It is difficult to talk about Her (Mary) without getting lost in the beauty of Her eyes that look at us so tenderly; Her brown skin that she wore to unite the Indigenous peoples of America and the foreign conquerors. And above all, it is hard not to think of Her during the months of pregnancy. Her body was the temple of Our Lord Jesus Christ. No one ever knew Jesus as she did; no one dedicated her life to Him, as Mary did.
We (Roman Catholics) adore Our Lady as a child adores her mom. In actual terms of spirituality, however, we venerate her, and adore God alone, in the Father, the Son, and Holy Ghost.
Why do Catholics venerate Mary? Because Jesus said it so: <
(Jesus said this, just as He said that the bread is in fact His body, and the wine is in fact His blood, not a mere ritual, but an actual happening. This the Catholic Mass.)
We come close to Mary to breathe more easily in times of hardship, when we are too ashamed, and think we are not worthy of Him. We come to Her as the bridegroom in Cana. (Jn 2:1-11) We go to Jesus through Mary as a sign of humility and poverty of spirit. He is always there ready to embrace us, but sometimes, many times, we need a little push. As in Cana, Jesus might say “my hour has not yet come” and in such case Mary will pull of His cloak and ask Him to do it anyway, for us, for Her.
To venerate means to honor. We honor Mary, we pray with her to Jesus, by honoring the mystery of Her life. We say “Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee, blessed are thou amongst women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus” These words –in Lk 1:28, 31, 42- honor Mary’s life and holiness. “Holy Mary, mother of God, pray for us sinners, now and in the hour of our death, Amen.” We ask her to pray for us, to pray with us to Jesus.
We speak to Mary because she is a person, just as Jesus Christ is a person. We as humans ought to be friends with real persons, that is why we can be friends with Christ, and Mary and the saints. Therefore we Catholics, strictly speaking, do not pray to Mary, we pray with Her, and we in actuality speak to Her, we honor Mary as the Mother of the living God, as the human being She was, and the saint that She is.
As we can see, the Catholic devotion to Our Lady is the most Christian of all devotions. Through Mary, we make Christ the center of our lives.
JHS
+Mateo Andres.
My Dear Brother, below is a meditation by my patron, St. Maximilian Kolbe:
ReplyDelete"The Immaculata appears in this world, without the least stain of sin, the masterpiece of God's hands, full of grace. God, the Most Holy Trinity, beholds the lowliness (i.e. the humility, the root of all her other virtues) of his handmaid, and 'does great things for her, he the Almighty' (Lk. 1:49). God the Father gives her his own Son to be her Son; God the Son descends into her womb; and God the Holy Spirit forms the body of Christ in the womb of this most pure virgin. 'And the Word was made flesh' (Jn. 1:14). The Immaculata becomes the Mother of God. The fruit of the love of God in his trinitarian life and of Mary the Immaculata, is Christ, the God-Man..." And here's the kicker...
"Henceforth all the other sons of God must be modeled after this first Son of God, the Man-God, the infinite One. They must reproduce his traits; by imitating Christ souls reach sanctity...This is the union brought about by the spousal love of the soul for Christ, through its resemblance to him, and by God's action. BUT IF ANYONE DOES NOT WISH TO HAVE MARY IMMACULATE FOR HIS MOTHER, HE WILL NOT HAVE CHRIST FOR HIS BROTHER...SINCE THE FIRST-BORN SON, THE GOD-MAN WAS CONCEIVED ONLY WITH THE SPECIFIC CONSENT OF THE MOST BLESSED VIRGIN, THE SAME MUST HOLD TRUE FOR ALL MEN, WHO MUST BE CONFORMED TO THEIR FIRST MODEL IN ALL THINGS."
Immaculate Heart of Mary, pray for us!
Wow... This is Great! So powerful, so true. I had never thought about how much "imitating" Christ resides in loving his mother, not like this. If we are to become like Him, we are to become Mary's children.
ReplyDeleteI'll say a Rosary today, you inspired me man!
Thanks,