The world "needs" Mary!

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MariaChristi

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Dear Brothers and Sisters,

Why? Since God is over all and Mary is His creature, and is not God, why would I say, “The world needs Mary”. This is not intended to be a debate, but rather I’m speaking to brothers and sisters in Christ, to encourage all the Family of God to listen and to hear with the ears of our hearts, God who speaks to us in Scripture, Tradition and the Magisterium. If you disagree, with anything, please begin another thread. Thanks 🙂

There are places in Sacred Scripture from Genesis to the Book of Revelation, and in centuries of Sacred Tradition and the Magisterium of the Church, where we can find both direct and indirect references to God’s choice of Mary and her role in His Plan of Salvation but I want to choose two verses for this thread, from the Gospel of John 19: 26-27 and one quote from St. John Paul II.
  1. When Jesus saw his mother and the disciple there whom he loved, he said to his mother, “Woman, behold, your son.”
  2. Then he said to the disciple, “Behold, your mother.” And from that hour the disciple took her into his home.
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First, the world “needs” Mary because Jesus gives us always what we need. Mary by the power of the Holy Spirit continues mothering us by her intercession and her example to live in union with Him as she did. The world needs to listen further to how the disciple John responds to Jesus’ words, as John records in his Gospel: "from that hour the disciple took her into his home ( the literal Greek translation is “into his own” and St. John Paul II gave us to understand that meant his own life, his very being)

Second, in our day we are experiencing a certain number of Catholics and many non Catholics distancing themselves from Mary, as the Mother God gave them on Calvary and I have quoted this often from St. John Paul II:
…Where the Mother is, there too is the Son. When one moves away from the Mother, sooner or later he ends up keeping distant from the Son as well. It is no wonder that today, in various sectors of secularised society, we note a widespread crisis of faith in God, preceded by a drop in devotion to the Virgin Mother.(Address given Oct. 1982)
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How do we remedy this? I believe as true sons and daughters of God and Mary we need to pray fervently for the Holy Spirit to renew the face of the earth, beginning with the Catholic Church: clergy and people. We cannot carry the Light of Christ into the world without the Holy Spirit and Mary who brought Him first! We need Mary!

Come Holy Spirit fill the hearts of Your faithful; kindle in us the Fire of Your Love. “O Jesus, living in Mary, come and live in your servants, in the spirit of holiness, in the fullness of your power, in the perfection of your ways, in the truth of your virtues, in the communion of your mysteries. Rule over every adverse power, in your Spirit, for the glory of the Father. Amen” - prayer of Fr. Jean Jacques Olier, S.S. (1608-1657) Holy Mary, Mother of God and our Mother, pray for us now and at the hour of our death. Amen.
 
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The world so badly needs maternal love and mercy. I used to feel so lost. Now I still have problems, but I have my Mother to unite me to Jesus Christ through faith. I absolutely need her. In the passage you quoted from John’s Gospel, Mary is given as Mother to every single human being, as John Paul II affirms in Redemptoris Mater. I hope everyone comes to know Our Lady personally. On that topic, here is another beautiful passage from John Paul II’s Encyclical Redemptoris Mater:

"45. Of the essence of motherhood is the fact that it concerns the person. Motherhood always establishes a unique and unrepeatable relationship between two people: between mother and child and between child and mother. Even when the same woman is the mother of many children, her personal relationship with each one of them is of the very essence of motherhood. For each child is generated in a unique and unrepeatable way, and this is true both for the mother and for the child. Each child is surrounded in the same way by that maternal love on which are based the child’s development and coming to maturity as a human being.

"…Mary is the one who first “believed,” and precisely with her faith as Spouse and Mother she wishes to act upon all those who entrust themselves to her as her children. And it is well known that the more her children persevere and progress in this attitude, the nearer Mary leads them to the “unsearchable riches of Christ”(Eph. 3:8). And to the same degree they recognize more and more clearly the dignity of man in all its fullness and the definitive meaning of his vocation, for "Christ…fully reveals man to man himself."133
http://w2.vatican.va/content/john-p.../hf_jp-ii_enc_25031987_redemptoris-mater.html
 
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Thanks so much for your reply, dear brother!

Yes, there is such a “coldness” in so many people who have never experienced the tender love of a mother in this world and have never heard of, or come to know, the Mother of God who loves and intercedes for us all from heaven.

There are some who despite having a mother who loved them, can have such a deep-seated love for themselves or their own pleasure they can ignore or take advantage of their mother’s love for them. Perhaps that is another reason why we see a drop in devotion to Mary – our world has grown colder and so this beautiful gift of Mary given to all by Jesus from His Cross goes unappreciated.

Let us pray for all those who have neglected Jesus’s Gift of Mary to us. Let us offer reparation to the Pierced Hearts of Jesus and Mary who have loved us so much and have received so little love in return.

Come, Holy Spirit, kindle in us the Fire of Your love.
Sacred Heart of Jesus we trust in You,
Immaculate Heart of Mary, pray for us.
 
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I think it’s easy, as Thomas Merton said, to see Mary as a “beautiful myth”. Or to believe that we only need to believe the four dogmas about her, and that’s it. But given her tremendous role in our redemption in Christ as our Mother, we must cling to her. We owe so much to her who is–as Leo XIII says–gentle, extreme in tenderness, and of a limitless love and mercy.
 
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Dear Brother,

“Easy” is really not what Catholic Christians ought to be thinking about, it seems to me. We have been called to follow in “blood -stained footprints”. Jesus became our Brother, born of the Virgin Mary by the power of the Holy Spirit to enable us to become Holy as He is Holy – He didn’t promise Mary or any other human person that there would be no suffering on this earth.

Mary is Mother and Model for the Church and the world because she followed Christ perfectly. She suffered with Him on earth, and now reigns with Him in heaven. I haven’t read Thomas Merton’s books in a long time. so I’m not sure of the context of the words you attribute to him. Ceratinly he knew some persons who fit into that category of which he spoke.

St. Bernard of course gives us his beautiful words: “Nunquam satis de Maria” (Latin translated as “Of Mary, there is never enough” . It seems to me the closer we come to Jesus the more we love Mary and the closer we come to Mary the more we love Jesus. 🙂
 
Dear CajunJoy,

Thanks for the lovely illustration and the Truth it conveys: Grace comes to us from the Loving Heart of Jesus, the Incarnate Son of God born of Mary, and through her hands to us. What people often miss, it seems to me, is that Mary is our Model as well as our Mother. She is completely human as we are, and yet God has done great things for her and through her. God wants to do great things in us and through us as well.

There is only One Mediator beween God and man and that is Jesus but Mary has been made a Mediatrix with Jesus. The Catechism of the Catholic Church explains:
970 “Mary’s function as mother of men in no way obscures or diminishes this unique mediation of Christ, but rather shows its power. But the Blessed Virgin’s salutary influence on men . . . flows forth from the superabundance of the merits of Christ, rests on his mediation, depends entirely on it, and draws all its power from it.” “No creature could ever be counted along with the Incarnate Word and Redeemer; but just as the priesthood of Christ is shared in various ways both by his ministers and the faithful, and as the one goodness of God is radiated in different ways among his creatures, so also the unique mediation of the Redeemer does not exclude but rather gives rise to a manifold cooperation which is but a sharing in this one source.”
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Mary is a real person, not a statue, not just a holy picture but a real person who is living now with Jesus in heaven and is interceding with Jesus before the Father for all the children she was given on Calvary. She heard Jesus tell her “Woman, behold your son” and by God’s grace she accepted all the brothers and sisters of Jesus – all God’s children – into her care.

Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us now and at the hour of our death. Amen.
 
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Yes! Those who have experienced our Blessed Mother’s maternal love need to pray
for a renewal of devotion to her.

She is a gift given to us at the foot of the cross. And what a gift! I can remember many
times in my life when she led me to someone or someplace that I needed to be for spiritual direction
in my life. And she still does that!

Thank you Maria for remind us of her motherly love for us.

Peace in Jesus and Mary,

Dorothy
 
Dear Dorothy,

Thanks so much for your encouraging reply! I believe I “needed” to post this particular message, because I feel an ache in my heart that our Mother is suffering so much and there are so few who seem to care that she is ignored or worse that she is maligned and mistreated, blasphemed against and even some Catholics who used to be more reverent are beginning to think little of her and consider devotion to her as something “optional”.

I shared a little bit about this post at our Legion of Mary Meeting today and one of the other members was saying that there seems to be a “missing link” a certain “disconnect” when people think of love – how can they leave Mary out? My answer was there are many reasons but more and more I sense: we are not fighting “flesh and blood” but “principalities and powers”. Who hates Mary most? The evil one, the father of lies is a deceiver and he prowls about deceiving those especially who are weak in faith.

You are right, Dorothy. We need to PRAY for a renewal of true devotion to Mary! Thanks.
 
Right. We can never venerate Mary enough, since she is the Mother of God and our Mother in the order of grace.

As to Merton, itt was just a quote from Thomas Merton–about whom I know little–in the first edition of the magazine of the Association of Mary Queen of All Hearts which has been on their website for a while.

He was just saying, I think, that we need to realize that Mary is really our Mother–not some fantasy in the sky–but really the New Woman who loves us with all of her Immaculate Heart.

Pope Leo XIII talks about the peace and joy that comes from doing what is right. And that trying to avoid all suffering deprives us of that peace and joy. So he recommended praying the Rosary to have the peace of doing Christ’s will through Mary.

In one sense, holiness is easy because we are with Jesus, carrying our Cross with Him and being Crucified with Him spiritually. All this through Mary, who always is so present and close to us. As she said to Juan Diego, a aaint: “Am I not here who am your mother? Are you not in the folds of my mantle?..Let nothing else worry you, disturb you”.

As St. Louis says:

“It is true that on our way we have hard battles to fight and serious obstacles to overcome, but Mary, our Mother and Queen, stays close to her faithful servants. She is always at hand to brighten their darkness, clear away their doubts, strengthen them in their fears, sustain them in their combats and trials. Truly, in comparison with other ways, this virgin road to Jesus is a path of roses and sweet delights. There have been some saints, not very many, such as St. Ephrem, St. John Damascene, St. Bernard, St. Bernardine, St. Bonaventure, and St. Francis de Sales, who have taken this smooth path to Jesus Christ, because the Holy Spirit, the faithful Spouse of Mary, made it known to them by a special grace. The other saints, who are the greater number, while having a devotion to Mary, either did not enter or did not go very far along this path. That is why they had to undergo harder and more dangerous trials.”
https://www.ewtn.com/library/Montfort/TRUEDEVO.HTM
 
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Dear Maria Christi,
I am happy to share that on October 24 we had a Fatima Rosary Rally downtown of where I live. We had a particular park area for two hours. Three rosaries were recited, because that is the amount of mysteries we used at the time of Fatima.
Our new bishop is very Marian, and he led the Sorrowful Mysteries. The Knights of Columbus was there, and the day was perfectly beautiful, and with huge old oak trees to shade the area.
Peace in Jesus and Mary,
Dorothy
MariaChristi
October 26 |
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Dear Dorothy,Thanks so much for your encouraging reply! I believe I “needed” to post this particular message, because I feel an ache in my heart that our Mother is suffering so much and there are so few who seem to care that she is ignored or worse that she is maligned and mistreated, blasphemed against and even some Catholics who used to be more reverent are beginning to think little of her and consider devotion to her as something “optional”.I shared a little bit about this post at our Legion of Mary Meeting today and one of the other members was saying that there seems to be a “missing link” a certain “disconnect” when people think of love – how can they leave Mary out? My answer was there are many reasons but more and more I sense: we are not fighting “flesh and blood” but “principalities and powers”. Who hates Mary most? The evil one, the father of lies is a deceiver and he prowls about deceiving those especially who are weak in faith.You are right, Dorothy. We need to PRAY for a renewal of true devotion to Mary! Thanks. Visit Topic or reply to this email to respond.
In Reply To
Dorothy
October 26 |
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Yes! Those who have experienced our Blessed Mother’s maternal love need to pray for a renewal of devotion to her. She is a gift given to us at the foot of the cross. And what a gift! I can remember many times in my life when she led me to someone or someplace that I needed to be for spiritual d… Visit Topic or reply to this email to respond. To unsubscribe from these emails, click here.
 
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Dear Brother,

I also thought of that quote from St. Louis de Montfort! Perhaps, St. Louis understood from his own experiences and the readings he did from the writings of other saints that special relationship with Mary which gave him and those saints special graces.

It certainly has been a blessing to me to have received from God a knowledge and love for Mary that has enabled me to keep closer to Jesus than I could have ever been without her! 🙂
 
Dear Dorothy,

Somehow my reply to your earlier post was repeated after this one about the Rosary Rally. Not sure how that happened but thanks for posting about your experience – it was beautiful and I hope that many more Bishops, priests and deacons will renew their devotion to Mary. We need to hear more references to her in homilies and during other opportunities clergy have for encouraging true devotion to Mary.

You are blessed to have a “Marian Bishop” who prays the Rosary with His Flock! 🙂
 
Maria,

Somehow the format changed and it puzzled me. I am still getting used to (or not) to this
new way on the forum.

Yes, we are very blessed to have a new bishop who loves our Blessed Mother very much.
Our parish is also blessed with a visiting priest, and a new parochial vicar who promotes devotion to
our Mother frequently.

Peace in Jesus and Mary,

Dorothy
 
Yes. I think that the minimizing of Marian devotion is a terrible temptation. It gives the devil so much solace, so to speak, since there is enmity between the devil and the Woman, our Mother.

Imagine children minimizing the importance of their mother.

Here is another passage from St. Louis I thought of about how Mary helps us:

“As Mary is the treasurer and dispenser of the gifts and graces of the Most High God, she reserves a choice portion, indeed the choicest portion, to nourish and sustain her children and servants. They grow strong on the Bread of Life; they are made joyful with the wine that brings forth virgins. They are carried at her breast. They bear with ease the yoke of Christ scarcely feeling its weight because of the oil of devotion with which she has softened its wood”
https://www.ewtn.com/library/Montfort/TRUEDEVO.HTM
 
Dear Dorothy,

How we need loyal sons and daughters of God and Mary! Just yesterday, at our Legion of Mary meeting, as I shared this thread with the members, one said to me: “Devotion to Mary is not preached as it was in the past”. She is right – perhaps especially here in the southern part of the USA. She and I were both raised in the northern part of our country (NYC) and went to Catholic schools. We are grateful for the faith and pray with you for a renewal of devotion to Mary among clergy and people of the Catholic Church that will lead to increasing fervor to carry the Light of Christ into the world so in need of Him.

Mary, Star of the New Evangelization, pray for us.
Jesus we trust in You!
Come Holy Spirit, overshadow us, as you overshadowed Mary, to bring Jesus to all.
 
Thanks again for your reply, brother Pat!

Speaking to someone at our Legion of Mary meeting yesterday, I told her that our battle is not against “flesh and blood” but against “principalities and powers”. No one hates Mary more than satan. He is a liar, the father of lies and he continues to deceive, all who listen to his lies.

I was re-reading Mother Teresa’s testimony of faith in the book, "Come be my Light" She mentions how Mary helped her in her “dark night”. I had also read that she encouraged her sisters to read De Montfort’s "True Devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary " and to make their Total Consecration to Jesus and Mary.

St. Tersa of Calcutta and St. John Paul II are modern examples of the wisdom of the saints. They heard the truth of God in the words of St. Louis and like St. Louis de Montfort, they lived the Truth they heard, by God’s Grace. I pray that soon the founder of the Legion of Mary, Servant of God Frank Duff and the two other Legionaries Venerable Edel Quinn and Servant of God Alphonsus Lamb whose causes for Beatification are in proccess will soon re canonized by the Church so that the lay members of the Church see these faithful lay persons so devoted to Mary as examples of holiness for all. Frank Duff labored into his 90’s while Edel and Alfie were much younger when they died working in Africa and Latin America respectively.

For more on their causes see HERE
 
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Hi! As we pray the Hail Holy Queen, we state She IS our life, She IS our sweetness, and she IS our hope. There is no more direct route to her son, Jesus Christ, then through Mary. Mary does her best to help us all out in her faith journey and she is a most loving, caring, patient, and merciful Mother. She shows her compassion towards us in Her apparitions. Blessed be the Immaculate Virgin Mary forever!
 
Hi Dallas,

Amen–Blessed be the Immaculate Virgin Mary forever!

We need a Marian renewal, since we have not been faithful to the teachings of Vatican II. But since Mary is all sweetness and mercy, she unites us to Jesus whenever we turn to her.

Vatican II says:

"60. There is but one Mediator as we know from the words of the apostle, “for there is one God and one mediator of God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself a redemption for all”.(298) The maternal duty of Mary toward men in no wise obscures or diminishes this unique mediation of Christ, but rather shows His power. For all the salvific influence of the Blessed Virgin on men originates, not from some inner necessity, but from the divine pleasure. It flows forth from the superabundance of the merits of Christ, rests on His mediation, depends entirely on it and draws all its power from it. In no way does it impede, but rather does it foster the immediate union of the faithful with Christ.
http://www.vatican.va/archive/hist_...s/vat-ii_const_19641121_lumen-gentium_en.html
 
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Dear dallas_r,

Thanks for your reply. When I pray the prayer, “Hail Holy Queen” I am addressing our Mother in the context of the whole sentence:

“Hail Holy Queen, Mother of Mercy, our Life, our Sweetness and our Hope.”. Of herself Mary is as St. Louis de Montfort says:
  1. With the whole Church I acknowledge that Mary, being a mere creature fashioned by the hands of God is, compared to his infinite majesty, less than an atom, or rather is simply nothing, since he alone can say, “I am he who is”. Consequently, this great Lord, who is ever independent and self-sufficient, never had and does not now have any absolute need of the Blessed Virgin for the accomplishment of his will and the manifestation of his glory. To do all things he has only to will them.
  2. However, I declare that, considering things as they are, because God has decided to begin and accomplish his greatest works through the Blessed Virgin ever since he created her, we can safely believe that he will not change his plan in the time to come, for he is God and therefore does not change in his thoughts or his way of acting.
  3. God the Father gave his only Son to the world only through Mary. Whatever desires the patriarchs may have cherished, whatever entreaties the prophets and saints of the Old Law may have had for 4,000 years to obtain that treasure, it was Mary alone who merited it and found grace before God by the power of her prayers and the perfection of her virtues. “The world being unworthy,” said Saint Augustine, “to receive the Son of God directly from the hands of the Father, he gave his Son to Mary for the world to receive him from her.”
The Son of God became man for our salvation but only in Mary and through Mary.

God the Holy Spirit formed Jesus Christ in Mary but only after having asked her consent, through one of the chief ministers of his court.
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Because the Son of God became man in and through Mary, She is the Mother of Him Who is Mercy for us. She is Mother of Him Who is Life for us, and she is Mother of Him Who is all Sweetness for us. We need to see Mary always in union with God Who has done such great things for her and for us. Devotion to Mary is “Intrinsic” to Christian worship, that is we simply cannot do without her, since God has chosen to make her such an intrinsic part of His Plan for our salvation. ((cf Catechism of the Catholic Church paragraph 971)

May we continue to open our hearts to Mary and in so doing open ourselves to all God desires to do in each of us, and let us share Him as Mary did with the world!
 
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