In the below video clip here at Apprising Ministries called Mary in the Plan of Salvation you will hear a sermon of apostate Roman Catholicism entitled “Honor Mary For Her Free ‘Yes’ ” from “Father” John Cihak “Parochial Vicar” of Sacred Heart Catholic Church in Medford, OR. In this message preached on March 26, 2007 Cihak opens with a portion of the Gospel of Luke and then begins teaching, “On this solemnity the Church’s highest category of celebration we honor our Mother, the Blessed Virgin Mary. And here is this great Catholic thing, we have nine months before Christmas–we have–we celebrate this particular feast.”

Cirak is speaking of The Feast of the Anunciation and the Catholic Encyclopedia enlightens us:

The Feast of the Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin Mary (25 March), [is] also called in old calendars: FESTUM INCARNATIONIS, INITIUM REDEMPTIONIS CONCEPTIO CHRISTI, ANNUNTIATIO CHRISTI, ANNUNTIATIO DOMINICA. In the Orient, where the part which Mary took in the Redemption is celebrated by a special feast, 26 December, the Annunciation is a feast of Christ; in the Latin Church, it is a feast of Mary (Online source, caps in original)

Cihak continues on and tells us that this feast day is to allow the Roman Catholic “to reflect a little bit” concerning Mary’s “importance in the Christian life” because “she is vitally important for every Christian.” Cihak explains that Mary “is the one who guarantees Jesus’ human nature.” Then the idolatry begins to further escalate when Cirak brings in the false idea perpetrated by the Roman Catholic Church about Mary’s supposed “sinless perfection.” Cihak says:

In a way we can say she is more human than we are. We are less human because we are corrupted by sin. She is more human because the Lord, in view of her Son’s redemption, preserved her from sin so that she could give God the Son a perfect human nature to redeem us in (04:36-05:01).

Then apparently sensitive to the argument that Roman Catholics worship Mary, Cihak now attempts a bit of a shell game with the words referring to worship. I will admit it is truly impressive verbal sleight of hand as it were as he points out “these two words in Greek that distinguish between worship and honor.” Cihak will also tell us that there’s “a common misunderstanding for some other Christians who think that we worship our Lady.”

But first of all the Roman Catholic Church is not a Christian denomination, and secondly as Cihak speaks to us during “The Feast of the Annunciation” while telling us “the Blessed Virgin Mary” is “vitally important for every Christian” and that the LORD God Almighty “preserved her from sin,” I can’t help but wonder where in the world would we ever get the idea that Roman Catholics worship her? I mean it’s not like they say to her “Hail Mary, full of grace” or offer any kind of special prayers that are prayed to her while fondling beads or anything.

Well, actually they do:

Consecration to the Virgin Mary: Hail Mary, etc. My Queen! my Mother! I give you all of myself, and, to show my devotion to you, I consecrate to you my eyes, my ears, my mouth, my heart, my entire self. Therefore, O loving Mother, as I am your own, keep me, defend me, as your property and possession…

Remembering our most holy, most pure, most blessed and glorious Lady, the Mother of God and Ever-Virgin Mary with all the Saints, let us commend ourselves and one another, and our whole life to Christ our God. O gentle Protectress of Christians, unfailing Mediatrix before the Creator, do not despise the prayerful voices of sinners; but, in your goodness, hasten to assist us, who trustfully cry out to you: “Inspire us to prayer, and hasten to hear our supplication. Intercede always, Mother of God, in behalf of those who honor you.” (Online source)

Sure looks like Roman Catholics worship Mary to me, but O no says Cihak:

We don’t. We honor her. But in fact, because she is so important, we give her…[honor] taken up some notches. We give her hyper-honor, because of her importance. Because without her the Lord did not want to save us without her; without her free, “yes”…

And because the Lord did not want to save the human race in general without her, He doesn’t want to save us in particular without her too. That we need her in our lives as Christians. We need a personal relationship with her just as we need a personal relationship with Jesus.

In fact, it is her who is always bringing us closer to her Son… There’s no faster way to the Son than through His mother. And that is true in general, and that is true in particular, for each one of us. We need her in our life to reveal to us her Son to be born through her as Jesus was. So that our human nature can be perfected through the grace of her Son. We too can call her “mother” and she will help us come to eternal life in her Son (05:28-07:11)

Sorry about that, but this is not “hyper-honor,” it is in fact idolatrous hyper-worship of the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen (Romans 1:25). This is not Christianity and anyone who claims to love Jesus and to be born again has a solemn obligation in Christ to remove themselves immediately from this apostate Church of Rome: