What can Mary actually do?

[Totus_tuus118]

St Louis de Montfort and maxillian kolbe …great devotees to Mary talk about this incomprehensable intimate union between Mary and the Holy Spirit.

Maximilian Kolbe describes Mary as been like a quasi-incarnation of the Holy spirit …that’s how great their union is. It doesn’t mean Mary is divine, she is a creature but a unique vessel of the Holy Spirit , who dwelt in her soul from the very moment of her conception. Through her, (by the merits of Christ) all grace comes to mankind.

St Louis de Montfort says that when the Holy spirit sees a soul devoted to Mary , "the more active and mighty He produces Jesus Christ in that soul and that soul in Jesus Christ. "

So devotion to Mary draws us closer to Christ. It is the will of God that we all have that relationship with the Blessed Mother. The more we honour Mary, the more honour we give the Lord.

 

[twf]

…by grace. I think you missed the key part of the phrase. Mary’s will is perfectly aligned with God, thus God will grant her any request.

Let me turn the question on you. Where did you get the Bible? From the Catholic Church… and properly only understood within the context of that tradition.

 

[Pai_Nosso]

When I read the bible how would I make sure that I understand it within the context of Catholic tradition without a Catholic commentary or someone else explaining it to me?

I know our bible has 7 extra books in the OT. I wouldn’t expect anything about Mary to be in those so I’ll ask again. Where did the church get that from? If it’s in the bible can u please tell me where?

 

[steph03]

When I read the bible how would I make sure that I understand it within the context of Catholic tradition without a Catholic commentary or someone else explaining it to me

I know our bible has 7 extra books in the OT. I wouldn’t expect anything about Mary to be in those so I’ll ask again. Where did the church get that from? If it’s in the bible can u please tell me where?

It’s not that easy, Protestants believed so yet somehow they split into 35 000+ denominations which disagree with one another on many things yet most maintain that they follow the Bible.

https://www.catholicstand.com/the-power-of-a-queen-marys-intercession/

 

[Emeraldlady]

but after a recent confession a priest suggested I “pray to the blessed mother for strength in times of hardship”.

Mary is especially significant in times of darkness in our life. We regard her as a unique light like the moon is at night. Her light comes from Christ, but her gift of motherly guidance and protection are hers to give by that light. I find that fear of imploring Mary’s assistance to be a real loss for Protestants faith. It is nothing at all to be scared about.

The Memorare is a good prayer in times of hardship.

 

[godisgood77]

Here is St John Henry Newman on some corruptions in devotion to Mary…some of this words of wisdom seem appropriate for this conversation…

8. After such explanation, and with such authorities, to clear my path, I put away from me, as you would wish, without any hesitation, as matters in which my heart and reason have no part, (when taken in their literal and absolute sense, as any Protestant would naturally take them, and as the writers doubtless did not use them), such sentences, and phrases, as these:—that the mercy of Mary is infinite; that God has resigned into her hands His omnipotence; that it is safer to seek her than to seek her Son; that the Blessed Virgin is superior to God; that our Lord is subject to her command; that His present disposition towards sinners, as well as His Father’s, is to reject them, while the Blessed Mary takes His place as an Advocate with Father and Son; that the Saints are more ready to intercede with Jesus than Jesus with the Father; that Mary is the only refuge of those with whom God is angry; that Mary alone can obtain a Protestant’s conversion; that it would have sufficed for the salvation of men if our Lord had died, not in order to obey His Father, but to defer to the decree of His Mother; that she rivals our Lord in being God’s daughter, not by adoption, but by a kind of nature; that Christ fulfilled the office of Saviour by imitating her virtues; that, as the Incarnate God bore the image of His Father, so He bore the image of His Mother; that {114} redemption derived from Christ indeed its sufficiency, but from Mary its beauty and loveliness; that, as we are clothed with the merits of Christ, so we are clothed with the merits of Mary; that, as He is Priest, in a like sense is she Priestess; that His Body and Blood in the Eucharist are truly hers and appertain to her; that as He is present and received therein, so is she present and received therein; that Priests are ministers as of Christ, so of Mary; that elect souls are born of God and Mary; that the Holy Ghost brings into fruitfulness His action by her, producing in her and by her Jesus Christ in His members; that the kingdom of God in our souls, as our Lord speaks, is really the kingdom of Mary in the soul; that she and the Holy Ghost produce in the soul extraordinary things; and that when the Holy Ghost finds Mary in a soul He flies there.

Sentiments such as these I freely surrender to your animadversion; I never knew of them till I read your book, nor, as I think, do the vast majority of English Catholics know them. They seem to me like a bad dream.

 

[Emeraldlady]

When I read the bible how would I make sure that I understand it within the context of Catholic tradition without a Catholic commentary or someone else explaining it to me?

I know our bible has 7 extra books in the OT. I wouldn’t expect anything about Mary to be in those so I’ll ask again. Where did the church get that from? If it’s in the bible can u please tell me where?

The growth of Marian devotion is sourced in Luke and Johns gospel mostly. Her maternal graces are inextricably part to the economy of salvation, her womb made sacred by Christ.

 

[Pai_Nosso]

My question was originally to @twf regarding this post

Mary can do anything. She is “omnipotent by grace” (though not by nature). Her Divine Son has entrusted all grace to Her and will deny Her nothing

Where did the church get this piece of theology? If the bible has anything, where? If not, where?
This was his response

…by grace. I think you missed the key part of the phrase. Mary’s will is perfectly aligned with God, thus God will grant her any request.

Let me turn the question on you. Where did you get the Bible? From the Catholic Church… and properly only understood within the context of that tradition.

I then responded with

When I read the bible how would I make sure that I understand it within the context of Catholic tradition without a Catholic commentary or someone else explaining it to me?

I know our bible has 7 extra books in the OT. I wouldn’t expect anything about Mary to be in those so I’ll ask again. Where did the church get that from? If it’s in the bible can u please tell me where?

I haven’t heard back. I appreciate the people who offered explanations to my last post but it’s my first question that im curious to know more about.

Where did the church get this teaching?
“Mary can do anything. She is “omnipotent by grace” (though not by nature). Her Divine Son has entrusted all grace to Her and will deny Her nothing”

Im really interested to know how it all works really.
So the church writes Catechisms every so often to define Catholic canon so that everyone is on the same page with interpretations and such. Im picturing the pope writing this with the high priests or is it just the pope?
The added canon doesn’t always have to be biblical, right, it can come from the theology of saints i think. Aquinas comes to mind. But then Aquinas and other saints also wrote books, does any of that become official canon?
Or it can come from modern revelation given to the pope or some else. Im reminded of the Pope of the early 13th century had a revelation of two pillars that the Catholic church needed as the foundation to sit on. It turned out to be the Franciscan and Dominican orders. That’s according to a movie of St Francis of Assisi anyway.

Is that about right? Please correct me where Im wrong, if there are documents other than Catechisms that hold weight, is there canon and then theology, official/non official? I don’t know, thats why i often get called protestant cos I only know the bible. Are the Catechisms what I should be reading now?

Maybe I should make that last bit a new thread.

 

[Wm777]

God hears all your prayers. So, if you pray to Mary, He is aware of what you are contemplating.

The benefit in praying to Mary is, God made Mary the ultimate Mom; so, when you turn to Her in prayer, it’s like turning to your own Mom (or better) for help. God sees this, and, since He Himself regards Her as a Hyperdoulia, He will entrust to Her whatever blessings She thinks appropriate for you.

As for what She can “do” - She does what God allows and asks Her to do.

But Her tendency is usually not to set Herself in the limelight. Instead, She points us to Jesus, which sometimes makes it easy to miss the benefits of Her intercession, although they are the best blessings of all.

 

[JimG]

The one homage that you pay to God and no one else is to prostrate yourself before him who created you from nothing, and whom you are dependent on for every single moment of your continued existence. A creature worships his Creator.

Saints, including Mary, are human beings, limited and finite. But they live in the presence of the Beatific Vision, beholding God in his very essence. They can pray for you as can no human being on earth.

Jesus said to John, and through him, to us: “Behold your mother.”
And to Mary, “Behold your son.”