Posted on 08/07/2019 3:20:08 PM PDT by ebb tide
Marian devotion is the cure for heresy and the healing of all heretics. We must turn to her for refuge from the heretical depravity now consuming the Church. Marian devotion is the destruction of error, the fount of humility, and a potent safeguard for orthodox faith.
Mary Is the Destroyer of All Heresies
In True Devotion to Mary, St. Louis de Montfort writes:
The most infallible and indubitable sign by which we may distinguish a heretic, a man of bad doctrine, a reprobate, from one of the predestinate, is that the heretic and the reprobate have nothing but contempt and indifference for our Blessed Lady, endeavoring by their words and examples to diminish the veneration and love of her. (30)
In the Tract for the Mass Salve Sancta Parens, the Church sings, “Rejoice, O Virgin Mary, thou alone hast destroyed all heresies.” From this, Pope St. Pius X invoked her as “Destroyer of Heresies” in Pascendi 58. And again, it was in the context of St. Dominic’s war against heresy that the Holy Rosary, Mary’s psalter, was revealed.
Thus, it is manifest that Our Lady holds a special place in the relationship of Holy Church with heresy and heretics. Why is this? It is because the root cause of heresy is not anger, lust, or sloth, but pride. A formal heretic pridefully and obstinately rejects the authority of the Church and the authority of the Fathers. His whole opinion hinges on an imaginary antiquarianism created by his pride. And it is against the sin of pride that Our Lady most perfectly shows her power. This is why St. Louis says in another place:
[Satan] fears her not only more than all Angels and men, but in some sense more than God Himself … because Satan, being proud, suffers infinitely more from being beaten and punished by a little and humble handmaid of God, and her humility humbles him more than the Divine power. (True Devotion, 52)
Demons and heretics fear her because she threatens to humble them. The latter impiously attack her under the pretense that they are safeguarding the honor due to God. In reality, they know that Mary will destroy their prideful opinions. “Humility is an abomination to the proud ” (Ecclus. 13:24).
How Mary Humbles the Proud
When the Holy Spirit exalted Mary by the mouth of St. Elizabeth, Mary said:
He hath shewed might in his arm: he hath scattered the proud in the conceit of their heart. He hath put down the mighty from their seat and hath exalted the humble. (Lk. 1:51)
Devotion to Mary brings humility to the soul. Just as St. John heard her voice and leaped for joy, and St. Elizabeth immediately humbled herself, saying “Who am I that the mother of my Lord should come to me?” (Lk. 1:43), we too know this humility when we exalt Mary.
Mary humbles us because God wills that Jesus Christ be manifested to the world through her. According to nature, any man is her equal. According to grace and merit, she is “more honorable than the cherubim, and beyond compare more glorious than the Seraphim” [1]. In Mary, our humility is truly tested because she is a human, not God.
Humility toward God is presumed by all, and heretics falsely think themselves humble because they say they submit to God. But their pride is revealed when they refuse to submit to man — both legitimate authority and the sayings of the wise. “The way of a fool is right in his own eyes: but he that is wise hearkeneth unto counsels” (Prov. 12:15).
A humble man may even debase himself before wicked men, as our Lord did. But heretics have no humility toward men. In reality, heretics are attempting to impose their private opinion on all authorities. They have no humility toward any human but are consumed in their own selves. As the history of Protestantism has shown, it is easy to feign humility toward God while exalting yourself over every man. This is the way of all the heretics.
One who is humble toward Mary will be humble toward authority. Mary especially checks the pride of heretics by proclaiming that they cannot have their own private, “personal Jesus,” since our Lord has forever bound Himself to His mother by His incarnation. In the same way that the Incarnation is the foundation of our redemption — without which there can be no Passion or Resurrection — the human person of Jesus Christ cannot exist without the person of Mary [2]. As I have written in another place, true union with Christ will result in love of Mary as our mother, who was also the first natural cause of His appearance to the world.
Marian Devotion is a test for orthodoxy
Since Marian Devotion is the fount of humility, it becomes a powerful test for orthodoxy. For example, when St. John Vianney’s lack of intelligence presented a barrier to his ordination, he was evaluated like this:
The vicar-general asked the superior of the seminary: ‘Is young Vianney pious? Is he devoted to the Blessed Virgin?’ The authorities were able to assure him fully upon these points. ‘Then,’ said the vicar-general, ‘I will receive him. Divine grace will do the rest.’ [3]
And so the Church ordained the future patron of parish priests. Sometimes it is as simple as asking if a man has Marian devotion. If a man is truly devoted to our Lady, he can be no heretic. St. Louis again:
“If you follow her,” says St. Bernard, “you cannot wander from the road.” Fear not, therefore, that a true child of Mary can be deceived by the evil one, or fall into any formal heresy. There where the guidance of Mary is, neither the evil spirit with his illusions, nor the heretics with their subtleties, can ever come — Ipsa tenente, non corruis. (True Devotion, 209) [4]
Thus, it is unsurprising that when we read through Building a Bridge by James Martin, S.J., a book purported to be about mercy and compassion, not a single page mentions the Mother of mercy and compassion. In fact, on page 130, he even erroneously asserts that at the Resurrection, Mary Magdalene was the first Christian, implicitly denying our Lady and the entire tradition of her Saturday memorial in which her sole faithfulness is commemorated. The examples of his warped or deficient Marian piety are only too easy to find [5].
But it is even more disturbing when we read how the Rhine group at Vatican II successfully suppressed the document on the Mother of God, relegating it, by a narrow vote, to the final section in Lumen Gentium (against the protests from Eastern Catholic bishops and others) [6]. When their efforts to suppress Marian devotion were opposed by Paul VI (to his credit), the time became known to them as “Black Week” [7]. Perhaps more alarming, Ratzinger himself admits that his Marian piety was weak in Last Testament and seems to imply the false dichotomy that Marian piety is not Christocentric [8]. Without succumbing to the sin of rash judgment, it is nevertheless suggestive that this lack of Marian piety correlates with an apparent hubris on the part of many Vatican II “reformers.”
Whatever the true state of these and other men with an apparent reluctance to love and honor their own mother, we can be certain that our Blessed Lady is a sure refuge from heresy. As Fr. Ripperger has stated, without a strong intellectual formation, everyone becomes a Modernist in our corrupt society. That is why we must cling to Our Lady for refuge from heretics and heresy in our time.
True devotion to Mary keeps us safe from the excesses of pride. Even more in our day, let us consider: she stood firm, though she witnessed the Passion and death of our Lord. We also must stand firm, even as we are witnessing the passion and death of the Church. Moreover, it seems clear from her frequent apparitions since the 19th century that Our Lord has purposed His mother for a special role in resolving this crisis. Let us pray our daily rosary and make the First Saturdays. Let us abide with Our Lady in the Passion of the Church and never lose hope for the Glorious Resurrection.
[1] Eastern Catholic Marian antiphon
[2] So too the mediation of the Sacraments — through another human — we receive our Lord.
[3] The Life of Saint John Vianney, The Curé of Ars, ch. 1
[4] It should be noted that Marian devotion is not an infallible test for orthodoxy, but merely a general rule against which there can be significant exceptions. Some Protestants, although material heretics, are in fact humble, and some Catholics are orthodox with little or no Marian piety. However, no man can be truly devoted to Our Lady and be a heretic. Moreover, formal heresy is defined as an error in the intellect and an obstinate will. It is particularly the latter from which Mary keeps us safe.
[5] I refuse to expose the reader to any further abuse of Our Lady from James Martin. Suffice it to say I have searched in vain for a substantial treatment or promotion of Marian devotion from Martin, and he admits in My Life with the Saints, p. 345ff., that his Marian devotion, which was shallow in his youth, was formed by the Jesuits as an imitation model, not the traditional, primarily mediatrix role. If his Marian devotion does go beyond sentimentality, let him publicly and explicitly disavow every heresy of which he is accused.
[6] See Rev. Ralph Wiltgen, The Rhine Flows into the Tiber (Augustine, 1979), 90ff.
[7] See Ibid., 234ff. The Rhine group was opposing Paul VI’s honoring of our Lady as “Mother of the Church” as well as his actions regarding collegiality, religious liberty, and ecumenism.
[8] See Benedict XVI, Last Testament, trans. Jacob Phillips (Bloomsbury, 2016), 70ff. As I have read more into Ratzinger, despite his obvious strengths, more of his theology has concerned me. This point was another red flag
No, certainly there is life after death, and resurrection, but the resurrection of the dead occurs in the future. Gotta study the Word to show yourself approved....
She didn’t ASK Him anything.
She TOLD Him something.
Her words were.........”They have no wine.”
That is ALL that is recorded.
Thinking she asked Him something is pure speculation.
She also TOLD the stewards to do what Her Son instructed them to do.
Nope. Because the actions of Jesus were in response to what she said.
Mary is sinless. She was immaculately conceived, so she never had original sin. She is a pure vessel who housed the living God. The Lourdes apparition confirmed that she was immaculately conceived by stating “I am the Immaculate Conception.” Proof of being heaven sent and approved have been the many miracles attributed to the water revealed to St Bernadette by the Blessed Mother.
Jesus’s sinless mother, Mary, is in heaven advocating for us to Jesus. This is fact and undeniable. If you don’t believe Lourdes then believe the most awesome historical event that took place in Fatima. That will surely change your mind. Mary is our mother.
Whoa, if you can provide even one scripture reference for any of what your institution declares, now is a good time.
The sad fact is that every point you state is uttered by Rome and Rome alone. And, if you are willing to dig a bit, you will find every word of it aligns with common pagan philosophy from time immemorial.
Best pick up your Bible and start at Genesis 1:1. And I mean this sincerely.
They prove themselves. Do your own research. The RCC approves them because they’re TRUE.
I can play the scripture reference game all day. It’s been done over and over, but it is never good enough for you sll. I’m not gonna argue. These are true miracles. They don’t need your approval to be considered true, they are.
definition of the word love vs definition of the word worship - 2 different things..
Bible clearly tells us Jesus said greatest commandment was ““You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment.”
So The Son of God said most important is you love God with ALL your heart, ALL of your soul and ALL of your mind -—only after then comes loving people as yourself.
Most people try to do number 2 before doing number 1 it’s why the church and world are so messed up (or they do number 3 and love themselves not 1 or 2)
Satan, of course.
But as far as I can tell, nowhere can it be found that angels were in need of or could have redemption.
"Demons and heretics [non-Catholics] fear her because she threatens to humble them. The latter impiously attack her under the pretense that they are safeguarding the honor due to God. In reality, they know that Mary will destroy their prideful opinions.". . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Note: I could avoid seeing the Religion Forum articles by using the direct link to the News/Activism Forum below, but unfortunately that also eliminates all other categories of articles that I am interested in, such as General Chat, and Bloggers & Personal.
Not to argue but the Hebrew word for holy is “qodesh” which means “apartness, sacredness,” or “separateness”. The Mosaic laws made the Israelites a holy people, separate and apart from all others.
How is it possible to be 'immaculately conceived' when Mary had an earthly father and earthly mother? Now, there is no doubt that the 'soul' of Mary was planted at a Heavenly designated time.. Never heard of the Lourdes apparition, I am not into 'ghost' stories. Mary's father was from the tribe of Judah, and her mother was from the tribe of Levi ... fulfillment of prophecy.
I detest these Mary threads ... Mary no doubt was 'elected'/'chosen' as Paul wrote 'before the foundation of the world'... when the Heavenly Father did the election of saints. Man has NO authority to designate anybody a 'saint'... I call my grandmother 'sainted' because she was that good.
IF Mary was/is all that is claimed about her, there was no need for Jesus to, Hebrews 2:14 ...... take this flesh journey.
Jesus’s sinless mother, Mary, is in heaven advocating for us to Jesus. This is fact and undeniable. If you don’t believe Lourdes then believe the most awesome historical event that took place in Fatima. That will surely change your mind. Mary is our mother.
Pretty 'heavy' burden you place on Mary... big disappointment coming.
Some Catholics advocate for, and engage in, the abominable practices of bowing to images of the supposed likenesses of Jesus, Mary, Peter, Paul, Michael, etc. Some, including the Pope, have offered things like flowers and incense to these images.
Look at these examples in the Bible of men being tempted to bow down to or make offerings to men or angels. Each time it was sternly rebuked:
Acts 10:25-26
As Peter was coming in, Cornelius met him and fell down at his feet and worshiped him. But Peter lifted him up, saying, “Stand up; I myself am also a man.”
Acts 14:11-15
Now when the people saw what Paul had done [i.e. performed a healing miracle], they raised their voices, saying in the Lycaonian language, “The gods have come down to us in the likeness of men!” And Barnabas they called Zeus, and Paul, Hermes, because he was the chief speaker. Then the priest of Zeus, whose temple was in front of their city, brought oxen and garlands to the gates, intending to sacrifice with the multitudes. But when the apostles Barnabas and Paul heard this, they tore their clothes and ran in among the multitude, crying out and saying, “Men, why are you doing these things? We also are men with the same nature as you, and preach to you that you should turn from these useless things to the living God, who made the heaven, the earth, the sea, and all things that are in them.”
Revelation 19:10
And I fell at his feet to worship him [i.e. the angel]. But he said to me, “See that you do not do that! I am your fellow servant, and of your brethren who have the testimony of Jesus. Worship God! For the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy.”
Nowhere in any place in the Bible is it ever commanded or even hinted at to bow down to any images or make offerings or prayers to them. And even when men were tempted to do so toward the apostles and angels when they were physically present (rather than a mere image of them), they reproved those who did so. And nowhere is it ever contemplated to do so toward Mary, whether in the flesh, through imagery, or spiritually. Never. Not once. Not in any way.
This article and posting are nothing more than an insult to those who follow the Biblical instruction to put Christ first:
Colossians 2:18-19
Let no one cheat you of your reward, taking delight in false humility and worship of angels, intruding into those things which he has not seen, vainly puffed up by his fleshly mind, and not holding fast to the Head, from whom all the body, nourished and knit together by joints and ligaments, grows with the increase that is from God.
Those who hurl such libelous and false accusations remind me a lot of the left with their false allegations of racism. In both cases we have people who demand submission to their ideology with the claim that not doing so proves we are racists (in the one case) and heretics (in the other). Neither are based in reality, logic, reason, truth, or any Biblical instruction.
Mary is not now or has ever been a ghost. She appeared to Bernadette in 1858 in Lourdes, France.
The reason we see things differently is because you don’t believe in the true presence of Jesus in the eucharist. If you believed in the real presence you would understand things like why Mary needed to be pure to carry Jesus in her womb, how she was a living tabernacle and the importance of that, how St. John the Baptist was the first adorer of Jesus, to name a few. It all fits together, but the pride of the protestants won’t allow them to see it. I am sorry that you will never experience all the truly wonderful sacraments, sacramentals, traditions, and saints we have been given from heaven and the church. I can see it all in the scriptures or tradition, but you never will.
There's also this.....
Exodus 20:4-6 “You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth.
You shall not bow down to them or serve them, for I the Lord your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and the fourth generation of those who hate me, but showing steadfast love to thousands of those who love me and keep my commandments.
Now, we've seen Catholics get into semantic hairsplitting over what they are doing in regards to Mary.
We're not worshiping her, they say, it's only latria, or dulia, or whatever synonym you want to use in place of the word worship.
Well, arguing against what someone says they are thinking is an exercise in futility.
HOWEVER, note that in the Second Commandment, God does not say *worship* the images, (I'm guessing because He knows as well as anyone that motivation can be denied) but He specifically says, to not make the image and not bow down to it.
So there may be wiggle room for arguing about whether someone is truly worshiping something, but there's not much room left to redefine *bowing down to*.
That is objectively seen and recognized.
So in those pictures of people bowing down before statues of Mary, Catholics can argue that you can't say they are worshiping her, even though if it looks like worship and sounds like worship,..... BUT, they most certainly are breaking the Second Commandment by bowing down to the statue.
In addition, they also pray before the statue and light candles in front of it.
All acts of worship no matter what someone wants to relabel it as.
If Mary were removed from Catholicism, the whole system would collapse. they would not know what to do with Jesus only.
We've challenged Catholics in the past that for a whole month, they ignore all the Mary stuff, and the time they would have spent thinking, praying, whatever to her, they do to Jesus instead and focus only on HIM.
No takers yet.
A few have responded in a way that implies we asked them to gouge out their eyes, and cut off both their hands.
It's unthinkable to them, which goes to show the grip that Mary stuff has on them.
A Catholic fabrication completely unsupported by a single verse of Scripture.
She is a pure vessel who housed the living God.
All believers house the living God.
1 Corinthians 3:16-17 Do you not know that you are God's temple and that God's Spirit dwells in you? If anyone destroys God's temple, God will destroy him. For God's temple is holy and you are that temple.
1 Corinthians 6:19-20 Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body.
The Lourdes apparition confirmed that she was immaculately conceived by stating “I am the Immaculate Conception.” Proof of being heaven sent and approved have been the many miracles attributed to the water revealed to St Bernadette by the Blessed Mother.
2 Corinthians 11:14-15 And no wonder, for even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light. So it is no surprise if his servants, also, disguise themselves as servants of righteousness. Their end will correspond to their deeds.
Jesus’s sinless mother, Mary, is in heaven advocating for us to Jesus. This is fact and undeniable.
Prove it.
Chapter and verse.
If you don’t believe Lourdes then believe the most awesome historical event that took place in Fatima. That will surely change your mind.
Whatever appeared at Fatima made statements that contradict Scripture. Because of that, we can be sure that it was a demonic apparition, whatever it called itself.
Mary is our mother.
Mary was the mother of Jesus and His siblings. Nobody else's.
I still don’t see a request in that conversation.
I see some presumption, but no asking.
Also, while whether something miraculous happened at all and is not just a fabrication, there's NO guarantee of the source.
Satan can counterfeit miracles and will in the end times to deceive people.
And Scripture reference in not a *game*.
Scripture is God breathed, Holy Spirit inspired Truth and any and all claims must be measured against it to validate or dismiss them.
The claims and promises of Fatima to not line up with Scripture therefore are not from God.
That leaves ONE source.
OK, point taken.
Then sinless means sinless.
Mary did not need to be pure to carry Jesus. Why would she?
And what the heck has believing in the real presence got to do with Mary being pregnant with Jesus?
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