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
where in Scripture do i find this delegation to Mary?
Per what Luke wrote,
48“For He has had regard for the humble state of His bondslave; For behold, from this time on all generations will count me blessed.
Luke 1:48 NASB
Nothing more, nothing less.
Something is either true or it is false.
Scripture either says something or it does not.
If it isn't found in Scripture, but it is presented as true, it is right to ask on what basis it would be true.
And Mary is called "blessed" everywhere as was foretold.
But she has been made into a demigoddess, which is false.
What appears to you is just your imagination. You don't speak for me.
How? Easy. SHE WAS FULL OF GRACE BECAUSE JESUS WAS INCARNATE IN HER.
"BIBLE! We don't need no bible!!"
- Catholic Dude
Mary was a sinner - she said she needed a Savior.
Mary was a virgin until after Christ was born. They waited.
The rest, I've never seen on the Religion forum in the past 20 years.
Post some links please.
Close but no cigar. first of all I have not said most of those things so you are addressing the wrong person
The two I agree with and are is scripture: Mary did not remain a virgin after Jesus. His siblings are named in Scripture. And she was not sinless. She calls Christ her savior. A sinless woman has no need of a savior.
Exactly. The RCC teaches that the Church the Body of Christ is composed of 1. Christ is the head. 2. We are the Body, 3. Mary is the throat that connects the Head to the Body.
Tell me with a straight face AND Scripture where that belief came from.
Words mean SOMETHING
Not
No. The vulgate translation is not correct.
Luke 1:28 is more properly rendered, "28And coming in, he said to her, “Greetings, favored one! The Lord is with you.”"
The NABRE renders the passage as: 28 And coming to her, he said, “Hail, favored one! The Lord is with you.”
The NRSV renders the passage as:
28 And he came to her and said, “Greetings, favored one! The Lord is with you.”[a]
The Greek word used here does not connatate sinlessness.
No where in Scripture is Mary, or any other created being, ever accorded being sinless. Only Christ is.
That isn’t what they’re saying.
Greek paganism.
Show me where I am wrong. I stated: ""Jesus answered, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me."
If praying to Mary is the way to heaven, then why did Jesus have to die on the cross?
Show me where, in the Bible, we are to pray "through" her to get God's attention. Go ahead. I'll wait."
With what do you disagree? Prove me wrong. I suspect you may be a brother or sister in Christ, but if you're going to through accusations around, have the spiritual and intellectual grace to back it up. Refute me/correct me. I have not shaken the dust from my sandals in regard to you. Are you so hard of heart that you have no regard for a fellow Christian?
Hey, better talk to Catholic Dude. He said it.
Here we go with Scripture contradicting Catholic stuff....again.
Hey, Elsie....got any artwork tonight?
*snerk*
What was/were Mary's sin(s)?
If you can't name them, why defame the Mother of God?
I call that hatred. Thanks again for proving the article's point. You've been a great help.
The contradictions are crystal clear.
| The Glories of Mary | Scripture | |
| Lady in heaven, we have but one advocate, and that is thyself, and thou alone art truly loving and solicitous for our salvation. | 5For there is one God, and one mediator also between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, 1 Tim 2:5 |
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| But that she is so, is evident from the fact, that whatever the Mother asks for, the Son never denies her; and this was revealed to Saint Bridget. | 14This is the confidence which we have before Him, that, if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. 1 Jn 5:14 |
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| Saint Anselm says, ‘that as it is impossible for one who is not devout to Mary, and consequently not protected by her, to be saved,. | 28and I give eternal life to them, and they will never perish; and no one will snatch them out of My hand. Jn 10:27-28 |
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| St. Bonaventure notes: In thee, O Lady, have I placed all my hopes; and thus I confidently trust that I shall never be lost, but praise and love thee for ever in heaven | 9that if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved; Rm 10:9 |
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| Saint Andrew of Crete, calls Mary, ‘a pledge, a security for our reconciliation with God.’, | who is given as a pledge of our inheritance, … Eph 1:13-14 |
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Alphonsus de Liguori, The Glories of Mary, (Tucker, London, 1868), 249. Liguori, 190. Ibid, 146. Ibid, 84. Ibid, 170.
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