Prayer to Jesus

[Coreopisis]

I am curious as to why so much more focus seems to be put onto Mary and prayers to ask her to pray for us then to talk or pray to Jesus directly. .

I am Catholic, always have been, and I pray to ask Mary to pray for me also. But recently I’ve been meditating much on Jesus and what he went through and as a result have been praying direclty to him more and more. To my surprise responses and answers to my prayers have come back to me in record time and at times in almost a miraculus manner. i also somehow feel a bit closer to him.

Anyway I see alot of people trying new prayers to Mary all the time but why not to Jesus?

And does anyone have a great Jesus prayer?

 

[Nick9]

The classic Jesus prayer is my favourite:

Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner.

 

[Nick9]

The classic *Jesus Prayer *is my favourite:

Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner.

 

[Nick9]

The classic Jesus Prayer is my favourite:

Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner.

 

[DeusVult_90]

Read “True Devotion to Mary” and “The Secret of Mary” and you will learn why we must go to Jesus through Mary. Mary purifies everything for us. She makes our sacrifices and prayers acceptable to Jesus. From the Secret of Mary

God chose her to be the treasurer, the administrator and the dispenser of all his graces, so that all his graces and gifts pass through her hands. Such is the power that she has received from him that, according to St Bernardine, she gives the graces of the eternal Father, the virtues of Jesus Christ, and the gifts of the Holy Spirit to whom she wills, as and when she wills, and as much as she wills.

As in the natural life a child must have a father and a mother, so in the supernatural life of grace a true child of the Church must have God for his Father and Mary for his mother. If he prides himself on having God for his Father but does not give to Mary the tender affection of a true child, he is an impostor and his father is the devil.

I would need much more enlightenment from heaven to describe adequately the surpassing merit of this devotional practice. I shall limit myself to these few remarks: 1. In giving ourselves to Jesus through Mary’s hands, we imitate God the Father, who gave us his only Son through Mary, and who imparts his graces to us only through Mary. Likewise we imitate God the Son, who by giving us his example for us to follow, inspires us to go to him using the same means he used in coming to us, that is, through Mary. Again, we imitate the Holy Spirit, who bestows his graces and gifts upon us through Mary. “Is it not fitting,” remarks St Bernard, “that grace should return to its author by the same channel that conveyed it to us?”

Consecrating ourselves in this way to Jesus through Mary implies placing our good deeds in Mary’s hands. Now, although these deeds may appear good to us, they are often defective, and not worthy to be considered and accepted by God, before whom even the stars lack brightness. Let us pray, then, to our dear Mother and Queen that having accepted our poor present, she may purify it, sanctify it, beautify it, and so make it worthy of God. Any good our soul could produce is of less value to God our Father, in winning his friendship and favour, than a worm-eaten apple would be in the sight of a king, when presented by a poor peasant to his royal master as payment for the rent of his farm. But what would the peasant do if he were wise and if he enjoyed the esteem of the queen? Would he not present his apple first to her, and would she not, out of kindness to the poor man and out of respect for the king, remove from the apple all that was maggoty and spoilt, place it on a golden dish, and surround it with flowers? Could the king then refuse the apple? Would he not accept it most willingly from the hands of his queen who showed such loving concern for that poor man? “If you wish to present something to God, no matter how small it may be,” says St Bernard, “place it in the hands of Mary to ensure its certain acceptance.”

1. Dear God, how everything we do comes to so very little! But let us adopt this devotion and place everything in Mary’s hands. When we have given her all we possibly can, emptying ourselves completely to do her honour, she far surpasses our generosity and gives us very much for very little. She enriches us with her own merits and virtues. She places our gift on the golden dish of her charity and clothes us, as Rebecca clothed Jacob, in the beautiful garments of her first-born and only Son, Jesus Christ, which are his merits, and which are at her disposal. Thus, as her servants and slaves, stripping ourselves of everything to do her honour, we are clad by her in double garments - namely, the garments, adornments, perfumes, merits and virtues of Jesus and Mary. These are imparted to the soul of the slave who has emptied himself and is resolved to remain in that state.

 

[Ceil-1]

Contemplative prayer may be for you. It provides a better balance than just rote prayers. L

 

[Coreopisis]

Read “True Devotion to Mary” and “The Secret of Mary” and you will learn why we must go to Jesus through Mary. Mary purifies everything for us. She makes our sacrifices and prayers acceptable to Jesus. From the Secret of Mary

You say “must go to Jesus through Mary.”

My Priest says this is not so. He says you can go to Jesus through Mary or you can go directly to Jesus.

Jesus was sent to us to be the sinners intersessor to God. It seems silly to me that he would then require an interssessor for himself.

Perhaps you didn’t mean to use the word “must?”

 

[Belle10]

I am curious as to why so much more focus seems to be put onto Mary and prayers to ask her to pray for us then to talk or pray to Jesus directly. .

I am Catholic, always have been, and I pray to ask Mary to pray for me also. But recently I’ve been meditating much on Jesus and what he went through and as a result have been praying direclty to him more and more. To my surprise responses and answers to my prayers have come back to me in record time and at times in almost a miraculus manner. i also somehow feel a bit closer to him.

Anyway I see alot of people trying new prayers to Mary all the time but why not to Jesus?

And does anyone have a great Jesus prayer?

I’ve always prayed directly to Jesus too. I never had a problem with Mary, but I was never close to her either. Lately though, I’ve been praying the Rosary and asking for her intercession more, and my prayer life has grown – I find myself being drawn to pray more often and more confidently, and I attribute this to her intercession. I often contemplate her sorrows when I am sorrowful, picture her holding Jesus after He died on the cross, and imagine how heartbroken and angry she must have been…except she wasn’t angry. She knew it had to be that way, and she, like Jesus, loves us still, despite us causing all that pain.

Anyway, no, we are not required to have a devotion to or pray to Mary, but when we do, it certainly brings us graces we might not have had otherwise.

You can get free CDs and books on all things Catholic, including Mary, at www.CatholiCity.com. I highly recommend listening/reading all of them (I’m working my way through them myself!).

 

[Trishie]

I find I’m amongst those who speak 99.9% to Father, Jesus, Holy Spirit Ocasionally I ask Mary to intercede, but mostly approach the Trinity, with personal emphasis on Jesus.

 

[DeusVult_90]

Certainly we can pray to Jesus (I pray the Divine Mercy Chaplet). Devotion to Mary is a must and to find the Grace of God we must go to Mary. Jesus came to us through Mary, so we must go to Jesus through Mary.

1. It all comes to this, then. We must discover a simple means to obtain from God the grace needed to become holy. It is precisely this I wish to teach you. My contention is that you must first discover Mary if you would obtain this grace from God.

1. Let me explain:
   (1) Mary alone found grace with God for herself and for every individual person. No patriarch or prophet or any other holy person of the Old Law could manage to find this grace.

1. (2) It was Mary who gave existence and life to the author of all grace, and because of this she is called the “Mother of Grace”.

1. (3) God the Father, from whom, as from its essential source, every perfect gift and every grace come down to us , gave her every grace when he gave her his Son. Thus, as St Bernard says, the will of God is manifested to her in Jesus and with Jesus.

1. (4) God chose her to be the treasurer, the administrator and the dispenser of all his graces, so that all his graces and gifts pass through her hands. Such is the power that she has received from him that, according to St Bernardine, she gives the graces of the eternal Father, the virtues of Jesus Christ, and the gifts of the Holy Spirit to whom she wills, as and when she wills, and as much as she wills.

1. (5) As in the natural life a child must have a father and a mother, so in the supernatural life of grace a true child of the Church must have God for his Father and Mary for his mother. If he prides himself on having God for his Father but does not give to Mary the tender affection of a true child, he is an impostor and his father is the devil.

1. (6) Since Mary produced the head of the elect, Jesus Christ, she must also produce the members of that head, that is, all true Christians. A mother does not conceive a head without members, nor members without a head. If anyone, then, wishes to become a member of Jesus Christ, and consequently be filled with grace and truth , he must be formed in Mary through the grace of Jesus Christ, which she possesses with a fullness enabling her to communicate it abundantly to true members of Jesus Christ, her true children.

1. (7) The Holy Spirit espoused Mary and produced his greatest work, the incarnate Word, in her, by her and through her. He has never disowned her and so he continues to produce every day, in a mysterious but very real manner, the souls of the elect in her and through her.

1. (8) Mary received from God a unique dominion over souls enabling her to nourish them and make them more and more godlike. St Augustine went so far as to say that even in this world all the elect are enclosed in the womb of Mary, and that their real birthday is when this good mother brings them forth to eternal life. Consequently, just as an infant draws all its nourishment from its mother, who gives according to its needs, so the elect draw their spiritual nourishment and all their strength from Mary.

1. (9) It was to Mary that God the Father said, “Dwell in Jacob”, that is, dwell in my elect who are typified by Jacob. It was to Mary that God the Son said, “My dear Mother, your inheritance is in Israel”, that is, in the elect. It was to Mary that the Holy Spirit said, “Place your roots in my elect”. Whoever, then, is of the chosen and predestinate will have the Blessed Virgin living within him, and he will let her plant in his very soul the roots of every virtue, but especially deep humility and ardent charity.

1. (10) Mary is called by St Augustine, and is indeed, the “living mould of God” . In her alone the God-man was formed in his human nature without losing any feature of the Godhead. In her alone, by the grace of Jesus Christ, man is made godlike as far as human nature is capable of it. A sculptor can make a statue or a life-like model in two ways:
   (i) By using his skill, strength, experience and good tools to produce a statue out of hard, shapeless matter;
   (ii) By making a cast of it in a mould. The first way is long and involved and open to all sorts of accidents. It only needs a faulty stroke of the chisel or hammer to ruin the whole work. The second is quick, easy, straightforward, almost effortless and inexpensive, but the mould must be perfect and true to life and the material must be easy to handle and offer no resistance.

1. Mary is the great mould of God, fashioned by the Holy Spirit to give human nature to a Man who is God by the hypostatic union, and to fashion through grace men who are like to God. No godly feature is missing from this mould. Everyone who casts himself into it and allows himself to be moulded will acquire every feature of Jesus Christ, true God, with little pain or effort, as befits his weak human condition. He will take on a faithful likeness to Jesus with no possibility of distortion, for the devil has never had and never will have any access to Mary, the holy and immaculate Virgin, in whom there is not the least suspicion of a stain of sin.

1. Dear friend, what a difference there is between a soul brought up in the ordinary way to resemble Jesus Christ by people who, like sculptors, rely on their own skill and industry, and a soul thoroughly tractable, entirely detached, most ready to be moulded in her by the working of the Holy Spirit. What blemishes and defects, what shadows and distortions, what natural and human imperfections are found in the first soul, and what a faithful and divine likeness to Jesus is found in the second!

1. There is not and there will never be, either in God’s creation or in his mind, a creature in whom he is so honoured as in the most Blessed Virgin Mary, not excepting even the saints, the cherubim or the highest seraphim in heaven. Mary is God’s garden of Paradise, his own unspeakable world, into which his Son entered to do wonderful things, to tend it and to take his delight in it. He created a world for the wayfarer, that is, the one we are living in. He created a second world - Paradise - for the Blessed. He created a third for himself, which he named Mary. She is a world unknown to most mortals here on earth. Even the angels and saints in heaven find her incomprehensible, and are lost in admiration of a God who is so exalted and so far above them, so distant from them, and so enclosed in Mary, his chosen world, that they exclaim: “Holy, holy, holy” unceasingly.

1. Happy, indeed sublimely happy, is the person to whom the Holy Spirit reveals the secret of Mary, thus imparting to him true knowledge of her. Happy the person to whom the Holy Spirit opens this enclosed garden for him to enter, and to whom the Holy Spirit gives access to this sealed fountain where he can draw water and drink deep draughts of the living waters of grace. That person will find only grace and no creature in the most lovable Virgin Mary. But he will find that the infinitely holy and exalted God is at the same time infinitely solicitous for him and understands his weaknesses. Since God is everywhere, he can be found everywhere, even in hell. But there is no place where God can be more present to his creature and more sympathetic to human weakness than in Mary. It was indeed for this very purpose that he came down from heaven. Everywhere else he is the Bread of the strong and the Bread of angels, but living in Mary he is the Bread of children.

1. Let us not imagine, then, as some misguided teachers do, that Mary being simply a creature would be a hindrance to union with the Creator. Far from it, for it is no longer Mary who lives but Jesus Christ himself, God alone, who lives in her. Her transformation into God far surpasses that experienced by St Paul and other saints, more than heaven surpasses the earth. Mary was created only for God, and it is unthinkable that she should reserve even one soul for herself. On the contrary she leads every soul to God and to union with him. Mary is the wonderful echo of God. The more a person joins himself to her, the more effectively she unites him to God. When we say “Mary”, she re-echoes “God”. When, like St Elizabeth, we call her blessed, she gives the honour to God. If those misguided ones who were so sadly led astray by the devil, even in their prayer-life, had known how to discover Mary, and Jesus through her, and God through Jesus, they would not have had such terrible falls. The saints tell us that when we have once found Mary, and through Mary Jesus, and through Jesus God the Father, then we have discovered every good. When we say “every good”, we except nothing. “Every good” includes every grace, continuous friendship with God, every protection against the enemies of God, possession of truth to counter every falsehood, endless benefits and unfailing headway against the hazards we meet on the way to salvation, and finally every consolation and joy amid the bitter afflictions of life.

1. This does not mean that one who has discovered Mary through a genuine devotion is exempt from crosses and sufferings. Far from it! One is tried even more than others, because Mary, as Mother of the living, gives to all her children splinters of the tree of life, which is the Cross of Jesus. But while meting out crosses to them she gives the grace to bear them with patience, and even with joy. In this way, the crosses she sends to those who trust themselves to her are rather like sweetmeats, i.e. “sweetened” crosses rather than “bitter” ones. If from time to time they do taste the bitterness of the chalice from which we must drink to become proven friends of God, the consolation and joy which their Mother sends in the wake of their sorrows creates in them a strong desire to carry even heavier and still more bitter crosses.

Also read this link…it is from the “Glories of Mary”. It explains that devotion to Mary is necessary to Salvation. marys-touch.com/Glories/ChV.htm

 

[Coreopisis]

I find I’m amongst those who speak 99.9% to Father, Jesus, Holy Spirit Ocasionally I ask Mary to intercede, but mostly approach the Trinity, with personal emphasis on Jesus.

I feel I am with you. I say the Rosary occasionally, but pray everyday to Jesus.

Here is what tend to pray over the course of a day to Jesus:

• I ask Jesus to cover me in his blood, that conquered evil, to protect me from evil.
• I ask Jesus to walk with me when I am encountering a situation where I am afraid to go by myself because He had the courage to walk a path that I could never walk.
• I ask Jesus to hold my hand when I am in pain so that I may remember that he was in much pain. I ask him to help me endure my own.
• I proclaim that Jesus is lord over my house and honor him with our prayers. I also ask Jesus to cover our house with his blood so that no evil can enter.
• When I meet people who I find strange I remind myself that Jesus would love them and so I extend the same.
• I ask that Jesus allow me to help Him in anyway He see’s fit here on Earth.
• I am a single parent so I ask Jesus to be my son’s substitute Father as he is able to be there for my son in a way, and when no one else can.
• When I see people blatently sinning and I feel angry about it I am awestruck that Jesus could die for such a person and so I give him glory.

Anyway that is how I think and why I feel so close to Jesus.
Sarah

 

[Robbinson]

Certainly we can pray to Jesus (I pray the Divine Mercy Chaplet). Devotion to Mary is a must and to find the Grace of God we must go to Mary. Jesus came to us through Mary, so we must go to Jesus through Mary.

Also read this link…it is from the “Glories of Mary”. It explains that devotion to Mary is necessary to Salvation. marys-touch.com/Glories/ChV.htm

I can’t agree with this (albeit respectfully). I have come to believe in the honor due to Mary as the forever sinless mother of God and I pray the Rosary daily. But we can always go directly to Christ in prayer. Clearly asking Mary and othe saints to intercede for us is powerful and appropriate - but Jesus is our direct mediator with the Father and is available to us always.

Blessings,

Brian

 

[DeusVult_90]

Yes, Jesus is our one mediator between God. But Mary is the Mediatrix of Grace and our Co-Redepmtrix. Pope Benedict XV in his letter Inter Soladicia said

Mary suffered and, as it were, nearly died with her suffering Son; for the salvation of mankind she renounced her mother’s rights and, as far as it depended on her, offered her Son to placate divine justice; so we may well say that she with Christ redeemed mankind.

. Ven. Pius XII said in Haurietis Aquas:

By the will of God, the most Blessed Virgin Mary was inseparably joined with Christ in accomplishing the work of man’s redemption, so that our salvation flows from the love of Jesus Christ and His sufferings intimately united with the love and sorrows of His Mother.

. Jesus is our source of redemption, but Mary is united to Jesus. When Mary offered herself and Jesus up to the Father she united her sufferings with Jesus’. Pope Benedict XV said :

the sufferings of Jesus cannot be separated from the sorrows of Mary

. And Pope John Paul said

In her, the many and intense sufferings were amassed in such an interconnected way that they were not only a proof of her unshakable faith but also a contribution to the Redemption of all. … It was on Calvary that Mary’s suffering, beside the suffering of Jesus, reached an intensity which can hardly be imagined from a human point of view but which was mysteriously and supernaturally fruitful for the Redemption of the world.

Pope John Paul also said:

Every Eucharist is a memorial of that Sacrifice and that Passover that restored life to the world; every Mass puts us in intimate communion with her, the Mother, whose sacrifice “becomes present” just as the Sacrifice of her Son “becomes present” at the words of consecration of the bread and wine pronounced by the priest (cf. Discourse at the Celebration of the Word, 1 June 1983, n. 2, ORE 788:1).

 

[strugglingalong]

I am curious as to why so much more focus seems to be put onto Mary and prayers to ask her to pray for us then to talk or pray to Jesus directly. .

I am Catholic, always have been, and I pray to ask Mary to pray for me also. But recently I’ve been meditating much on Jesus and what he went through and as a result have been praying direclty to him more and more. To my surprise responses and answers to my prayers have come back to me in record time and at times in almost a miraculus manner. i also somehow feel a bit closer to him.

Anyway I see alot of people trying new prayers to Mary all the time but why not to Jesus?

And does anyone have a great Jesus prayer?

I 100% agree and have said the same thing very often. While I think we need to ask for Mary’s intercession, that the Holy Rosary is a very powerful prayer, and that Mary should be a big part of every Christians life, I think we should and must never be devoted to Mary or the Saints in such a way as that they are our whole devotion and spiritual life. We must know and love Jesus, then Mary plays a role of helping us love Him more and receive more graces. But we need time with Jesus and to pray to Him. He is God after all. The differences of latria and hyperdulia should itself lead us to believe there ought to be a difference in our hearts, a latria-ness place for Christ and a hyperdulia-ness place for Our Lady.

Pax Christi tecum.

 

[Coreopisis]

Yes, Jesus is our one mediator between God. But Mary is the Mediatrix of Grace and our Co-Redepmtrix. Pope Benedict XV in his letter Inter Soladicia said . Ven. Pius XII said in Haurietis Aquas: . Jesus is our source of redemption, but Mary is united to Jesus. When Mary offered herself and Jesus up to the Father she united her sufferings with Jesus’. Pope Benedict XV said :. And Pope John Paul said Pope John Paul also said:

DeusVult -
All that you have quoted speaks to me of the interconnectedness of Jesus and Mary, but I don’t see any evidence that she is the only way to get to Jesus.

Don’t get me wrong, I pray the rosary too. I just don’t believe that Mary is the ONLY path to Jesus.

Thanks!
Sarah

 

[Reepicheep]

The Blessed Virgin leads us to her Son.
Honor paid to her, honors Him.
She helps us to grow closer to Him.