What does Mary ask of us?

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Lucy_1

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In Sunday’s homily our priest said that Mary asks us to fast on Fridays and Wednesdays. I was unaware of this. It got me thinking, what are all the things Mary has requested us to do? Please, if you can, name the apparition or other source, because I’d like to look them up on the internet. If you have a link, that would be great too!
 
What she has said from the beginning “Do whatever He tells you.” Source: Wedding at Cana
 
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Mary’s so-called request for fasting on Wednesdays and Fridays has only been made in unapproved private revelations, to my knowledge. There is another unapproved private revelation where she also requested fasting on Mondays. The rules of the forum forbid posting material from unapproved private revelations, so I will not discuss it further here. Your priest should not be presenting these unapproved revelations as if they’re approved, but it’s possible that you quoted him out of context or misunderstood something he said, so I will give him the benefit of the doubt since I wasn’t there to hear it myself.

Mary, in various Approved private revelations, has called on us generally to do penance in reparation for mankind’s sins, for the Holy Souls in Purgatory, and for the Holy Father. To my knowledge, she has not requested fasting specifically in these Approved private revelations, but has simply requested “penance”, which could be fasting or could be some other penance of the person’s own choice. She has also expressed in one or more Approved private revelations that people should follow the teachings of Christ and the rules of the Church, including the Church rules for fasting and abstinence on the days and in the manner required by the Church.

Mary has called on people in various Approved private revelations to pray the Rosary and to make the First Saturday Devotion, which does not involve fasting (except for the usual Church-required one hour fast before receiving Holy Communion). Many people make this devotion and some of them make it over and over by starting a new Five First Saturdays each time they finish the previous set of 5. This is a good way to honor Our Lady and to build good prayer and confession habits, if you choose to do the devotion.

http://www.themostholyrosary.com/appendix2.htm

Keep in mind that Catholics are not required to believe or follow any private revelations, even if they’re approved.
And in the case of unapproved private revelations, many Catholics prefer to wait until the apparition or revelation is Church-approved in some way before they get involved with it. Some apparitions are “Approved for Faith Expression” which means the apparition itself has not been approved or disapproved, but the faithful are permitted to do a particular devotion associated with it.

If you choose to fast as your own personal private devotion or penance, I recommend as always checking with your doctor to make sure that what you want to do will not be harmful to your health.
 
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Tis_Bearself said:
Keep in mind that Catholics are not required to believe or follow any private revelations, even if they’re approved.
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Yes, but when approved they are encouraged by the Church for the the same reason God allowed them in the first place.
 
I agree they are encouraged, and I think it is good practice to try to do as Mary said in the approved ones (and even a couple of the others that are approved for faith expression only).

But I have to include the statement about not being required to believe in them, or else someone else will surely chime in with it as always happens on these threads. And it’s probably good that we make that statement, given that there are people here who don’t know what the Church requires Catholics to believe or who are so scrupulous they would lay awake nights worrying that they were failing to do something Mary had asked in some obscure revelation.
 
Wednesday and Friday were days of fasting in the Church for a long time. I guess that got reduced to “no meat on friday” after V2, if you call that fasting. She has requested for people to return to real fasting again; wed and fri.

I’m fairly certain about the source of Mary’s advice for fasting but what she says most often from those apparitions is “pray, pray, pray.”

Seeing as those apparitions are still ongoing, the Church will not officially approve but JPII and Benedict XVI spoke very favourably about it.
 
Tis_Bearself said:
I agree they are encouraged, and I think it is good practice to try to do as Mary said in the approved ones (and even a couple of the others that are approved for faith expression only).

But I have to include the statement about not being required to believe in them, or else someone else will surely chime in with it as always happens on these threads. And it’s probably good that we make that statement, given that there are people here who don’t know what the Church requires Catholics to believe or who are so scrupulous they would lay awake nights worrying that they were failing to do something Mary had asked in some obscure revelation.
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More to the point, Our Lady never implied that the bishops ought to enshrine her request into the duties universally required of Catholics. Having said that, Fridays have remained the universal days of penance in the Church (unless there is a solemnity being observed on a Friday).

Can. 1244 §1. It is only for the supreme ecclesiastical authority to establish, transfer, and suppress feast days and days of penance common to the universal Church, without prejudice to the prescript of can. 1246, §2.

§2. Diocesan bishops can decree special feast days or days of penance for their dioceses or places, but only in individual instances.

and

Days of Penance

Can. 1249 The divine law binds all the Christian faithful to do penance each in his or her own way. In order for all to be united among themselves by some common observance of penance, however, penitential days are prescribed on which the Christian faithful devote themselves in a special way to prayer, perform works of piety and charity, and deny themselves by fulfilling their own obligations more faithfully and especially by observing fast and abstinence, according to the norm of the following canons.

Can. 1250 The penitential days and times in the universal Church are every Friday of the whole year and the season of Lent.

Can. 1251 Abstinence from meat, or from some other food as determined by the Episcopal Conference, is to be observed on all Fridays, unless a solemnity should fall on a Friday. Abstinence and fasting are to be observed on Ash Wednesday and Good Friday.

Can. 1252 The law of abstinence binds those who have completed their fourteenth year. The law of fasting binds those who have attained their majority, until the beginning of their sixtieth year. Pastors of souls and parents are to ensure that even those who by reason of their age are not bound by the law of fasting and abstinence, are taught the true meaning of penance.

Can. 1253 The conference of bishops can determine more precisely the observance of fast and abstinence as well as substitute other forms of penance, especially works of charity and exercises of piety, in whole or in part, for abstinence and fast.

(CONT)
 
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Note that when the bishops in the United States deemed that fasting from meat was not the only way to meet the Friday duty to do penance, they wrote this:
20. Accordingly, since the spirit of penance primarily suggests that we discipline ourselves in that which we enjoy most, to many in our day abstinence from meat no longer implies penance, while renunciation of other things would be more penitential.

21. For these and related reasons, the Catholic bishops of the United States, far from downgrading the traditional penitential observance of Friday, and motivated precisely by the desire to give the spirit of penance greater vitality, especially on Fridays, the day that Jesus died,urge our Catholic people henceforth to be guided by the following norms.

http://www.usccb.org/prayer-and-wor...toral-statement-on-penance-and-abstinence.cfm

It is well to read the entire statement, but the long and short of it is that if Catholics elect not to abstain from meat as their Friday penance they ought to be deliberately choosing acts of self-denial that are more penitential to them personally than abstaining from meat.
 
I just abstain from the meat. My life is pretty complicated to be having to think up special penances for every Friday. Although sometimes when I am watching somebody in a fast food restaurant having to specially remove the bacon off my sandwich or redo the nachos that they accidentally put meat on, I almost feel like I’m imposing my penance on them.

I also do the Monday fast Mary requested in one of the unapproved private revelations, as it’s Approved for Faith Expression by Archbishop Chaput. This is my personal choice to do it and I skip it some weeks if for example I have to drive a long distance or have some other circumstances that makes it more prudent to eat on Monday.
 
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godisgood77 said:
You mean supposed apparition… what would you say to a Catholic that does not believe in apparitions considering no Catholic is bound to.
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I mean every approved Apparition. And there are quite a few of them down through the centuries.

I would say remember the words we say in the Creed.

We believe in one God,
the Father, the Almighty,
maker of heaven and earth,
of all that is, seen and unseen.

‘of all that is seen and unseen’

There is a supernatural world, God is that world, the Angels and demons are of that world. Mary is in Heaven, as are the saints.

If we are Catholic we must acknowledge seen and unseen
 
The OP clearly doesn’t fall in the category of those who don’t believe Marian apparitions. Furthermore, it’s already been noted that one doesnt have to believe in or follow approved private revelation.
Your comments in their thread are off topic at best and disrespectful at worst.

As for “supposed apparition” the Vatican or local bishops have approved quite a few as being worthy of belief. You don’t have to believe in them, but saying “supposed apparition” is quite dismissive of the Church authority.
 
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godisgood77 said:
You mean supposed apparition… what would you say to a Catholic that does not believe in apparitions considering no Catholic is bound to.
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Read the Cana story. It’s what she says in her apparitions, too. Well, that and the same things the Popes also say in their encyclicals, which do carry teaching weight.

Oh, and read Chapter VIII of Lumen Gentium: The Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of God, in the Mystery of Christ and the Church. “Wherefore this Holy Synod, in expounding the doctrine on the Church, in which the divine Redeemer works salvation, intends to describe with diligence both the role of the Blessed Virgin in the mystery of the Incarnate Word and the Mystical Body, and the duties of redeemed mankind toward the Mother of God, who is mother of Christ and mother of men, particularly of the faithful…”
  1. Placed by the grace of God, as God’s Mother, next to her Son, and exalted above all angels and men, Mary intervened in the mysteries of Christ and is justly honored by a special cult in the Church. Clearly from earliest times the Blessed Virgin is honored under the title of Mother of God, under whose protection the faithful took refuge in all their dangers and necessities. Hence after the Synod of Ephesus the cult of the people of God toward Mary wonderfully increased in veneration and love, in invocation and imitation, according to her own prophetic words: “All generations shall call me blessed, because He that is mighty hath done great things to me”. This cult, as it always existed, although it is altogether singular, differs essentially from the cult of adoration which is offered to the Incarnate Word, as well to the Father and the Holy Spirit, and it is most favorable to it. The various forms of piety toward the Mother of God, which the Church within the limits of sound and orthodox doctrine, according to the conditions of time and place, and the nature and ingenuity of the faithful has approved, bring it about that while the Mother is honored, the Son, through whom all things have their being and in whom it has pleased the Father that all fullness should dwell, is rightly known, loved and glorified and that all His commands are observed.
    http://www.vatican.va/archive/hist_...s/vat-ii_const_19641121_lumen-gentium_en.html
That last chapter of Lumen Gentium (The Dogmatic Constitution on the Church) is well worth reading…
 
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thistle said:
Catholics are not required to believe in any approved apparition.
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A Catholic who does not accept them could find their way to the same conclusions by accepting what is in the deposit of the Faith. If these apparations are to be believed, as the Church teaches they might be without peril to a Catholic’s soul, Our Lady makes some specific cautions, but in none of these apparitions does she recommend actions that the Church doesn’t already approve and teach, such as interceding to Heaven with prayer and fasting on behalf of those who are traveling perilous paths. Our Lady always points the way to do what Her Son commands, and in the excellent ways already recognized by the Church.
 
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GiftofMercy said:
And where have I said that? You have taken my response to another person right out of context.
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If I have then my apologies. Your posts taken together seemed to imply that approved apparitions should be believed by Catholics.
 
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