The priest wasn't being bold at all. There is a reason for the Marian doctrine of assumption. To put crudely, Catholics hold that if the Mother of God isn't risen by virtue of her motherhood there can be little hope anyone else. It also implies that you do not believe the soul of Jesus Christ is both God and man, inseparably joined, without mingling, mixing or confusion. Thus, you believe that Christ is created, an absurdity - God does not make gods, and you believe salvation comes from the act of believing in His name only, not His grace. A common error in Protestantism.
Mary is in heaven. It is her earthly body that hasn't been raised yet. When we die, the exact same thing will happen with us. We don't have to believe Mary's earthly body has been raised to hope ours will be. Jesus promised they would be and He is our example and proof that our bodies will be raised and made anew as His was. One can believe this and not doubt that Christ is both man and God.
Protestants do not believe that we only have to believe in His name to be saved. We have to believe in Him.
Who He is which includes His grace. His name is a means of identification but it is
who He is that we must believe in.
If you don't ask for her to pray for you, then she wont. Scripture is says "there is one God, and one mediator of God and men, the man Christ Jesus,"
[1 Timothy 2:5]. He is the one and only mediator who gave His life for the redemption of man. That doesn't mean others alive in Christ can't mediate through their prayers for whatever graces He wishes to extend. Those in Christ are spiritual brothers and sisters of Christ. Mary is the mother of Christ, thus being in Christ she is our spiritual mother as well.
Give us one example of anyone in Scripture praying to anyone other than God (not counting those who prayed to false gods). Prayer by definition is talking to God. We cannot pray to a fellow human or a "saint." Only God is a rightful object of prayer. Scripture nowhere teaches otherwise. Asking another person here on earth to pray for me is far different than asking someone in heaven to pray for me. God has not permitted us or given us a means to contact those in heaven.
Mary is our spiritual sister, not our spiritual mother. While Jesus is both God and man, Mary is only of mankind. She only contributed to His humanness. She was in no way the mother of His divinity. You can't simply say, "Jesus is God, and Mary was His mother, therefore she is our spiritual mother." No. Mary contributed nothing to Jesus' divinity. An earthly mother of a king is fully his mother. Jesus is unique. His dual nature comes from two different sources. Mary is only the source of his humanness and not even all of that as she did not impregnate her egg. The male chromosomes did not come from her. We have no spiritual mother. God refers to Himself as Father although it is only in the Second Person of the Trinity that we have any gender in the incarnation of Christ. We cannot suppose a heavenly king needs a heavenly queen as God is not man. The divine is not of two sexes. God has chosen to identify Himself through the terminology of a father but to think God a man would be a mistake as God is spirit. Only in the incarnation is God a man. God Himself sits on one throne with no one beside Him although as spirit, God does not sit as a man does. While Scripture uses familiar language to aid in our understanding, we should not read such language back into God. The church is "the bride of Christ" but that does not mean Christ has a literal bride in heaven (i.e. a female counterpart). Just because God is called a King (and Christ too) does not mean there has to be a queen. That is reversing language used to aid our understanding and apply back to God which is not valid. When His disciples argued over who would sit at His right and left hand, they were thinking in human terms. Jesus rebuked them saying it would be those for whom it has been appointed but He did not say it would be Mary and Joseph or Mary and someone else. It is pure speculation to say it will be Mary. Even if it is, that in no way makes her queen. We will have to wait until we get to heaven to find out who sits alongside Christ.
The covenant of Moses was placed in an Ark whereon God resides. The Personification of the Word was in the womb of Mary, thus she becomes a type of Ark bearing God; Mary is the Ark of the New Covenant. Jesus Christ is our Lord, King on earth and in heaven. The King's mother in antiquity was the Queen. Thus Mary becomes "Queen of Heaven". Christ sits at the right hand of God, Mary sits at the right hand of Jesus.
It was only the 10 Commandments that were placed in the Ark, not the Mosaic Covenant in its entirety. While one can imagine parallels between Mary and the Ark, the Ark did not contain God. God's presence was seen above the Ark on the Mercy Seat. Saying Mary bore Jesus is not analogous to saying the Ark "bore" God. God was not confined to the Ark or even the Mercy Seat. The New Covenant doesn't need an Ark. If anyone is the "Ark of the New Covenant", it is Jesus. We are told that the things God prescribed for the Temple were copies of things in Heaven. In Revelation, we see there is an Ark in heaven which is no doubt the one the earthly Ark was copied from. As I mentioned above, Mary is not a queen. She is our sister in the Lord. We are not told who will sit as Jesus' right hand in heaven. We will have to wait until we are in heaven to find out.
Mary magnifies the Lord according to Scripture. As our eyesight is poor we utilize an aid to enhance our sight. It is through Mary that we see the real Christ, it is only through Mary that one can focus
What Mary meant, is her soul praises and gives great glory to God. The word is used in that sense elsewhere. She is not declaring herself a magnifying glass for men to better see God. Nor is she a pair of glasses without which we cannot focus. If she were so indispensable to our faith and understanding, why no mention of this by Peter, Paul, or the other writers of the NT? Why did these writers, as inspired, not take care to instruct us of this vital role of Mary? You can say it is one of those things that were too many to fit into Scripture but I cannot imagine such a cardinal teaching being left out as the Scriptures which are meant to be God's complete revelation to man. You suppose the Catholic Church has been granted ongoing revelation but I see no such promise in Scripture nor do I think the Catholic Church is "the church" that Jesus founded. I don't believe any earthly church is. I believe "the church" includes all churches on earth that rightly teach the Scriptures. It need not be found all in one ecclesiastical organization. When Scripture says the church is the bride of Christ, it means all believers over all time and is not limited to those of one earthly organization.
In Catholicism:
BLESSING:
As found in Scripture, it means praise, the desire that good fortune go with a person or thing, dedication of a person or thing to God's service and a gift. In liturgical language a blessing is a ritual ceremony by which an authorized cleric in major orders sanctifies persons or things to divine service, or invokes divine favor on what he blesses. the Church's ritual provides for over two hundred such blessings, some of which are reserved to bishops or members of certain religious institutes. [Fr. John Hardon's Modern Catholic Dictionary]
Done. Be blessed in your search for Truth.
Thank you.
JoeT