Four Questions about Mary

[Ioana]

Ok so these will make me sound like a Protestant (which I never was) but I am asking them honestly just wanting to know the answer and understand things a bit better.

1. Doesn’t it say somewhere in the Bible that God hears our prayers and answers? Does he need to be “softned up”? Does He listen more if Mary prays for us? If we just pray without any intercession does He not listen?
2. The Holy Spirit is the Comforter and Advocate right? Isn’t Mary sort of taking that role?
3. Some people consecrate themselves to Mary and the wording is something to do with giving you whole body, works, life. etc to Mary. Shouldn’t we do that to God?
4. Mary is the mediatrix of all grace but somewhere I’ve seen it said that she can distribute them as she pleases. Is that true?

Many thanks for any answers

 

[whyeyeman]

1. “and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person has great power” - James 5:16
2. Mary is the spouse of the holy spirit.
3. Consecration to Mary is so that she can mould our hearts to her own, and then present it to God more perfectly.
4. I don’t know this one.

 

[Kei]

God tells us of some prayers He will not hear, but to answer your question the Bible says that the prayers of the righteous are very powerful. We know faith has something to do with it.
Mary and the Holy Ghost are very close, so much so that Mary is called the spouse of the Holy Ghost.
Of course, she is not the Holy Ghost nor takes the place of the Holy Ghost.
In general we want to be made more like God.
I don’t know too much about 3 happening, but like we say we pray to saints when we mean we ask saints to pray for us, I imagine it is similarly something like “if your heart is with Mary, your soul is with Christ” or such.
Perhaps like cleaning up our little, muddy offerings and polishing them up to bring them to our King.
4 I dunno, but surely she would do the Will of God.

 

[Gorgias]

1. Doesn’t it say somewhere in the Bible that God hears our prayers and answers? Does he need to be “softned up”? Does He listen more if Mary prays for us? If we just pray without any intercession does He not listen?

Mary is the “queen mother” of the Davidic king. If you look at the Old Testament, you’ll see that the role of the queen mother is to hear requests and present them to the king (for his consideration).

1. The Holy Spirit is the Comforter and Advocate right? Isn’t Mary sort of taking that role?

So… humans cannot ‘comfort’? Humans cannot ‘advocate’ for one another to God?

1. Some people consecrate themselves to Mary and the wording is something to do with giving you whole body, works, life. etc to Mary. Shouldn’t we do that to God?

If a person is consecrated to Mary, and Mary is consecrated to Her son… then whom, ultimately, is that person consecrated to?

 

[Ioana]

I mean yes all you and everbody else has said is true and makes sense. That being sad a ton of the devotion we give Mary seems like mere preference (aquired attachment over time) rather than something with particularly strong grounding. I’ve sort of heard that medieval peasants were often excessively God fearing (so didn’t approach Him) and as such they went to Mary instead and that tradition just sort of continued. I mean is there a reason of consecrating yourself to Jesus through Mary? Why not straight to Jesus? Why not give yourself up straight to the Holy Spirit. Surely that is just as acceptable to God as doing it through Mary. Does God look at prayers not given through her intercession and sees them as less? Again sors if I’m being repetitve and annoying.

 

[Mintaka]

No, it’s not annoying. A lot of this stuff is not explicitly taught in CCD or religion classes, so how are you going to know if you don’t ask or read a book?

We have certain kinds of formal worship, like Mass. We are supposed to spend a fair amount of time going to Mass on the “birthdays” (death days) of the martyrs and saints, thanking God for their example and works, and asking them to pray for us; and then we are supposed to feast and have fun in their honor, and as a sign that we saints on earth share the joy of the saints in Heaven.

But in the modern world, most people only go to Mass on Sundays, and very few priests make a big deal out of the feasts and memorials of the saints. Maybe your parish’s saint is a big deal, but… well… probably not. You might not even know your archdiocese or diocese’s patron saint. It’s unlikely that you make six different kinds of candy for his feast day, or visit the cathedral for revelry and a market day.

This is an impoverished kind of Catholic living. And we aren’t spending all that energy on Jesus, either. It’s just replaced with blah.

So anyway… we are also supposed to be having a lot of fun and help from all sorts of forms of “popular devotion” to God, Mary, and the various saints. Mass isn’t about our own personal preferences. But our personal prayer lives? Yes, we can customize those. The sort of passion that people have for sports teams can be focused toward religious topics. And that can help.

If you have both the support of Sacraments and the Church as a whole, and the support of individual friends in Heaven who have special meaning to you, you have a lot more likelihood of being able to stand fast with God. It can also make it easier to find your vocation and follow God’s will, if you have a wide variety of examples.

When people “consecrate themselves to Mary” or “become servants of Mary,” they are basically doing a chivalrous or poetic thing. (Or a religious order thing, because there are tons of religious orders that are built on devotion to a saint, especially Mary.) They know that Mary serves Jesus more perfectly than any other human; so they ask her what to do, knowing that she will always say, “Do whatever He tells you.”

(Of course, if your name is Kilpatrick or McGillicuddy or something of that nature, your ancestors already decided to be a “servant” (giolla) of some saint. And there are similar surnames and given names in other languages.)

 

[PJM]

Doesn’t it say somewhere in the Bible that God hears our prayers and answers? Does he need to be “softned up”? Does He listen more if Mary prays for us? If we just pray without any intercession does He not listen?

REPLY: God certainly DOES hear and answer ALL prayers

And we Catholics hold & believe that ALL prayers are intended to END with GOD

But John 19: 25-26 teaches us that mere moments before Jesus died, He gave His MOTHER to the entire WORLD to be our Adopted Mother; KNOWING that She, Could, Would and DOES lead many Souls to Jesus that otherwise may not have attained Heaven.

The Holy Spirit is the Comforter and Advocate right? Isn’t Mary sort of taking that role?

Different Roles: The HS is primarily our TEACHER; while Mary [“mom”] is the most effective Intercessor that God could grant US.

Some people consecrate themselves to Mary and the wording is something to do with giving you whole body, works, life. etc to Mary. Shouldn’t we do that to God?

I’m one of THEM: A Certified Marian Catechist]

As a “kid” was it not ALWAYS a good thing to have “Mom” on your side? …It’s even MORE true now that we aren’t KIDS anymore

Mary is the mediatrix of all grace but somewhere I’ve seen it said that she can distribute them as she pleases. Is that true?

RIGHT!

God chooses Who will be OFFERED WHAT graces and HOW MUCH Grace’ and Mary; distributes them as directed by Her Son Jesus

Thanks for asking
Patrick

 

[Gorgias]

I’ve sort of heard that medieval peasants were often excessively God fearing (so didn’t approach Him) and as such they went to Mary instead and that tradition just sort of continued.

I guess that, if you go by hearsay that is “sort of” asserted, and “sort of” substantiated… then your ideas can only at best be “sort of” accurate.

If, on the other hand, you go by what the Church actually teaches, and not by what some allege to have been “sort of believed” in error… well, you’ll be much better off.

 

[Quaestor]

Doesn’t it say somewhere in the Bible that God hears our prayers and answers? Does he need to be “softned up”? Does He listen more if Mary prays for us? If we just pray without any intercession does He not listen?

The Holy Spirit is the Comforter and Advocate right? Isn’t Mary sort of taking that role?

Some people consecrate themselves to Mary and the wording is something to do with giving you whole body, works, life. etc to Mary. Shouldn’t we do that to God?

Mary is the mediatrix of all grace but somewhere I’ve seen it said that she can distribute them as she pleases. Is that true?

The saints reorder our prayers and make them more pleasing to Gd. That is the Jewish understanding. The Saints hear our prayers and offer these to Gd. Some Jews do not believe that Gd hears intercessory prayer directly but through the tzaddikim (saints). Without the prayers of the tzaddikim the world would be unbearable place to live in. Gd is all about family and want the Church to be a family praying for each other,

The Blessed Virgin is the spouse of the Holy Spirit and HE choses to mediate graces through her. The Holy Spirit is the source of all graces. The saints are swimming in a sea of graces which they pour on those who seek their help and those in the Church.

The Blessed Virgin, being the archetype of the Church is the mother of us all. She unites her will perfectly with that of Gd. As this is the case she point the way to her Son. Being the good Jewish Son (personal experience here) He is a mama’s boy… you should get the picture… He does what mama asks for.

Yes she can distribute graces as she wishes to, and so do the rest of the saints. EVEN we here on earth are mediators of Gd’s grace. EVERYONE in the Church is a mediator or mediatrix of graces. We are even each other’s co-redeemers. As we belong in a Church which is transcendental we all take part even in that life that our Church in heaven takes part in. However, due to the plan of salvation which REQUIRED her yes to the Divine Plan she has a higher dignity than even the Seraphim.

 

[Kei]

Why not straight to Jesus?
Let me ask you a question:
How did God bring the world to Himself?
Answer: through Jesus Christ.
How did God bring the world to Jesus Christ?
Answer: through the work of the Holy Ghost and Mary.
Why, then, would you deny this great work? Still, these two can bring Jesus to our souls.

Don’t base things off of hearsay. The Jews had their saints and their intercession, praying to God is recorded in the Bible. But this is a good reason: do you go directly to the king? If one of us were to stand before the Lord, who could stand?

 

[Ioana]

Cheers. I guess I have some confusion between the abilities and attributes of God, Mary and Saint x (denoting any saint). That is because (and I’m not proud to admit it) I come from a bit of a paganish New Agesih background so certain things ring alarm bells in my head where they aren’t needed.
So Mary is the mediatrix of all graces. That in itself sounds fine. The part I don’t get is the fact that Mary can distribute said graces at will. Yes I understand her will is the same as God’s will but doesn’t she need to ask God first or go through Him somehow? If not how does that make her different from God? Also is Saint X’s will the same as God’s will? Can Saint X also distribute graces or does he ask God to do that (and those come through Mary)? Mary is sinless since her conception. I’ve sort of gotten used to that. The part I don’t quite grasp (as in I simply don’t know the answer to rather than the answer not seeming right) is whether Mary is also a sort of pseudo-saviour (or co-redemptrix). I get that she said “yes” to God and she suffered with Christ and as such by saying “yes” allowed our redemption to take place. That said didn’t Judas Iscariot do the same? By betraying Christ he got him crucified and allowed our redemption to take place and he isn’t well regarded (for good reason). Mary is Immaculate (and always has been), answers prayers, distributes graces, and has reedemed us all. If that is the view is the only difference between her and God the fact that one is eternal and the other is not? In summay what is the difference in abilities and nature between God, Mary and Saint X? Half of what I wrote is probably untrue I just don’t know which. Oh and btw why is she called Star of the Sea? Cheers again.

 

[Quaestor]

I will first address the Star of the Sea. The Blessed Virgin was Jewish. Her Jewish name Miriam means the Lady of the sea or star of the sea. I will address the rest later.

 

[Quaestor]

The Catholic Church is a family whose bonds are one of a shared faith. As Gd call the family of Abraham (the rock of the Old Testament) who shared a physical kinship, Gd now called those who are of the faith family of Peter and who (the rock of the New Testament) confess his Faith. Family members help each other. The OT is a prototype of the NT.

Grace is a mystery. The Blessed Virgin is full of grace and is the co-mediatrix of all the graces. She was filled with Gd’s graces. You cannot give what you do not have, and she was given all the graces for our benefit. Every Christian is a co-mediator/co-mediatrix of graces, every single one. The saints in heaven a far better than any of us at this, and the Blessed Virgin is the mediatrix par excellence of these graces. We are all each other’s co-redeemers as well, not pseud-saviors, but true co-redeemers of each other. That is why we pray for each other.

 

[Kei]

God is the source of all Graces. Mary could say she was like a speck to God. How much less are we? Let this be good to remember for humbleness: all good, talents, graces are from God.

We become like God in the same sense as a metal becomes like flame when placed in a fire: it grows hot and red. Not in terms of nature.
The saints are righteous and have powerful prayer.
All authority they have comes from God, the source of authority, beauty, goodness, and righteousness.

The pagan religions have little hints to the Truth, the fullness of which is in the Catholic Faith.

 

[Tis_Bearself]

whyeyeman correctly answered your 1, 2 and 3. On point 2, Mary is the spouse of the Holy Spirit (with whom she conceived Jesus) but Kolbe also describes her as the “quasi-incarnation of the Holy Spirit”. I am still wrapping my mind around that one and so are some theologians, but I think what he was getting at is, the relationship between Mary and the Holy Spirit is more mystical, deeper and has more dimensions than what we think of as a marriage/ spouse relationship. So it does not surprise me to see Mary taking on some of the Holy Spirit role.

A sample reference here:

Is Mary the Spouse of the Holy Spirit? (St Maximilian Kolbe) - Taylor Marshall

Regarding your point 4, about Mary distributing the graces, she shares with her son Jesus in distributing the graces to people. Reference here:

https://www.ewtn.com/faith/teachings/marya4.htm

I hope this helps. With point 2 and point 4 you’re kind of getting into “advanced Mariology” which can be complicated even for those of us who love Mary and are trying to do a consecration to her (as I am right now, I’m on day 8 of the 9-day Consecration to her to join St. Maximilan Kolbe’s Militia Immaculata, so I have been reading about this stuff all week).

 

[De_Maria]

I mean is there a reason of consecrating yourself to Jesus through Mary? Why not straight to Jesus? Why not give yourself up straight to the Holy Spirit. Surely that is just as acceptable to God as doing it through Mary. Does God look at prayers not given through her intercession and sees them as less? Again sors if I’m being repetitve and annoying.

I believe it has to do with humility.

Let’s look at a bit of history:

Numbers 12:And the Lord heard this. 3 Now the man Moses was very humble, more than anyone else on earth. 4 So at once the Lord said to Moses and Aaron and Miriam: Come out, you three, to the tent of meeting. And the three of them went. 5 Then the Lord came down in a column of cloud, and standing at the entrance of the tent, called, “Aaron and Miriam.” When both came forward, 6 the Lord said: Now listen to my words:

If there are prophets among you,
in visions I reveal myself to them,
in dreams I speak to them;
7 Not so with my servant Moses!
Throughout my house he is worthy of trust:[c]
8 face to face I speak to him,
plainly and not in riddles.
The likeness of the Lord he beholds.

So, God loved Moses more than anyone. And because of this, the people came to Moses, not to God, for advice:

Exodus 18:Appointment of Minor Judges. 13 The next day Moses sat in judgment for the people, while they stood around him from morning until evening. 14 When Moses’ father-in-law saw all that he was doing for the people, he asked, “What is this business that you are conducting for the people? Why do you sit alone while all the people have to stand about you from morning till evening?” 15 Moses answered his father-in-law, “The people come to me to consult God.

Note that God did the same thing with Job and his friends:

Job 42:7-9New American Bible (Revised Edition) (NABRE)

IX. Epilogue
Job’s Restoration. 7 And after the Lord had spoken these words to Job, the Lord said to Eliphaz the Temanite, “My anger blazes against you and your two friends![a] You have not spoken rightly concerning me, as has my servant Job. 8 So now take seven bulls and seven rams, and go to my servant Job, and sacrifice a burnt offering for yourselves, and let my servant Job pray for you. To him I will show favor, and not punish your folly, for you have not spoken rightly concerning me, as has my servant Job.” 9 Then Eliphaz the Temanite, and Bildad the Shuhite, and Zophar the Naamathite, went and did as the Lord had commanded them. The Lord showed favor to Job.

So, Scripture also says:

James 5:16Confession and Intercession. 16 Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The fervent prayer of a righteous person is very powerful. 17 Elijah was a human being like us; yet he prayed earnestly that it might not rain, and for three years and six months it did not rain upon the land.

Therefore, in humility, we should recognize that people like Our Lady, St. Joseph and the Apostles, probably have more influence with God than we do. And we should avail ourselves of their favor.