The Communion of Saints
April 24th 2009 00:03
Most Catholics don't even know their own faith. That's a given. When people attack me for being a Catholic, they're actually attacking the modern Catholic Church. Hell, even I attack the modern Catholic Church, and disassociate myself from it.
People never think to ask me what type of Catholic I am. They just label me as one of those awful Catholics who probably is a paedophilic priest. Well, if you never ask a person any questions about that person's life, and just attack him at every opportunity due to labelling, you're not going to find out much about that person are you? You're going to remain in your own prejudicial ignorance.
People no longer ask many questions about other people. They're too busy attacking them.
Telling them to be tolerant?
Anyway, in the Apostles' Creed, Catholics say, I believe in the Communion of Saints.
What does that mean?
It means that no matter how fast the internet gets, a person has quicker access to saints than the internet will ever provide.
St Mary Magdalene's soul has been in heaven for 2000 years. If you believe the Roman Martyrology, my guardian angel (and yours) has been in heaven for 5000 plus years.
If I want to communicate with either of them, I don't need a broadband connection.
How long does it take to get to know someone on the net? How do we get to know someone on the net? By communicating with them.
We often don't meet the people we communicate with via the net, but we feel like we know them. And so we chat with them as though we had met them. We feel like we know them. That's the whole point of the communion of saints. We can read about Mary Magdalene in the Gospels and get a feel for the type of woman she was. We can read her life in Alban Butler's Lives of the Saints. Or we can read Dan Brown and forget that Christ said that basically as long as the world exists, the story of what she did for him by pouring expensive perfume over her feet would be told world-wide until the world itself ends.
Mary Magdalene was a known prostitute. Her brother was Lazarus. He was a senator. Her sister was Martha. Martha was the woman who was always busy doing various things while Mary was sitting at the feet of Christ, washing his feet with her tears and hair. Begging for mercy for her past sins. And, although Christ doesn't think being busy in the name of God is a bad thing, He values contemplation more, and said Mary chose the better part. She just wanted to be with her God, and contemplate his infinite perfections.
And while Mary Magdalene is not on the net at the present time, she is as real (if not more real) than most of the people we will never meet on the net, yet communicate with as if they were real to us. And actually present in the room. Having a convo with.
And you can fall in love with a person you've never met. Quite easily.
My love for Mary Magdalene operates on a few levels. Firstly, she lived a debauched life, but was able to change that life around completely by loving her God. And they say Catholic men are misogynists. If only people truly knew that real Catholic men admire the female saints as much as a male saints. But what's the point of trying to tell people that who are already convinced in their own minds that all Catholic men are bastards? No point at all. So, even though Mary Magdalene was a woman, the way she went about correcting her debauched life has as much instructional value for a man as it does for a woman.
On another level, Christ didn't spend much time at many people's houses during His public ministry. The one house he did love going to for a bit of a break from the world was Mary, Martha and Lazarus' house. It's well documented in the Gospels. Why did He like going here? It was a house where the love of God reigned supreme. They were all humans who were just trying to get through this life loving God, and a visit from God meant more to them than anything. I don't think anything extraordinary happened in that house. Sure Christ did raise Lazarus from the dead, but that wasn't in the house. It was just somewhere God could go to take a break from people hating him and trying to kill him.
It's a huge mystery, the life of God made man. You have God in human form under the providence of God not in human form, and it can do your head in if you think about how there can be three persons in one God and yet only one person became Incarnate and yet that same person was true God and true Man and therefore possessed all the qualities of the Godhead. So you just go. Okay I'll accept it without trying to nut it out then. And then you get down to how God acts towards those who love Him. Now Mary, Martha and Lazarus loved God. So he visited them. I'm sure he imparted more than a bit of His Infinite Wisdom to them.
But the real issue here is, what Christian wouldn't give his eye tooth to have been born in Christ's time and had the privilege of actually seeing Him in the flesh? As St John said, We have handled the word of life.
That's the thing that astounds me most about Mary Magdalene. I mean she was His friend. Adam may well have walked with God in the cool of the evening, but Mary Magdalene was hanging around with God made Man as though there was nothing abnormal about that.
And there wasn't. That's why I like my Catholic faith. From the outside it looks really abnormal, but taste and see how sweet the Lord is. As they say in the ads for the Northern Territory. You'll never never know if you never never go.
There is no bitterness in her conversation. And to finish off. That to me is the difference between the communion of saints and the communion of devils (associating with certain devils on the net) Sure there are good people on the net, but there's more evil people on it than good ones. It is Satan's pulpit. But God has always sent missionaries into hostile territories.
What a lot of people forget is that God Himself gives Satan the power he has and wields on the world today. If God withdrew his graces? The world would collapse. Satan would be powerless. God's only really interested if there are any souls out there seeking him. Have you seen Him whom my soul loveth? And He keeps the world running because for one soul to get to heaven? It's all worthwhile.
So the communion of saints is just the art of conversing with God and His saints. And children don't care about what they've said. THey don't edit their thoughts or words. They just speak from the heart and go, this is what I think.
I'm really so over people attacking goodness.
People never think to ask me what type of Catholic I am. They just label me as one of those awful Catholics who probably is a paedophilic priest. Well, if you never ask a person any questions about that person's life, and just attack him at every opportunity due to labelling, you're not going to find out much about that person are you? You're going to remain in your own prejudicial ignorance.
People no longer ask many questions about other people. They're too busy attacking them.
Telling them to be tolerant?
Anyway, in the Apostles' Creed, Catholics say, I believe in the Communion of Saints.
What does that mean?
It means that no matter how fast the internet gets, a person has quicker access to saints than the internet will ever provide.
St Mary Magdalene's soul has been in heaven for 2000 years. If you believe the Roman Martyrology, my guardian angel (and yours) has been in heaven for 5000 plus years.
If I want to communicate with either of them, I don't need a broadband connection.
How long does it take to get to know someone on the net? How do we get to know someone on the net? By communicating with them.
We often don't meet the people we communicate with via the net, but we feel like we know them. And so we chat with them as though we had met them. We feel like we know them. That's the whole point of the communion of saints. We can read about Mary Magdalene in the Gospels and get a feel for the type of woman she was. We can read her life in Alban Butler's Lives of the Saints. Or we can read Dan Brown and forget that Christ said that basically as long as the world exists, the story of what she did for him by pouring expensive perfume over her feet would be told world-wide until the world itself ends.
Mary Magdalene was a known prostitute. Her brother was Lazarus. He was a senator. Her sister was Martha. Martha was the woman who was always busy doing various things while Mary was sitting at the feet of Christ, washing his feet with her tears and hair. Begging for mercy for her past sins. And, although Christ doesn't think being busy in the name of God is a bad thing, He values contemplation more, and said Mary chose the better part. She just wanted to be with her God, and contemplate his infinite perfections.
And while Mary Magdalene is not on the net at the present time, she is as real (if not more real) than most of the people we will never meet on the net, yet communicate with as if they were real to us. And actually present in the room. Having a convo with.
And you can fall in love with a person you've never met. Quite easily.
My love for Mary Magdalene operates on a few levels. Firstly, she lived a debauched life, but was able to change that life around completely by loving her God. And they say Catholic men are misogynists. If only people truly knew that real Catholic men admire the female saints as much as a male saints. But what's the point of trying to tell people that who are already convinced in their own minds that all Catholic men are bastards? No point at all. So, even though Mary Magdalene was a woman, the way she went about correcting her debauched life has as much instructional value for a man as it does for a woman.
On another level, Christ didn't spend much time at many people's houses during His public ministry. The one house he did love going to for a bit of a break from the world was Mary, Martha and Lazarus' house. It's well documented in the Gospels. Why did He like going here? It was a house where the love of God reigned supreme. They were all humans who were just trying to get through this life loving God, and a visit from God meant more to them than anything. I don't think anything extraordinary happened in that house. Sure Christ did raise Lazarus from the dead, but that wasn't in the house. It was just somewhere God could go to take a break from people hating him and trying to kill him.
It's a huge mystery, the life of God made man. You have God in human form under the providence of God not in human form, and it can do your head in if you think about how there can be three persons in one God and yet only one person became Incarnate and yet that same person was true God and true Man and therefore possessed all the qualities of the Godhead. So you just go. Okay I'll accept it without trying to nut it out then. And then you get down to how God acts towards those who love Him. Now Mary, Martha and Lazarus loved God. So he visited them. I'm sure he imparted more than a bit of His Infinite Wisdom to them.
But the real issue here is, what Christian wouldn't give his eye tooth to have been born in Christ's time and had the privilege of actually seeing Him in the flesh? As St John said, We have handled the word of life.
That's the thing that astounds me most about Mary Magdalene. I mean she was His friend. Adam may well have walked with God in the cool of the evening, but Mary Magdalene was hanging around with God made Man as though there was nothing abnormal about that.
And there wasn't. That's why I like my Catholic faith. From the outside it looks really abnormal, but taste and see how sweet the Lord is. As they say in the ads for the Northern Territory. You'll never never know if you never never go.
There is no bitterness in her conversation. And to finish off. That to me is the difference between the communion of saints and the communion of devils (associating with certain devils on the net) Sure there are good people on the net, but there's more evil people on it than good ones. It is Satan's pulpit. But God has always sent missionaries into hostile territories.
What a lot of people forget is that God Himself gives Satan the power he has and wields on the world today. If God withdrew his graces? The world would collapse. Satan would be powerless. God's only really interested if there are any souls out there seeking him. Have you seen Him whom my soul loveth? And He keeps the world running because for one soul to get to heaven? It's all worthwhile.
So the communion of saints is just the art of conversing with God and His saints. And children don't care about what they've said. THey don't edit their thoughts or words. They just speak from the heart and go, this is what I think.
I'm really so over people attacking goodness.
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Comment by Damo
That would be bad.
Signed
Damo
c/o Guilt by Association inc.
Comment by samaritan
Samaritan's Stories
I think all Christians would love to go back and meet Jesus 'in person'. But I do believe that many people, if they were alive at that time, would not have recognised him for who he was. I remember doing a bible study about Moses leading the Israelies through the Red Sea and people were saying how could they not follow God after seeing the miracle that they did. But I believe that even if a miracle like that were to happen today, people would still turn their back on it. We look back and wish that we were alive when Jesus was walking the earth or miracles were taking place. And yet if we were alive then, maybe we wouldn't pay as much attention to it as we like to think we would.
Anyway, on the topic of Mary Magdalene, I'm interested in how your views on her being the same woman who washed Jesus' feet, fit with the Catholic Church saying, in 1969, that Mary Magdalene and Mary of Bethany were two different people. You said you disassociated yourself from the modern Catholic Church, so is that a case where you believe the modern Catholic church is in error?
Samaritan
Comment by MrsSmith
In relation to Saints, I would always refer to Alban Butler or commentries by the Fathers & Doctors of the Church rather than listen to the crop of modernists in the Catholic Church post Vatican II. Or read the books written by Archbishop LeFebvre on the current crisis in the Church.
But where did you get that information from? Do you have a reference, and who actually said it? Or in what document it was written.
Mary of Bethany is Mary Magdalene.
Tradition has always played a part in the Catholic Faith. It's only the modernists who reject it. They're heavy reading but Pope Pius X's encyclicals cover nearly everything. Compared to the flowery garbage the last few popes have put out disguised as encyclicals. You always know a pope is not much chop if the world loves him, and didn't they love John Paul II? Worst pope we've had in the past century.
As to the modern Catholic Church being in error? How long have you got?
Comment by samaritan
Samaritan's Stories
When I first read it, I did some checking on the internet and it seemed to be true. I can't remember what sites I used to verify the information then either - but I know that I did. I also know that I have read other things since then that seemed to confirm it.
Before sending my message, I did a quick check on the internet to make sure I had the date etc right, but didn't spend a lot of time because I knew that I had looked into it before. I found these three sites from Catholic sources and presumed that they accurately reflected Catholic beliefs.
Catholic News
American Catholic Article on Mary Magdalene
American Catholic Saint of the Day
In terms of when it was said, it was when the liturgical calendar was reworked. So it was kind of in the fine print, rather than an official proclamation, from what I can gather.
To me, it seemed to make more sense to see them as two separate people, because there seemed to be no good reason for presuming they were the same one. I remember reading some of the reasons why Pope Gregory stated that they were the same women, but they're in that book where I first read it, that I can't find. I'm pretty sure that some of the possible reasons put forward was because it downplayed Mary Magdalene's role. But that quite possibly was influenced by feminist leanings on the part of the author.
Samaritan
Comment by samaritan
Samaritan's Stories
Catholic News
Comment by MrsSmith
If you read Butler's original version, published by Benzinger Brothers in 1894, you'll find each article thoroughly and meticulously researched, with comprehensive references. What the modern Church has done with the modern version (which they call abridged) is take out anything and everything that pertains to tradition, because of their agenda, which is to get a whole new generation ignorant of the part it plays in the Catholic Faith. So if tradition says Mary Magdalene and Mary of Bethany are one and the same person, they not only take that out, they alter it to say the opposite.
But in relation to Mary of Bethany (Bethania) being one and the same as Mary Magdalene, you only have to go as far as St John's Gospel. The opening lines of Chapter 11:
And hence the problem with modern Catholics. They don't even know the Gospels they claim to preach, let alone tradition.
And the poor layman, who turns to the Church for guidance, is deceived. Or confused. Or both.
St John makes it pretty clear to me, they were one and the same person. And that Mary, Martha and Lazarus were brother and sisters.
This whole business of altering the liturgical calendar? Again, its purpose is to disassociate the modern Catholic with tradition. Keep the modern lay Catholic ignorant of tradition. And if the modern Catholic doesn't know why the saints' feast days were always celebrated on the days of the traditional liturgical calendar, they're hardly likely to complain. There was always a good reason why certain days were picked. They related to the saints' lives. Over and above that, they keep removing Holy Days of Obligation. We've gone from ten to two in Australia. Why? When these days remind us of our Faith. Is it to make us neglect it? Not really. It's to make the modern Catholic focus on the secondary issues, not the primary ones. And water their Faith down into some wishy washy shadow of what it once was.
They replace the great liturgical hymns like Faith of Our Fathers with guitar versions of the great anthem of Atheism, John Lennon's Imagine. And Catholics sing Imagine in Church? Hell, even certain classical music was banned as being unliturgical. But who bothers to read the encyclicals of Saintly Popes like Pope St Pius X anymore (Iike Motu Proprio on Sacred Music), when they can read fluffy ecumencial rubbish by John Paul II? What would the saints of old say of Catholics singing 'imagine no religion' and believing it had Catholic undertones. How dumb can you get. Why not sing Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds, have some hashish and pray to the Maharishi Yoga with a statue of Buddha on the alter. Hell, rip the crucifix down and let's have a love-in.
It's perplexing how Catholics disregard tradition, when you see how much stock sporting bodies like the AFL place upon it. And how tenaciously the RSL cling to remembering the tradition of Anzac Day. And why is that? It's a part of the whole cultus of worship. And because the spirituality of the liturgy has been destroyed, people fulfil their need for worship by turning football into their primary religion. History and tradition walk hand-in-hand. Rewrite history, you destroy tradition. Ignore tradition? History becomes as old as Google, and as reliable as a quick read of the first link.
Comment by samaritan
Samaritan's Stories
One of the things I am very interested in is how Christian thought has changed throughout history. From that perspective, it would be interesting to compare Butler’s Lives of the Saints with modern Catholic Church teaching. Although I can understand your emphasis on tradition, to me it makes sense that as the world spends more and more time looking into these things, information will come to light that makes us rethink traditional church teaching. I don’t think the Mary of Bethany/Mary Magdalene issue is one of these. But in terms of research into biblical languages, archaeology and history of bible times, isn’t it possible that we may find things that – if the people who originally formulated these ideas knew about, would have changed their perspective as well.
That said, when it comes to biblical studies, in my opinion, everyone has an agenda. Everybody who studies the bible tries to find things that help confirm what they already believe. And so new biblical studies also means a whole heap of new people looking at the bible with their own preconceived ideas in hand. From a Protestant point of view, it’s interesting that, at the time, people thought as soon as they started relying on the bible instead of the church or tradition, everything would be clear and they would all think the same. Not so. Instead, you have all these differing opinions about what the bible actually says.
I think that the world in general seems to disregard tradition a lot more now than they ever did. (Although I take your point that not when it comes to footy clubs or the RSL.) I believe that tradition is important and the modern world in general needs to get back that sense of the importance of tradition. I was actually baptised in the Ukrainian Catholic Church. I love the Ukrainian Catholic masses, because there does seem to be that real sense of tradition in it for me. Although, that said, the Christmas mass has gone from three hours to one. I think many of the modern churches don’t have that tradition – and have also lost a sense of awe and respect for God in the process. Once I took some Pentecostal friends to an old church and it was so interesting to see the way they changed as soon as they entered the building. They never change like that when entering their own church.
Comment by Mistersmith
MRS SMITH
READ THIS
SISTERS IN CRIME
Here's the go.
The modern person who uses the net is going to discover something that the long line of tradition hasn't?
Is that your argument?
Tradition supplies a thread.
Modern people are using an unpicker to loosen the threads. And that unpicker is false info on the net.
You can either appreciate a garment or unpick it and pick it to pieces.
According to tradition, the garment Mary made for Jesus was never changed. It grew with Him. God can do whatever He likes. No-one believes that anymore. No-one ever loved Christ like His own Mother. And she hand knitted or sewed this garment. I'd have to ask Moonglow how she did it. There must be a pattern somewhere in the archives of Orble.
Do you know they split His garment in front of her eyes? While He was bleeding on the cross for you? And cast lots for it. As St Louis de Montfort cried out. If people knew Mary they would know Christ. But no. They have to be all Protestant about it. Well, when St Louis de Montfort was on his death bed, Satan came to him to lead him into despair, as he does every time a soul dies. Have you ever experienced despair? Times it by a hundred and you'll get some indication of what it's going to be like on your deathbed if you diss the Mother of God. Anyway, guess what St Louis, that champion of Mary's rights said? You cannot touch me. I am between Jesus and Mary. And that's why he is often respresented crushing satan's head in statues between Jesus & Mary. Satan is powerless when it comes to Mary. Some of you people should stop trying to rationalise (Protestantise) the Faith and read the lives of the saints. It's the most salutary reading you'll ever do. You'll discover they were just flesh and blood like the rest of us, but had brains they used to recognise Mary's role in our salvation. She is the mediatrix of all graces. No Mary. No Christ. God chose to be born of woman. The Holy One made sure His own Mother was free of sin. It's incongruous to suggest God would do anything else when he refuses to be associated with sin of any form. You'll soon realise that what we do on Orble is pathetic in relation to how these penitents lived. Oh I can get fired up. It only takes a few beers. But I will defend the Mother of God until the cows transmigrate in bovine fashion. One day, she'll pull me out of this cesspool. For what mother ever wanted to go to heaven knowing her son was in Hell? Read the story of the Seven Holy Brothers and their Holy Mother. The persecutors offered her the chance to be beheaded before her sons. Her response. I will go last. I will stand her and encourage my sons to stand firm in their faith. Now that's a woman of virtue. She watched all seven sons be killed then just stepped up on the scaffold with equanimity and recommended her soul and the souls of her torturers and murderes to God. A female version of St Stephen. We wouldn't have St Paul if St Stephen hadn't prayed for him. A real mother would escape from heaven and go down to hell to pull her son out. And tell God that's how it's going to be. This is the thing Protestants don't understand. When God refuses entry through the pearly gates. Mary opens a side door. The all powerful God is powerless if Mary decides something. It's theologically right and yet it makes no sense to the human mind if the human mind relies on reason. Faith is so far beyond reason. Pray for faith. It's the foundation of everything..
I don't know if you're a mother or not. But I do know this much. If all else fails in trying to convert someone to the truth? Go to Mary. She is the mother supremo.
Have a serious think about Mary. Here was this woman who lived with Jesus for 30 years. Gave birth to Him, etc. But even Christian women who are mothers all talk about their personal relationship with JESUS!!! ... Well how rude. You imagine someone coming to your place and ignorning you and considering you inconsequential in the birth and upbringing of your son. Someone dismissing you as having no right to even be mentioned? How rude is that? Yet that's what Protestants do. Because they haven't discovered the first thing about who Christ was. They still think He was only this man who wandered around a bit confused as to his own identity and who His mother was, because he wasn't God in the flesh. He was Dan Brown's confused Jesus who had sex with Mary Magdalene. Blasphemy! Protestants will get to Judgement and Christ (or their personal Jesus) will say to them. I'd like you to meet my mother. The woman I took human flesh from. Formed by the Holy Ghost in full collusion with God the Father. Would you like to meet them as well? Or would you prefer to watch Princess Diana's wedding again? And talk about her virtues? Anyway. Here is my mother. She's the Queen of Heaven and Earth. The one you have ignored all your life while pretending you know me. So you know me intimately but don't know my mother? You are not welcome in my house because you slighted the one woman who meant more to me than any woman who ever put a footstep on this earth. Depart from me. Scary thought huh?
But the truth is frigthening.
How can you ignore the mother of Christ? And dismiss her as incosequential in our salvation? St Joseph rarely gets a mention from Protestants. Yet Jesus obeyed him. I mean imagine the type of man he was in the flesh. Here was God incarnate. God in human form obeying a man. The mind almost explodes at that thought. God handpicked the mother and father of His Christ (wish washy Christian's personal Jesus - they speak to the devil most of them - for he is a master at disguising himself as an angel of light and deceiving people into believing how they feel means they're on the right track). Faith is not a feeling. There is intellect, will and passions. Feelings reside in the passions. The lowest of all the faculties of human nature. People need to engage the intellect, not the passions.
Anyway I love the spirit of St Louis de Montfort. Too much Mary is never enough was his motto. Reject the mother. Reject the son was what he said. And that's what all protestants do. Becuase they rationalise their faith.
What a shock they're all going to be in for the moment they die. They'll just go, Oh my God, how could I be so deceived?
I've met a lot of wishy-washy Christians in my time. The minute you start talking hard core Christianity to them, they go. No. I'd prefer to feel good about my religion. I like praying to my image of Christ Crucified while I eat chocolates and sip on champagne and strawberrries.
One of my mates. Who is a very hard-core Catholic. He said. At least the Muslims are prepared to die for their faith. And yes he was referring to suicide bombers. But Christians will soon be Americans. Because none of them are prepared to die for their faith. They believe too much in the power of the sony triniton.
Comment by samaritan
Samaritan's Stories
My argument is that people can discover new evidence that sheds a different light on traditional ideas about events in the bible or the saints. For example, archaeological evidence can give us new insights into what happened or the way language was used. And as more research (and I'm talking about real research here, not a day spent surfing the web) happens, people learn more about the past and the bible.
For example, the Catholic Church said that the sun revolved around the church. They were wrong. We know that from scientific evidence. If the Catholic Church had that evidence, they may not have been so quick to say that the earth couldn't possibly revolve around the sun. And so I would suggest that this can happen for other things as well. People find evidence that perhaps changes traditional Catholic thinking.
And yes, I do have kids. And I'd almost think about praying to Mary if she would give me that pattern for clothes that grow with the child. That would sure save me a lot of money.
Comment by Mistersmith
MRS SMITH
READ THIS
SISTERS IN CRIME
I haven't said a Hail Mary for ages. But you just reminded me of something I read. So many souls are damned because they have no-one to pray for them. Don't think you're getting two either, okay?
In relation to Christ's garment? I believe the majority of God's miracles were hidden. One of the saints said it was a bigger miracle that Christ wasn't transfigured in His Glory His entire life than it was that He was transfigured for a brief moment on Mt Thabor. As in, it was a bigger miracle that Christ's glory was hidden than it was displayed.
I'll just say one thing about the Catholic Church being wrong on a few matters. Or people within the church not speaking ex-cathedra being wrong on a few matters. For unless the pope speaks ex-cathedra (from the chair of St Peter, and speaks on faith or morals, to the universal church, and declares that he is doing so, any Catholic is allowed to challenge him), and he is not guaranteed the seal of infallibility. If we were to judge every institution by its members, we'd have no faith in anything. The holiness of an institution is judged solely on the holiness of its founder.
If the pope was walking around the gardens of the Vatican and said, I don't think the sun exists, he is speaking as a person, not as the pope. No-one is obliged to believe him.
St Paul warned people. "If an angel from heaven were to come down and preach a different Gospel to the one we have preached, disregard them." Or let them be anathema.
A lot of people in the Catholic Church have been wrong about a lot of matters. But the Catholic Faith itself? It's a revelation from God. It's like the truth itself. It's independent of mankind. Our only duty is to accept it.
For everything that has been written about it, I still think St Paul summed up the Catholic Faith admirably when he said, "I profess to know nothing but Jesus Christ and Him crucified."
And who was standing at the foot of the Cross? Mary, His Mother.
So, to know Christ Crucified is to know that His Mother stood at the foot of the Cross. This was a grace of God. Even the Apostles weren't given that grace (apart from St John the Divine and Pure). There were more women at the foot of the Cross than men. Apparently I'm a mysogynist.
In the early days of Christianity, Mary wasn't mentioned much because Christ Himself had to be made known. But as the ages passed and Christ's infinite treasures have been exhausted as it were (speaking mystically) by the wickedness of men, God still has a trick up His sleeve. Even after Christ was dead, His Mother was there to receive His dead body into her arms, and bury him. And mystically speaking, this is God's way of showing people than even when His patience is exhausted, He still has treasures in reserve, and He has deposited them all in the arms of His Mother.
It's almost incongruous that a Catholic male would venerate Christ's Mother more than a woman who had children of her own. But that's just one more mystery of grace. If Jesus is as real to you as I think He might be, ask Him about His Mother and what He thinks of her. Let Him enlighten you as to what He thinks of her. It might surprise you.
And if anything comes of it? Just remember, God can make an Balaam's ass talk. So give thanks to the creator, not the instrument.
Again, it's always good to discuss religion with you. You clean the rust off the cogs.