Mary is believed to have appeared at Walsingham, which Sheila and I visited. Today, Aileen (daughter), Yossi (granddaughter) and I visited the Convent of Our Lady of Hyning although I do not think that she is believed to have appeared there.
Mary and other supernatural beings appear in SM Stirling's Emberverse series.
In Buddhism, a feminine Bodhisattva personifies compassion but is not believed to have been a human being. Like Mary, she is now venerated in England.
3 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
Catholics believe the BVM was and is a human WOMAN supernaturally spared from Original Sin by God and bodily raised by Him when she died. So, strictly speaking, Our Lady is not a supernatural being.
Apologies for nitpicking, but I get so tired of non-Catholics and anti-Catholics falsely claiming we worship the Blessed Virgin as a goddess, which we don't. And I know you are not saying that!
Sean
No, strictly speaking, Catholics don't worship the Virgin (or saints). However, they get a lot of the same "return". Catholicism (and High Church Anglicanism and Eastern Orthodoxy) manage to combine a lot of the emotional attraction of polytheism with a monotheistic theology. It's one of their strengths.
Dear Mr. Stirling,
Thanks for these comments, with which I agree. I would only add that the veneration of, or invocation of the saints can also be defended using examples from the Bible. Which reminds me of how Nicholas van Rijn pointed out in "The Master Key" that the way Jews and Christians pray to or refer to God were taken, ultimately, from how people of Biblical times treated their kings as well.
Sean
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