What does Mary mean to us?

[antimon]

this thread is not about Marian doctrines or apologetics but about spirituality.

I want to know, why do we pray to Mary? Why do we venerate her? What is Mary to us? What role does she play in our daily life in faith? What practical consequences/benefits does it have?

Any Scripture and other sources would be helpful, also your opinions and experience.

 

[St_Gabriel]

Try reading St. Louis de Monfort’s “Secrets of the Rosary”. It might help you out.

Available on line: circleofprayer.com/secret1.html

 

[chsngtailodogma]

i have struggled with this. being raised protestant, i am constantly asking myself, why do we need others besides god?? god doesn’t need saints and his mother to do anything for him… so why? i know, there’s a multitude of reasons why we benefit, but at the root of all of these benefits is god. so, again, why?

i know, it seems like a catholic adult should understand these things fully. unfortunately it seems to be taking me awhile.

sorry~i don’t have any answers for you!

 

[boppaid]

i have struggled with this. being raised protestant, i am constantly asking myself, why do we need others besides god?? god doesn’t need saints and his mother to do anything for him… so why? i know, there’s a multitude of reasons why we benefit, but at the root of all of these benefits is god. so, again, why?

i know, it seems like a catholic adult should understand these things fully. unfortunately it seems to be taking me awhile.

sorry~i don’t have any answers for you!

I struggle with this as well. I don’t know how many times I’ve lost something and my mom says “pray to St. Anthony” and I respond…“Nah, I’ll go right to the source” and then pray to Jesus.

Similarly, my mother in law has told me to pray to Mary when I struggle in my role as a parent because she understands. Um, why wouldn’t Christ understand? He is God and knows the workings of my heart. He is all-knowing! I think he would understand even more!

So, I’m sorry I have no answers for you. I look forward to reading others’ responses.

 

[St_Gabriel]

Let me share my personal experience.

There was a distinct time in my life where I had to make a real turning point and I knew that I couldn’t rely on myself because I kept making mistakes and I felt a real sadness and fear. I felt like a real disapointment to God and was ashamed to turn to him. I knew that I was in a spiritual danger. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw the rosary that my mom gave to me for my first communion, sitting in a glass trinket box on my counter. I picked it up along with a little booklet “How to pray the Rosary” and followed the directions in the booklet to do the novena. Well then things really started happening (all for the good… praise God!) Blessings started coming to me. Suddenly people started showing up, spiritual books started falling in my laps. I made my way to the confessional and received the healing grace that comes with it and lots and lots of joy. I knew that Jesus was always there, but I needed someone to point the way for me. Mary pointed me to Jesus via the rosary! I will forever be grateful to her.

 

[Teelynn]

Let me share my personal experience.

There was a distinct time in my life where I had to make a real turning point and I knew that I couldn’t rely on myself because I kept making mistakes and I felt a real sadness and fear. I felt like a real disapointment to God and was ashamed to turn to him. I knew that I was in a spiritual danger. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw the rosary that my mom gave to me for my first communion, sitting in a glass trinket box on my counter. I picked it up along with a little booklet “How to pray the Rosary” and followed the directions in the booklet to do the novena. Well then things really started happening (all for the good… praise God!) Blessings started coming to me. Suddenly people started showing up, spiritual books started falling in my laps. I made my way to the confessional and received the healing grace that comes with it and lots and lots of joy. I knew that Jesus was always there, but I needed someone to point the way for me. Mary pointed me to Jesus via the rosary! I will forever be grateful to her.

Ditto for me. I had a very similar experience. A real crisis in my life. I was in such a mental state that I could not pray, period. A friend of mine suggested that I try to pray the rosary. I was not unfamiliar with it, had prayed it many times in my life, just not on a real regular basis. I could only pray a decade a day for a long time, asking my guardian angel to finish it for me. Within about a month I was able to pray the whole rosary. Profound miracles happened for me. Changed my life dramatically. I also will be ever in debt to Our Blessed Mother. (and my guardian angel:thumbsup: ) The Blessed Mother brought me to Her Son through the rosary. She does not want to take the limelight, but she is ALWAYS leading us to Jesus.

The COMMUNITY OF SAINTS is a very important part of the Catholic Church. Jesus wants us to JOIN IN UNITY IN PRAYER TO HIM. If we ask for help from Our Blessed Mother and the Saints in Heaven, they will intercede for us and WITH US. I always go to Jesus as well, but rely on the Saints to help me in my walk with Him. The more people both in Heaven and on earth that we can get to pray with us, the more efficacious are our prayers! Guess I call it “storming Heaven.” Jesus also wants us to honor His Mother. He first gave command of this when He said to John from the Cross,
“Behold thy mother, mother behold thy son.”

Hope this helped shed some light

 

[InLight247]

I want to know, why do we pray to Mary?

Mary is our Heavenly Mother. Mother knows the best.

Why do we venerate her?

Mary, mother of Jesus and our Mother, the spouse of the Holy Spirit, the new Eve who gave us the Son of God, deserves all our veneration.

What is Mary to us?

Mary is the mother of our Savior, the most pure who offered Jesus for love of us.

What role does she play in our daily life in faith?

She prays for us. She points us to Jesus. She offers us her motherly love and blessing in every detail of our lives.

What practical consequences/benefits does it have?

Praying and meditating on the most Holy Rosary, the Blessed Virgin Mary bestows on us her intercession and protection, and helps us get abundant grace from God.

 

[boppaid]

Thank you for sharing yoru experiences. I still am so confused, though. In all those instances, why couldn’t you go directly to God? Why did you go to Mary first? Christ’s love for us is unending, and he is the loving, forgiving parent who welcomes our sinful beings into his graces and shelters us with his love. When we are ashamed or hurt, or in need of anything, should he be the first one we go to?

I guess I don’t understand…it feels almost like a “middle man”. (No offense intended. I just have struggled w/ this my entire Catholic life.)

 

[InLight247]

… why couldn’t you go directly to God? Why did you go to Mary first?

It has never been said that Catholics couldn’t go directly to God. We always directly go to God. But we also go to Mary.

And it is not necessarily go to Mary first. We go to Father God, Lord Jesus, and Mother Mary. If we first pray the Rosary, keep in mind Mary **always points us to Jesus.
**
As a Catholic, we don’t have to pray the Rosary, we don’t have to seek Mary’s help.
Her intercession is there for us if we want her help.

 

[boppaid]

It has never been said that Catholics couldn’t go directly to God. We always directly go to God. But we also go to Mary.

And it is not necessarily go to Mary first. We go to Father God, Lord Jesus, and Mother Mary. If we first pray the Rosary, keep in mind Mary **always points us to Jesus.
**
As a Catholic, we don’t have to pray the Rosary, we don’t have to seek Mary’s help.
Her intercession is there for us if we want her help.

Thank you for clarifying. I do understand that we don’t HAVE TO go to Mary or the saints, but I wonder why some people do? What’s the benefit of it? To me, every time an opportunity could present itself to pray to a saint or Mary, (as is suggested to me by family members), I always say, "why bother? I’ll go right to the source! ) But in all seriousness, is there any benefit to not going right "to the source (for lack of a better term) each and every time I pray?

 

[Teelynn]

It has never been said that Catholics couldn’t go directly to God. We always directly go to God. But we also go to Mary.

And it is not necessarily go to Mary first. We go to Father God, Lord Jesus, and Mother Mary. If we first pray the Rosary, keep in mind Mary always points us to Jesus.

As a Catholic, we don’t have to pray the Rosary, we don’t have to seek Mary’s help.
Her intercession is there for us if we want her help.

And who doesn’t need her help?? I need all the help I can get!!!

 

[St_Gabriel]

Why did you go to Mary first?
QUOTE]

That’s a very good question. Remember the story of the Wedding feast of Cana? Mary brought the problem of the wine running out to Jesus’s attention although he already knew. If he just went ahead (performed the miracle) without her mentioning it, it probably wouldn’t have been so glorious. He could have ignored her, but he didn’t. He honored his mother’s wish in order to give glory to God.

When we are in a state of sin, we are blinded to some of the graces that God has for us. It helps us to have someone find our way back to God. Who better then His mother?

 

[InLight247]

Thank you for clarifying. I do understand that we don’t HAVE TO go to Mary or the saints, but I wonder why some people do? What’s the benefit of it? To me, every time an opportunity could present itself to pray to a saint or Mary, (as is suggested to me by family members), I always say, "why bother? I’ll go right to the source! ) But in all seriousness, is there any benefit to not going right "to the source (for lack of a better term) each and every time I pray?

To me, pray the Rosary is going to Jesus.

Mary always points us to Jesus. Praying the Rosary is going to Mary and going to Jesus. Keep in mind that usually Rosary is not the only prayer a Catholic says.

Personally, I pray the Rosary, the Chaplet of DIvine Mercy,the Sacred Heart of Jesus, the St. Bridget’s Prayer… I also pray with my own words, or the prayer of silence. Yes, you can talk to nobody but God only. But do you ever ask your friends to pray for you? Do you ever say to John or Betty, “please pray for this and that”? When we go to Mary or Saints, we are asking for their intercession just like we seek prayer support from our earthly friends.

 

[FCEGM]

Thank you for clarifying. I do understand that we don’t HAVE TO go to Mary or the saints, but I wonder why some people do? What’s the benefit of it? To me, every time an opportunity could present itself to pray to a saint or Mary, (as is suggested to me by family members), I always say, "why bother? I’ll go right to the source! ) But in all seriousness, is there any benefit to not going right "to the source (for lack of a better term) each and every time I pray?

Yes, because God has created us not just to be joined to Him, but to all our brothers and sisters in Him - and most especially with she who is our Mother in the Faith. The experience of Catholics in our Communion in Christ which we enjoy with our Blessed Mother and our brothers and sisters the Saints, testifies to an ever deepening awareness and love of God. Far from distracting us from love of the Most Holy Trinity, our unity within the Communion of Saints only fosters greater attentiveness to living faithfully in His Light.

Asking the intercession of the Saints is realistic humility. God hears everyone’s prayers; He does not thereby grant all that He hears - just as a human father hears all the child pleas of his offspring, but does not always grant them. God grants the prayers of the Just, since they are in a position to be heard and accommodated, their will already being in sync with His. The faithful on earth are quite aware that they are not as pure as the Saints in Heaven. Good Christians are not in a state of sin, but they realistically know they are far from being perfectly in sync with God’s will, but those in heaven are.

And we are human; which means that we are all in this boat together and not isolated individuals. It is therefore according to our nature created by God to do things together for a common purpose. It is our love for one another that impels us to pray for one another and to want others to pray for us. The Saints are our brothers and sisters who are in God’s Presence; but some people don’t like this interdependence.

The Christian Tradition from the beginning declares that the interest of the Saints in Heaven for their brothers and sisters on earth will be increased a hundredfold, because they will realize then more fully our needs and necessities. St. Jerome (350-420) is a striking witness to this fact. He writes:

“If the Apostles and martyrs, whilst still in the flesh and still needing to care for themselves, can pray for others, how much more will they pray for others after they have won their crowns, victories, their triumphs. Moses, one man, obtains God’s pardon for six hundred thousand men, and Stephen prays for his persecutors. When they are with Christ will they be less powerful? St. Paul says that two hundred and sixty-six souls were granted to his prayers, whilst they were in the ship with him. Shall we close his lips after death, and not mutter a syllable for those who throughout the world have believed in his gospel?” (Adv. Vigil, 6)

 

[jrabs]

Thank you for sharing your experiences. I still am so confused, though. In all those instances, why couldn’t you go directly to God? Why did you go to Mary first? Christ’s love for us is unending, and he is the loving, forgiving parent who welcomes our sinful beings into his graces and shelters us with his love. When we are ashamed or hurt, or in need of anything, should he be the first one we go to?

I guess I don’t understand…it feels almost like a “middle man”. (No offense intended. I just have struggled w/ this my entire Catholic life.)

Sometimes I need the tenderness a mom provides. I can relate to the kindness of my mother and know when I am sad, upset and confused my mom on Earth always has time to listen, offer encouraging words and sometimes even delivers news to my dad on my behalf in a much softer gentler way. She is an advocate for me.

I believe Mary is my spiritual mother. She does the very same things for me in heaven with her son that my mom does here on earth.

I can and do go straight to Jesus, but I also ask for the assistance and motherly love that Mary is longing to provide to all her spiritual children. No mother likes to see her kids ignore and dismiss her.

And I imagine Jesus does not appreciate watching us ignore His mother.

I honor Mary as Jesus honors her. I love her as Jesus wants us to love her. Though I worship only Jesus - I am comforted my Mary’s hugs when I hurt.

 

[water]

To know what Mary means to us, one can learn what She means to Jesus, our Lord.

 

[Teelynn]

boppaid;2618615:

Why did you go to Mary first?
QUOTE]

That’s a very good question. Remember the story of the Wedding feast of Cana? Mary brought the problem of the wine running out to Jesus’s attention although he already knew. If he just went ahead (performed the miracle) without her mentioning it, it probably wouldn’t have been so glorious. He could have ignored her, but he didn’t. He honored his mother’s wish in order to give glory to God.

When we are in a state of sin, we are blinded to some of the graces that God has for us. It helps us to have someone find our way back to God. Who better then His mother?

The wedding feast at Cana is a perfect example. If it does not interfere with the Divine Will, Jesus has a very hard time saying no to His Mother. Besides going directly to Jesus, The Blessed Mother is always my go to person to help the cause along.

 

[Hastrman]

She is Ciuapiltzin Coatlaxopeuh, The Lady Crushes-the-Snake’s-Head. The snake is the serpent referred to in Revelation as having its head crushed by her Son.

A red snake is also, however, the symbol of Tlazolteotl, the Aztec goddess of lust (subtle, huh?), who was an aspect of the Aztec’s great goddess (not unlike the Hindu Mahadevi, but nowhere near as decent). Mary appeared to Juan Diego on Tepeyac, the sacred hill of the Great Goddess, and claimed it for her own, crushing Tlazolteotl by the power of her Son.

Thus, Mary is the special patron of the Americas, of Native Americans, and, because of her victory over Tlazolteotl and her perpetual virginity, those who struggle with lust.