Question On Mary

[jazzytakara]

How would you respond to someone who has this rebuttal against "We honour and love Mary because Christ did": We respect the parents of others but we never give them the same love their children give them.Jesus loved Mary because she was His mother, she isn't our mother. We can respect her, but not venerate her and justify it by saying we are giving the same love as Christ to His mother." I've come across that and thought of it myself sometimes. Can anyone help/shed some light on this? Thank you!

 

Also why do we consecrate ourselves to Mary or Consecrate ourselves to Jesus through Mary? I still haven't quite grasped this, as to me why do we not just go straight to Jeus? 

[MarysLittleFlower]

How would you respond to someone who has this rebuttal against "We honour and love Mary because Christ did": We respect the parents of others but we never give them the same love their children give them.Jesus loved Mary because she was His mother, she isn't our mother. We can respect her, but not venerate her and justify it by saying we are giving the same love as Christ to His mother." I've come across that and thought of it myself sometimes. Can anyone help/shed some light on this? Thank you!

 

Also why do we consecrate ourselves to Mary or Consecrate ourselves to Jesus through Mary? I still haven't quite grasped this, as to me why do we not just go straight to Jeus? 

 

Hi :)

 

I would respond in this way... Mary is our Mother! :) Jesus gave her to us as our Mother, when He was on the Cross. He told the "beloved disciple" - "this is your Mother". I think that everything in the Bible is significant, and this has spiritual significance as well.

 

As for the Consecration.. this is powerful for several reasons... if we give ourselves to Jesus, He would accept us of course, but we might not give ourselves in a perfect way... Mary makes the offering more beautiful, and if we give ourselves to her, she perfects it and gives us to Jesus. It's like if you were to give a present to a King, and you gave it to the Queen first, so she could put it on a fancy gold plate, etc, ;) - that's the example St Louis de Montfort uses. I've found the Consecration gives many blessings.

 

Jesus and Mary are together... she leads us to Him. There's no "competition" between them, because she only does His will. Graces also come to us through her intercession. It was described that if Jesus is the Head of the Church, Mary is like the neck.

 

God bless!

[Seven77]

Here's a way that I would answer the 1st question:

 

 In Jesus Christ, we have become children of God the Father. Our calling is one of identification with Christ as St. Paul suggests in Galatians: “we live no longer, but Christ lives in us." We are members of Christ, one with him, something that is a great theme of St. Paul's. Now, if Christ dwells in us, his mother becomes our mother, if his life is ours, his mother is ours. in Revelation 12, it says that the dragon went off to wage war on the other offspring of the woman, identified as those who follow Jesus. And Jesus has been identified as the 1st born son of the woman.

 

About consecration, Our Lady is symbolized by Jacob's ladder upon which heaven comes down upon earth and vice versa. Jesus came down to us through Mary, we go back to him through Mary. Our Lady formed, nourished and guided her Son. Now, if she did that for the head, it follows that she does that for the members. Our Lady was perfectly consecrated to Jesus... if we are perfectly consecrated to her, she can't help but to consecrate us perfectly to her Son.

 

I highly recommend that you read True Devotion to Mary by St. Louis de Monfort.

[Gabriela]

Others have answered the first question well already, I think. She is indeed our mother, too. But I would add: We cannot possibly love her as perfectly as Jesus did, so the whole argument you mentioned falls on that assumption alone. We do our meagre best, but ultimately we do not "give her the same love that Jesus gives her", because we can't. We merely imitate that love but poorly.

 

As for consecration to Jesus through Mary, I have something more valuable to add here, I think. I have been struggling with this a lot myself in the last couple months. I started the consecration, and got all the way up to the last week, but I just did not feel ok with it. I didn't understand it, and it is a vow, which would bind me for life. How could I make a vow of something I didn't really understand? I read more to try to understand. I asked about it in Phatmass. I read more. And more. And more. But I just didn't get the point. I thought all these doubts and hesitation might just be spiritual attack, because it's commonly said that, as soon as you start the consecration, the stoopid devil will have at you. I kept going, trying to dismiss the thoughts as spiritual attack. But I was still really uncomfortable. Eventually (last week), I stopped the consecration, telling myself maybe I just need to use a different book for it. I found a book I thought would be better, set a different consecration date, and determined to do it then.

 

In the meantime, I started reading The Practice of the Presence of God by Brother Lawrence, who talks a lot about "piling on devotions" that ultimately don't lead one closer to God, but merely fill one's time. This really resonated with me. I started thinking about how I am also very attracted to Desert Spirituality, so consecrating myself to Jesus through Mary doesn't appeal to me partly because (1) I am already consecrated to Christ by my baptism, and (2) I already know that Our Blessed Mother has got my back no matter what I do. (She led me to Christ, after all!) Why would I add on some superfluous devotion/vow when I already enjoy the things that devotion/vow would bring me? To someone who is fairly obsessed with simplicity, it just doesn't make sense. (And yes, I know the arguments for greater graces upon consecration, but I just don't believe God or Our Lady would withhold graces from people because they haven't yet performed this one particular devotion!)

 

Finally, today, I took the matter to my spiritual director, who said that many people do experience deeper union with God through Marian consecration, but others do not. Ultimately, she said, whether or not one ought to do the consecration depends upon whether one feels oneself being led closer to God by that process. I did not feel that, and so I have decided not to do it. Our Lady may change my mind later on, but for now I have accepted that I am a Desert Spirituality-kind of girl, and I am ok with that.

 

Now please excuse me. I'm off to my hesychasm. :like:

[Mary+Immaculate<3]

We are called to imitate Christ, not each other. Christ honored Mary, so should we.

[Tab'le De'Bah-Rye]

With the whole comparing Jesus relationship to an ordinary childs relationship to there earthly mother is understandable but not heavenly. Our relationship with chirst and the holy mother is heavenly not earthly. It's like when we as a church are referred to as the bride of Christ as is the holy mother, but how can we be a bride when we are also composed of men and how can the holy mother be christs bride when she is his mother, hence why in this matter we need to use the eyes of heaven and not the eyes of earth. I would say something like that and leave them soaking in the mystery, as i leave myself too soaking in the mystery. I wouldn't push them though, i would say that and if they had more questions i would read the recommended literature saint louis demonfort ( and i haven't read it) and then try and explain it to them from this saints point of view and if you don't understand the saints point of view mysteries are not bad, some things will always be a mystery to us, ie: we don't need to know everything and i would say that to someone also if they pushed me for an answer and i would also humble myself and say i don't know, but if i find out i well let you know. That's my stupid advice, not smart but hopefully honest.

Edited November 14, 2013 by Tab'le De'Bah-Rye

[blazeingstar]

I think it boils down to a simple statment that is in every Bible.  Even though it is not as clear as in the Catholic Bibles even the protestant bibles acknowledge Mary as "Blessed among women" and "highly favored".

 

When I ask prots to find this description about anyone besides Jesus, they can't find it.  God commands this from us, to honor and call Mary Blessed.

[Mary+Immaculate<3]

Also, don't forget the words of our Savior from the cross. "Mother, beholf your son. Son, behold your mother."

Edited November 14, 2013 by Mary+Immaculate<3

[arfink]

Now please excuse me. I'm off to my hesychasm. :like:

 

Just be careful you don't fall into the hesychasm. It's a long way down, and I hear there are sharp rocks and sometimes wolves at the bottom.