What is a 'devotion to Mary'?

[rcwitness]

For those with weak or no devotion to Mary, did you ever wonder…

What is a weak devotion to Mary? What is a strong devotion to Mary?

What if at the Annunciation, her answer was ‘No, I will not serve.’?
Where would we be today?

We, as Catholics, believe Mary was given special grace from Jesus at her conception. This is why she was able to say, “Let it be done”. Also, How many people do you think would say no to a glorious angel from God? I do believe her yes came from a pure faith and not just a mere verbal consent. I think you are recognizing the motherhood Mary has to all Christians when she acted in good faith to welcome the Salvation of man.

Since eternity hinged upon her ‘Yes’, where is the obvious debt of gratitude that we owe her, among all Christians?

So, what is the “dedt of gratitude” we owe her?

Fiat … Let it be done! Today and every day.

Let what be done? What is God’s will for us? What devotion does God desire for us? I personally believe he desires us to have the devotion which his mother had, not neccessarily a devotion to her. This is my interpretation of “a devotion to the heart of Mary”.

Thanks for the post. Hope to hear more of your faith.

 

[Googler]

Weak devotion is no prayer to Our Lady as she is constantly pleading for us sinners at the throne of her Divine Son, whether you invoke her or not.
We tend to forget that we will not receive what we do not ask for.
Mary’s voluntary acceptance of God’s will made the Incarnation possible. She used free will, gave her consent, choosing to do what was more pleasing to Him.
Being conceived without original sin and its consequences she had prudence and unbounded trust in God. So, of course, she would not have made the wrong decision. But surely, she was not a puppet on a stage.
She was human, had to walk by faith, and trust in hope, like the rest of us. She had to believe what she could not understand.
And yes, it is not wise to doubt the angel Gabriel.
I’m just saying that except for her we wouldn’t have Jesus, without Jesus there would be no heaven.
I have gratitude to the virgin Mother of God for every single act she did after that.
The debt of gratitude we owe her is true devotion.
The one who is devoted to our Blessed Mother thinks of her, reads about her, talks about her, speaks to her, invokes her and tries to imitate her.
Devotion to Mary does not in any way detract from or add anything to the dignity of Christ the one Mediator.
God’s will for us is obedience, sinlessnes, holiness, selflessness, and to be more loving, drawing strength from Jesus as Mary did.
Devotion to the Blessed Virgin is a combination of veneration, intercession, and imitation.
Your interpretation is an imitation as a devotion to her, which is an excellent way to grow in virtue, today and every day.

O good Jesus,
by the love with which You love Your Mother
grant me, I pray,
that I may love her truly,
just as You love her truly and
desire her to be loved.
O good Mother, by the love
with which you love your Son
and desire Him to be loved,
obtain for me the grace,
I pray you,
to love Him truly
as you truly love Him
and desire Him to be loved.
~Saint Anselm

 

[rcwitness]

Weak devotion is no prayer to Our Lady as she is constantly pleading for us sinners at the throne of her Divine Son, whether you invoke her or not.

Makes sense.

We tend to forget that we will not receive what we do not ask for.

I agree.

Mary’s voluntary acceptance of God’s will made the Incarnation possible.

Just as our voluntary acceptance of God’s Will makes our Salvation possible. This is how I see her as a Mother to all Christians. She first bore His will through the consent which all her offspring participates in.

She used free will, gave her consent, choosing to do what was more pleasing to Him.

Yes.

Being conceived without original sin and its consequences she had prudence and unbounded trust in God.

I like how you say “unbounded”. She had a relatinship or complete access to Him from her moment of conception.

So, of course, she would not have made the wrong decision.

This is interesting. She had free will, but by a special grace, that from Jesus, was aided in choosing the way of the Lord.

But surely, she was not a puppet on a stage.

She was certainly able to choose. God’s plan of Jesus coming through her with her consent is a mystery. He knows the hearts of men, and He forms the hearts of the righteous.

She was human, had to walk by faith, and trust in hope, like the rest of us. She had to believe what she could not understand.

I think Mary’s merit was accepting the suffering which came along with bearring the Word of God made flesh. “A sword shall peirce your heart.”

And yes, it is not wise to doubt the angel Gabriel.

And we know from Church Confirmation that her faith was pure and not just fearfull consent. John the Baptist’s father showed doubt with his question to the angel, “How can this happen?” But Mary showed a desire to know God’s plan when she asked, “How can this happen?”

I’m just saying that except for her we wouldn’t have Jesus, without Jesus there would be no heaven.

Except for faith and devotion to God, none of us would have Jesus.

I have gratitude to the virgin Mother of God for every single act she did after that.
The debt of gratitude we owe her is true devotion.
The one who is devoted to our Blessed Mother thinks of her, reads about her, talks about her, speaks to her, invokes her and tries to imitate her.
Devotion to Mary does not in any way detract from or add anything to the dignity of Christ the one Mediator.

Yet, a devotion to Mary is only accessed by a devotion to Church Teaching. Because of her pure and transparent faith, we are devoting ourselves to her when we devote to Jesus’ Church.

God’s will for us is obedience, sinlessnes, holiness, selflessness, and to be more loving, drawing strength from Jesus as Mary did.

Yes, she is a pure model. And we know this only if we have a devotion to Jesus, through Sacred Tradition and Sacraments.

Devotion to the Blessed Virgin is a combination of veneration, intercession, and imitation.
Your interpretation is an imitation as a devotion to her, which is an excellent way to grow in virtue, today and every day.

My interpretation may be good. My life and actions may contradict it. I think a sound devotion is one that follows the commandments of Jesus. Does Jesus command us to pray to His mother? Not directly. Can we believe that it is a holy practice? I think so from Teachings like St James, who tells us to bring our confessions to a righteous person. Their prayers have great power in our recourse. If we seek the minimal amount of recourse, then we confess and pray to God outside of His saints. We can be forgiven, and are able to show fruits of this forgiveness for the conversion of our souls. I am trying to practice relying on my brothers and sisters in the faith to have recourse to God. One big reason I appreciate the Catholic faith, is that there is a strong sense of brotherhood in growing with Jesus. It’s not always taking and not always giving, but there must be a relationship which is pure with our Christian family.

I am in need of my Christian family in order to be delivered from my sins. Maybe not the minimal forgiveness unto death, but the graces which can strengthen me against evil.

 

[Googler]

I am in need of my Christian family in order to be delivered from my sins. Maybe not the minimal forgiveness unto death, but the graces which can strengthen me against evil.

Dear brother, have you, would you, or could you ever commit to daily recitation of the Rosary?

 

[rcwitness]

Dear brother, have you, would you, or could you ever commit to daily recitation of the Rosary?

Right now, I am trying to recover my devotion to my wife. I have fallen into flirting with girls. It is a problem I struggle with. I am very convicted of my problem with looking at other girls and flirting with them, sometimes very inappropriately. I have, with God’s help, avoided actually touching and engaging in the things that I sometimes desire.

This all came to a big climax a few weeks ago. My devotion to my wife was weak. I have been taking this very seriously lately. I love her very much. I have been praying alot. I have been fasting alot.

I don’t want to give you the impression that I think my devotion to Jesus, Mary and His Church are strong. But that I am very remorsefull for my sins. I am very determined to rely on God to purify my heart in order to recover my devotion to my wife and even have a greater one than before.

I do remember our mother Mary in my prayers. I ask for her prayers. It is not always in the form of reciting the Rosary prayer, or not even always acknowledged specifically every prayer.

Right now, I am being challenged by my mother in law and her daughter in law. When my wife dicovered I was flirted with some girls she was very upset. My MIL and her DIL were desperately trying to persuade my wife to divorce me. It was very intense. They were trying to convince my wife that I actually slept with girls. They want my wife to divorse me and never let me see my children again. Their husbands can be the fathers of my children. They also are hounding her to get a permanent sterilization. They tell my wife that I will never change and some day in the future, she will have many kids and a ruined body and I will leave her for a young pretty girl.

My wife has been gracious through this. She is telling her mom that it is a decission between me and her and she does not want her advice anymore.

During this, my MIL and her DIL have given up a fruit as a “promise devotion” to some saint named Joao. I’m just tired of the superficial devotions to saints while blatantly contradiction Christian behavior and being judgmental.

When they accuse me of my flirting, I understand and agree it is wrong. I am remorsefull and have been confessing everything. I do not mind when people point out my faults. It’s not easy, but I realize I have sins to deal with and others sometimes can show me.

 

[Googler]

Prayer to Saint Joseph
Based on Matthew 1:18-25
We ask your prayers, St. Joseph, an upright man, a spouse who planned to divorce Mary in secret and who by God’s grace was able to see his role in God’s plan.
We ask you in our behalf to pray to God that our marriage be healed. We are enveloped in pain and despair as you must have been when you learned of Mary’s pregnancy. Be for and with us, Joseph, in our hour of doubt. Let us listen to and heed the voice of God as you did.
Be our intercessor to your Jesus, to give us the blessings to change, to listen, to forgive and most of all to hope that our marriage will heal and our family remain whole and holy.
We give you honor, quiet St. Joseph, for you are a spouse like us, who while knowing pain, did not divorce. By God’s grace you nourished the Holy Family and the Savior of all families throughout the ages.
Amen.

RETROUVAILLE™
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The Retrouvaille Program consists of a weekend experience combined with a series of 6-12 post-weekend sessions over 3 months. It provides the tools to help put your marriage in order again. The main emphasis of the program is on communication in marriage between husband and wife. It will give you the opportunity to rediscover each other and examine your lives together in a new and positive way.

Each couple is asked to make a donation to help cover the cost of the program. This one donation covers all the expenses of the weekend and the post-weekend sessions. Weekend lodging, meals and materials are all covered by this single donation.

Costs vary from location to location. Contact the Retrouvaille community closest to you for specific information about the amount of donation they request. A registration fee is required when you register for the program to confirm your accommodations. Space is limited so early registration is encouraged.

No couple is ever denied the chance to heal and renew their marriage because of lack of funds.

 

[fred_conty]

rcwitness,
you made a good point…that of being weak. And tho we should try and love Jesus with all our heart as Mary loved Jesus, and we should emulate Mary in her faith and humility, sometimes we are weak. We don’t emulate her. And that is when we should remember that Mary, being a mother not only to Jesus, but to all her children in Christ, can and will help us if we ask her as her child.

I believe our dear Lord gave his own mother to us just as he gave his own life to us. He completed his giving in her. For he knows that all of us need a mother who does not turn away from us just because the child gets dirty. She will pick them up and see to her child’s needs. Jesus was so kind to us in giving us the one person who will help inspite of everything to the contrary.

It is another way of God’s great mercy…thru Mary.

May God bless and keep you. May God’s face shine on you. May God be kind to you and give you peace.

 

[JohnR77]

What is God’s will for us? What devotion does God desire for us? I personally believe he desires us to have the devotion which his mother had, not neccesarily a devotion to her.
.

You have the first and most important part correct. But since God is love He wants us to love our neighbor, the Saints.
We are all sinners, so none of us are completely trustworthy. Yet, trust is the foundation of a good marriage. If you lead your wife to the One who is trustworthy, Jesus, by praying the Rosary with her, she will intuitively learn to trust you more.

I am embarrassed to admit that I did not always have the habit of praying the rosary. When I learned that all the Saints who were canonized in the last couple hundred of years had a devotion to the Rosary I knew that their exemplary lives was not just coincidental.

Further, I was convicted by St. Pope John Paul II’s devotion to Mary. At first, I had mis-thought his handing out rosaries was just a nice thing to do. But, year after year he would always give them away. Clearly this was purposeful and planned.

When I started praying the rosary I would get this nagging feeling, “John, just think of all the more productive things you could be doing instead.” Yet, I knew the other things I would be doing were really just time wasters. With the help of my guardian angel I knew that feeling was from the netherworld.

Quotations from Pope John Paul II’s Encyclical on the RosaryThe Rosary, though clearly Marian in character, is at heart a Christocentric prayer. … it has all the depth of the Gospel message in its entirety, of which it can be said to be a compendium. … With the Rosary, the Christian people sits at the school of Mary and is led to contemplate the beauty on the face of Christ and to experience the depths of his love. …
12. … Without this contemplative dimension, it would lose its meaning, as Pope Paul VI clearly pointed out: "Without contemplation, the Rosary is a body without a soul, and its recitation runs the risk of becoming a mechanical repetition of formulas, in violation of the admonition of Christ: ‘In praying do not heap up empty phrases as the Gentiles do; for they think they will be heard for their many words’ (Mt 6:7). By its nature the recitation of the Rosary calls for a quiet rhythm and a lingering pace, helping the individual to**** meditate on the mysteries of the Lord’s life as seen through the eyes of her who was closest to the Lord**. **

**Learning Christ from Mary **

1. Christ is the supreme Teacher, the revealer and the one revealed. It is not just a question of learning what he taught but of “learning him”. In this regard could we have any better teacher than Mary? From the divine standpoint, the Spirit is the interior teacher who leads us to the full truth of Christ (cf. Jn 14:26; 15:26; 16:13). But among creatures no one knows Christ better than Mary; no one can introduce us to a profound knowledge of his mystery better than his Mother….

Hence the most perfect of all devotions is undoubtedly that which conforms, unites and consecrates us most perfectly to Jesus Christ. Now, since Mary is of all creatures the one most conformed to Jesus Christ, it follows that among all devotions that which most consecrates and conforms a soul to our Lord is devotion to Mary, his Holy Mother, and that the more a soul is consecrated to her the more will it be consecrated to Jesus Christ".22 Never as in the Rosary do the life of Jesus and that of Mary appear so deeply joined. Mary lives only in Christ and for Christ! …

The Rosary, "a compendium of the Gospel"
33. … its Marian character is not opposed to its Christological character, but that it actually emphasizes and increases it. ****The first part of the Hail Mary, drawn from the words spoken to Mary by the Angel Gabriel and by Saint Elizabeth, is a contemplation in adoration of the mystery accomplished in the Virgin of Nazareth. … in the Rosary …. Mary’s prophecy here finds its fulfilment: “Henceforth all generations will call me blessed” (Lk 1:48). …

41. As a prayer for peace, the Rosary is also, and always has been, a prayer of and for the family. At one time this prayer was particularly dear to Christian families, and it certainly brought them closer together. It is important not to lose this precious inheritance. …

The family that prays together stays together….

Many of the problems facing contemporary families … Families seldom manage to come together, and the rare occasions when they do are often taken up with watching television. To return to the recitation of the family Rosary …

End Quotes
Read more of the ** Encyclical **

See my Free PowerPoint on how the Hail Mary is a most
Christ Centered Biblical Prayer

defendingthebride.com/ma2/rosary7.jpg

  **See links on [How to pray the Rosary](http://www.defendingthebride.com/ma2/rosary.html#how)**

.

 

[rcwitness]

You have the first and most important part correct. But since God is love He wants us to love our neighbor, the Saints.
We are all sinners, so none of us are completely trustworthy. Yet, trust is the foundation of a good marriage. If you lead your wife to the One who is trustworthy, Jesus, by praying the Rosary with her, she will intuitively learn to trust you more.

I am embarrassed to admit that I did not always have the habit of praying the rosary. When I learned that all the Saints who were canonized in the last couple hundred of years had a devotion to the Rosary I knew that their exemplary lives was not just coincidental.

Further, I was convicted by St. Pope John Paul II’s devotion to Mary. At first, I had mis-thought his handing out rosaries was just a nice thing to do. But, year after year he would always give them away. Clearly this was purposeful and planned.

When I started praying the rosary I would get this nagging feeling, “John, just think of all the more productive things you could be doing instead.” Yet, I knew the other things I would be doing were really just time wasters. With the help of my guardian angel I knew that feeling was from the netherworld.

Thanks John, for your kind post and sharing your views on the Rosary.

I personally like the Rosary prayer. I would not discourage anyone to avoid their use of this prayer in their prayer life. You are right, the prayer is held in high esteem by many Saints.

I believe there is also those who have a devotion to this prayer, but neglect the devotion to Christian living. Rececitation of a prayer in a daily ritualistic manner is not neccesarily a holy practice without having the intention of the Holy Spirit which converted our hearts from our own destructive nature. After all, there are those who will say, Lord, we did these things in your name, and, not all who call upon the Lord will do His Will.

There is a holiness in devoting to the Saints, as St Paul expressed to us. These are the Good Christians who are serving the Lord in there occupations and vocations. They are the people in our Parishes who take up the responsibilities of the Gospel Mission.

I am, therefore, not convinced that a good devotion to Mary can be reduced to praying to her. This is in fact probably the least important thing when compared to assisting the Parish needs, learning the Catechism and striving to follow it, forgiving others their sins and encouraging others to do the same, or receiving Our Eucharist in good conscience.

Now, I am not trying to pit a devotion to the Rosary prayer against these things, quite the opposite. I am trying to acknowledge the need to balance these things with our prayers, so that our prayers are made holy and heard.

We all make mistakes and need grace. But what does it mean when someone follows the devotional prayer of the Rosary, and makes certain promises of fasting to another Saint, while trying desperately to persuade others to get a permanent sterilization procedure, when the Teachings of the Church condemning it has been made fully aware and recognized by them?

This is why I am not interested in the focus on devotion to how often and how many times we say any prayer, but how we are living and following the Teachings of the Church in good faith. How we are converting our hearts by striving against sin to the point of suffering. It’s an ugly thing to seperate our prayer intentions from the actual intentions of our hearts and actions.

Isn’t it better advice to tell each other not to pray the Rosary if you don’t really intend to honor it with your deeds? If we pray the Rosary everyday but run away from every struggle which Mary embraces and pleads us to embrace, this is adding condemnation to ourselves. This is actually creating more enmity between us and Mary.

Sorry is I have some resentment in my attitude these days. I am in a challanging situation right now.

Thank you all for your encouragement

 

[Googler]

I believe the Rosary is so important that I think I’m going to recite it perpetually—in all practicality, of course.

The [school] of the Rosary teaches us to hope, love, and live.
It teaches us true veneration of our eternal Mother, in whom is all grace of the way, and of the truth, all hope of life and of virtue.
We learn to desire to come nearer to Her and be filled with Her fruits.

A lesson from just one of the Mysteries (perhaps the most important):

The ANNUNCIATION
Like Mary, our first step is our submissive consent to the Divine Will, even though, at the moment we don’t fully understand.
We must immediately come before God, as ‘servant’.

In everything, conform to God’s Will, C-O-M-M-E-N-C-E, and He will make it happen—even nearly impossible things like, loving those who hate you.

Related thoughts that occured to me by talking with, and listening to Our Blessed Mother:

Each and every time you are anxious, fearful, (or resentful), you are not conforming to His Will.
True happiness can be found only in obedience to God’s Will.
Even in suffering…
The greatest thing that will please God is that you maintain an attitude of unshakable joy. This is easier said than done for us, but not for Him.
His Will is for us to be happy, even unto death.
Submissively consent to this Will and He will make it happen.
Consider it a great privilege to be a martyr.

DO NOT BLASPHEME GOD BY CONFORMING TO MISERY.
AND DO NOT LEAD HIS SHEEP ASTRAY BY BEING A HYPOCRITE.

Jesus will not stand for any of that.