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
What a freaking straw man!...LOL!
Once upon a time a Pedophile priest raped altar boys repeatedly.
Happens everyday in Catholic churches around the world and hardly any get punished due to the cover-up of homosexual priests that run the program now.
Get real!
Eternal Security and assurance of salvation are problematic premises for men who put away their wives for younger women, or commit other forms of sexual abuse and porneia.
“Within a year he traded in his wife for the younger wife of another man and they married and continued his ministry as if nothing had happened (although they did have to leave the area and start up elsewhere). The pastor believed and taught Eternal Security, assurance of salvation too.”
1. A tragedy anytime it happens
2. I could tell this wasn’t a Catholic story because it didn’t involve priests and young children
3. Either his sins had ALL been paid for by Christ’s death.... or NONE are ever paid for.
4. If he was saved, he’s still saved - on the same basis
5. Randomly Generated Stories are never the basis Truth.
Never heard anyone claim to ‘hate Mary’...
How many lampstands show up in Heaven of the seven lampstands Jesus showed John in the first three chapters of The Revelation? You would do well to read the first three chapters of The Revelation, paying vlose attention to what Jesus’s verdict on each was. [Obtuse hint: seven lampstands in Heaven]
There are seven churches of the one holy catholic apostolic Church in Revelation with lamp stands in the scriptures proving they are genuine. Works are mentioned twelve times concerning the genuine churches, teaching for all who have ears to hear how important works are to the Messiah, as if He has not already said so in the Gospels.
No one claims that, except some people, involved in a certain religion, which will remain unnamed, but I think maybe you have it figured out. 😁😆😀👍 Of course, the real Mary of the Bible, is NOT the Mary of that certain religion. 👎
SECOND, the 'works' you seem to want to be proud of are not praise worthy in the majority of the gathering believers! That apparently went right over your head, or your coach is not giving you full disclosure.
THIRD, Jesus addresses the seven and that is all you need as evidence that they are genuine bodies of believers.
FOURTH, you completely missed the point of HIS lesson; the works are AFTER the believers are already alive forever more and THAT is why JESUS addresses the gatherings because they are in need of correction, not salvation. Now I realize that is a completely alien concept to a catholic steeped mind like yours, but the correction is not to get them 're-saved' it is to improve their strength IN THE FAMILY TO WHICH THEY ALREADY BELONG. How can I say that?... Their lampstand, even the Laodicean one, is in Heaven.
You mean like those priests? I wonder if any of them have assurance of salvation? 😁 If you don’t have any assurance of salvation, sorry about that. I am wondering where you will spend eternity? Hard to say, huh bro?
I have no doubt some truly saved people have fallen into the sin you described. I don’t believe they lose their salvation, but they doggone better lose their ministry. Good Christian discipline will kick them out in their ear. If they don’t, they have no credibility, and I would find a new place to worship. The Catholic Church, on the other hand, moves the guilty people around. A bit of a conundrum no? 😁😆☝️ Read my tagline and weep bro.
“FIRST, the seven churches have nothing to do with The Roman Catholic religion.
Glad to hear yo recognize Christianity predated Catholicism.
Progress.
Oops wrong post!
The most rebuked was the body of believers in Laodicea. They had everything of need, were comfy and fruitless. The distractions of the material world held their attention. Sound familiar to the present age?
If you doubt that the Father wants to chastise His children and does so, such that a born from above CHRISTIAN cannot persist in sin without chastisement, read Titus 2 beginning at verse 11.
Then after reading chapter 2 verses 11 - 15, go on to read what PAUL teaches regarding works in chapter 3. You might notice the cause and effect difference between what Paul wrote and what the Roman Catholic and many Protestant denominations teach regarding works.
But not as a title as Jesus instructed in the context of the Matthew passage.
*thy* is singular and as Jesus was talking only to John, there's no reason to think that more was meant than John was to care for Mary.
Reading more into it is either grasping at straws or wishful thinking.
Details, details, those pesky facts.
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