Oct. 23 - "...have we no need at all of a mediator with the Mediator Himself?"

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MariaChristi

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Dear Brothers and Sisters,

As promised, we continue #85 in St. Louis de Montfort’s “True Devotion”:
  1. But have we no need at all of a mediator with the Mediator Himself? Are we pure enough to be united directly to Christ without any help? Is Jesus not God, equal in every way to the Father? Therefore is He not the Holy of Holies, having a right to the same respect as His Father? If in His infinite love He became our security and our Mediator with His Father, whom He wished to appease in order to redeem us from our debts, should we on that account show Him less respect and have less regard for the majesty and holiness of His person?
Let us not be afraid to say with St. Bernard that we need a mediator with the Mediator Himself and the divinely-honored Mary is the one most able to fulfill this office of love. Through her, Jesus came to us; through her we should go to Him. If we are afraid of going directly to Jesus, who is God, because of His infinite greatness, or our lowliness, or our sins, let us implore without fear the help and intercession of Mary, our Mother. She is kind, she is tender, and there is nothing harsh or forbidding about her, nothing too sublime or too brilliant. When we see her, we see our own human nature at its purest. She is not the sun, dazzling our weak sight by the brightness of its rays. Rather, she is fair and gentle as the moon, which receives its light from the sun and softens it and adapts it to our limited perception.

She is so full of love that no one who asks for her intercession is rejected, no matter how sinful he may be. The saints say that it has never been known since the world began that anyone had recourse to our Blessed Lady, with trust and perseverance, and was rejected. Her power is so great that her prayers are never refused. She has but to appear in prayer before her Son and He at once welcomes her and grants her requests. He is always lovingly conquered by the prayers of the dear Mother who bore him and nourished him.
  1. All this is taken from St. Bernard and St. Bonaventure. According to them, we have three steps to take in order to reach God. The first, nearest to us and most suited to our capacity, is Mary; the second is Jesus Christ; the third is God the Father. To go to Jesus, we should go to Mary, our mediatrix of intercession. To go to God the Father, we must go to Jesus, our Mediator of redemption. This order is perfectly observed in the devotion I shall speak about further on.
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Come Holy Spirit, fill us with Your Love. Jesus, we trust in You! Mary, Mother of the Church, pray for us.
 
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Why should I pray the Rosary?​

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Every day, millions of people meditate on the mysteries of the Rosary. Everywhere this beautiful prayer, in which the Blessed Virgin Mary accompanies and consoles her people, is shared and transmitted. This is what Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI tells us about it:
  1. The Holy Rosary is not a pious practice banished to the past, like prayers of other times thought of with nostalgia.
  2. The Rosary is experiencing a new Springtime. Without a doubt, this is one of the most eloquent signs of love that the young generation nourish for Jesus and His Mother, Mary.
  3. In the current world, so dispersive, this prayer helps to put Jesus Christ at the center, as the Virgin did, who meditated within all that was said about her Son, and also what He did and said.
  4. When reciting the Rosary, the important and meaningful moments of salvation history are relived. The various steps of Christ’s mission are traced.
  5. With Mary the heart is oriented towards the mystery of Jesus. Christ is put at the center of our life, of our time, of our city, through the contemplation and meditation of His holy mysteries of joy, light, sorrow and glory.
  6. May Mary help us to welcome within ourselves the grace emanating from these mysteries, so that through us we can “water” society, beginning with our daily relationships, and purifying them from so many negative forces, thus opening them to the newness of God.
  7. The Rosary—when it is prayed in an authentic way, not mechanically and superficially but profoundly—brings, in fact, peace and reconciliation. It contains within itself the healing power of the Most Holy Name of Jesus, invoked with faith and love at the center of each “Hail Mary.”
  8. The Rosary, when it is not a mechanical, traditional form of repetition, is a biblical meditation that allows us to trace the events of the Lord’s life in the company of the Blessed Virgin, pondering them, like her, in our heart.
  9. May this good habit continue… with more commitment so that, at the school of Mary, the lamp of faith may shine ever more in the hearts and homes of Christians.
Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI, taken from speeches for the opening and the closing of the Month of Mary, May 3rd and May 31, 2008

Read more on mariedenazareth.com:​

Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee.
Blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus. Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners now, and at the hour of our death.
Amen.
 
Dear MarysLurker,

Thanks for your “heart” which lets us know you liked what you read from, “True Devotion” by St. Louis de Montfort. I’ve read this little book countless times and yet I am blessed each time I read it. If you have never read it, I hope you will click on the title and begin to read the online version.

It is a classic treatise which has helped many, many persons, young and old Catholics, and I wonder how many non-Catholics also have read it and began to draw closer to Jesus through Mary.

Hopefully you are not a “lurker” for fear or fatigue – if you have been working too hard to come closer to Jesus through Mary yourself or in trying to help others. Often we can be like Martha, busy about many things when only one thing is necessary. It is good to take the time to sit at the feet of Jesus as Martha’s sister Mary did and simply listen to Him.

To Martha’s credit, she heard the Wisdom in what Jesus said to her and began to listen to Him – for we know that she is now Saint Martha! 🙂
 
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Dear hazcompat,

Thanks for posting the sweet picture of Mary and the words of Pope Emeritus Benedict XVi on the Rosary. We are coming close to the end of this Month of October, dedicated to the Praying of the Rosary which so honors Jesus through Mary.

I noticed the statements were taken speeches for the opening and closing of the Month of Mary, May 2008, and wondered how short the “Rosary springtime” he mentioned lasted.

It struck me that it may have been a very local surge in devotion in contrast to what Pope St. John Paul II said in 1982 in his address to the Legion of Mary in Italy, October, 1982:

“…It is no wonder that today, in various sectors of secularized society we note a widespread crisis of faith in God, preceded by a drop in devotion to the Mother….(from p.6 in the Official Legion of Mary Handbook”)

The contrast is curious to me, since both these holy Popes were so devoted to Mary yet saw the world during these two different years in a very different way. Perhaps it lies in the words used by Pope St. JPII : “…today in various sectors of seculaized society we note a wide crisis of faith in God, preceded by a drop in devotion to the Mother…”

Perhaps Pope Emeritus was looking at a “springtime among devout Catholics” while Pope St. JPII was seeing the growth of a “secularized society” and their terrible loss of Faith caused by a drop in devotion to the Blessed Mother.

This secularized society seems to be growing worse in their crisis of Faith in God, today October 2020 – God help the remnant to remain Faithful to Him, through Mary!
 
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From Crossing the Threshold of Hope:

And what are we to say of the three children from Fátima who suddenly, on the eve of the outbreak of the October Revolution, heard: “Russia will convert” and “In the end, my Heart will triumph”…?
They could not have invented those predictions. They did not know enough about history or
geography, much less the social movements and ideological developments. And nevertheless, it happened just as they had said.
 
The proposed statement re: needing no mediator other than The Mediator (Christ) is a Protestant heresy arising from “text proofing,” improper interpretation of Scripture, 1 Timothy 2:5. In simple language, it is the assertion that we may ask Christ, and Christ alone to petition God the Father for us in prayer.
Even Protestants don’t actually believe this, else they’d not pray for one another or request prayer from one another. The truth of this is that Christians indeed request and grant prayer for each other. In fact, God commands and commends intercessory prayer. As Catholics having the entire Bible, we pray for souls in Purgatory, and request the prayers of the Saints who live in the very Presence of God! This beautiful truth is mentioned in the Apostles’ Creed and is known as the Communion of Saints.
 
Dear hazcompat,

Yes, how important for us to never despair but to Trust in Jesus through Mary. as Jesus told us:
“Amen, I say to you, unless you turn and become like children, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven” (Mt. 18:3)
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Pope St. JPII, after being shot, and saved from death, by Mary’s intercession, said that one hand pulled the trigger of the gun, but another hand guided the bullet. He knew Our Lady had interceded for him and so asked for the documents on Fatima, while he was in the hospital.

Yes, Russia one day will convert and in the end Mary’s Immaculate heart will triumph! Until then we must pray fervently and make reparation for our sins and the sins of the whole world. Today is Saturday, and I like to call it “Mary’s Day” for the church acknowledges her Faith in Jesus’s words that He would rise after his death, and she remained Faithful on that First Saturday after hhis death on Calvary. Jesus came to her first on Easter Sunday, as it was revealed to St. Teresa of Avila, to console His Mother who had suffered with Him.

By God’s Grace, let us offer reparation to the Sacred Heart of Jesus and the Immaculate Heart of Mary especially on Fridays and Saturdays for our sins and the sins of the whole world. Let us offer our love as a very small return, for their Immense Love for us!
 
Dear Marie,

Thanks for your reply. Yes, it is sad to me that the Protestant revolt against the Catholic Church continues to this day, and has grown in many to be a revolt againse the Mother of the Church as well.

Yet, we can still pray with faith that in the end God will show the world what He has done and will do through Mary, whom He created Pure and Immaculate from the first moment of conception in her mother’s womb to be the Virgin Mother of His Incarnate Son, by the power of the Holy Spirit.
In the end her Immaculate Heart will triumph – her heart which was always doing His Will on earth and continues to now in heaven.

Mary is our Mother and Model for the Church, by God’s design. How beautiful are His Ways and how far beyond our full understanding now, but one day, by His Grace, may our Mother welcome all her children into the Heavenly Home of our God – Father, Son, and Holy Spirit!
 
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