Feedback from The Journey Home

A reader writes:

I just finished watching the tivo’d Journey Home program from last night. I had to come check out your blog and webpage. They are terrific and you likely have a new follower…Shea-bot. =]

I come from a Mormon background. My Baptist husband converted about the time we were married…I’ve left the mormon church and have been bouncing around many religions and studying a great deal of different religions. In the last 3 years I’ve started, and not completed RCIA. I’ve been in touch with the Coming Home network. I look at their forum occasionally, but I may find your blog and links of much more help. Thank you for the writings that you have made available through your journey into Catholicism.

I have a Catholic friend who introduced me to Catholocism a few years ago. She is originally from Bolivia, So. America. While I question everything, and hold much in skepticism, after having the rug pulled out from under me with mormonism, she takes much of her faith without question. She is very patient with me and my skepticism. She has helped me to see, especially Mary, in new ways that I wouldn’t have otherwise. Yet a couple of serious questions remain with Mary and the Catholic perspective, namely:

Co-mediatrix with Christ and her having been born without sin.

First, Christ paid the price of sin and none other. He is now ‘all and in all’ our only hope. Where does the Catholic church have reason to believe that Mary plays any part in our redemption other than in our Saviour Jesus Christ?? I can pray and fast and believe God’s Spirit can work on behalf of my wayward children, that is all I can do…it is God’s work, cheifly of the Holy Spirit to keep knocking on the heart of my children to answer God’s call. And if my children were to to turn to God and trust in Him, it would not be my work that did the turning of their hearts, is is not for me to boast, but it God’s doing alone.

I can much more relate to a Mary I believed growing up who learned to love and trust and live for God, and when the time came was cleased of all her sins, a Spiritual Baptism in the Holy Spirit, prepared by God to be the Theotokos, just as in says in Revelations about having the burning coals applied to John’s lips because he was unclean. How can I believe that she, as well as Christ, were immaculately conceived? It sounds like a great deal of ‘extra-holiness’ has been applied to Mary over the last two millenia in the Catholic church. I know it all comes down to trusting the Catholic church, much like I trusted and lived Mormonism, but can’t believe any of it’s claims as truth. It seems that the Catholic church has changed a great deal over time to suit it’s needs much like other religions.

Thank you for your time and I DO appreciate your answers in these subjects. If you could tell me which book may deal with any of these questions from your Mary series, I’d be willing to go to the LCB(local Catholic bookstore) and purchase a copy of it. If the books are like your webpage and blog, I’m sure I’ll be reading more than just one. Now I’m off to read more of your website and blog…

Thanks for your honest questions and willingness to be open, especially after the experience of getting burned. That takes moxie and the grace of God, so well done!

Yes, my books deal with both the Immaculate Conception and the (undogmatic) title of co-Mediatrix. The Immaculate Conception takes up the whole of chapter 3 in Volume II: First Guardian of the Faith, so I won’t reproduce it here. My discussion of the situation with respect to the notion of Mary as “co-Mediatrix” takes place in the context of the discussion of the Rosary in chapter 2 of Volume III: Miracles, Devotion and Motherhood. However, the real question that you are asking is ultimately tied to your remark, “It sounds like a great deal of ‘extra-holiness’ has been applied to Mary over the last two millenia in the Catholic church. I know it all comes down to trusting the Catholic church, much like I trusted and lived Mormonism, but can’t believe any of it’s claims as truth. It seems that the Catholic church has changed a great deal over time to suit it’s needs much like other religions.”

What you are asking is, “Did the Church just make this stuff up or borrow it from paganism?” That question is the whole burden of Volume I: Modern Myths and Ancient Truth. So I would really recommend starting there before moving on to these other discussions. Once you’ve put that fear to bed, you can take a look at the Church’s life and practice with respect to these two issue and not have the constant worry nagging the back of your mind with, “How do I know this isn’t just warmed-over paganism?”

You can get the Mary, Mother of the Son trilogy (signed and everything) here.

Another reader writes:

Greetings. I’m a Brooklyn based musician; I’m also a cantor in my Parish. Just want to say that I saw you on The Journey Home yesterday evening. Today, I visited your site.

You’re a pleasure to listen to and to read. Keep up the good work, my Christian brother. Thank you.

Check thou out his music!

Another reader sez:

My dang DVR cut off the last five minutes of The Journey Home. What did I miss? 🙂

Whoa, dude! You totally missed the part where I went into a trance, started speaking in tongues, and then prophecied that Marcus Grodi would be swept up to heaven in a chariot of fire, there to usher in a final conflict between man and robots that will lead to a transhumanist synthesis imparting eternal youth to all the Faithful. After this, I levitated out of my chair, uttering spiritual ejaculations in the tongues of angels, with electric sparks shooting from my fingers, toes and hair and dissolving all metal objects in the room while an unearthly light bathed the entire state of Alabama in a weird greenish glow. I’m told it was visible from space, but that the government with cooperation from Google, has removed every reference to the incident from the web. So you’ll just have to take my word for it.