Stunning quote from St. Kolbe

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Saints are not infallible, so I would imagine not, but I’m no professional theologian.
 
For some reason some people/circles want to exalt her almost to the point of deity. There’s nothing wrong I think with her being a mere mortal who received extraordinary graces from God from her conception and who had the awesome privilege (understatement) to be the mother of the living God. I’m aware that some would like her to have the formal title “coredemptrix”. What you quoted is pretty over-the-top IMO.
 
Listen, St. Maximilian Kolbe had a strong and beautiful devotion to our Lady because she appeared to him as a young child and told him of his future. I know we’re all so quick to jump the gun and assume it must be blasphemy for him to have said that the Spirit works only by Mary, but please, I would ask that you step back for a moment and think of what he must have MEANT by that statement. Jesus was born by the Holy Spirit and who? Mother Mary. A human being. How else would He have come to us? How else would He have done His work on earth? Through the Spirit, yes, but also through a human being; a mortal woman. God did His work through her; His work was perfected through her. Looking at it in that context, does it make a little more sense? I thought so.

I pray I can one day have as strong a devotion to our Heavenly Mother as St. Max Kolbe did. She’s the only road to Jesus. And that’s a FACT. 🙂
 
Suppose St. Kolbe at some point in his life received some amazingly wonderful gift from God … and found himself in some state of ecstasy … in which he was flooded with the most sublime thoughts and feelings and insights.

The human mind cannot process all of that … and he might have gotten a little carried away … how to translate such a wonderful experience into mere human written or spoken words.

The other thing is that we don’t actually know how God chooses to allow certain special human people to “interact” with or relate to The Blessed Trinity.

We cannot explain very much, and we cannot express it very well.

So we do the best we can.

Clearly, there is a special relationship between Mary and God. And clearly, they want for us to reform out lives. And Mary engages in apparitions and all sorts of things to get our attention.

So, St. Kolbe may not have been able to pick the best words … probably he didn’t say them in English, either. So you might want to take a look at the “original” and see if there is a better translation.
 
lil_flower_luv said:
Listen, St. Maximilian Kolbe had a strong and beautiful devotion to our Lady because she appeared to him as a young child and told him of his future. I know we’re all so quick to jump the gun and assume it must be blasphemy for him to have said that the Spirit works only by Mary, but please, I would ask that you step back for a moment and think of what he must have MEANT by that statement. Jesus was born by the Holy Spirit and who? Mother Mary. A human being. How else would He have come to us? How else would He have done His work on earth? Through the Spirit, yes, but also through a human being; a mortal woman. God did His work through her; His work was perfected through her. Looking at it in that context, does it make a little more sense? I thought so.
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I don’t dispute anything that the Holy Spirit did through Mary, but I just have a problem with the “only” part and I don’t think you have explained that sufficiently enough. For a moment let us assume that the Holy Spirit worked only through Mary to bring Jesus into this world. But now that Jesus has come through Mary, does the Holy Spirit work through Mary only?
lil_flower_luv said:
She’s the only road to Jesus. And that’s a FACT. 🙂
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What do you mean by this? Many Protestants are also following Jesus without going through Mary.
 
I’m no theologian, but I believe St. Kolbe is describing the ‘5th Marian Dogma’. Seems plausible 🤷
 
WesleyF said:
“The union between the Immaculata and the Holy Spirit is so inexpressible, yet so perfect, that the Holy Spirit acts only by the Most Blessed Virgin, His Spouse.”
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That quote omits the lead-in, and rewords the statement somewhat. FWIW, here is a better version:
The Holy Spirit is in Mary after the fashion, one might say, in which the Second Person of the Blessed Trinity, the Word, is in his humanity. There is, of course, this difference: in Jesus there are two natures, divine and human, but one single person who is God. Mary’s nature and person are totally distinct from the nature and person of the Holy Spirit. Still, their union is inexpressible, and so perfect that the Holy Spirit acts only by the Immaculata, his spouse….
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This is from a letter that St. Kolbe wrote to Fr. Salezy Mikolajczyk in 1935.
WesleyF said:
As a Catholic am I to accept this?
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No, of course not. You are not required to accept the writings of any individual Saint (unless, in some cases, the Saint happened to also be a Pope or an author of Scripture).
 
WesleyF said:
“The union between the Immaculata and the Holy Spirit is so inexpressible, yet so perfect, that the Holy Spirit acts only by the Most Blessed Virgin, His Spouse.” :eek:
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Mother Mary is actually the Mother of God, the Theotokos (“God-bearer”). From this:
Mary, Mother of God
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Code: 
 **by Father William Saunders**
 I was visiting an inner-city Church one day and in the vestibule some graffiti was     written on the wall which said, "Catholics, God has no mother," obviously     referring to Mary's title as "Mother of God." How does one respond to such an     objection? -- A reader in Springfield
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As Catholics, we firmly believe in the incarnation of our Lord: Mary conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit. (Lk 1:26-38 and Mt 1:18-25) Through her, Jesus Christ–second person of the Holy Trinity, one-in-being (consubstantial) with the Father, and true God from true God–entered this world, taking on human flesh and a human soul. Jesus is true God and true man. In His person are united both a divine nature and a human nature.
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Mary did not create the divine person of Jesus, who existed with the Father from all eternity. “In fact, the One whom she conceived as man by the Holy Spirit, who truly became her Son according to the flesh, was none other than the Father’s eternal Son, the second person of the Holy Trinity. Hence the Church confesses that Mary is truly ‘Mother of God’ (Theotokos)” (CCC, No. 495). As St. John wrote, “The Word became flesh and made His dwelling among us, and we have seen His glory: The glory of an only Son coming from the Father filled with enduring love” (Jn 1:14).
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For this reason, sometime in the early history of the Church, our Blessed Mother was given the title “Mother of God.” St. John Chrysostom (d. 407), for example, composed in his Eucharistic Prayer for the Mass an anthem in honor of her: “It is truly just to proclaim you blessed, O Mother of God, who are most blessed, all pure and Mother of our God. We magnify you who are more honorable than the Cherubim and incomparably more glorious than the Seraphim. You who, without losing your virginity, gave birth to the Word of God. You who are truly the Mother of God.”
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However, objection to the title “Mother of God” arose in the fifth century, due to confusion concerning the mystery of the incarnation. Nestorius, Bishop of Constantinople (428-431), incited a major controversy. He stated that Mary gave birth to Jesus Christ, a regular human person, period. To this human person was united the person of the Word of God (the divine Jesus). This union of two persons–the human Christ and the divine Word-- was “sublime and unique” but merely accidental. The divine person dwelt in the human person “as in a temple.” Following his own reasoning, Nestorius asserted that the human Jesus died on the cross, not the divine Jesus. As such, Mary is not “Mother of God,” but simply “Mother of Christ”–the human Jesus. Sound confusing? It is, but the result is the splitting of Christ into two persons and the denial of the incarnation.
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St. Cyril, Bishop of Alexandria (d. 440) refuted Nestorius, asserting, “It was not that an ordinary man was born first of the Holy Virgin, on whom afterwards the Word descended; what we say is that, being united with the flesh from the womb, (the Word) has undergone birth in the flesh, making the birth in the flesh His own…” This statement affirms the belief asserted in the first paragraph.
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On June 22, 431, the Council of Ephesus convened to settle this argument. The Council declared, “If anyone does not confess that the Emmanuel is truly God and therefore that the holy Virgin is the Mother of God (Theotokos) (since she begot according to the flesh the Word of God made flesh), anathema sit.” Therefore, the Council officially recognized that Jesus is one person, with two natures–human and divine–united in a true union. Second, Ephesus affirmed that our Blessed Mother can rightfully be called the Mother of God. Mary is not Mother of God, the Father, or Mother of God, the Holy Spirit; rather, she is Mother of God, the Son–Jesus Christ. The Council of Ephesus declared Nestorius a heretic, and the Emperor Theodosius ordered him deposed and exiled. (Interestingly, a small Nestorian Church still exists in Iraq, Iran and Syria.)
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The incarnation is indeed a profound mystery. The Church uses very precise–albeit philosophical–language to prevent confusion and error. Nevertheless, as we celebrate Christmas, we must ponder this great mystery of how our divine Savior entered this world, taking on our human flesh, to free us from sin. We must also ponder and emulate the great example of our Blessed Mother, who said, “I am the handmaid of the Lord; be it done unto me according to Thy word.” May we turn to her always as our own Mother, pleading, “Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners now and at the hour of our death. Amen.”
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What do you mean by this? Many Protestants are also following Jesus without going through Mary.
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Mary’s fiat gave us Christ. If you have come to Christ, you came to Him through Mary (through her fiat)–whether you realize that or not.
 
Brywan said:
Mary’s fiat gave us Christ. If you have come to Christ, you came to Him through Mary (through her fiat)–whether you realize that or not.
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It’s amazing how some people miss that. I think another thing people miss is that Protestants are constantly receiving prayers from Mary for their complete conversion and salvation, so even though they don’t acknowledge getting help from Mary, the reality is they do.

Keep in mind that the Father gave us His only begotten Son and Mary likewise gave us her only son. You owe her veneration of the highest form and to put her second only to God.
 
Credo_in_Deum said:
It’s amazing how some people miss that. I think another thing people miss is that Protestants are constantly receiving prayers from Mary for their complete conversion and salvation, so even though they don’t acknowledge getting help from Mary, the reality is they do.

Keep in mind that the Father gave us His only begotten Son and Mary likewise gave us her only son. You owe her veneration of the highest form and to put her second only to God.
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Yes…the first thing I did after being received into the Catholic Church at age 44 was to place flowers at the base of Mary’s statue in the church where we were and to thank her–for the first time in my life–for the role she played in bringing me to Christ. (And no, I wasn’t praying to THE STATUE!!) The scripture says that we are to give honor to whom honor is due…and it had never occurred to me before that I should even THANK her for bringing Christ into the world.

I remember our priest saying in a homily one Sunday, “it is a dysfunctional family that does not honor its own mother…” and yet for years, as a non-Catholic Christian, I had been guilty of that neglect…
 
WesleyF said:
“The union between the Immaculata and the Holy Spirit is so inexpressible, yet so perfect, that the Holy Spirit acts only by the Most Blessed Virgin, His Spouse.” :eek:

As a Catholic am I to accept this??? Especially the “only” part? I think it sounds too far-fetched. Is there any Magisterial basis for this??

I found this on - motherofallpeoples.com/Articles/General_Mariology/the-dogma-and-the-triumph-of-the-immaculate-heart.html
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in reference to the Incarnation this is certainly true, in no way was her freedom of will and full consent impinged upon, she had to act and receive perfectly in concert with her Spouse the Holy Spirit or the intent could not have been achieved.

I would like to see a link to the complete work in which the St. is cited, not the website before commenting further.
 
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