What I Wish I had Known
Concerning one of my great regrets
I have been a believer in Christ for all of my life. I have no days of my life when I can recall my mother or my family at large going from non-believer to believer status. I can clearly remember the days, however, when my mother transitioned from being a practicing Roman Catholic to a fervent Protestant. I was very young.
Therefore in my upbringing, I was taught and was personally convicted of the authority of Scripture as being the sole repository of Truth, with the Catholic church being an untrustworthy source of teaching, especially with regard to Mariology and Saints. As an Orthodox Christian, I have of course softened tremendously on this, though I still believe there are problems with Catholic doctrinal developments. This is not something I wish to delve into on this forum.
What I did witness, however, was my mother’s reluctance to reject all things Catholic. and when I asked her to teach me what the “Hail Mary” prayer was, she taught it to me, though with reservation. Even so, I memorized every word and have carried it in my memory to this day. She also taught me a child’s prayer to my guardian angel (certainly not a Protestant practice!) which, in times of distress or distraction, I still pray and a sense of calm comes over me immediately.
But unfortunately, I was among the numbers of Protestants who learned to vehemently argue against saying prayers to the Theotokos, the ever-virgin Mary. I embraced every belief that is taught in Protestant doctrine: That she was just a vessel to bring Christ into the world at the appropriate time, that she was a sinner like the rest of us, that she did her job as the virgin mother, but went on to bear numerous children to Joseph, and that she was just a regular Jewish girl, then later a wife and mother of multiple children.
Of all of the painful things I have had to repent of in my life, these heresies concerning the Mother of God are some that cause the greatest ache in my heart. That I would look at the Son of Mary and believe in Him for my salvation, but presume that she was just set aside as a tool when a job is completed—this is to my great shame. That Christ would do anything less than honor his mother and care for her as was her due, even according to the commandments that he himself gave and were contained in the Ark of the Covenant—how could I have done less?
Fortunately, there are some who are much more articulate than I concerning these matters. I invite—no, I beg—everyone who has read this far to watch this video by Father Paul Truebenbach, an Orthodox priest who explains far better than I, why we honor the Most Holy Mother of God, the Ever-Virgin Mary, Theotokos, as part of our Tradition of faith.
For my Orthodox readers, this video is a tremendous encouragement and affirmation of who we are. For my Protestant readers, please listen with an open heart, and make space for the one whom Christ himself honors.