Mary is the mother of the Church and she will remain so until her son returns in glory.
Mary is the mystical Rose. She lets Castilian Roses to bloom in winter. She is the Rose of Sharon. She is the enclosed garden and the sealed fountain. She is the mother of God. Why is Mary so unique? There is no other human being other than Mary who is so much united with the mysteries of Jesus in such a profound way.
Mary said “Yes†to the plan for human redemption. She carried God in her womb for nine months. Her Son is true man and true God. We all have 46 chromosomes and half comes from our father and half from our mother. Jesus is true man because of Mary. Jesus is true God because he was conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit.
Mary, the virgin, gave birth to Jesus. She therefore brought God to earth. We have Jesus because of Mary. God called her the blessed woman full of graces. She endured the humiliation at Bethlehem, the flight to Egypt, and the poverty at Nazareth to bring up her son. She fed him, bathed him and clothed him. Jesus submitted to Mary, the human, for thirty years. He obeyed her in every thing.
Mary initiated the public ministry of Christ. It was not his time. He kept aside his heavenly plan in total obedience to his mother, and started his ministry earlier than scheduled at Cana. It was not his time but he broke the heavenly protocol at the request of Mary and turned water into wine. God often breaks protocols at the request of Mary. Mary is still his mother.
Mary suffered with Christ. When they flogged him, spat upon him and abused him, the mother took those shames in silence. She was at the foot of the cross. Peter fled. Thomas fled. Andrew fled. Mary stayed at the foot of the cross. She saw the death of her son. She accepted the whole humanity as her children at the foot of the cross. The Church was born again through Mary at the foot of the cross when Jesus said, “Behold your son, and behold your motherâ€. We are the children of Mary and Mary is our mother.
Mary saw the risen Christ and the ascending Christ. Mary received the Holy Spirit at the upper room on the day of Pentecost. She was an early evangelist with her adopted son John, the evangelist.
There is no human being in the whole history who is equivalent to Mary. She conceived God in her womb. She brought God to the world. She brought up God’s son by her toils. She inaugurated the public ministry of Christ. She suffered with Christ in his passion. She stood at the foot of the cross and saw the redemption of man kind unfolding in the sorrows of crucifixion.
She birthed the church at the foot of the cross when she accepted John as her son. She saw the promise of resurrection. She saw the arrival of her eternal spouse, the Holy Spirit upon the disciples. She approved the works of Peter.
Read the article Why Pray To Virgin Mary and enter your comments.
Dear Gregory,
It is true that Mary does hold a special place in the eyes of God. That she is a powerful intercessor. She has earned her special status because she said yes to God.
But having said this, brother, why does the church exalt Mary to such an extent that she is almost a demi-goddess. Ok, so the early church fathers write about her & many saints testify about her intercession but still it is painful to see such devotion to her rather than to Jesus & to His Word.
The church is so forceful in insisting that the laity say the rosary everyday but so quiet in asking them to read God’s Word daily!
Brother, what is more important for us of the faith. Spending time praying to the saints or using that same time to feed on God’s Word.
Unless we have knowledge of God’s Word which leads to knowledge of God we will not completely understand Mary’s role in the church & so tend to go overboard in our devotion to her which for so many is misplaced due to lack of knowledge.
Recently, my wife & young son went for a retreat to Tabor at Kalyan in Maharashtra & she was saying that it was fully focused on God’s Word. This is re-assuring as I’ve been there couple of times & they would have one talk on Mary & it would be really unnerving to hear the speaker literally rave & rant about the praying of the rosary(thousand hail mary’s every day). Who can say that many hail mary’s and yet be able to do our daily work? And can anyone concentrate properly while saying these many hail mary’s?
It is really strange that the church allows such, I would say mindless, devotion when her children can be exhorted to read God’s Word & be strengthened to face the daily challenges of this difficult world.
Mind you, brother, I get quite excited to talk about our Blessed Mother but cannot accept the excessive adoration given to her as this takes away our focus from the one on whom we need to be focused – Jesus Christ.
Brother, if you disagree I would be grateful if you could share material from the church documents validating such deep devotion to Blessed Mary. God Bless!
Hi Eric,
As Christians we Catholics are members of Our Lord’s Body-The Church.The Church is Christ therefore as Mother of the Church Mary is our Mother as well as being the Mother of God.
The Mother of God-think about it -the Mother of the Almighty Source of All!!!Of course she is still human but obviously prepared in Gods plan to play an inportant part in His act of our salvation.
And as you know she was full of grace and grace is the Holy Spirit.Unless Mary was prepared well in advance she remained normal like ourselves.But what was requested of her implies eternal preparation by Our Creator.
Yes,she had also to be redeemed but as God is God she was redeemed by her Son when she said “yes” to Gabriel.For God as the maker of time- past and future- He can do what he requiresin relation to ‘time’.
Now,Eric,belief in the above canbe difficult for some Christians but we fail when we conclude or say “that’s hard to accept”.For in a sense we are bringing God down to our own level and forgetting that He is capable of doing anything whatever He wishes.Also bear in mind that God is still a mystery to us and that that mysterious reality permeates all what he has done including the little Jewish maiden who gave the Word a human body because her Maker willed it in her golden “yes”.
Hi,
Other religion is always asking “why Catholics worship Mary?” Catholics worship Mary because thru her we are all redeemed and become children of God. Not mere creature but children. The Holy Spirit, who is God (Yahweh) dwelt with Mary when she said yes to the angel sent by God. And she become the living vessel of the Holy Trinity (Father, Son and Holy Spirit) the message to Sister Lucia, sser of Fatima in Tuy Spain in June 1929. Before Jesus died on the cross, He gave Mary to us to become our Mother. The Mother of the redeemed. The message of John 3:16.
Yes ! I do agree that Mother mary was born as a normal human, but she was the only one in millons to play gods will and this was not plan in one day.. it was planned much much before, Even Angels praised her..Jesus the son of God, respected her as what had happened in wedding of Cana.. She was filled with Holy spirit. And she did not died like a humans do.. she was taken up in heaven… Many people has visioned her, Lourd in France… Valenkani.. (Chennai).. There are healings ….She is a shrine…
It is also written that she will be the one who is going put her foot on the Serpents head.. that means she is the way to destroy the Devil…
I agree that there is no where written in Bible to pray to Mary.. And There is also nowhere written to pray to Jesus… HE HIMSELF USED TO PRAY TO GOD OUR FATHER IN SILENCE IN HIS ALL PREACHINGS IT WAS ALL ABOUT THE PRAISES OF GOD..repenting.. turning back to God… ONLY ONE LORD.
Why pray to Mother Mary? is the topic.
Why do we pray in the first place? Different people pray for different reasons and purposes, but we should ultimately pray for our souls – to save it from perishing and for that we need special graces from God and souls connected to God.
Mother Mary is blessed among all women because she is full of grace! We are not even worthy to critise or give a comment on her. For the souls who are able to accept this fact, they are blessed because they have been given this revelation by the Holy Spirit. When Jesus asked his disciples “Who do people say the Son of Man is?” (Mathew 16:13), different replies were given. But only Peter replied “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.” (Mathew 16:16). To this the Lord replied “For this truth did not come to you from any human being, but it was given to you directly by my Father in heaven”(Mathew 16:17).
Likewise it is understandable why different opinions are emerged from this topic. We need not go any further and discuss or argue but remain with the truth planted in us.
Liam Ó Comáin, Thank you Sir for this elaborate explanation, I’m a Catholic and have also been seeking more knowledge about the Mother of God. Your comment has affected a brother more positively than you could imagine.
I always pray GOD that “I marry a Catholic, for a Life partner” Amen, because, I cannot compromise my Catholic Faith.
Thank you Sir.