Word To Your Mother

I used to pray the rosary. In fact, my grandparents used to say decades of the rosary on their way driving to places. When I would spend the night at their house, I remember saying the entire rosary before bedtime with my grandma. All five mysteries. My other grandma used to make rosaries with lovely heavy glass beads. And they were beautiful indeed.

Even though I have left Catholicism, I still have a print of the Virgin of Guadalupe hanging on my bedroom wall. I have a black rosary hanging from my crucifix. I have a scuffed up little statue of Mary on a dresser in my walk-in closet that I've had since I was little. She's in her usual blue and white gown, hands folded, head slightly looking down with a tranquil expression. And I even have a silhouette of the rosary tattooed on my back around a crucifix.

I haven't really addressed the Virgin Mary too much after my departure. But now is a good time to do so.

Mary has always been "the softer side of Catholicism" - a sweet and soft landing for the sinner who wants to hide behind her gown like a child as she goes to The Big Guy to intercede for them, possibly reducing their punishment. Like a kid going to Push-Over Mom to soften the blow that might come from Angry Dad. She's a very attractive feature of the Catholic religion as women are rarely symbols in the religious forefront. (Even though it is a misnomer symbol in a largely sexist religion).

While I still respect the symbol and person of Mary, I don't pray to her anymore for the following reasons:

1) She's Not God. The shortest distance between two points is a straight line. One shouldn't feel like they need an intercessor with an all-powerful God who knows your prayers and needs before they are even apparent to you and before you even utter them. It's the whole can't-get-a-hold-of-God-so-leave-a-message-with-his-staff type of thing. Mary doesn't pack the punch that God does. Many people put her on par with Jesus, it seems. She was a blessed instrument, but an idol she should not be.

2) Repetitive Prayer is Bad. "And when you are praying, do not use meaningless repetition as the Gentiles do, for they suppose that they will be heard for their many words." Matthew 6:7 ...Enough said.

3) Tradition of Men: Roman Catholics borrowed the idea of praying with beads from the pagan religions who were already using them hundreds of years before: In 456 AD, Hindus are thought to have introduced the concept of praying with beads to the world. The earliest reference to a rosary (boberkhas) is in their "Jain Canon" (456 AD) These boberkhas had various numbers of beads 6,9,12,18,36 (any sub-multiple of 108) Islam (610 AD) uses a rosary of 99 beads, one for each of the names of God. Buddhists have 108 prayer beads on the string. The Rosary is of pagan origin and no Christian prior to 1000 AD used beads to pray. Catholics pray repetitive words with Rosary Beads that were first invented in 1090 AD, by "Peter the Hermit" and made popular by St. Dominic in 1208 AD. Catholics believe that Mary appeared to St. Dominic in 1208 AD, at the church of Prouille and revealed the Rosary Beads to him. From this time, Catholics prayed 15 sets of 10 consecutive "hail Marys" in a row (150 times), in the Rosary. However, in 2003 AD, Pope John Paul added a new set of Mysteries, so now it is 20 sets of 10 "Hail Marys", (200 times in the Rosary, in total.) Catholics will vainly appeal to Psalm 136 that alternates the same phrase 26 times with 26 different blessings God gives us. It is not 26 in a row as with the rosary! This is also a song, not a prayer. Revelation 4:8 has "angels singing" not "men praying".

I don't know how long I will keep my print of the Virgin on my wall or the ancient statue in my closet. I will likely keep my rosary on my crucifix and I don't regret the rosary in my tattoo in the least. Not a bit. I think the rosary is an interesting (if not misled) symbol of prayer, but now I just choose not to actively use it. It was a stretched section of my path to knowing the real message of God and I cannot dismiss it as something "bad". It was a necessary phase and I don't feel keeping it around for posterity is harmful. It is that which is flawed that reminds me of my own flaws and keeps me humble, I suppose. It is a memory of an era past and a stepping stone that I outgrew and outknew, but one that I nonetheless still respect and cannot find it in me to "bash". I will just quietly take my leave of this Catholic tradition.

I'm happy that the Virgin Mary, as a woman, played such an important role in the life of Jesus. Where would we be without that gentle woman? And what a great role model for mothers.

I hope to hang out with her someday : )

Saint's following is more diverse: Non-Latino Catholics in L.A. are drawn to the Virgin of Guadalupe.

ChicagoTribune.com - By K. Connie Kang - Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
December 3, 2007

The Virgin of Guadalupe -- the beloved brown-skinned image of the Virgin Mary long venerated in Mexico -- has won a new following in multiethnic Los Angeles. "We see the Virgin of Guadalupe as Mother of the Americas -- north, central and south," said George Takahashi, a Japanese American who is a member of the Maryknoll Japanese Catholic Center, St. Francis Xavier Chapel near Little Tokyo. "She is not just for Latinos. She is for all people of the Americas." An estimated 10,000 devotees turned out Sunday for a procession in honor of the Virgin, among them ethnic Chinese, Korean, Filipino, Tongan and Vietnamese worshipers. Although Catholic leaders disagree, some historians theorize that the Virgin of Guadalupe represents a melding of two strands of belief -- Catholic teachings about Mary and indigenous traditions about the Aztec goddess Tonantzin. Devotees of the Virgin believe she appeared in 1531 to a Catholic convert, Juan Diego Cuauhtlatoatzin, at the hill of Tepeyac in Mexico. According to tradition, she spoke in the local language and directed Juan Diego to build a chapel on the site. The local bishop asked the man, now canonized as St. Juan Diego, for proof, so the Virgin told him to gather roses from the hill -- even though it was winter. Miraculously, the roses bloomed, and Juan Diego brought them back wrapped in his cloak. When the roses fell from the cloak, believers say, the image of the Virgin appeared on the cloth. On Sunday, dancers and musicians in colorful costumes performed in the Virgin's honor. Street vendors did brisk business selling flags and T-shirts adorned with her image, and spectators lined the street along the procession route. "I brought all my children because I want them to learn about their heritage and history," said Francisco Morales, a salesman from Santa Ana. But that heritage has been expanding, as Catholics who don't hail from Mexico adopt the Virgin as their own. "She is our intercessor -- a very powerful, loving mother," said Dr. Truc Truong, a Vietnamese American physician who is among the growing ranks of devotees of the Virgin of Guadalupe. For the last year, Truong, who came to the United States after the fall of Saigon in 1975, has been donating 2,000 roses every week for the image of the Virgin of Guadalupe at Hombre Nuevo, a Catholic media center in El Monte. "I can never spend enough money for Mother of God and God," she said of her $1,500 weekly flower bill. The physician donated thousands of orange and red roses for Sunday's event, which culminated in a Mass celebrated by Cardinal Roger M. Mahony at the East Los Angeles College stadium. The roses were arranged like flower beds, filling a sizable portion of the field, where 6-foot framed images of the Virgin of Guadalupe and St. Juan Diego stood. Roses also filled giant urns. "The whole world's here," Mahony said, looking at the sea of people around him. "We are all brothers and sisters under her." Some credit the growth of devotion to the Virgin of Guadalupe among non-Latinos to Bishop Oscar A. Solis, vicar in charge of ethnic ministries for the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles. Solis, a native of the Philippines, was invited in 1984 by the archdiocese to start the outreach to a number of ethnic groups. "This is an exciting moment in our church," Solis said as he walked with other auxiliary bishops in the procession. "You see a multicultural perspective of this celebration. That's what excites me the most." Recognizing the importance of the Virgin of Guadalupe to the Catholic faith, Pope John Paul II in 1992 dedicated a chapel within St. Peter's Basilica in the Vatican to her. Seven years later he named her patron saint of the Americas, and in 2002, John Paul canonized Juan Diego before a crowd of 12 million in Mexico City. Clara Park, a member of St. Paul's Korean Catholic Church near Koreatown, said she feels blessed to have both "God the Father" and "Holy Mother" to go to. "When I need forgiveness, I often pray to Holy Mother to intercede in my behalf," Park said. Park's group walked in a one-mile procession from La Soledad Church to East Los Angeles College with members of its sister Latino congregation, which shares the same facility. Soana Moimoi, a native of Tonga and a member of St. Anthony's Catholic Church in Long Beach, loves the account of Mary appearing to an indigenous man. For the eighth year in a row, Moimoi and her family were at the procession.