The Only Way to Jesus is Through Mary?

[PilgrimToChrist]

You can of course pray directly to Jesus, just as you can pray directly to God the Father. But you pray to God the Father through Jesus. You pray to Jesus through the Blessed Virgin. Just because you don’t do it explicitly doesn’t mean it isn’t happening. Mary is the Mediatrix of All Graces and that goes both ways – every grace that God gives to man is given to Mary first, every prayer and way that we come to God is through Mary first.

All of the elect are formed in the womb of Mary, that is, conformed to Christ by her motherly love and help.

“This one and that one were born in her.” (Ps 86:5) According to the explanation of some of the Fathers, the first man born of Mary is the God-man, Jesus Christ. If Jesus Christ, the head of mankind, is born of her, the predestinate, who are members of this head, must also as a necessary consequence be born of her. One and the same mother does not give birth to the head without the members nor to the members without the head, for these would be monsters in the order of nature. In the order of grace likewise the head and the members are born of the same mother. If a member of the mystical body of Christ, that is, one of the predestinate, were born of a mother other than Mary who gave birth to the head, he would not be one of the predestinate, nor a member of Jesus Christ, but a monster in the order of grace.

The Blessed Virgin Mary is the Mystical City of God, the New Jerusalem, one cannot be in Christ without also being in Mary. One cannot love Jesus without loving Mary.

Ad Iesum per Mariam!
To Jesus through Mary!

 

[Alexander_Roman]

Strange as it may sound, some people actually reported seeing Mary first. A former atheist lesbian was on EWTN and said she was looking for God and asked for a woman. Mary appeared to her and told her to seek her son Jesus. She later ended up becoming Catholic.

Another woman kept hearing the word “Mary.” She was trying to learn as much about Mary as possible, and ended up finding Protestant Christianity, only to learn they don’t give her much thought, don’t really know much about her, etc. Then she learned that Catholics have a great deal of respect for Mary and she went to a priest and wanted to learn about Mary, and the priest was telling her about Jesus as well. No word yet on if she’s converting or not, but she is really learning about Jesus and Mary now.

I guess for some people, the way to Jesus literally was through Mary. God clearly has a very special role for Mary. Not only does she lead people to Jesus, but there have been Marian apparitions, and visions of Mary distributing prayers to souls in purgatory so they can move up to a higher level and eventually go to their final destination, heaven.

There are also several references in the Bible that traditionally refer to Mary based on early church writings, so clearly she was part of God’s plan from the very beginning.

Very good points!

The depiction of Mary holding Her Son comes from the old accounts of her carrying Him around to touch to the ill and blind etc. This was her way of ministering and bringing Christ to people.

In the first chapter of the Gospel of John, Nathaniel is exuberant about Christ when the Lord tells him that He saw him under the sycamore tree.

In fact, in the non-canonical, but orthodox books that didn’t make it into the NT, Nathaniel was in Egypt with his mother and brother when a disease took his brother’s life. He then got the fever. His mother went into a panic, but heard about a “miracle-working baby” in the vicinity and sought out Mary.

Mary told Nathaniel’s mother “Don’t worry, but lay your son on my Son’s bedclothes over there under that sycamore tree.” When she did, Nathaniel was healed.

When our Lord in the Gospel of John tells Nathaniel that He saw him under the sycamore tree, He was referring to this childhood miracle. Nathaniel knew that the only people who knew about his miraculous healing were him, his mother, Mary and Mary’s Son.

This is why Nathaniel gave those exclamations. He was healed by Christ, but through MARY! Most Holy Mother of God, protect us!!

Alex

 

[rbarcia]

At the wedding in Cannan they went to JESUS through MARY! Despite the fact that it was not the time for Him to do His Ministry. But because She had found favor with God, they received answer through Her. Note here that the organizers of the wedding were already under the devil’s attack. Because wine got finished, devil saw a chance and used it to afflict the organizers with the demon of confusion. But because this Jews knew that whenever their fathers faced any attack, they will run to God through the Arc of Covenant given to their fathers through Moses. So traditionaly the organizers of the wedding in their state of confusion found grace to run to God for deliverance through Mary - THE LIVING ARC OF COVENANT given to us at the Annunciation by God through the Angel.
Like the Jews of old, often times we fall under devil’s attack and because we may lack the Grace to approach God and be sure of getting answers to our prayers, there is no other way out than to go through THE LIVING ARCH OF THE NEW COVENANT - BLESSED VIRGIN MARY FULL OF GRACE.
She is full of Grace for our sake that when we lack the grace to go to God our Father, Her fullness of Grace will always see us through to the THRONE OF MERCY OF GOD our Father.
So if in my state of sin, I can reach God going through Her, How much more will the joy of God fill my life if I approach God through her when am in the state of Grace.
Glory to JESUS, Honor to MARY.

Talk about stretching text to form a whole theology.

 

[Alexander_Roman]

You can of course pray directly to Jesus, just as you can pray directly to God the Father. But you pray to God the Father through Jesus. You pray to Jesus through the Blessed Virgin. Just because you don’t do it explicitly doesn’t mean it isn’t happening. Mary is the Mediatrix of All Graces and that goes both ways – every grace that God gives to man is given to Mary first, every prayer and way that we come to God is through Mary first.

All of the elect are formed in the womb of Mary, that is, conformed to Christ by her motherly love and help.

The Blessed Virgin Mary is the Mystical City of God, the New Jerusalem, one cannot be in Christ without also being in Mary. One cannot love Jesus without loving Mary.

Ad Iesum per Mariam!
To Jesus through Mary!

Well, I WANT to have the Most Holy Virgin Mary support me in every which way and to teach me to pray and I WANT to pray to Her Son through her and to have her intercession over my life!!

She just brings her Son into such a clear focus for me . . . I couldn’t imagine being a Christian without her.

And I don’t know what else I can say to convince others of the truth of what you are witnessing to.

Alex

 

[Alexander_Roman]

Talk about stretching text to form a whole theology.

Well, if it works for some or even a lot - I say, GO FOR IT!

There are those with a really high devotion to Mary, and I’m one of them, and it is just, well, WONDERFUL!

God bless you!

Alex

 

[balt_orioles54]

This morning I was listening to a podcast of EWTN Open line, dated 3/16/2011. Fr. Mitch Pacwa was the host.

I heard something that disturbed me greatly and I am wondering if this is a standard Catholic teaching or his opinion.

A caller asked if the Catholic church believes that the ONLY way to Jesus is through Mary. The Fr. Pacwa replied that is true. Then he said, “That is not to say you can’t pray directly to Jesus. However, it is through Mary that we know Jesus because Jesus came through Mary’s Flesh”.

The caller asked him the same question in different ways and at the end he sighed and sounded upset as he said, “I hope my brother is listening to this. This is why I am not coming back to the Catholic church”.

I was deeply disturbed by the priest’s answer. Is that really the Catholic teaching? That the only way to Jesus is through Mary?

I don’t want this to be a discussion on the Veneration of Mary. That is a whole other topic.

Thanks for helping to teach me.

I think what the priest clumsily tried to utter is to “truly know” jesus can only be done through the entire holy family, and mary being jesus’ direct co-parent with G-d, and st. joseph being jesus’ stepfather, to truly know mary is to truly know jesus. Totally ridiculous that it is implied that one cannot have a direct relationship and pray directly to jesus christ our lord - however, again, to “truly know” jesus one must truly know mary - the entire holy family. I urge you to reconsider returning home to the church. If you read the early fathers - 70 - 90 a.d. onward, you will find like steve wood did - that the church is the church christ built - handing the keys over to st. peter.

Steve: salvationisfromthejews.com/woodreview.html



:ballspin:

 

[GaryTaylor]

Well, if it works for some or even a lot - I say, GO FOR IT!

There are those with a really high devotion to Mary, and I’m one of them, and it is just, well, WONDERFUL!

God bless you!

Alex

Amen, you would think this is something new the way its talked about here. The veneration dates back to the catacombs with Icons. In 314 Constantines recognition of the gospel message allowed it to no longer be confined. And allowed it to be shared publicly.

Geez, should we descend to an “all” evil period once again?

God Bless, Gary

 

[HollyDolly]

The bottom line, even Mary herself said she was a SERVANT to God. I understand the love and reverence towards the most righteous woman who every walked the face of the earth, but I just can’t take it any further then that. I just can’t explain it. Of course I love Mary, but I just can’t go to that extreme that some Catholics do. My staple of truth are the scriptures. I can hear it already, “the church has oral history too that weighs just as important too”, some Catholics will say. Yes, I understand what Mary said saying she would be remembered as the most blessed of all woman, but would she really approve of the excess that some Catholics pay to her, especially when she viewed herself as a devoted humble SERVANT of God? “thou shall not have any graven images before me”. A little extreme to me. I have a friend who was a missionary who traveled to many countries in central America, where she said that they would make sacrifices to Mary. Paganism? Not a big fan of all the statues in the Catholic Churches either. I understand the history of the need for visual aids, when most of the people were illiterate, but now most can pick up a Holy Bible and read. What I am a big supporter of is Catholics reading the Holy Bible more. Haven’t seen allot of that going on with Catholics. How can you put on the full armor of God, when you don’t know what the Holy Bible says you need to know and do to protect yourself against the devices of the devil? This part, from my witness, the Catholic church is failing in. Again, from my experience with Catholics where I live. However, I did meet one gentleman who did rather impress me with his Biblical knowledge as a Catholic (Great guy). Still struggle with, “Every human being has a sin nature, but Mary didn’t”??? If she was sinless, what would the sacrifice of our Lord and Savior Jesus the Christ be for if Mary was sinless? She could have took care of it. However, I see the other part too. God can not be in the presence of sin, so how then could the Holy Spirit pair Christ who was the sinless God in the flesh, with a woman who had sin nature? It would seem, that Paul’s quote in the book of Romans would then be false. So then how can Catholic oral tradition and other written Catholic doctrine be opposed to the Holy Bible (which was compiled and put together by the Catholic church also)? I don’t get it. The oral traditions/other accepted dogma of the Catholic church have to support scripture, not oppose it. Right???

Questions I have yet to get a Straight answer on.

May God bless!

Ed

Look, one can approach Jesus any place anytime and any where. I pray to Him alot, and I ask the Holy Spirit for help too.Yes, I also pray to Mary,however Jesus says in the bible that "No man comes to the Father except through Him"Jesus died to save all of us for we are all sinners. My late parents wouldn’t have been happy to here Father’s comments. Back in Alaska I attended confirmation classes at the Elemendorf AFB chapel. The father mentioned about Mary and called her the Holy Comforter. When my mom asked what we learned and what the priest said, she got upset,and rather annoyed and said "The Holy Comforter is THE HOLY SPIRIT! I said oh! Sure my parents prayed to Mary, but don’t recall them saying the rosary at all, and the only Marian prayer they said was the Hail Mary. They grew out in the 1920s and 30s and were very well schooled in the faith.Maybe there wasn’t such a big emphasis on Mary then.
My parents didn’t go bonkers like some catholics do on the subject, and as far as they were concerned,especially my dad, the pope put his pants on the same way as any man.
No cult of some pope,etc. in our house.
Maybe you should ask someone who is Greek or Russian Orthodox, their take on what Father Pacwa said. Out side of the icon of Our Lady of Kazan,and several others, the Orthodox and Coptics don’t seem to go so crazy over Mary like some catholics do.
As far as like Latin America, she’s right,but that is the church’s fault for not teaching these people their faith thoroughly.

 

[ClamDigger]

Look, one can approach Jesus any place anytime and any where. I pray to Him alot, and I ask the Holy Spirit for help too.Yes, I also pray to Mary,however Jesus says in the bible that "No man comes to the Father except through Him"Jesus died to save all of us for we are all sinners.

Yes, no man comes to the Father except through Jesus. However, if we go to Jesus through Mary, we are still going to Jesus. Just as we are going to the Father every time we go to Jesus, we go to Jesus every time we go to Mary.

My late parents wouldn’t have been happy to here Father’s comments. Back in Alaska I attended confirmation classes at the Elemendorf AFB chapel. The father mentioned about Mary and called her the Holy Comforter. When my mom asked what we learned and what the priest said, she got upset,and rather annoyed and said "The Holy Comforter is THE HOLY SPIRIT! I said oh! Sure my parents prayed to Mary, but don’t recall them saying the rosary at all, and the only Marian prayer they said was the Hail Mary. They grew out in the 1920s and 30s and were very well schooled in the faith.Maybe there wasn’t such a big emphasis on Mary then.

I’m absolutely shocked by this! My grandmother is a very good Catholic, also out of the 20s/30s, and she has an immense devotion to Mary. She prays the Rosary regularly. In fact, all of the older members of my family could be classified as “Mary freaks”. Hahaha. Honestly, I’m extremely surprised to hear that some Catholics raised before Vatican II didn’t put much emphasis on Mary!
Also, I really see nothing wrong with your priest’s statement. Mary is holy and she does comfort us in times of difficulty. Not saying that the Holy Spirit doesn’t, but Mary does as well.

My parents didn’t go bonkers like some catholics do on the subject

What’s not to go “bonkers” over? She is Our Mother and the greatest help we have in heaven short of Christ.

as far as they were concerned,especially my dad, the pope put his pants on the same way as any man.
No cult of some pope,etc. in our house.

??? Jesus also put his pants on like any other man. That doesn’t make him “any other man”.

Maybe you should ask someone who is Greek or Russian Orthodox, their take on what Father Pacwa said. Out side of the icon of Our Lady of Kazan,and several others, the Orthodox and Coptics don’t seem to go so crazy over Mary like some catholics do.

The Orthodox definitely practice the Cult of the Virgin at least as fervently as their Catholic bretheren. Their liturgy even includes the invocation, “Most Holy God-Bearer, save us!” An Orthodox saint, Seraphim of Sarov, even recommended praying their version of the Hail Mary (“Hail, O Virgin God-Bearer! O Mary full of grace, the Lord is with thee! Blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, for thou hast born the Savior of our souls!”) 150 times each day.

As far as like Latin America, she’s right,but that is the church’s fault for not teaching these people their faith thoroughly.

Are you serious? The veneration that Mary is given by most Latinos is definitely not contrary to Church teaching. If anything,* they *are the ones who have learned their faith both thoroughly and correctly, and the horrible neglect of Marian devotion I have been seeing lately is the fault of liberal churches who do not teach their catechumens thoroughly.

 

[simpleguy]

Well, I don’t really understand the full context of what was being asked.

To go to Jesus through Mary can mean different things. Ultimately, God took Flesh from the Virgin Mary and so everything we know about Jesus the Incarnate Divine Son of God ultimately has to do with that.

Jesus’ words and actions were all made possible by His Incarnation. His Body and Blood are also Mary’s. In that sense, there is nothing we can do in terms of our faith and devotion to Christ that doesn’t, at one and the same time, have to do with His Mother (and “Mother of Jesus” is mentioned eight times in the Gospel to signify a very special relationship)>

IF the caller meant to ask whether we can go to Jesus directly - well, yes we do. We approach God and Christ in the Sacraments, prayer etc. And we do so always within the spiritual/ecclesial context of the Body of Christ.

Just like Mary nurtured the Body of Christ 2,000 years ago, so too she continues to nurture us as members of her Son’s Body that is the Church.

Mary and the Saints and also the Church mediates the salvation of Christ to us. The whole point of the Incarnation is that salvation is mediated and that we ourselves, having been borne up on the Arms of God’s redeeming love, are called to become mediators of that same salvation to others, that same salvation in which we participate by our response of a living faith.

To go to Christ directly is to already be brought into a special relationship with His mother, the mediator of His Divine Incarnation, and the Saints. Christ was not a human person - He was/is a Divine Person who took on our nature and having done so, transfigured/deified it.

One might say that God could have achieved His Incarnation without any mediator. True. But we know He didn’t. And under the Cross He did say to John and through John to us all, “Behold your mother!”

We should take time to reflect on what a spiritual mother truly is and how this role is specially related to the Mother of our Lord, God and Saviour, Jesus Christ.

To reflect on her role in Christ’s life is to reflect more deeply on the Humanity of Jesus. The Protestant Reformers themselves tended to fall into a kind of “monophysism” by emphasizing Christ’s Divinity to the detriment of His Humanity.

Our reflection on the role of the Virgin Mary shows that Jesus truly did love His mother (how could it be otherwise?). It is she who tells us, “Do whatever He tells you.” It is she who stands at the foot of His Cross (the Fathers taught that she was drenched in the blood of her crucified Son at that time as she stood) and when all His disciples, save for one, ran away. And it is she who leads us to ponder “all these things in” our hearts. It is she who finds Jesus in the Church/Temple, who adores Him in the manger and at His Resurrection, no longer in the swaddling clothes, but in the bright vestments of His Glory. It is she who continues with the Apostles in prayer at the outpouring of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, adoring her Son and our God Who ascended to heaven and sits at the Right Hand of the Father.

It is finally she whose heart is pierced with a sword so that the thoughts of all of us may be laid bare.

Where Jesus is, there you will also find Mary. And if we begin our Christian path with Mary - she will only lead us to her Son.

I lost my way to Christ once. I turned to Mary because of my youthful devotion to her - and she took me right back to her Son.

The Mother of the Incarnate God - hmmm, lots of food for thought and reflection there that brings us into the Heart and loving Arms of the Lord Jesus.

Alex

Jesus said to him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me". JOHN 14:6

“For there is one God and one Mediator between God and men, the Man Christ Jesus” 1 TIMOTHY 2:5

 

[simpleguy]

Jesus said to him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me". JOHN 14:6

“For there is one God and one Mediator between God and men, the Man Christ Jesus” 1 TIMOTHY 2:5

 

[FightingFat]

Jesus said to him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me". JOHN 14:6

“For there is one God and one Mediator between God and men, the Man Christ Jesus” 1 TIMOTHY 2:5

But asking one person to pray for you in no way violates Christ’s mediatorship, as can be seen from considering the way in which Christ is a mediator. First, Christ is a unique mediator between man and God because he is the only person who is both God and man. He is the only bridge between the two, the only God-man. But that role as mediator is not compromised in the least by the fact that others intercede for us. Furthermore, Christ is a unique mediator between God and man because he is the Mediator of the New Covenant (Heb. 9:15, 12:24), just as Moses was the mediator (Greek mesitas) of the Old Covenant (Gal. 3:19–20).

The intercession of fellow Christians—which is what the saints in heaven are—also clearly does not interfere with Christ’s unique mediatorship because in the four verses immediately preceding 1 Timothy 2:5, Paul says that Christians should interceed: “First of all, then, I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for all men, for kings and all who are in high positions, that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life, godly and respectful in every way. This is good, and pleasing to God our Savior, who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth” (1 Tim. 2:1–4). Clearly, then, intercessory prayers offered by Christians on behalf of others is something “good and pleasing to God,” not something infringing on Christ’s role as mediator.

 

[FromTheAshes777]

Jesus said to him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me". JOHN 14:6

“For there is one God and one Mediator between God and men, the Man Christ Jesus” 1 TIMOTHY 2:5

any argument to go with these verses? asking Mary to pray for us and honoring her unique role in Salvation History doesn’t contradict either one of these.