any sin and was essentially perfect?

While Mormon thought doesn’t accept some of the details, I can admire what some of high respect for Mary accomplishes and how it protects the circumstances of Jesus’s birth from non-Christian mockery. I get offended by accusations that denigrate Mary.

I think Catholics catch an undue amount of flack for asking Mary to pray for them. I personally, as most Mormons, address all my heavenbound communiques to the Father, but I am always looking for ways to make my petitions more likely to be granted. I would hope saints and angels pray for me of their own accord and that God makes use them as a means of answering prayers, when possible.

I suppose that much work is required maintaining the heavenly society and that Mary has an honored position, but perhaps a fraction of her (or their) labors and spiritual energy is left over to help prepare mansions for us and us for our mansions. My way of trying to win them over to my cause is to try to make a better world for their living kin groups (I assume that the righteous that have passed on keep special watch over surviving family and that benefiting one group benefits the other.) I also try to do my part to make their job easier as far as evangelizing the dead (part of their heavenly labors), praying for their success and standing by to vicariously perform sacraments(ordinances) to get their pupils out the door (or through the gates) when they are ready and willing.

Some fascinating theology in the CCC as it analyzes some Biblical symbolism of virginity and the relation of Eve to Mary.