How has the Blessed Virgin Mother Mary been Mother to you and led you to Christ Jesus

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Dear friends

I was wondering about your devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mother Mary and how She has been Mother to you and led you to Her Son Christ Jesus.

St. Bernard sums up the great spiritual advantage of true devotedness to our Blessed Mother in the following consoling sentences:’
“By following her, you will not go astray.
By praying to her you will not despair.
By thinking of her you will not make a mistake.
Supported by her, you will not fail.
Under her protection, you will no longer be afraid.
Guided by her, you will never grow weary.
Having her benevolence, you are assured of salvation.”

Thank you in advance for your replies

God Bless you and much love and peace to you

Teresa
 
I actually posted this in another thread a while back, but I’ll paste it here:) :

In her Magnificat, Mary says, “My soul doth magnify the Lord.” When I look through a magnifying glass, the object on the other side comes closer and I can see it much more clearly. In my personal experience, Mary has been a kind of magnifying glass to me, bringing me closer to Jesus and giving me clarity with regards the Truth. I was what I would call today a cafeteria Catholic, going to Mass on Sundays and praying before I went to bed, but that was about it. I was not very knowledgeable about the Faith and I never went to confession. My belief in the Real Presence was weak at best. One day someone gave me some Rosary beads for my birthday and I decided to start praying the Rosary every day. After a couple weeks I had a strong desire to go to confession, so I began going regularly. Then I began hungering for knowledge about the Faith and I read as much as I could. My prayer life has improved ten-fold and my desire to avoid sin has been strengthened likwise. I also find myself yearning in great anticipation for the Eucharist.

The Truth that is guarded and taught by the Church seems so crystal clear to me now and I truly feel that Mary did magnify the Lord for me, clearing my vision and bringing me closer to Him.
 
Quite a while before I was Ordained, my wife and I said the prayers of Consecration to the Immaculate Heart of Mary. We also promised to say the rosary daily and have been faithful to this. I feel that Mother Mary has prayed for us and that her prayers were with us all the way through formation and continue after Ordination. I love to speak about her in homilies. She played a giant role in Salvation history, and brings many to Jesus.
 
I believe Mary played a central part in my return to the Church. Last summer, after seeing jewelry that my friend beads, I started thinking about how I could do that. But instead of making jewelry, I was consummed with the thought of making a rosary. I found supplies online, ordered them, and made the rosary. About that same time, I had started praying the rosary before going to sleep, without beads. I knew the prayers, but had no idea about the mysteries. That lasted a few weeks, even with the beads, and then I drifted away from it.

By late January, my mind was again filled with the desire to pray the rosary and I began thinking about returning to the Church. I hemmed and hawed and made excuses. I came up with all kinds of reasons why the Church had changed too much for me, it wouldn’t be what I remembered and I wouldn’t feel “at home.”

For several weeks, I suffered a cold that turned into a sinus infection. On February 9, as I lay in bed praying the rosary, I asked to be healed. The next day, I went to the doctor (quite a feat for me, who hates going to the doctor) and after writing the prescription for amoxicillan, the doctor looked at me and said, “So, how would you like to quit smoking? Gum, patch, lozenges?” I was dumbfounded. After eight years (this time) of smoking, could it really be that easy? I had been thinking about quitting, but I had so many reasons not to quit.

While praying that night, it occurred to me that I had asked to be healed, and while I actually only meant the terrible cold, I got even more. I started the patch on Feb. 11 and have not used it since March 5. I have no desire to smoke - and I take no credit for this miracle.

She led me to a Church that I happily call home where I feel peaceful, focused and loved. I gave a confession after 20 years and have been blessed so abundantly, I am in awe.

As a Mother, I believe it is so incredibly difficult for Mary to see any of her children go astray that she asks her Son over and over to call them back to Him. She certainly does intercede for us… even when we don’t know it… even when we haven’t asked her to.

=)
Fiz

Daughter to Mary… Sister to Christ… Child of God.
 
I have never shared this with anyone. Not even my wife.

I was born a cradle Catholic. My parents who come from very strong devoted Irish Catholic families were good role models of the faith. They both went all 12 years to Catholic Schools. My dad graduated from a minor seminary and went for 1 year to the Major Seminary. I have one uncle who is a Monsignor and had a great aunt who was a devout nun. All this said my parents did the best they could in raising my in the faith but they were products of the 60’s with some hesitation to preach the truth. For fear I am sure that their kids may be raised to not be tolerant of other faiths.

I went for 8 years to a Catholic grade school. I had a nun in second grade (Sister Theresa) who taught us the Three Hail Mary devotion. I remember her saying, “If you pray nothing else or having nothing to say to God. Pray this prayer in honor of the Most Blessed Trinity”. During these years of grade school I love my faith. I look forward to reading the Lives of the Saints; my uncle who is the Monsignor is my idol. I remember always asking my dad to tell me stories from his days in the Seminary. I really loved being Catholic.

Fast forward to high school and college. My family life begins to crumble. My Dad develops a serious drinking problem, my mother goes into deep depression, I begin my own drinking journey in the 9th grade even at one point am rushed to the emergency room from overdosing on alcohol with a .32 blood alcohol level and nearly died. The next 13 years of my life I live a life of debauchery as my parents end up falling away from the faith as their children not knowing better do as well. During high school and college I have no one is who is a good role model living their Catholic faith. I graduate from high school succeeding in sports but barely getting by with grades. I got accepted into one university, which I ended up being kicked out due to grades after 2 ½ years due to my drinking problem.

I started working a full time job just after being kicked out. I met my future wife and fell in love. At this point I still called myself Catholic. I believed in the full presence of the Eucharist and would get to Church when it was convenient but when it came to morals and Church Teaching I totally rejected everything. I believed that everyone was entitled to live their lives according to their will. As long as you were not murdering anyone or a professional thief you were ok in my book. I then decided to ask my future wife to marry me. I hesitated for a while because her mom is a fallen away anti-Catholic who is a practicing lesbian. Now she certainly had a right to be this way for all I knew she was born this way. However, coming from a big immediate family I was not sure how healthy this would be to raise children in. I asked her to marry me anyway.

So the climax of my story with Our Lady begins about 5 years ago. My wife and I had been married about one year. We just found out she was pregnant and I was so excited and thought I should thank God for this great miracle. I knelt down and didn’t know what to say. I started thinking of my life and how I was living. I thought of my drinking, how I lived with my wife for a year before we got married, how I treated my wife, my friends, my family. I thought of all the pornography, the way I viewed women. I thought of how I much I hurt due to my family problems. I was ashamed and embarrassed to even try and talk to God. I had not spoken to him for 12 years and now I come to him just to say Hi and thanks. So I got up and blamed him for the guilt. The next night I tried again and remembered what that Old nun said (Sister Theresa) so I asked the Blessed Mother to help me be able to talk to Her Son, to bring me into a relationship with him, this of course was for my own benefit as I did not deserve to feel guilty! So I then prayed the Hail Mary’s. I did this nearly every night for about 5 months.

Continued…
 
My wife is now about 6 months pregnant and we decide to take a trip out of state to see her mother. While we are visiting her mom and her moms partner we decide to go site seeing to a little Catholic Shrine. While my wife and I were there we head into the gift shop. I am looking around and see a book called “Padre Pio The miracle Worker”. I remember back to my youth and how I loved reading about the Saints and think, “wow a modern day miracle worker”, “This should be a fun read”…. We come home and her mom asked us where we went, we tell her the Shrine and she says “oh”. She sees a book in my hand and says, “What did you buy”? . I show it to her and she laughs and says, “I have heard about him he is a cook” in a real nasty tone. For some reason I was offended by this. That night I read then entire book. I sat up all night and was overcome with fear, fear of all the mistakes in my life, fear of what kind of life I was bringing my child into. But also I thought of what Padre Pio taught me that night. He taught ME that to be Catholic is a few things. 1.) To be proud. 2.) To be strong and defend Holy Mother Church and her teachings with your life. 3.) Life is not easy and the only way to make it through is by the Grace of God and the Sacraments. And, last but not least through total entrustment to Our Lady is Man Kinds Secret weapon versus Evil.

It is now the night of the birth our child. The last three months I have been reading everything I can get my hands on about the faith, I have gone to confession for the first time in 13 years (since my Confirmation) and even attending Mass every week. Our little baby is born with a serious heart condition; the doctors inform us they need to transport her to the local Children’s Hospital. I am in total shock. My mother and father walk up to me as I am leaving with my wife to go to Children’s and they ask me what can they do. I tell them to “pray to our Lady”. They were in stunned. On the way to Children’s I decide I am going to pray the rosary in my head as my wife was crying the entire 45-minute ride there. As I was praying I had a burning sensation in my chest that if I were not on the way to see my daughter I would have pulled over to the side of the rode. As I continued to drive I realized the burning was a comforting feeling rather then fearful or painful. All of a sudden I knew our Child was going to be ok. Two days later she was released from the hospital, no surgery and to this day the doctors say that this “condition” was miss diagnosed even though while we were at the hospital I saw her heart rate jump from 110-230 several times. Coincidence I am sure ;).

Now 3 years later I battle daily the hatred from my mother in law due to my obvious return to the Church. My wife is struggling with it as my beliefs have obvious conflicts with hers, although she has come a long way, as she is active in some pro-life events. We have since had s second daughter that my wife wanted to name after he Grandma, Theresa, I tell Sister Theresa every night that she is really named after herJ. I struggle everyday with living my faith completely, but I now go to weekly confession, I am now reading scripture. Best of all I now talk to Christ every night and apologize for all the sins of my life. Not as I see (or saw) my sins but as he see them and more importantly I thank him for his mercy. All the while my devotion to My Heavenly Mother grows.

As a side note, I have had probably 5 other occasions of the burning” in my chest. All have come praying the rosary and every time has been when praying or meditating on the Third Joyful Mystery (The birth of the Child Jesus). I told my confessor about this about a month ago and wondered what I should do. He said to not even think about “discerning it” just keep praying the Rosary and let God work in my life.

I am battling many things right now but I could not imagine where I would be If I wouldn’t have got down that one night on my knees and prayed the Three Hail Mary devotion….Sorry for the long post but I saw the title and thought I should give Our Lady some props!!
 
Hi Solanus,

I was very moved by your story, it must have taken alot of courage for you to tell it… I can’t help but think our Blessed Lady has intervened for you, also the Holy Spirit is at work here too.
Keep up your prayers to her, she will always be there for you and your family if you ask her to.
As the saying goes: No Mary, No Jesus…Know Mary, Know Jesus!
 
Wonderful testimony Solanus.

I’ll be consecrating myself to Mary through the Militia of the Immaculata on July 1, feast of the Immaculate Heart of Mary.

Since I’ve began my devotion to Our Blessed Mother, I have had little to no desire to sin, and have felt closer to our Lord than ever before. Truly she gives me great strength and encouragement to carry my cross.

I can think of no greater way to bring souls to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, than through the Immaculate Heart of Mary. I love her dearly, she is all that we should inspire to be.

“Do whatever He tells you.”
 
I had drifted away from the Catholic Church in my teen years- my twenties. It seems that there were three main things that happened in my life recently to bring me back on track. Mary was one, in subtle but definate ways. She very much is to me the loving Mother that every child longs for. How lucky are we to have her as a part of our lives to gently guide us through our trials.
 
Immaculate Heart of Mary, i place all my trust in you! My Mother Mary, Queen of my heart entered into my life in 1996, Easter 1997 i was confirmed into the Catholic church, coming in from a life up till then in the southern Baptist faith i thought was a miracle unsurpassed of it self, But my Lady was not finished yet with Her graces. She knew i had fallen head over heels in love with Jesus, whom i had strayed far away from during the past 25 years, and now i found myself suddenly so inflamed with a desire i never thought in a thousand years i would experience. Wanting only to love,serve and honor Him above and before anything or anyone no matter what the cost. And this was terrifying, why because i knew if i truely desired this, and i did, meant my whole world as i knew it would drastically be altered in the blink of an eye. And it meant in the process i would be hurting someone whom i had shared the past 21 years with, and who had actually saved my life one night from a drug overdose. But really i had no choice but to plead my cause before our Father if i ever expected to live in peace and hope of joy. Oh! how i wanted to love Him more. And so on Sept.7 1998, i prayed the prayer from the depth of my heart, with tears streaming down my face. God wasted no time in answering my plea and on the next day, Sept. 8th, yes our Blessed Mothers birthday, He answered and gave me something i hold as dear to me, second only to my gift of salvation. The gift, courage to begin to live a celebate life. Yes, a miracle, for i had been living the homosexual life for 30+ years. And my partner of then 21 years has become a best true friend and my greastest supporter in my living my Catholic faith to the fullest possible. Though he swears he could never become Catholic, i know miracles do happen, and one should never say never when it Comes to Gods Mercy and Love Thanks be to God, in J.M.J. ray
 
i started by wearin gd Miraculous medal. later, i prayed the rosary. as time passed i started going to sunday Mass, praying various prayers. so yeah , Mother Mary led me. 🙂
 
On Mother’s Day of 2006 my daughter Theresa Little Flower was born. She was 31 weeks after conception and she was dead. I offered her up to Mary as her gift for Mother’s Day. I offered all the hours in labor for all the people in my parish and in my family. We named her after St. Theresa because my husband had gotten a statue for me the Mother’s Day before. He had thought he had gotten Mary, but had accidentally gotten St. Theresa. (He’s not Catholic.) My family has developed a devotion to St. Theresa over the the years. When I offered our little flower up to Mary, in return I recieved two dozen roses from my six year old son. He was suppose to help Grandma get a matress and insisted she purchase the roses for his Mother for Mother’s Day.

My Son, Joseph Marie, was born Nov. 6th, 2006. He also was dead. They figured he had died 14 weeks after conception. I searched for a purpose for his life. It wasn’t until after I put his obituary into the church bulliten that I realized he also was a gift to Mary. His obituary was published the week of the feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe. He is her prolife message. Before his death, a very wonderful priest concecreated him to the Sacred Heart of Jesus and the Immaculate Heart of Mary. When he was alive I would place him at the feet of Our Lady Of Guadalupe and ask her to take care of him. I begged for his life, but shortly before I found out he was dead, I began to pray that I would recieve the streingth to do what ever God willed me to do.

I have spent countless hours crying out to my Momma. I beg her to help me and I know she does. Before these two children died, I believed that I would have to be told to breath if anything ever happened to one of my children. I owe Mary my life. My Momma has helped me to take many a breath. I know she has me in her arms. She has lead me to confession and carried me to the Eucharist. I easily could have crumbled over the sorrow this past year, but I continually unite my sorrow with that of my Mother’s. One prayer echos continually in my mind: “Holy Mother, Peirce me through. In my heart each wound renew, of my Savior Crusified.”
 
For 25 years I had become a slave to sin, pride, and self-conciet. Like the prodigal son, I got to the point I had had a belly full.

Upon the occasion of my mother’s death a three years ago, I was in a motel room flipping through channels and happend upon EWTN of which I had never heard and Mother Angelica and the Nuns of whom I never knew praying the Rosary of which I had no knowledge – other than a vague notion that it exists.

It was one of those moments of truth when no one else is around. I heard they say “Hail Mary full of grace the Lord is with thee.” I admitted that my life was not full of grace and that the Lord was not with me in the sense that I had left my Father long ago.

They continued, “Blessed art thou amongst women and blessed is the fruit of thy womb Jesus.” The blessedness of Christ of the Good News he brought and the response He asks of us – repentance and penance – came to me. I wanted and needed God badly. And I knew it. And I knew God knew it also.

The Sisters continued to pray, “Holy Mary mother of God pray for us sinners now and at the hour of death.” Never having been Catholic I was a little put off with the claim that Mary could pray for us. But I was certainly a sinner, and my own Mother was only hours away from the hour of her own death. And before me on the TV screen were living examples of human beings who had devoted themselves to the service and worship of God. Not just people who talked about it. They actually had done so. That was unimpeachable.

I found myself praying along with the Sisters. Desiring Mary’s prayers if such a thing could happen. I admitted my state frankly that I was enthralled by sin and could find no way out under my own steam.

That night, the seed of faith sprung a bit in what in retrospect had become a very stony heart. And with that little seed breaking through its husk, it sent a fissure cracking my heart of stone – just like a blade of grass or some vine makes its way through concrete.

Well, in about two months, I had moved and was sitting across from a Priest telling him my story, and he said that the Holy Spirit had brought me to this time and place and to him.

He gave me a little catechism, “Life in Christ,” and I began reading and devouring every word. I began reading all I could in my Britannica about the Catholic Church. I read St. Augustine’s “Confessions.” That Fall, I enrolled in RCIA and was baptized and confirmed the following Easter near when Pope John Paul II died.

Nothing has been the same since that night in the motel room. Each night I fall asleep praying the Rosary. I’ve been faithful to praying Lauds and Compline from the Divine Office. I was and am still so blown away by being graced by the chance to become Catholic. The Church even let me join!

Certainly Christ came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance. And Mary has and continues to do so much I cannot put it all into words. I wear a miraculous medal – She brought a great miracle to and continues to daily – to me the poorest of servants.

Oh, there’s so much to say, but you’ve heard it all before, and I don’t want to tax your good will and patience.
 
I haven’t had the time to read the other people’s posts, but here is what I have to tell you…
When I was about 20 (20 years ago) I had a boyfriend who was Catholic. I was raised by atheists, but I always believed there was something more than the here and now. One evening my boyfriend and I were talking and he mentioned learning about Our Lady’s apparitions at Fatima and how he deeply believed in it. I laughed at him for believing that! But then, not very long afterwards, I got a couple books from the library about Fatima and other apparitions and I believed. I started going to the Catholic church’s RCIA classes. Well–I actually joined the Episcopal church, but got baptized in the name of the Father, the Son and Holy Spirit. What can I say? I just know it is Mary that helped lead me this way.
 
My second daughter came out screaming and not sleeping…that lasted about a year. One night she just wasnt calming down and I was having a panic attack. So I left her in my bed screaming and went to the living room floor fell to my knees begging Jesus to help me. My sister had converted some years before so I had been learning about Mary. So I went straight to her and asked since she is the Mother of all Mothers to help me too…I heard a small(loud) voice in my head tell me to go pick up my baby…I did and she fell right to sleep. From that night on she begain sleeping better.

About 5 years later(still not Catholic) I was reading about some of Mary’s apparitions. And the main point I was getting was to Pray for Conversions. I was in the car driving when the light bulb went off…She’s talking about me!!Im one of the ones that should be turning their life to Christ fully and completely. So two years later I was welcomed home!

J.M.J
cat3gs
 
These are absolutely beautiful and miraculous stories. The Blessed Mother is a POWERHOUSE of graces and miracles!

Solanus, I can really relate to your story. Although my personal story is not quite as dramatic as yours it is ALMOST as. The Blessed Mother and Her Most Holy Rosary has literally saved my life and my marriage and family.

Last year, during a terrible family crisis with my entire family literally falling apart, I started praying the Rosary. I was not unfamiliar with the Rosary as I had said it in the past, but it was not a habit with me to do so. My emotional state during this crisis was so bad, that I literally did not have the capability to mentally get through the whole Rosary. I started out saying part of the 1st decade. Then a friend of mine told me not to worry about it, just to do what I could and eventually The Blessed Mother would help me get through it entirely. (I also remember my mom - now deceased - telling me if I could not finish it for some reason not to worry the Angels in Heaven would finish it for me) Within 3 weeks I was able to get through the entire Rosary. One decade and sometimes part of a decade at a time. Since then, there has been miracle after miracle happen in my family. I now say The Most Holy Rosary daily. I bought a rosary coincidentally;) for my husband before this crisis ever came to be. Even though he is himself a cradle catholic he had NO IDEA how to say the Rosary. When I showed him how to say it, he started to say it and now says it daily as well. I just cannot tell you how POWERFUL Our Blessed Mother is and how POWERFUL Her Most Holy Rosary is. She is drawing us closer and closer to Her Son daily. I had finally the courage to go to confession after being away from this beautiful sacrament for many many years. Have gone twice since. (and plan on going at least monthly) I am praying for my husband to go and I can see that he is getting ready. All I can say is that The Blessed Mother is AWESOME. Can’t say enough about the miracles she has been instrumental in, in the life of my entire family. She is AMAZING in the way that she brings us to Her Son!:yup: :signofcross:
 
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