I have been confronted by a Baptist with a query about a book he claims to own:
I have in my possession the book, Ten Series of Meditations on the Mysteries of the Rosary. It has a Nihil Obstat and Imprimatur from Richard Cardinal Cushing. In the book, on page 211, #8, it states: "Everything, even the Blessed Virgin, is subject to the power of God; and everything, even God, is subject to the power of the Blessed Virgin." Besides the logical absurdity of the statement, I want to ask, Do catholics believe that God is subject to the power of Mary? I’m sure you would answer, Definitely not! And yet, here is a book with an Imprimatur that alleges to certify that nothing under that endorsement violates the teaching of the RCC. Do you still believe this?
Any suggestions how best to deal with this?
Your friend is confused. Here is an explanation straight from St. Louis de Montfort, probably the most influential Mariologist to ever live:
Inasmuch as grace perfects nature, and glory perfects grace, it is certain that our Lord is still, in Heaven, as much the Son of Mary as He was on earth; and that, consequently, He has retained the obedience and submission of the most perfect Child toward the best of all mothers. But we must take great pains not to conceive this dependence as any abasement or imperfection in Jesus Christ. For Mary is infinitely below her Son, who is God, and therefore she does not command Him as a mother here below would command her child who is below her. Mary, being altogether transformed into God by grace and by the glory which transforms all the saints into Him, asks nothing, wishes nothing, does nothing contrary to the eternal and immutable will of God.
When we read then in the writings of Sts. Bernard, Bernardine, Bonaventure and others that in Heaven and on earth everything, even God Himself, is subject to the Blessed Virgin, (here the book refers to the exact words of these saints, which states, “All things, the Virgin included, are subject to the empire of God: Behold, all things, and God included, are subject to the empire of the Virgin.”)
they mean that the authority which God has been well pleased to give her is so great that it seems as if she had the same power as God; and that her prayers and petitiions are so powerful with God that they always pass for commandments with His Majesty, who never resists the prayer of His dear Mother, because she is always humble and conformed to His will.
If Moses, by the force of his prayer, stayed the anger of God against the Israelites in a manner so powerful that the most high and infinitely merciful Lord, being unable to resist him, told him to let Him alone that He might be angry with and punish that rebellious people, what must we not, with much greater reason, think of the prayer of the humble Mary, that worthy Mother of God, which is more powerful with his Majesty than the prayers and intercessions of all the Angels and Saints both in Heaven and on earth?
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True Devotion to Mary, no. 27
The passage may be a little lengthy, so I put in bold what I thought to be the most important part. And those words just happen to have a Nihil Obstat, Imprimatur,
and an Imprimi Potest! I hope that shed some light on the subject for you.
God bless you, and may Mary pray for you,
Koopa
