The latest rant:

No, receiving the Eucharist in the Catholic Mass is not at all receiving Christ. Christians don't believe that some round cracker in a monstrance is the literal body of Jesus, and Christians don't believe that a cup of wine is literally the blood of Jesus. You don't receive Jesus by canabolizing and vampirizing Him every week. Jesus isn't a cracker, nor has He ever been. If you are going to say that Jesus was literally saying that we are to eat and drink Him, then be consistant with your theology. To be consistent in your theology, then you'd also have to conceed that God is a very large bird with feathered wings:

John 6:47-63,66 "Truly, truly, I say to you, he who believes has eternal life. I am the bread of life. Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, and they died. This is the bread which comes down from heaven, that a man may eat of it and not die. I am the living bread which came down from heaven; if any one eats of this bread, he will live for ever; and the bread which I shall give for the life of the world is my flesh." The Jews then disputed among themselves, saying, "How can this man give us his flesh to eat?" So Jesus said to them, "Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of man and drink his blood, you have no life in you; he who eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day. For my flesh is food indeed, and my blood is drink indeed. He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me, and I in him. As the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father, so he who eats me will live because of me. This is the bread which came down from heaven, not such as the fathers ate and died; he who eats this bread will live for ever." This he said in the synagogue, as he taught at Capernaum. Many of his disciples, when they heard it, said, "This is a hard saying; who can listen to it?" But Jesus, knowing in himself that his disciples murmured at it, said to them, "Do you take offense at this? Then what if you were to see the Son of man ascending where he was before? It is the spirit that gives life, the flesh is of no avail; the words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life" . . . After this many of his disciples drew back and no longer went about with him.

Well, if your theology says that we are literally to eat and drink Jesus, then God is a giant hen, and no one can possibly become born again as in John 3:16, as that just wouldn't jive.

There are precursors to the Eucharist and the importance it plays in our life throughout the old testament. From Malchezadek to manna, to the passover supper itself, God worked his plan for this special meal throughout history until Christ finally initiated the institution of the Eucharist at the last supper. I find Candy's argument to be very childish and lacking any type of biblical exegesis or understanding.

You said: "And Candy, if I choose to say I want to have faith and put that faith into action in the way I live, who are you to condemn me for it?"

I didn't and don't condemn you. You've ~already been condemened~, by God Himself:

Candy has absolutely no business telling anyone that they are condemned. She does not speak for God. The bible also says: "Do not judge, and you will not be judged. Do not condemn, and you will not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven."

You may have all of the sincerity in the world for your religion, but that still won't get you into heaven. When the end comes, you'll find that you were just sincerely wrong. The truth has been presented here to you, so it's up to you to accept or deny it. I believe that every person in hell will know they are there, because that's what they chose.

You know, I think the same thing about Candy. I guess time will tell.

Also, Protestants didn't take books away from the Bible - the RC church ADDED books to the Bible, of which the Bible specifially says ~not~ to do. :-(

I will refer you to Where We Got the Bible by Graham.
It is true that many Fathers and Doctors and writers of the Church in the first three centuries from time to time mention by name many of the various Gospels and Epistles; and some, as we come nearer 397, even refer to a collection already existing in places. For example, we find Constantine, the first Christian Emperor, after the Council of Nicea, applying to Eusebius, Bishop of Caesarea, and a great scholar, to provide fifty copies of the Christian Scriptures for public use in the churches of Constantinople, his new capital. This was in 332 A.D. The contents of these copies are known to us, perhaps (according to some, even probably) one of these very copies of Eusebius' handiwork has come down to us; but they are not precisely the same as our New Testament, though very nearly so. Again, we find lists of the books of the New Testament drawn up by St Athanasius, St Jerome, St Augustine, and many other great authorities, as witnessing to what was generally acknowledged as inspired Scripture in their day and generation and country; but I repeat that none of these corresponds perfectly to the collection in the Bible that we possess now; we must wait till 397 for the Council of Carthage, before we find the complete collection of New Testament books settled as we have it today, and as all Christendom had it till the sixteenth century, when the Reformers changed it.

And, please stop handling the Word of God deceitfully. There is no "hail Mary prayer" in the Bible. Luke 1:28 says:

"And the angel came in unto her, and said, Hail, thou that art highly favoured, the Lord is with thee: blessed art thou among women."

That was NOT any prayer, that was a GREETING from the angel who about to tell Mary her was mission from God. God has a mission for all of his true followers.

And the other scripture you quoted, Luke 1:41-42 also does not contain any "hail Mary prayer." It says:

"And it came to pass, that, when Elisabeth heard the salutation of Mary, the babe leaped in her womb; and Elisabeth was filled with the Holy Ghost: And she spake out with a loud voice, and said, Blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb."

No prayer there either. Just a statment of fact. Mary was blessed to be doing the will of God, just as any follower is blessed if they do God's will. Stop attacking Mary by attempting to deify her. :-(

From EWTN

Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with you.

Luke 1:28 "And coming to her, he said, "Hail, full of grace, the Lord is with you."

The Greek kecharitomene means favored by grace, graced. Its tense suggests a permanent state of being "highly favored," thus full of grace. Charity, the divine love within us, comes from the same root. God is infinite Goodness, infinite Love. Mary is perfect created goodness, filled to the limit of her finite being with grace or charity.

Blessed art thou among women

Luke 1:41-42a "When Elizabeth heard Mary's greeting, the infant leaped in her womb, and Elizabeth, filled with the holy Spirit, cried out in a loud voice and said, "Most blessed are you among women..."

Luke 1:48 "For he has looked upon his handmaid's lowliness; behold, from now on will all ages call me blessed."

Among all women is a way to say the highest/greatest etc. of a group in Semitic languages (these words would likely have been spoken in Aramaic). Mary is being called the greatest of all women, greater than Ruth, greater than Sarah, greater than EVE! Since Eve was created immaculate (without original sin), Mary must have been conceived immaculate. And, although Eve fell into sin by her own free will, Mary must have corresponded to God's grace and remained sinless. She could not otherwise be greater than Eve. Thus, as the Fathers of the Church unanimously assert, Mary is the New Eve who restores womanhood to God's original intention and cooperates with the New Adam, her Son, for the Redemption of the world.

Blessed is the fruit of your womb, Jesus

Luke 1:42b "and blessed is the fruit of your womb."

Jesus is Mary's fruit. Good fruit does not come from anything but a good tree (Mt. 7:17-18)! The all-holy Son of God could not be the fruit of any other tree than the Immaculate Virgin.

Holy Mary, Mother of God

Luke 1:43 "And how does this happen to me, that the mother of my Lord should come to me?

Kyrios is the Greek word used by the Jews in the Septuagint Bible (Greek translation) for Yhwh, the Divine Name of God. In her greeting of Mary, Elizabeth is saying: "How is it that the mother of my God should come to me." Against the heresies of the 4th and 5th centuries which tried to split the Person of Jesus into two, divine and human, denying one or the other, the Council of Ephesus in 431 AD proclaimed Mary Theotokos (God-bearer, i.e. mother of God). Jesus is a single Person, a Divine Person, the 2nd Person of the Most Holy Trinity. To be mother of the Person Jesus is to be mother of a Person who is God. Mary's title protects this truth against errors which emphasize or deny, either the divinity or humanity of the Lord.

Pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death. Amen.

Luke 2:35 "...and you yourself a sword will pierce so that the thoughts of many hearts may be revealed."

John 2:5 "His mother said to the servers, "Do whatever he tells you."

Mary sees a need and appeals to Her Son to satisfy it. He does. We turn to Mary to ask her to intercede with her Son in our daily spiritual and material needs, but especially at the hour of our death. At that moment our salvation hangs in the balance as the devil makes his final foray to deter us from the path to God (Rev. 2:10). It is not surprising, therefore, that both the Hail Mary and the Our Father conclude with an appeal to be delivered from the evil one.

According to the below scripture, I am as blessed, or more so, than Mary was:

I refer everyone back to the extensive blogging in the month of May on this topic. Candy is a lot of things. More blessed than the Blessed Mother is not one of them.

I hope you now see my point... You are intrepreting the Bible through the filter of the RC church cult, instead of reading it and interpreting it for yourself. Your church has taken the words of conversation from an angle, and from Elizabeth, and have turned them into a prayer to Mary. The Bible NEVER EVER tells us to pray to Mary. It would sure be a lot easier if you were saved, then God's Holy Spirit would guide and enlighten you. I will pray that you will heed God's call. He loves you so very much; please don't turn your back on Him for the traditions of man.

I know even before I started this blog, people would read Candy's blog and become very upset and discouraged. Don't be. I have been reading her blog for over a year now. These are not the writings of a scholar, historian, expert or spiritual leader of any kind. Her arguments are easily debunked- we do it here all of the time. Just take a deep breath, and pray for her. Say a rosary, go to adoration, offer an intention at mass, or just say a simple prayer. You'll feel better and if we offer prayers together God will find a way to use them in a way that brings His name glory. Just focus on that.