Posted on 10/08/2015 8:02:23 AM PDT by Salvation
As a young child I was very close to God. I spoke to Him in a very natural way and He spoke plainly to me. Although I have very few memories of my early childhood, I vividly remember how close I was to God. When early puberty approached, though, I began to slip away, drifting into the rebellious and angry years of my teens. As the flesh came more alive, my spirit submerged.
The culture of the time didn’t help, either. It was the late 1960s and early 1970s and rebelliousness and the flesh were celebrated as “virtues.” Somehow we thought ourselves more mature than our pathetic forebears, who were hopelessly “repressed.” There was the attitude among the young that we had come of age somehow. We collectively deluded ourselves, aided by the messages of rock music and the haze of drug use, that we were somehow “better.”
So it was the winter of my soul. The vivid faith of my childhood gave way to a kind of indifferent agnosticism. Though I never formally left Church (my mother would never had permitted that as long as I lived in under my parents’ roof), I no longer heard God or spoke to Him. I’ve mentioned in previous posts that when I was in high school I joined the youth choir of my parish church. This was not precipitated by a religious passion, but rather by a passion of another kind: there were pretty girls in the choir and I “sought their company,” shall we say. But God has a way of using beauty to draw us to the truth. Week after week, year after year, as we sang those old religious classics a buried faith began to awaken within me.
But what to do? How to pray? I heard that I was supposed to pray. But how? As a child it had been natural to talk with God. But now He seemed distant, aloof, and likely angry with me. And I’ll admit it, prayer seemed a little “goofy” to me, a high school senior still struggling to be “cool” in his own eyes and in the eyes of his friends. Not only that, but prayer was “boring.” It seemed an unfocused, unstructured, and “goofy” thing.
But I knew someone who did pray. My paternal grandmother, “Nana,” was a real prayer warrior. Every day she took out her beads and sat by the window to pray. I had seen my mother pray now and again, but she was more private about it. But Nana, who lived with us off and on in her last years, knew how to pray and you could see it every day.
Rosary Redivivus – In my parish church of the 1970s, the rosary was non-existent. Devotions and adoration were on the outs during that sterile time. Even the Crucifix was gone. But Nana had that “old-time religion” and I learned to appreciate it through her.
Ad Jesum per Mariam – There are some, non-Catholics especially, who think that talking of Mary or focusing on her in any way takes away from Christ. It is as though they consider it a zero-sum game, in which our hearts cannot love both Mary and Jesus. But my own experience was that Mary led me to Christ. I had struggled to know and worship Christ, but somehow a mother’s love felt more natural, safer, and more accessible to me. So I began there, where I could. Simply pole-vaulting right into a mature faith from where I was did not seem possible. So I began, as a little child again, holding my Mother’s hand. And gently, Mother Mary led me to Christ, her son. Through the rosary, that “Gospel on a string,” I became reacquainted with the basic gospel story.
The thing about Marian devotion is that it opens up a whole world. For with this devotion comes an open door into so many of the other traditions and devotions of the Church: Eucharistic adoration, litanies, traditional Marian hymns, lighting candles, modesty, pious demeanor, and so forth. So as Mary led me, she also reconnected me to many things that I only vaguely remembered. The suburban Catholicism of the 1970s had all but cast these things aside, and I had lost them as well. Now in my late teens, I was going up into the Church “attic” and bringing things down. Thus, little by little, Mother Mary was helping me to put things back in place. I remember my own mother being pleased to discover that I had taken some old religious statues, stashed away in a drawer in my room, and placed them out on my dresser once again. I also took down the crazy rock-and-roll posters, one by one, and replaced them with traditional art, including a picture of Mary.
Over time, praying the Rosary and talking to Mary began to feel natural. And, sure enough, little by little, I began to speak with God. It was when I was in the middle of college that I began to sense the call to the priesthood. I had become the choir director by that time and took a new job in a city parish: you guessed it, “St. Mary’s.” There, the sterility of suburban Catholicism had never taken hold. The candles burned brightly at the side altars. The beautiful windows, marble altars, statues, and traditional novenas were all on display in Mother Mary’s parish. The rest is history. Mary cemented the deal between me and her Son, Jesus. I became His priest and now I can’t stop talking about Him! He is my hero, my savior and Lord. And praying again to God has become more natural and more deeply spiritual for me.
It all began one day when I took Mary’s hand and let her lead me to Christ. And hasn’t that always been her role? She, by God’s grace, brought Christ to us, showed Him to us at Bethlehem, presented Him in the Temple, and ushered in His first miracle (even despite His reluctance). She said to the stewards that day at Cana, and to us now, “Do whatever he tells you.” The Gospel of John says, Jesus did this as the beginning of his signs in Cana in Galilee and so revealed his glory, and his disciples began to believe in him (John 2:11). And so Mary’s intercession strengthened the faith of others in her Son. That has always been her role: to take us by the hand and lead us to Christ. Her rosary has been called the “Gospel on a string” because she bids us to reflect on the central mysteries of the Scripture as we pray.
What a wonderful incident in your mother’s life. Thanks for sharing.
If you don’t want the discussion.....hide it. Or don’t run go cry to Jim.
So sorry to hear about your mother. I have prayed the Rosary over the dying before and I do believe it is a comfort to both the dying and those who will be left behind. If you don’t mind I will put your mother on my Rosary intentions.
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The Angel of the Lord declared to Mary:
Behold the handmaid of the Lord: Be it done unto me according to Thy word.
And the Word was made Flesh: And dwelt among us.
Amen. "Hail, full of grace, the Lord is with you" (Lk 1:28) "Blessed are you among women, |
Not crying to Jim. I suggest that everyone just ignore this well meaning but unknowing person.
God gave us Jesus!
Jesus gave us Mary from the Cross!
Mary gives us the prayers for our world!
Most loving Mother, attracted by your beauty and sweetness, and by your tender compassion, I confidently turn to you, and beg of you obtain for me of your dear Son the favor I request in this novena: (state your specific request or intention here!)
Obtain for me also, Queen of Heaven, the most lively contrition for my many sins and the grace to imitate closely those virtues which you practiced so faithfully, especially humility, purity and obedience. Above all, I beg you to be my mother and protectress, to receive me into number of your devoted children, and to guide me from your high throne of glory.
Do not reject my petitions, Mother of mercy! Have pity on me, and do not abandon me during life or at the moment of my death. Daughter of the Eternal Father, Mother of the Eternal Son, Spouse of the Holy Spirit, Temple of the Adorable Trinity, pray for me. Immaculate and tender Heart of Mary, refuge of the needy and hope of sinners, filled with the most lively respect, love, and gratitude, I devote myself forever to your service, and I offer you my heart with all that I am and all that is mine.
Accept this offering, sweet Queen of Heaven and Earth, and obtain for me of your dear Son, Jesus Christ, the favors I ask through your intercession in this novena. Obtain for me also a generous, constant love of God, perfect submission to His holy Will, the true spirit of a Christian, and the grace of final perseverance. Amen.
I watched a documentary called “Convinced.” It’s a series of witnesses by protestants and atheists who “crossed the Tiber” and became Catholic. The most difficult thing, especially for Protestants, was to understand the devotion Catholics have to Mary. There is a lot of misinformation out there. Archbishop Fulton Sheen said that there are thousands of people who hate what they think are the teachings of the Catholic Church but very very few (now maybe a lot with the Muslim invasion) who hate what are truly the teachings of the Church. I challenge you to read Hail Holy Queen by Scott Hahn which goes into the scriptural Mary.
Typical Alinsky tactic.....if you can’t attack the message, attack the messenger!
The Holy Spirit moves us to pray.....not catholic mary.
Well meaning and unknowing are attack words now? Interesting.
I challenge you to compare catholic teachings/writings on mary with the Word and see if they stack up.
No where does the Word accord Mary the title "queen"....or the many other false titles accorded to her by catholicism.
You're correct....Christians have a very hard time understanding why Catholicism has so elevated Mary to the position(s) she now occupies when it is not supported anywhere in the Word.
“Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee; blessed art thou among women and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus. Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of
our death. Amen. “
Why is the second part added to scripture, as if it is a part of Scripture? Such is blasphemy.
Some unlearned adherent might just logically conclude that “Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death. Amen.” is literally in the Bible.
Back when Jesus had to by his own design return to heaven, he saw to it that his first followers had his Mother. In fact he said to John, Behold your Mother.This seems like an appropriate place to quote from Jesus of Nazareth: Part Two, Holy Week, From the Entrance into Jerusalem to the Resurrection by Joseph Ratzinger, Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI:
John not only tells us that there were women at the foot of the Cross -- "his mother, and his mother's sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene" (19:25) -- but he continues: "When Jesus saw his mother, and the disciple whom he loved standing near, he said to his mother, 'Woman, behold your son!! Then he said to the disciple, 'Behold your mother!' And from that hour the disciple took her to his own home" (19:26-27). This is one of Jesus' final acts, an adoption arrangement, as it were. He is the only son of his mother, who will be left alone in the world after his death. He now assigns the beloved disciple to accompany her and, as it were, makes him her son in his place; from that time onward, John is responsible for her -- he takes her to himself. The literal translation is stronger still; it could be rendered like this: he took her into his own -- received her into his innder life-setting. In the first instance, then, this is an entirely human gesture on the part of the dying Savior. He does not leave his mother alone; he places her in the custody of the disciple who was especiallyi close to him. And so a new home is also given to the disciple -- a mother to care for him, a mother for him to look after.If John takes the trouble to record such human concerns, it is because he wants to set down what really happened. But his concern always goes deeper than mere facts of the past. The event points beyond itself to that which endures. What is he trying to say?
The first clue comes from his form of address to Mary: "Woman." Jesus had used this same form of address at the marriage feast of Cana (Jn 2:4). The two scenes are thus linked together. Cana had been an anticipation of the definitive marriage feast -- of the new wine that the Lord wanted to bestow. What had then been merely a prophetic sign now becomes a reality.
The name "Woman" points back in the first instance to the account of creation, when the Creator presents the woman to Adam. In response to this new creation, Adam says: "This at last is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called Woman ..." (Gen 2:23). Saint Paul in his letters interprets Jesus as the new Adam, with whom mankind begins afresh. In the figure of Mary, Saint John shows us "the Woman" who belongs now to this new Adam. In the Gospel the allusion is a hidden one, but it was gradually explored in the context of the Church's faith.
When the Book of Revelation speaks of the great sign of a Woman appearing in heaven, she is understood to represent all Israel, indeed, the whole Church. The Church must continually give birth to Christ in pain (cf. Rev 12:1-6). Another stage in the evolution of this idea is found in the Letter to the Ephesians, where the saying about the man who leaves his father and mother to become one flesh with his wife is applied to Christ and the Church (cf 5:31-32). On the basis of the "corporate personality" model -- in keeping with biblical thought -- the early Church had no difficulty recognizing in the Woman, on the one hand, Mary herself and, on the other hand, transcending time, the Church, bride and mother, in which the mystery of Mary spreads out into history.
Just like Mary, the Woman, so too the beloved disciple is both a historical figure and a type for discipleship as it will always exist and must always exist. It is to the disciple, a true disciple in loving communion with the Lord, that the Woman is entrusted: Mary -- the Church.
These words spoken by Jesus as he hung upon the Cross continue to be fulfilled in many concrete ways. They are constantly repeated to both mother and disciple, and each person is called to relive them in his own life, as the Lord has allotted. Again and again the disciple is asked to take Mary as an individual and as the Church into his own home and, thus, to carry out Jesus' final instruction.
One of the most treasured memories I have of my mother’s passing earlier this year is praying the Rosary with her by her bedside. A few hours later she passed in her sleep and not even my father knew it until he happened to wake up next to her a few hours later. No doubt our prayers together brought this peaceful passing. I will pray for you and your mother during my daily Rosary.
I could say I love God "more" because He is he Supreme Being, and I owe Him more: my existence, my salvation. because His is all-good and deserving of all my love.
But love is living and it always grows, always abounds more and more. It is not a zero-sum game, it is a participation in something infinite.
I could never love Mary as much as God loves her.
Eal, it’s very ill-advised to call “sinful” the Blessed lady whom God called “full of grace.”
Awesome! Thanks for posting. Benedict really gets to the heart of the matter here.
Perhaps you remember that the 1st Commandant was to love God with your whole heart et al.
and the 2nd one was to love your neighbor as yourself.
It is difficult to love someone who is so negative and their cup is either half empty or perhaps completely empty.
How can you have a whole heart to love God if you are so negative that you espouse a form of hatred toward the Mother of God - Mary?
[The Immaculate Conception] is not supported in the Word as admitted by Roman Catholic apologists.That's some claim, ealgone. Please direct us to the "Roman Catholic apologists" who 'admit that the Immaculate Conception is not supported "in the Word." Thanks in advance.
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