Question on the Blessed Mother

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Hello there,

I know why we should devote some prayer to Mary, but I don’t understand why we, as Catholics, have such strong devotions to Mary. It kind of makes meite uncomfortable.

So can someone explain why the devotions are so intense?

Thank you,
coolduude
 
Sorry guys.

‘meite’ in the first post should read ‘me a little’
 
Very simple - He was utterly devoted to her, as only the God-Man could be, who alone could perfectly obey the commandment to honour His mother.

So much so that He performed His first miracle at her request at Cana.

So much so that almost His last thought in life was for her safety and security (not necessarily for John - John didn’t need a mother, he already had one, after all).

And with almost His last breath, and each breath must’ve been precious - you can see it in how few words He actually speaks - He begs ‘the beloved disciple’ (representing all of us, hence the Evangelist significantly choosing not to refer to the disciple by name) to take Her as his own mother.

So should we all. How could we fail to follow His example in this? Why should we?
 
Hi, you might take a look at the book “True Devotion to Mary” by St. Louis De Montfort. The answer to your question is in there. 🙂
 
Marian devotion–which is part of Mariology–is an extension of Christology.

It’s really about Who JESUS is.
 
Marian devotion is necessary for anyone who truly desires to be holy.

I’ve found that the more I know my own wretchedness, the more I need to be closer to Mary. The more we sense that we need help, the more we will seek it from Mary.

Mary doesn’t desire our devotion for her own sake; she only wants to help us love Christ more. Similarly, the more we want to love Christ, the more we will treasure her help.

I certainly can’t make it without her help.
 
Hi 🙂

I used to struggle with devotion to Mary, and sadly sometimes I even felt dislike for her 😦

but then I started praying about it, and God really turned it around, and now I love Mary 🙂

the reason I love her is because she is my Mother who loves and takes care of me, because she has lead me closer to Jesus, and because Jesus loves and honours her too. We can’t possibly love Mary “too much” because she helps us to love God and so we would always love Him more… He would always be first place.

Mary said, “my soul magnifies the Lord”
think of what that means… when we come to her, we can see Jesus clearer, He is magnified in her

Mary is actually someone we can know, a real person who loves us as a Mother… she is filled with God’s love and grace

she is God’s masterpiece 🙂

God bless you
 
Yes… God’s masterpiece…

And how He loves her!

Think of how much Jesus loves Mary… try to love her as much… it is impossible…

But in the attempting… you learn how to love what is pure, humble, modest, beautiful, and perfect.

Within her are God’s graces shining, beyond measure.

‘If I am to speak the truth, whatever can be expressed in human words is less than the praise given by Heaven; for Mary has been excellently preached and praised by divine and angelic heralds, foretold by prophets, foreshadowed by patriarchs, in types and figures, set forth and described by Evangelists, worthily and officially saluted by Angels.’

St. Jerome

‘The Blessed Virgin is of all the works of the Creator the most excellent, and to find anything in nature more grand one must go to the Author of nature Himself.’

St. Peter Damian

‘Mary suffered hers in her soul, as Saint Simeon foretold: “And my own soul a sword shall pierce.” As if the holy old man had said: “O most sacred Virgin, the bodies of other martyrs will be torn with iron, but thou wilt be transfixed, and martyred in thy soul by the Passion of thine own Son.” Now, as the soul is more noble than the body, so much greater were Mary’s sufferings than those of all the martyrs, as Jesus Christ Himself said to Saint Catherine of Siena: “Between the sufferings of the soul and those of the body there is no comparisons.” Whence the holy Abbot Arnold of Chartres says, “that whoever had been present on Mount Calvary, to witness the great sacrifice of the Immaculate Lamb, would there have beheld two great altars, the one in the body of Jesus, the other in the heart of Mary; for, on that mount, at the same time that the Son sacrificed His body by death, Mary sacrificed her soul by compassion.”’

St. Alphonsus Maria de Liguori
 
coolduude said:
Hello there,

I know why we should devote some prayer to Mary, but I don’t understand why we, as Catholics, have such strong devotions to Mary. It kind of makes meite uncomfortable.

So can someone explain why the devotions are so intense?

Thank you,
coolduude
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It’s very simple, really. She is your Mother - Jesus gave Her to you (and to me). All of us have (or should have) a devotion to our mothers. After all, it was through them that we came into being. Our Blessed Mother supersedes all mothers as she alone brought into this world Eternal Life (by God’s Grace). It is uniquely through Mary that we find that divine mystery of union of physical life and eternal life - Mary was the vessel whereby physical life bequeathed into the world eternal purposes. She is the True Mother of all Mankind.

It is so easy to embrace the Blessed Mother. All you have to do is call to Her. 🙂
 
Personaly,I have always found it difficult to pray to our blessed Mother.Knowing her purity and my wretchedness.Despite my difficulties in this I perservere in my endevor to get a closer relationship with Jesus through his Mother.Fact is though i think I will always feel like slime in her presense. Sorry i know thats a bit off topic
 
‘Love Mary! She is loveable, faithful, constant. She will never let herself be outdone in love, but will ever remain supreme. If you are in danger, she will hasten to free you. If you are troubled, she will console you. If you are sick, she will bring you relief. If you are in need, she will help you. She does not look to see what kind of person you have been. She simply comes to a heart that wants to love her. She comes quickly and opens her merciful heart to you, embraces you and consoles and serves you. She will even be at hand to accompany you on the trip to eternity.’

St. Gabriel Possenti of the Sorrowful Mother

‘The Virgin Mother, all pure and all white, will make her servants pure and white.’

St. Alphonsus Maria de Liguori

Most excellent lady, were you not sanctified in your mothers’ womb? How was it that you said these things? Were you not free from every sin and filled with every grace?"

“Listen, Elizabeth. Undoubtedly, daughter, I was such as you say. However, you should know this in truth, that at that time I considered myself vile and wretched and unworthy of every grace of God’s, just as you now consider yourself, and even more so. And so I was always asking God that he would deign to infuse into me his grace and strength.”’

The Blessed Virgin to St. Elizabeth, from ‘The Revelations of St. Elizabeth of Toss’

'Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. ’
 
gr1 said:
Personaly,I have always found it difficult to pray to our blessed Mother.Knowing her purity and my wretchedness.Despite my difficulties in this I perservere in my endevor to get a closer relationship with Jesus through his Mother.Fact is though i think I will always feel like slime in her presense. Sorry i know thats a bit off topic
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I know what you mean… but remember Mary really loves you. She is our Mother… just as we can come to God, who is holy, and trust in His mercy… so we can trust in Mary’s kindness. She is filled with God’s love. God bless you 🙂
 
Monica4316 said:
I know what you mean… but remember Mary really loves you. She is our Mother… just as we can come to God, who is holy, and trust in His mercy… so we can trust in Mary’s kindness. She is filled with God’s love. God bless you 🙂
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Amen. 🙂
 
“Do not be afraid of loving the Blessed Virgin too much. You can never love her enough. And Jesus will be very happy, because the Blessed Virgin is His Mother.”

—St. Therese of Lisieux
 
I don’t think any Catholic who is devoted to the Blessed Virgin Mary could ever speak enough about her ineffable beauty. Shin; I don’t think you could expressed it more beautifully when you stated
**Yes… God’s masterpiece… **
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.

Anyone who has True Devotion to Mary has to read the greatest single book ever written on the Blessed Virgin Mary that carries the same name title True Devotion to Mary by Saint Louis De Montford. I know the first time I read it, it brought tears to my eyes. The following below describes just some of the spiritual effects contained in this highly recommended inspiring book that I never tire from re-reading.

Part #1
  1. It was through the most Holy Virgin Mary that Jesus came into the world, and it is also through her that He has to reign in the world.
  2. Mary was singularly hidden during the majority of her life. It is on this account that the Holy Ghost and the Church call her “Alma Mater” or “Mother secret and hidden.” Her humility was so profound that she had no inclination on earth more powerful or more constant than that of hiding herself, from herself as well as from every other creature, so as to be known to God only.
3 He heard her prayers when she begged to be hidden, to be humbled and to be treated as in all respects poor and of no account. God took pleasure in hiding her from human creatures, in her conception, in her birth, in her life, in her mysteries, and in her resurrection, and Assumption. Even her parents did not know her, and the angels often asked one another: “Who is that?” (Canticles: 3:6; 8:5) because the Most High either had hidden her from them, or if God did reveal anything, it was nothing compared to what He kept undisclosed.
  1. God the Father consented that the Holy Virgin Mary should work no miracle, at least no public one, during her life, although He had given her the power to do so. God the Son consented that she should hardly ever speak, though He had communicated His wisdom to her. God the Holy Ghost, though she was His faithful spouse, consented that His Apostles and Evangelists should speak little of her, and no more than was necessary to make Jesus Christ known.
  2. Mary is the excellent masterpiece of the Most High, the knowledge and possession of which He has reserved to Himself. Mary is the admirable Mother of the Son of God, who took pleasure in humbling and concealing her during her life in order to favour her humility, calling her by the name of “woman” (John: 2:4; 19:26), as if she were a stranger, although in His heart He esteemed and loved her above all the angels and all men. Mary is the “sealed fountain” (Canticles: 4:12), the faithful spouse of the Holy Ghost, to whom He alone has entrance. Mary is the sanctuary and the repose of the Holy Trinity, where God dwells more magnificently and more divinely than in any place in the universe, not excepting His dwelling between the Cherubim and Seraphim. Nor is any creature, no matter how pure, allowed to enter into that sanctuary except by a great and special privilege.
  3. I say with the saints, the divine Mary is the terrestrial paradise of the New Adam, where He was made flesh by operation of the Holy Ghost, in order to work there incomprehensible marvels. She is the grand and divine world of God, where there are beauties and treasures unspeakable. She is the magnificence of the Most High, where He hid, as in her bosom; His only Son, and in Him all that is most excellent and most precious. Oh, what grand and hidden things that mighty God has wrought in this admirable creature, as she herself had to acknowledge, in spite of her profound humility: (“He that is mighty hath done great things to me.”) (Luke: 1:49): The world knows them not, because it is both incapable and unworthy of such knowledge.
  4. The saints have said admirable things of this holy city of God; and, as they themselves avow, they were never more eloquent and more content than when they spoke of her. Yet; after all they have said, they cry out that the height of her merits, which she has raised up to the throne of the Divinity, cannot be fully seen; that the breadth of her charity, which is broader than the earth, is in truth immeasurable; that the length of her power, which she exercises even over God Himself, is incomprehensible; and finally, that the depth of her humility, and of all her virtues and graces, is an abyss which never can be sounded. O height incomprehensible! O breadth unspeakable! O length immeasurable! O abyss impenetrable!
  5. Every day, from one end of the earth to the other, in the highest heights of the heavens and in the profoundest depths of the abysses, everything preaches, everything publishes, the admirable Mary! The nine choirs of angels, men of all ages, sexes, conditions and religions, the good and the bad, nay, even the devils themselves, willingly or unwillingly, are compelled by force of truth to call her “Blessed.” Saint Bonaventure tells us that all the angels in Heaven cry out incessantly to her: “Holy, holy, holy Mary, Mother of God and Virgin”, and that they offer to her, millions and millions of times a day, the Angelical Salutation, “Ave Maria”, prostrating themselves before her, and begging of her commands. Even Saint Michael the Archangel, as Saint Augustine says, although prince of the heavenly court is the most zealous in honouring her and causing her to be honoured of going at her bidding to render service to one of her servants.
 
Part # 2
  1. The whole earth is full of her glory, especially among Christians, by whom she is taken as the protectress of many kingdoms, provinces, dioceses and cities. Many cathedrals are consecrated to God under her name. There is not a church without an altar in her honour, not a country, nor a canton where there are not some miraculous images where all sorts of evils are cured and all sorts of good gifts obtained. Who can count the confraternities and congregations in her honour? How many religious orders have been founded in her name and under her protection? How many members of the confraternities, and how many religious men and women in all these orders, who publish her praises and confess her mercies! There is not a little child who, as it lisps the Hail Mary, does not praise her. There is scarcely a sinner who, even in his obduracy, has not some spark of confidence in her. Nay, the very devils in Hell respect her while they fear her.
  2. After that, we must cry out with the saints: “De Maria numquam satis” “Of Mary there is never enough. “We have not yet praised, exalted, honoured, loved and served Mary as we ought. She deserves still more praise, still more respect, still more love, and still more service.
  3. After that, we must say with the Holy Ghost: “All the glory of the King’s daughter is within” (Psalm 44:14). The outward glory which Heaven and earth rival each other in laying at her feet is as nothing in comparison with that which she receives within from the Creator and which is not known by creatures, who in their littleness are unable to penetrate the secret of secrets of the King.
  4. After that, we must cry out with the Apostle, Saint Paul, (“Eye has not seen, not ear heard, nor man’s heart comprehended”) (1st Corinthians 2:9) the beauties, the grandeurs, the excellences of Mary…the miracle of miracles of grace, of nature and of glory. “If you wish to comprehend the Mother,” says Saint Eucherius, comprehend the Son, for she is the worthy Mother of God. Here let every tongue be mute.
  5. It is with particular joy that my heart has dictated what I have just written, in order to show that the divine Mary has been up to this time unknown, and that this is one of the reasons that Jesus Christ is not known as He ought to be. If then, as certain, the knowledge and the kingdom of Jesus Christ are to come into the world, they will be but a necessary consequence of the knowledge and the kingdom of the most holy Virgin Mary, who brought Him into the world the first time, and will make His second Advent full of splendour.
By Saint Louis Marie Grignion De Montford. (1673-1716)
 
Alright, I’ve been reading all the posts and I thank you all very much for the help. It really has helped me understand our Catholic devotion to Mary.

But now I’ve realized something disturbing. I find myself talking and praying to Mary more than I talk and pray to God Himself. Now that surely can’t be good!

So I don’t know what to do. I used to say my own ‘custom’ prayer every night, but now that I pray the Rosary I figure I don’t have to. Maybe I should start again, since my ‘custom’ prayer speaks directly with God.

Then again, maybe I’m just being scrupulous.

Any thoughts?
 
coolduude said:
Alright, I’ve been reading all the posts and I thank you all very much for the help. It really has helped me understand our Catholic devotion to Mary.

But now I’ve realized something disturbing. I find myself talking and praying to Mary more than I talk and pray to God Himself. Now that surely can’t be good!

So I don’t know what to do. I used to say my own ‘custom’ prayer every night, but now that I pray the Rosary I figure I don’t have to. Maybe I should start again, since my ‘custom’ prayer speaks directly with God.

Then again, maybe I’m just being scrupulous.

Any thoughts?
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imo, you’re being scrupulous 🙂

there’s no competition between Jesus and Mary. He’s not offended if you talk to His Mother… because they are always together, in Heaven. When you talk to Mary, Jesus is there right beside her listening to you. When you talk to Jesus, Mary is right there with Him.

If you want to add more prayers to your Rosary, you can try just talking to Jesus in a conversational way as you travel, etc 🙂 it’s really helped me develop a stronger relationship with Him. Or maybe you can add morning prayers to Him, etc. But no I can’t imagine He’d be offended if you talk to His Mother.

God bless
 
“Saint Michael the Archangel, as Saint Augustine says, although prince of the heavenly court is the most zealous in honouring her and causing her to be honoured of going at her bidding to render service to one of her servants.”

I love St. Louis Marie de Montfort. Thank you for quoting him. 🙂

I think, if you are saying many Hail Maries, then what you do is you think of Jesus while you are saying them, and do not worry so much… How happy He is to hear them… How pleased God is to hear them…

Pray to Mary with Jesus. 🙂

Or picture yourself surrounded by the Heavenly Court, as they are praising God and then you have your part… and you say your prayers of all kinds… including the Marian prayers… and God especially loves each one, in its own special way…

I find the, “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of the Living God, have mercy on me a sinner.” prayer a very easy one to pray frequently, if you do want more Jesus prayers. 🙂

The Our Father, the Hail Mary, the Glory Be, the Gloria, the Precious Blood, the Divine Mercy… these are prayers you can say over and over again forever. 🙂
 
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