How is your relationship with Mary?

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Another question to think about and share if you like.

:hmmm: How is your personal relationship with the Blessed Virgin Mary? How has it been affected by your relationship with the earthly mother? How special to you is Mary? How does Mary feel about you? :hmmm:

For non-catholics, please do not interrupt this thread with attacks on Mary; if you would like to share positively you are welcome to do so.
 
My relationship with Mary began in 1978 when I received my Miraculous Medal from my Parents for making my Communion. I now know I was marked as a child of Mary from this moment.

It never really made any sense until I travlled to Fatima in 1992 and there on the 13th of August realised the words “Behold your Mother”. From then on the example of our Holy Father has deepened my understanding and my relationship with the Blessed Virgin.

My life changed as a result. I have, I would say, dissapointed her so many times yet she has never failed to secure great graces and distribute them to me when in need. Twice in my life I have actually received very powerful signal graces through Her.

I am constantly aware of her presence and her pointing finger, pointing always to the Holy Mass and the Tabernacle.

I love her so much. I strive to imitate her virtues. I try to be a Christ bearer like she was and is. I try to be selfless and go out of my way for others.
I thank Mary for her ‘YES’ to God and realsie that every time I say yes to God I endorse her personal ‘FIAT’. This gives me great joy and encouragement to keep on giving.

I wear the Brown Scapular. I speak of her with great love and heartfelt devotion. I pray the Rosary (badly) and have totally consecrated myself to Jesus through her Immaculate Heart.

How does she feel about me? Hmmmmmmmmm I know she loves me as any mother loves her child but in saying that I do know that this love has has not always been gratefully received or even acknowledged. I know I have hurt her with my own moments of selfishness and pride and for this I am sorry.

I can say in the true meaning of the word Mother, that she is my Mother.
 
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Fergal:
Twice in my life I have actually received very powerful signal graces through Her.
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Hello, Fergal. I have wondered for a long time, what are signal graces? I’ve heard of these but have never understood what they are.

Now about this question: hm. I have grown very close to Mary over time. She is my Mother for certain. Her intercession has been a powerful aid to me in many situations. Like Fergal, I wear the brown scapular and I pray the Rosary daily when possible. I also wear the miraculous medal as an ongoing devotion. I often think that maybe the Blessed Virgin is disappointed in me for various things, but I know that she loves me and is happy each time I manage to do something right. She leads us ever closer to her Son, Our Lord Jesus.
 
Oh, how I love my Blessed Mother! She has always been by my side, my entire life. I was an abandoned infant, left on a doorstep. When I was found I was taken to a Catholic hospital where the Dominican nuns prayed over me and called me ‘Mary’ because I was born on the Feast of the Assumption or the day following. I was baptized and adopted in a week. I wasn’t raised Catholic but from the time I can remember I always found Catholic friends to take me to Mass, so I could see Mary! I didn’t know why I was so drawn to her, because I didn’t know my birthstory yet. All my life I’ve been drawn to her and felt comforted by her. Only ten years ago did I learn about the nuns praying over me and calling me ‘Mary.’ Then it all came clear for me! I was confirmed as an adult and took her name for my confirmation name.

I also wear the brown scapular, and it makes me feel even closer to her. I don’t do enough for her; I try but I fall far short, for all she’s done for me. I do always pray to her and thank her for being with the nuns and me when I was born. I am so indebted to her and the Lord. It is beyond words!

Many blessings to you all.
 
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Fergal:
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Twice in my life I have actually received very powerful signal graces through Her.
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I know what you mean. Our Lady was practically the one who instigated my personal “conversion of the heart.” :eek:

She preformed [quite literally] a spiritual miracle in my heart.
 
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Fergal:
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I wear the Brown Scapular. I speak of her with great love and heartfelt devotion. I pray the Rosary (badly) and have totally consecrated myself to Jesus through her Immaculate Heart.
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Much the same for me, minus the brown scapular (I’m hoping to receive the *original * brown scapular in the Carmelite order). 😉 :cool: ). Pray for me?
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I thank Mary for her ‘YES’ to God and realsie that every time I say yes to God I endorse her personal ‘FIAT’. This gives me great joy and encouragement to keep on giving.
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I think we really see eye to eye, Fergal. I meditated a lot on her Fiat when I was suddenly smacked with the call. 😃
 
Really good question. My relationship with her has definitely been affected in the past because my relationship with my earthly mother was difficult until a few years ago. I also had difficulty with several relationships with other women, particularly ones in authority (bad experiences with female bosses, etc.). It got to the point where, as a woman myself, I was convinced that all relationships between women were prone to problems because I kept seeing competition, viciousness, & deception to a degree that I hadn’t observed in men.

It took me quite a while to realize that I was basing my assumptions on the fact that I had seen the *worst *of female behavior, and therefore they were faulty. I also resolved a lot of problems with my own mother and now we have a very healthy relationship. Not coincidentally, around the same time it dawned on me that the Blesses Mother represents the *best *of female behavior, so keeping myself at a distance from her because I had bad experiences with other women was wrong. I’m still working on it and I have a long way to go in terms of Marian devotion, but I think it will go smoothly after getting over the biggest hurdle.
 
I owe my life to our Blessed Mother. She saved me from the devil’s wrath many years ago. I have always respected and adored Our Lady, but my recent revert back to the Church has deepened my faith in her. My own relationship with my earthly mother is driven by my respect for our Blessed Mother. As an 38 yr old expecting mother who is 11 wks, 3 days pg, I plan on giving my child, if a daugher, the middle name “Mary” in honor of our Blessed Mother.
 
Beautiful question. I know I fail Our Lady often by my weak rosary attempts where my mind wanders. But I know of Her love for me. I have felt Her tell me on two occasions.

My parish had welcomed the traveling statue of Our Lady of Fatima. This was an extremely difficult spiritual visit for me. A few days after this awesome visit of the statue, I found a fresh rose petal sitting on the spot where I meditate for Adoration. No roses in church – and at 5:00pm. I do not believe this was a coincidence. I felt Our Lady smile and say she had heard my prayers.

I have also felt an intense love from Our Lady during Adoration. It was an overwhelming sense of love and peace that came during the rosary. I felt Her tell me how much She loved me. WOW! Such power and love She has for all of us – if only we can accept it and listen.

Simply amazing. I pray for conversions and ask for Our Mother’s help daily. Now I talk to her as I talk to my earthly mom
 
I have a deep love for our Blessed Mother and I do talk with her, but feel that my relationship could be much better. Part of the problem is my experience with my mother, due to her addiction to tobacco and my severe allergy to it, I can not spend much time around my mother. Most of my discussions with Mary deal with my wife and dealing with her problems. There are times that I have shared Mary’s pains of the crucifixion and these hurt more than when I share Jesus’ pains of his crucifixion. Her love of him is so abundant that each pain he experiences, hurts her deeply and this continues to this day, that each sin we commit not only hurts Jesus, but also hurts his mother. I do feel personally insulted when anyone attacks Mary and will vigorously defend her and her honor. I have a very close relationship with Jesus.

I do pray along with EWTN the rosary most days.
I do ask for her guidance a few times a week and try to do so more often.
 
To me, the Mother of God is someone I respect and admire and love as a peasant would love, respect, and admire his queen. As someone distant, unapproachable, august, and worthy of honor, but certainly not someone to invite over for a beer and a burger.

Probably because my own mother died when I was 2. Thats just the simple fact of the matter. But slowly I am trying to see her as a mother. Or at least as a parent. I am not a parent, but there are a copule people who I love dearly who view me either as an elder brother, second father, or outright call me “Uncle Dunstan” who are not in any way related to me.

As a result, I am trying to rethink some of the Rosary meditations. One of them, about the finding in the Temple, I have always seen through the eyes of the rabbi’s and teachers. I will try to see that incident through the eyes of a loving parent. As if it happened to my “little sister” or one of my “nieces” or “kids”.

The concept of viewing St. Mary as a loving mother is difficult for me, simply because of not having a loving parent to relate the concept to. But, the more I act as a loving surrogate parent, maybe it will become easier in time.
 
This is a wonderful question!

I have always been a catholic. But since I was raised in the 60’s, my education was very watered down. So unfortunately I became a cafeteria catholic. Then I had a conversion experience 11 years ago.

But even when I was not a faithful catholic, I always loved Mary. Somehow she always touched my heart. And when my conversion occured 11 years ago it was through her intervention. And the result of it was that she led me to her son.

Today I am now involved in Perpetual Eucharistic Adoration. And later this month I will take my temporary promises in the secular order of Our Lady of Mount Carmel.

Mary
 
I am a convert and I had many prejudices to overcome to learn to accept and love our Blessed Mother.

I regret that I have a been Catholic for almost 20 years and I just really came to know and love Our Lady in the past two or three years.

It happened that our son’s school is affiliated with a small parish. I could go to Mass or a communion many days a week there, but I had to sit the faithful reciting the Rosary. When in Rome…

I started carrying a rosary with me at all times. I bought a prayer book and discovered the treasury of the Catholic church. I learned to the mysteries and the days they were said on and found the Rosary to be a wonderful prayer.

I thought it would be boring, but instead, my hyperactive brain was calmed and more attentive thanks to the prayer. I neve asked Our Lady for much – she was so kind to care for all of us, why did I need to bother her. Instead, she asked her Son to reveal himself to more deeply since I was becoming so devoted to her.

Her son did reveal himself to me. It had been years since I had heard His voice – back when I was called to convert was the first time. I realized that somewhere in what I call the “Barney Catechism” that I got in the '80’s, I had this concept that JEsus wasn’t in the tabernacle – just hosts waiting to be conscecrated. Why I believed that, I can’t say, but I am so happy that Jesus lovingly revealed himself to me again.

I know His mother knew I needed that assurance. I didn’t ask for it, but it was wonderful. My husband and I pray the rosary – usually separately, but we are both devotees.

Our lady is with us in our coping with the loss of our daughter and she is with us as our Mother.

I have come to believe that Satan so hates the Blessed Virgin Mary that he kept the Protestants from accepting her. Now that I am coming to know and love Our Lady, I can’t understand why I had any problem with it at all. It just makes sense. I think the Baptists never read any of the Bible with references to Mary – except at Christmas.
 
it could be better. but She knows I try 😃 maybe i should try harder:o
I’d just like to share something the Blessed Virgin helped me realized. this past march for lent i wanted to know the true meaning of forgiveness and love. through the prayer request, my prayer were answered through a 2000 Hail Mary session that my relatives do every 1st saturday. thank you y’all have inspired me to try harder. thank you God bless all.😃
 
My relationship with Mary is not very strong currently. However, I want to have a relationship with her, I just don’t know how. I’m not saying that I don’t have ANY relationship with her. I ask Mary to help me and to pray for me, and I think I am finally starting to see Mary as truly being my Heavenly Mother. My relationship with her has definitely received a boost since I have been in contact with Father Donald, an 80-something year old Trappist monk that I met last summer. He is VERY Marian, and I hope it’s rubbing off on me.
 
I loved my mom while she lived very deeply. But as none of us are perfect, she was not a perfect human being.

But Mother Mary was always there for me, I recognize signs of it as I am growing older now. She truly replaced my mother when she died, and I have the most devout love for her. She has never failed me and whatever she gives me or withholds is for my own good. I have complete trust in her. I am her slave.
 
T.A.Stobie:
Another question to think about and share if you like.

:hmmm: How is your personal relationship with the Blessed Virgin Mary? How has it been affected by your relationship with the earthly mother? How special to you is Mary? How does Mary feel about you? :hmmm:

For non-catholics, please do not interrupt this thread with attacks on Mary; if you would like to share positively you are welcome to do so.
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My relationship with her is far less important than with Christ, because ISTM that Christ is the key to Mary, without whom she would be of no obvious significance. Give Him the place He alone deserves - so far as is possible 🙂 : and she takes hers.​

IOW, I don’t find the approach through Mary to Christ helpful; unlike the approach to Mary through Christ. And there are Saints one finds more attractive - because so much more is known about them. Mary is too vague and unsolid for me 🙂 - too much of a holy abstraction.

How can anyone on earth answer your last question 😃 ?
 
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Benignus:
My relationship with Mary is not very strong currently. However, I want to have a relationship with her, I just don’t know how. I’m not saying that I don’t have ANY relationship with her. I ask Mary to help me and to pray for me, and I think I am finally starting to see Mary as truly being my Heavenly Mother. My relationship with her has definitely received a boost since I have been in contact with Father Donald, an 80-something year old Trappist monk that I met last summer. He is VERY Marian, and I hope it’s rubbing off on me.
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Try the Rosary: it certainly gave me a HUGE jump-start! 👍 I meant that quite literally!
 
Mary is very special to me. I was struggling with serious sin for a long time until I happened to go to confession one day after asking Mary and all of heaven to help me. It was only after Mass started that I even realized it was a holy day, the Immaculate Conception, and I was in the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception. I know she is definitely watching out for me. I pray the rosary almost every day and she has definitely brought me much closer to Christ.

In a strange way, being that Mary is the mother of us all and I am an adult now, I think of my mother sometimes as a sister in faith, but yet still very much my mom. When there are special moments with my mom, it makes me wonder what kinds of special moments Jesus had with his mother that we don’t know about. I know my mom thinks and prays for me a lot, just like my mother Mary does.
 
I think my relationship with Mary at the present time could be better. In the past, Mary had a very special place in my heart (she still does, but I think my devotion has lessened).

I was an active member of the Legion of Mary for 9 years and always prayed to follow her example. For about a year I questionned the Church’s view on Mary. I’ve come to realize that I can accept the Church’s position without fear of upsetting God, but I think my doubts created a rift in that relationship.

I have recently started praying the Holy Rosary once again and am confident that my relationship with her will improve. I recognize that in times when I could have fallen away from God and/or from His Church, it has been Mary’s prayers that have sustained me.

PRAY FOR US, O HOLY MOTHER OF GOD!
 
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