Extreme Mary devotion-Should i feel Guilty

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celtic1967

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Hello brothers and sisters in Christ.

I have a bit of a problem . Its hard to put into words how i feel but ill give it a go.

Over the last month or so i have been having promblems with my faith. I seem to feel as if i am not worshipping jesus but worshipping Mary. But it feels right i feel as if shes always by my side and she is.
BTW i dont pray to any saints but Mary the mother of God. Mabye this is why i have such strong devotion to her.

I heard somewhere that when Pope John Paul 2 was shot he thanked Mary for saving his life not Jesus.
I have been in Poland many times and visited his house in wadowice and i can unsterstand because of the environment he was brought up in how he felt such a strong connection to Mary. Mary was crowned Queen of Poland

Is it right for JP2 to thank Mary over Jesus for saving his life ?

Its still vey controversial to say but is it fair to say that Mary is Coredemptrix to see God you must see Mary first ?

Do you ever have any guilt when you pray so passionetly to mary and cant have the same feeling when you pray to Jesus alone ?
 
Hey Celtic,

How great! You have great feelings of devotion towards Mary, and you feel her presence throughout the day. If only all Catholics could have such “problems”! Everybody knows that true devotion is not just a matter of feelings, but also of intention. If you have no intention to worship Mary, then you aren’t worshiping her, no matter how strong your feelings of devotion may be. Also rest assured that she will bring you to her Son. If you have any other worries about devotion, I highly recommend checking out St. Louis de Montfort’s True Devotion to Mary

http://www.ewtn.com/library/montfort/truedevo.htm

JP2 opened this book every day according to his personal secretary. May it be a light on your path to Jesus through Mary!

Scott
Apostle of the Interior Life
 
A strong devotion to Mary is perfectly acceptable. If we worship Mary then there is a problem.

I’ve recently purchased the books off of this site titled “Mary Mother of the Son” with the hopes of strengthening my understanding of Mary’s place in the Church. I may recommend you reading such books or reviewing parts of the Catechism about Mary. Some other people on here might be able to mention some other good Catholic authors who have written on the subject.

As a heads up this thread may receive posts from other Christian denominations who believe that a devotion to Mary is idolatry.

As for JP2’s statement I have never heard that and I don’t know anything about it so I can’t offer any insight.

I offer you the best as you search to find the answers. I believe this website itself also has some good articles on the subject.
 
To paraphrase Scot Hahn in his book Reasons to Believe; Mary is the mother of God, she is our mother as well and as such we honor her as our Lord honored her and can approach her as a mediator and as an intercessor just as those at the Wedding Feast of Cana approached her. Our devotion to her is in itself an expression of our devotion to Him. However he goes on to say that we don’t honor her instead of Him 🙂
 
celtic1967 said:
Do you ever have any guilt when you pray so passionetly to mary and cant have the same feeling when you pray to Jesus alone ?
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Please do not rely only on your feelings as they may not be reliable. The truth is Mary’s place is determined by Jesus. He asks us to go to her. Her will and His will cannot be separated.
 
Thankyou everyone for you comments especially skallal they warm my heart.
skallal are you actually from Rome as i am going there in 2 weeks times and would love some local tips? 😉
Hopfully reading more of the books suggested my faith will become stronger in Mary.If thats possible? 🙂
Mary is my strength . She leads me and protects me.

Yes from what ive heared from a lot of reports is Pope John Paul thanked Mary for saving his life and not God.
Which protestant people love to bring up . He was reported as saying that the bullet was going one way and Mary guided it the other way to save his life. This is why his garments with bulletholes have been givin to the black madonna of czestochowa in Poland which is the pic i have in my avi. also the bullet pulled from JP was put in the crown of our lady of Fatima.

I suppose if Pope John Paul had strong devotion to Mary then thats a way to holyness.
I would be happy if i could be 1% of the man john paul was
 
Fix
What do you mean?
Please do not rely only on your feelings as they may not be reliable.

surely thats the Holy spirit
 
Hey Celtic,

May our lady continue to guide you on your journey of faith into the loving embrace of Jesus. As for Rome, tell me what you would like to know, and I’ll answer as best I can…

In Christ,

Brother Scott
Apostle of the Interior Life
 
God told me that you pray to Mary when it’s night and Jesus when it’s day although I pray the Illustrated Rosary which uses a lot of hail Marys. I also pray the Chaplet to the Divine Mercy which can be prayed on Rosary beads. Mary can present your prayers to Christ but she is not your saviour. Personally my devotion to Christ is based around the Eucharist so you could go to mass more often or attend Veneration of the Blessed Sacrament.
 
celtic1967 said:
Fix
What do you mean?
Please do not rely only on your feelings as they may not be reliable.

surely thats the Holy spirit
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No, my point is it may not be the Holy Spirit. If our feelings contradict what Jesus teaches through His Church then our feelings are wrong.

I, gently, suggested reading about Marian devotion including things by St. Maximilian Kolbe right here and St Gemma Galgani right here.

God Bless and I will pray for another victory for our Blessed Mother.
 
JP2 thanked Mary for saving his life by “turning the bullet”, sure. At various other times, he thanked his surgeons and nurses for doing a great job. At other times, he thanked the security guys for getting him out of there and stopping the gunman. And at still other times, he thanked God.

Now, it goes without saying at all times that no human being can do anything without God being really behind it. But it’s not normal human etiquette to say, “O God, thank you for allowing your servant Bob the strength to pass me the butter, and special thanks for not zotting him and me and all things out of existence instead.” It wouldn’t be wrong to say it that way! But it’s just not the normal way we talk, and we don’t have to think about it that way all the time.

If you feel you would like to grow in your devotion to Jesus, to the Father, to the Holy Spirit, or to the whole Trinity, that’s awesome! You work at that! But I doubt you’re loving Mary too much. 🙂 You may love Jesus in a more intellectual and less emotional/gut way than you love Mary, but that’s not wrong or even unusual, even when it comes to love of your fellow humans or your family members.

People love each other and delight in each other in different ways and for different reasons; that’s just how we’re made. I love my dad more for being a rock, and although I love listening to him talk, I tend to converse more with my mom. I love my mom more for her practical worry about me, and we tend to express our love more by wrangling than I do with any other person in the world. I love each of my brothers in different ways. Heck, I’ve loved each of our dogs in different ways. So of course I love Jesus and Mary differently, and of course my relationship with each of them changes according to my need, God’s will, and my spiritual and physical development.

Don’t worry so much. Give the feelings to God if it keeps bothering you, and talk to a priest about it if you need to. But it sounds more like you should sit down and read the Gospels and be happy, than that you should worry about being too interested in Mary.
 
*“For to be right and good, *worship of the Mother of God **ought to spring from the heart; acts of the body have here neither utility nor value if the acts of the soul have no part in them.”

AD DIEM ILLUM LAETISSIMUM
ENCYCLICAL OF POPE PIUS X ON THE IMMACULATE CONCEPTION
FEBRUARY 2, 1904

It is said that catholics do not worship Mary. It seems to me that if the Holy Father has no problem with it, then it’s safe to say that you should not feel guilty. Did something change in the last 100 years?
🤷
 
we can not love our Blessed Mother too much… it turns into idolatry not when we love Mary too much, but perhaps love Jesus too little. As long as He is the ultimate end of your devotion to Mary, it’s alright 🙂
 
TLM08 said:
*“For to be right and good, *worship of the Mother of God **ought to spring from the heart; acts of the body have here neither utility nor value if the acts of the soul have no part in them.”

AD DIEM ILLUM LAETISSIMUM
ENCYCLICAL OF POPE PIUS X ON THE IMMACULATE CONCEPTION
FEBRUARY 2, 1904

It is said that catholics do not worship Mary. It seems to me that if the Holy Father has no problem with it, then it’s safe to say that you should not feel guilty. Did something change in the last 100 years?
🤷
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Worship in the truest sense is latria, which is given to God alone. The Pope is using an extended or more general sense of worship which includes hyperdulia, which is the reverence/honor given to Mary alone among the saints (who are given the reverence/honor of dulia). The word “worship” is simply misleading in our current terminology, and nothing has changed, if you refer to the Latin terminology I just used.
 
I think one very important point to realize is that Mary leads us to Jesus. When we say “Mary”, she says “Jesus”… have you ever read True Devotion by St Louis De Montfort?

It’s perfectly alright to be focused on Our Lady, - she glorifies God in all she does, and if you pray to her, she’ll just lead you closer to the Lord…in her perfect way… Jesus and Mary are together in Heaven, they are not in competition with one another, you are not leaving out Jesus when you talk with His Mother. 🙂

If you’re concerned, ask Mary to help you love Jesus more… that is the best devotion to have to her - through Mary to Jesus! don’t fear 🙂 I think that today especially, - with the influence of Protestantism… a lot of Catholics might feel that they have to “tone down” their love for Mary, and are afraid of committing idolatry. But…I don’t think God would tell us to do this… just go through her, to Jesus, and love her as your Mother. St Therese said, do not be afraid of loving Our Lady too much…we can not love her enough.

If you want to increase your devotion to Jesus, that’s perfectly alright, and good, but don’t feel that you have to be less devoted to Mary in order to do this. Maybe you could find a devotion that helps you, like the Sacred Heart, Divine Mercy, or doing Holy Hour…

I think it’s wonderful that you love our Blessed Mother, that is a grace, it’s a gift from God… I used to feel strong dislike for her and now I see I was actually lead astray by the enemy. God would never ever tell you to not love His Mother. Love Him first, and her second, and love them both with all your heart.

God bless!
 
Thanyou Monica for such a great post. I have ordered true devotion to Mary and will be reading it soon.
 
celtic1967 said:
Thanyou Monica for such a great post. I have ordered true devotion to Mary and will be reading it soon.
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TRUE DEVOTION TO MARY AND GLORIES OF MARY by St Alphonsus Ligouri is such an awesome book and well just love our Holy Mother!!! David was lead by the arc to win battles, Mary is our arc of the new covenant that will lead us and win battles for us as she leads us in this spiritual warfare to her son!!! it’s just like our earthly parents priests, brother, sisters (for a protestant) pastors they all lead and assists us in our state of life and so too does Mary, who the devil has enmity with, she too will lead us to the crown of glory which is her Son Jesus… she will teach us how to receive him in he Eucharist, how to spend time with him in adoration, how to keep his word and bear fruit while we read the scriptures she will teach us how to allow the Holy Spirit to take possesion of our soul and make His Home in us to live and walk by the Holy Spirit, to allow him to be our sanctifier and Lord!!! she is the way we shall all be in where we give ourselves totally to Jesus through Mary!!!
 
cides23 said:
TRUE DEVOTION TO MARY AND GLORIES OF MARY by St Alphonsus Ligouri is such an awesome book and well just love our Holy Mother!!! David was lead by the arc to win battles, Mary is our arc of the new covenant that will lead us and win battles for us as she leads us in this spiritual warfare to her son!!! it’s just like our earthly parents priests, brother, sisters (for a protestant) pastors they all lead and assists us in our state of life and so too does Mary, who the devil has enmity with, she too will lead us to the crown of glory which is her Son Jesus… she will teach us how to receive him in he Eucharist, how to spend time with him in adoration, how to keep his word and bear fruit while we read the scriptures she will teach us how to allow the Holy Spirit to take possesion of our soul and make His Home in us to live and walk by the Holy Spirit, to allow him to be our sanctifier and Lord!!! she is the way we shall all be in where we give ourselves totally to Jesus through Mary!!!
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Just to note that we are all arks of the new covenant. Somewhere in the Old Testament it says that the law of the Lord is written on stone, but then it will be written on our hearts. We are all carried to call the law of the Lord in our hearts. The main way that we become the new carriers of the covenant is through receiving Communion which is the Cup of the New Covenant instituted by Christ at the Last Supper. Mary was also ark of the covenant as she carried the body of Christ in her womb.
 
celtic1967 said:
Thanyou Monica for such a great post. I have ordered true devotion to Mary and will be reading it soon.
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🙂 I hope it helps you! I really recommend reading it slowly and praying through it. It’s basically all about allowing Mary to teach us to love Jesus perfectly.

God bless 🙂
 
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