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Why Pray to Mary ?
Devotion to Mary leads us directly to her Son, Jesus
We should all want to go directly to God.
However, because we lack perfection in the virtues of faith,
humility, obedience, and love, we therefore lack perfection in our
desires and therefore, in our
direction. God makes up for what we lack, however it is an arrogant
assumption to assume that our understanding His way must be His way of
overcoming this infinite distance between He and us.
We must humbly search out to find His Way.
All we need is Jesus, BUT we need ALL that He wills for us and that He does.
Philippians 4:8
“Finally, brethren, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is
just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is gracious, if
there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think
about these things.”
So, if we truly desire to go directly to God we
must not ignore how He has manifested His goodness in creation. We must
focus on not only Him but all He has accomplished through others.
If we fail at this, we are not focusing on Him at all, but only our
deluded perception of Him. All good things come God, because only
He can provide the grace for something to be good.
CCC 2007
“With regard to God, there is no strict right to any merit on the part
of man. Between God and us there is an immeasurable inequality, for we
have received everything from him, our Creator. Cf. CCC 2008
CCC 299
“Because God creates through wisdom, his creation is ordered: "You have
arranged all things by measure and number and weight." 151 … only in a
spirit of humility … Because creation comes forth from God's goodness,
it shares in that goodness - "And God saw that it was good. . . very
good" - for God willed creation as a gift addressed to man, an
inheritance destined for and entrusted to him. On many occasions the
Church has had to defend the goodness of creation, including that of the
physical world.
CCC 293
“… St. Bonaventure explains that God created all things "not to increase
his glory, but to show it forth and to communicate it", 135 for God has
no other reason for creating than his love and goodness … not for
increasing his own beatitude, nor for attaining his perfection, but in
order to manifest this perfection through the benefits which he bestows
on creatures, with absolute freedom …
http://www.scborromeo.org/ccc/para/293.htm
1 Corinthians 12:20-21
“But as it is, there are many parts, yet one body. The eye cannot say to
the hand, ‘I do not need you,’ nor again the head to the feet, ‘I do not
need you.’ ”
God has built
up in Mary’s Immaculate Heart a Super highway to bring us closer to Him
It is not that a person goes to Mary first and
then goes to God. Rather, a person needs to accept Jesus and have
faith in Him as their Savior. He is truly God, and our only Savior. She is not. Jesus shows us
how much he loves us all. And we read below how no one has done a
better job of putting their in Jesus than Mary.
Luke 1:41-45
“Elizabeth was
filled with the Holy Spirit and she
exclaimed with a loud cry, ‘Blessed are
you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb!
And why is this granted me, that the mother of my Lord should come
to me? For behold, when the voice of your greeting came to my
ears, the babe in my womb leaped for joy. And
blessed is she who believed that there would
be a fulfilment of what was spoken to her from the Lord.’ ”
Therefore, He loves Mary tremendously because of
her faithfulness. And He introduces us, the disciples whom He
loves, to her. “Behold, your mother!” John 19:27. And He shows us
how
important she really is and how He wishes to work through her. Revelation 11:19 – 12:
1-5, 17. And then by getting closer to Mary we are enabled to get
even closer to Jesus, to know Him better, and love and follow Him more
devoutly and therefore more directly. It is worth noting that the only
Apostle that persevered in following Jesus all the way to the Cross was
the one who was strengthened by his walk with Mary. All the others
abandoned him. Through Mary is the most direct way to get closer
to Jesus.
Pope Benedict XVI
“Our Lady of the
Rosary ... We are therefore asked to let ourselves be guided by Mary in
this prayer, ancient and ever new, which is especially dear to her
because it leads us directly to Jesus,
contemplated in his Mysteries of salvation: joyful, luminous, sorrowful
and glorious. In the footsteps of Venerable John Paul ii (cf. Apostolic
Letter Rosarium Virginis Mariae), I would like to recall that the
Rosary is a biblical prayer, interwoven
with Sacred Scripture throughout. It is a prayer of the heart, in which
the repetition of the Hail Mary directs the thoughts and
affections to Christ …”
[Pope Benedict XVI,
Angelus, October 10, 2010]
Pope John Paul II
“Christ is the supreme Teacher, the revealer and the one revealed.
It
is not just a question of learning what he taught but of “learning him”.
In this regard could we have any better teacher than Mary? From the
divine standpoint, the Spirit is the interior teacher who leads us to
the full truth of Christ (cf. Jn 14:26;
15:26;
16:13). But among creatures no one knows
Christ better than Mary; no one can introduce us to a profound knowledge
of his mystery better than his Mother.”
[Rosarium
Virginis Mariae by JPII, section 14]
In the book Crossing the Threshold of
Hope by John Paul II (in
which the Pope is interviewed by Vittorio Messori who wrote the
introduction [English edition, Jonathan Cape, 1994]), the Holy Father
responded to a precise question from the interviewer.
“Totus tuus. This phrase is not only an expression of piety, or
simply an expression of devotion. It is more. During the Second
World War, while I was employed as a factory worker, I came to be
attracted to Marian devotion.
“At first, it had seemed to me that I should distance myself a bit
from the Marian devotion of my
childhood in order to focus more on Christ. Thanks to St Louis de
Montfort, I came to understand that true devotion to the Mother of
God is actually Christocentric, indeed,
it is very profoundly rooted in the mystery of the Blessed Trinity,
and the mysteries of the Incarnation and Redemption” (pp. 212-213)
See
EWTN
or Page 110
Here
On May 13, 1981 there was an assassination
attempt on the life of Pope John Paul II. He credited Mary with
saving his life. He said one hand fired the shot, but another -
Mary’s hand - guided the bullet, and spared his life. Exactly one
year later he gave a homily at Mary’s shrine at Fatima. He said
that the purpose of Marian consecration was so that she can lead us to
the pierced side of Christ, the Fountain of Mercy.
Homily at Mass in Fatima May 13, 1982.
“Meaning of consecration
8. On the Cross Christ said: “Woman, behold, your son!” With
these words he opened in a new way his Mother’s heart. A little
later, the Roman soldier's spear pierced the side of the Crucified
One. That pierced heart became a sign of the redemption achieved
through the death of the Lamb of God.
The Immaculate Heart of Mary, opened with the words “Woman,
behold, your son!”, is spiritually united with the heart of her Son
opened by the soldier’s spear. Mary’s Heart was opened by the same
love for man and for the world with which Christ loved man and the
world, offering himself for them on the Cross, until the soldier’s
spear struck that blow.
Consecrating the world to the Immaculate
Heart of Mary means drawing near, through the Mother’s intercession,
to the very Fountain of life that sprang from Golgotha. …
Consecrating the world to the Immaculate Heart of the Mother
means returning beneath the Cross of the Son. It means consecrating
this world to the pierced Heart of the Saviour, bringing it beck 'to
the very source of its Redemption. Redemption is always greater than
man’s sin and the “sin of the world.” The power of the Redemption is
infinitely superior to the whole range of evil in man and the world.
The Heart of the Mother is aware of this, more than any other
heart in the whole universe, visible and invisible.
And so she calls us. She not only calls us to be converted:
she calls us to accept her motherly help to return to the source of
Redemption.”
Pope John Paul II homily at Fatima May 13, 1982
See
EWTN or
Vatican web site
Saint Louis Marie de
Montford showed how True Devotion to
Jesus Christ is enhanced and most fully expressed when we go to Jesus
while assisting ourselves of the help that Jesus wants to give to us
through Mary. He summarized it well when he pointed out that there is
no shorter way to Jesus than the route were
we avail ourselves of God’s help that we receive through Mary. There is
no easier road than the one with Mary. God
works through her to help us grow more deeply in love with Him. There
is no surer road to Jesus than the one
through Mary. Understanding Mary helps us to understand who her Son is.
Saint Maximilian Kolbe
Do not be afraid to love the Immaculata
(Mary) too much because we could never equal the love that Jesus has
for Her, and His imitation is our sanctification. To approach the
Immaculata is the easiest way to draw near to God. Wherever Thou
dost enter, O Mary, Thou dost obtain the grace of conversion and
growth in holiness. It is through Thy hands that all graces come to
us from the most Sacred Heart of Jesus.
Vatican II, Lumen Gentium 60, 62
“Mary's function as mother of men in no
way obscures or diminishes this unique mediation of Christ,
but rather shows its power. But the Blessed Virgin's salutary
influence on men originates not in any inner necessity but in the
disposition of God. It flows forth from
the superabundance of the merits of Christ,
rests on his mediation, depends entirely on it and draws all its
power from it. It does not hinder in any way the immediate
union of the faithful with Christ but on the contrary fosters it. 60
“Therefore the Blessed Virgin is invoked by the Church under the
titles of Advocate, Auxiliatrix, Adjutrix, and Mediatrix.
This, however, is to be so understood that it
neither takes away from nor adds anything to the dignity and
efficaciousness of Christ the one Mediator.
“For no creature could ever be counted as equal with the
Incarnate Word and Redeemer. Just as the priesthood of Christ is
shared in various ways both by the ministers and by the faithful,
and as the one goodness of God is really communicated in different
ways to His creatures, so also the unique mediation of the Redeemer
does not exclude but rather gives rise to a manifold cooperation
which is but a sharing in this one source.”
62. Also see CCC
970
Vatican II
“Everyone should have a genuine
devotion to her and entrust his life to her motherly care.”
[Vatican II Council, 1965.
Decree On The Apostolate Of Lay People -
Apostolicam Actuositatem, 4 ]
Pope John Paul II
Christ is the one
mediator between God and mankind: “For there is one God,
and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ
Jesus, who gave himself as a ransom for all, the testimony to
which was borne at the proper time. For this I was appointed a
preacher and apostle (I am telling the truth, I am not lying), a
teacher of the Gentiles in faith and truth” (1 Tm 2:5-7; cf. Heb
4:14-16). No one, therefore, can enter into communion with God
except through Christ, by the
working of the Holy Spirit. Christ’s one, universal mediation,
far from being an obstacle on the journey toward God, is the way
established by God himself, a fact of which Christ is fully
aware. Although participated forms of
mediation of different kinds and degrees
are not excluded, they acquire meaning and
value only from Christ’s own mediation, and they cannot be
understood as parallel or complementary to his.
[Encyclical
Redemptoris Missio, 5]
Matthew 18:20
“For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in
the midst of them.”
1 Corinthians
12:21
“The eye cannot say to the hand, ‘I do not need you,’ nor again the head
to the feet, ‘I do not need you.’”
James 5:16
“… pray for one another, that you may be healed. The fervent prayer of a
righteous person is very powerful.”
See:
One Of Mary’s Preferred Feasts
Msgr. Anthony A. La Femina, STL, JCD
The Rosary of the Virgin Mary
by Pope John Paul II
See how the early Church proclaimed
Jesus, the God-Man.
Going Directly To God
Proof
that Catholics clearly teach to worship only God and not to worship Mary
“To
Pray”
- A definition. Does
it mean to worship ? NO!
Off site resources:
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Individual Retreat
33 Days to Morning Glory
By Fr. Michael E. Gaitley, MIC. This book leads you
through an extraordinary 33-day journey of consecration to
Jesus through Mary with four giants of Marian spirituality:
St. Louis de Montfort, St. Maximilian Kolbe, Blessed Mother
Teresa of Calcutta, and Blessed Pope John Paul II.
Queen Mary by
ChrisRedfield
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