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
Hmmm...so what you’re saying is that the Eucharist is composed of Jesus’s body AND Mary’s body? Because if she was sinless and she is the mother of GOD, then she,too MUST be present in the Eucharist. Is that right?
Examples of your claims please.
“the simplicity of salvation”
Salvation is simple? Jesus says that if the final trial were not to be shortened, no one would be saved. Why does He say that only those who persevere until the end will be saved if salvation is such a simple thing?
God forbid, if someone were to point a gun at you or at me and tell us to deny our faith in Christ, the temptation would be to deny our faith in Christ so as to preserve our life with the idea of repenting later. If we denied our faith and then the person pulled the trigger and killed us, what would become of us? Christ says that whoever denies him before men, He will deny before His Heavenly Father. Wouldn’t we be lost? Would you tell a Christian being persecuted and tortured and martyred today that salvation is simple? Salvation may seem like an easy thing in comfy America, but it hasn’t been in a lot of places and times.
Paul tells us to work out our salvation in fear and trembling. If salvation simply consists of pronouncing a formula, why the fear and trembling? Jesus tells us that not everyone who says to Him “Lord, Lord” will be saved, but only the one who DOES the Will of His Father in Heaven. And that Will can be hard and even life-threatening.
Jesus says many will try to enter the kingdom but will not be strong enough. Christ says the path leading to His Kingdom is narrow and that few find it. Christ says that many start following him (Wouldn’t they have expressed their faith in him verbally, believing it in their heart)
but that then they fall away because of mockery, or riches, or pleasures or cares. Are they still saved? Have they found salvation to be a simple thing?
I don’t mean to cause people to despair of Salvation by writing these things, but “the simplicity of salvation” is presumption contradicted by Scripture.
Not Biblically sourced,
Especially that we are to ‘submit’ ourselves to Mary.
No, that is not what I said.
"Sola scriptura" is not biblically sourced. What's your point?
My point is that if something cannot be sourced in the Bible, then from where does it’s truth come?
“Sola scriptura” is not biblically sourced.”
And you’re comfortable with that ?
Absolutely!
Well, if she is the mother of God, then it necessarily true that He has her sinless blood. So if you believe that the Eucharist is truly the Body and BLOOD of Christ, then she MUST be present in that Eucharist...
Of course, Sola Scriptura IS in the Bible—using the actual definition and not the strawman that certain Romans like to smear us with.
Of course it is...And it has been pointed out to you Catholics hundreds of times...The apostle John has written that everything we need to know to gain salvation is written in the scriptures...That means scripture ALONE is sufficient for our salvation...
So that eliminates anything to do with Jesus' mother...That eliminates any clergy turning a wafer into the flesh and blood of Jesus...That eliminates any position of a pope...
That's why the Catholic religion is NOT the church of the scriptures...You can't reject and deny the scriptures and then claim the church in the scriptures points to you...
So that eliminates purgatory, indulgences and penance...The list is long...
Your denial of sola scripture is meaningless to God and those who believe in and are saved by the words of God's scriptures, alone...
Are you now assured of your salvation, without a doubt?
Just because you DO believe it doesn’t make it any less FALSE.
Sorry; but there is PLENTY of doubt about it!
Those people Jesus was speaking to at that time didn't eat pork or anything unclean...Their holy day for worship started on early Friday evening...They were required to sacrifice the blood of goats and sheep...
Are you prohibited from eating pork and any unclean animal or seafood??? Sounds like you should be...These people were under the Law...Are you under the Law???
Jesus tells us that not everyone who says to Him “Lord, Lord” will be saved, but only the one who DOES the Will of His Father in Heaven.
Do you know what the will of the Father is??? Can you show us with scripture???
Jesus says many will try to enter the kingdom but will not be strong enough.
Strong enough??? How's that???
God forbid, if someone were to point a gun at you or at me and tell us to deny our faith in Christ, the temptation would be to deny our faith in Christ so as to preserve our life with the idea of repenting later. If we denied our faith and then the person pulled the trigger and killed us, what would become of us?
We'd be dead and on our way to heaven...Ever heard of grace and faith??? God knows our hearts and fears...
Would you tell a Christian being persecuted and tortured and martyred today that salvation is simple?
Absolutely...It's the simplest thing a person can do...It's easier than eating a bowel of cereal or getting a drink of water...
Salvation may seem like an easy thing in comfy America, but it hasn’t been in a lot of places and times.
Getting saved in Nairobi or Red China is just as easy as getting saved in comfy America...
Here's how easy getting saved anywhere in the world is:
Act 16:30 And brought them out, and said, Sirs, what must I do to be saved?
Act 16:31 And they said, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house.
How simple is that???
Act_2:21 And it shall come to pass, that whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved.
And it did eventually come to pass...
Rom 10:13 For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.
2Ti 2:15 Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.
That is NOT what the Book that Rome gave the world says.
All ya gotta do is READ it!
(And then try to figure just what Jesus was referring to...)
Matthew 3:15
“Let it be so now; for it is proper for us in this way to fulfill all righteousness.”
120%...
Joh 5:24 Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life.
That is just one of the many scriptures God provided to let us know that our salvation is guaranteed...
Oh?
Where is this recorded??
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