Some mixed feelings about the largest monstrance in the world
Hey all!
I'm a recent convert to Catholicism, and very passionate about my newfound faith! I'm fully convinced about the importance and value of Eucharistic Adoration, and try to commit to at least 1 session per month. I also love my Blessed Mother, and understand by she's due hyperdulia. These are things that I defend on a regular basis against naysayers. That being said, there is a monstrance at St Stanislaus Kostka Church in Chicago called "Our Lady of the Sign, Ark of Mercy" that is 9ft tall and is the biggest monstrance in the world. I totally understand what it's meant to depict, that being the woman in Revelation 12, and I also understand how the Blessed Virgin Mary is the New Ark of the Covenant. And yet even with all this understanding, I find this particular image to really start to border idol-like appearance, and to have people bowing to it and venerating it still rubs me the wrong way.
I even still understand that we cannot honor the Blessed Mother anymore than God has, and that her intercession is immensely powerful. I also understand that mere bowing isn't necessarily an act of worship in and of itself. Yet, I can't shake the uncomfortability that this image gives me in my spirit. It's similar to how many felt when there was that image of Mary giving birth in pain that was beheaded recently.
Am I tripping? Is this simply my prior Protestant bias still kicking in?
Or is there some sort of line that we must discern in the making of images that are bowed down to?
