By Popular Demand

After my last post, a few people have asked me if I would post the talk I actually gave on the retreat. I kind of debated this because of the length of my talk, but then I thought well, why not... So here is my Mary talk. Enjoy!

Why have devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary? This is a point debated hotly among
our Protestant friends and which I hope to help you understand more so of why we have devotions to Mary by the end of my talk.

Maybe devotion to the Mother of God is the constant "WHY is it necessary?” Or,
why is She important to our Christian life? There are many who seem to be afraid
that devotion to Mary might interfere with their devotion to Christ. "How can I give my full attention to Christ, and so my love, if I am devoted to Mary?" It is simply the
difficulty of loving two persons with one heart. Yet, this is the common rationalization of many. Others are apathetic to any Marian devotion because they are thinking that it is "Too Much!" for Her, a creature like us. It is as if too much devotion to Mary would make Her a god. These are the assumptions of others that prevent them from experiencing the warmth of Her maternal love, the happiness of being a child to a most loving Mother and the consolation of being drawn closer to Jesus.

But we can sum up this cold Marian attitude in a single word: IGNORANCE. It is the
lack of knowledge of the privileges and role of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Oftentimes there is a confusion between veneration of Mary and adoration to Her. Of course, we don't and never adore the Blessed Virgin as our Protestant friends accuse us. There is a bold line that delineates between veneration and adoration. No matter how you multiply your veneration, it never ends up with adoration. Just as addition can never make an infinite sum, so our veneration and devotion to Mary remains simply to honor her. Period. When we honor Her we never displease our Lord. It never interferes with our love and devotion to Christ. It is noteworthy to quote what the Church says on this matter: "The maternal duty of Mary toward men in no way obscures or diminishes the unique mediation of Christ, but rather shows His power.. It rests on His mediation, depends upon it and draws all of its power from it. In no way does it take away from Him, but rather does it foster the immediate union of the faithful with Christ" (Vatican II, Lumen Gentium, 60).Jesus is never envious when we honor His Mother. In fact, He wills it. He even expressed it in the Fourth Commandment: "Honor your father and mother." Is not the Blessed Virgin our
Mother? Jesus Himself upon hanging on the Cross gave His Mother as our Mother when he said “Behold thy Mother” in John 19:27. Although we are not worthy of Her
motherhood, Christ gave Her to us because He knew very well that we need a mother like Her. And She is not simply a metaphorical Mother, and we are not her metaphorical children, but Mary is TRULY our Mother in the supernatural order just as the mother who gave us birth is our TRUE mother in the natural order. According to Fr. Neubert, "A mother is one who gives life. Mary has given you life, the most real life."

In order for us to honor Mary as our Mother, Jesus, the Son of God, set an example to us for us to follow. He was very obedient to Mary (Luke 2:51) because He was the most loving Son. If to be a Christian means a follower of Christ, then are we not to imitate the love and obedience of Jesus to His Mother? How can we become perfect disciples of Jesus imitating Him in every aspect of His life when we fail to love and obey His Mother? And this is precisely what Marian devotion consists of, love and obedience. So in the person of Jesus we have that divine example of devotion to Mary. His example must be perfect; and that is, what we ought to follow as Christians. If we have to follow Christ's standard of devotion to His Mother, then we should not be afraid in giving Her "too much" love for we will never come to love Her as Jesus did, according to St. Maximilian. Do we think that we can outmatch the love of Jesus to His Mother? Then why are we so reserved in giving our love to Her, in expressing our devotion to Her? Being a Mother of grace She rightly deserves our love-the highest love that we can possibly have. And don't be afraid; our love to Her is too little in comparison with Jesus' love.

My Personal Story

Growing up, the way I learned about Mary was through the stories of her
apparitions. You know, like Our Lady of Lourdes and Our Lady of Fatima and Our Lady of Guadelupe. My mother would have us watch movies about them for religion class quite a number of times, and I never complained because it got me out of doing my bookwork I enjoyed those times, but sadly I never did feel as close to her as I have in the past few years. Don’t get me wrong, there are many times in my life that I have felt the closeness of Mary, the silliest; for example, was easily the one year when I prayed a rosary everyday for the colts to win the super bowl, and that same year the Colts did indeed win the super bowl…I would like to think that my rosary’s had to do a lot with that. I mean I didn’t pray them just for that reason, but I did include that in my intentions to Mary.

Seriously though, I would have to say the time I have truly been closest to Mary was
after watching the movie “The Passion.” You see, I always knew growing up that my sins did indeed hurt Jesus, but I never really thought about how my sins affected Mary, his Mother. Watching the portrayal of Mary in the movie made me think of Mary in a whole new light. There are two moving parts in that movie that especially touched me. The first one happens to be the part while Jesus is being scourged. Mary hears his screams the whole time, and is plagued by the devil as he sarcastically walks around in the background while Jesus is being scourged as if he is trying to not only mess with Jesus’ mind, but also to hurt and tempt Mary as well into putting God down. Like she was a pawn in his sick and twisted mind game. The way she reacts to the evilness of the devil amazes me. The other scene that truly moved me was the very last scene that she has, right after they take Jesus down from the cross and she is holding him, and then she looks straight into the camera with this look of complete devastation, and it’s as if she’s saying ”Look at what you’ve done… are you happy now?” Now, I am not a mom, so I cannot honestly say how it would feel to watch one of my own children go through what Jesus did and still have faith in the message that was being sent through Jesus. I do however have three amazing, crazy, funny, energetic, and frustrating nephews who I love dearly, even if they do drive me insane, I can’t imagine my life without them here. I can’t imagine what it would feel like if I had to watch one of them go through what Jesus did and still come out with great faith in God. I have to say that because of that movie I found an even more deeper connection with Mary.

Another time when I feel in complete awe of Mary is when I think of how she had the
courage to say yes to the Angel Gabriel when he came and asked her to be the mother of God’s child. We’ve been told that she was only thirteen years old when the agreed to become the mother of Jesus. I can honestly say I don’t know what I would have done personally if while I was in the middle of cleaning my room or doing schoolwork or reading a book, or something like that and an angel appears out of nowhere and says to me that I’ve been chosen to be the Mother of God. I think I would probably have been really freaking out and wondering if I’d had some sort of head trauma or something to be hallucinating the whole thing up. I don’t think I would have taken this angel seriously and would have run away scared out of my mind. Not only was Mary able to calmly say yes to that question, but she did so knowing the controversy that would follow her. Having a child out of marriage is something we sadly see everyday. It’s much more accepted today, way more so then it would have been back in Mary’s Day. It was very scandalous to have that happen and it is something that she could have been kicked out of her family and sent away for or worse. But think about this. If she hadn’t said yes to the angel that day, we wouldn’t have Jesus, and if we didn’t have Jesus, we wouldn’t have our Catholic faith. We owe her so much for saying yes to God. I don’t know what I would do without her example to look at and try to follow in my own life. She was an amazing, amazing woman who we should all strive to have a relationship with.

I bet your wondering how we can build a better relationship with Mary. Of the many
forms of devotion to Our Lady, there are some which have been especially recommended by the Church. Devotions which involve the use of physical objects are not superstitious, because these objects are not thought to have any power in themselves. Rather, they are external aids to interior devotion to the Mother of God.

The Rosary

An especially great Marian devotion is the Rosary. There is an ancient tradition that
St. Dominic received the Rosary from Our Lady in an apparition at Prouille in 1206 A.D. as a weapon against the Albigensian heresy. What is entirely certain is that in one way or another, numerous Popes have spoken of St. Dominic as author of the Rosary, without pronouncing on the authenticity of the Prouille vision. They have strongly recommended the Rosary. I for one say a rosary every night before I go to bed. Brother Dominic over at St. Paul’s told me recently that as a child growing up he was taught that if you fall asleep while praying your rosary, your guardian angel will finish it for you. I hope he’s right on with that one, because I know I have fallen asleep through too many rosaries in my life to count.

The Brown Scapular

Another recommended Marian devotion is wearing the Brown Scapular of Our Lady
of Mount Carmel. There are many Scapulars, all valuable, but this one is eminent among them. There is a very ancient tradition that St. Simon Stock, Superior of the Carmelite Order in England in 1251, after imploring the help of Our Lady, was favored with a vision in which she gave him the Scapular, saying: "This will be a privilege for you and for all Carmelites, that he who dies in this will not suffer eternal fire." The historical evidence for this vision is very impressive, and gives at least some degree of moral certitude that the vision really did take place. To gain this promise one must be enrolled in the Confraternity of the Scapular. What is the Confraternity of the Scapular is something I bet you’re probably wondering. Well, The Scapular Confraternity of Carmel is an association of the faithful who strive for Christian perfection in the spirit of Carmel. Through their free commitment, they participate in the life of the Order and its spiritual benefits in an intimate communion of thought, ideals and works, together with Mary Queen of Carmel and all the Carmelite Saints. Membership into the Scapular Confraternity takes place in a simple way through means of Enrolment in the Scapular. Enrolment in the Brown Scapular is done in a short ceremony in which any baptized Catholic who wishes to wear the Brown Scapular can become associated with the Carmelite Order, and thereby qualify to receive the fulfillment of the Blessed Virgin Mary’s promise. Those who have been enrolled in the Scapular, practice the Order’s spirituality, and have been granted some association with the Order. After the reception of the Scapular, the faithful may, for personal reasons, substitute it with a medal showing on one side the Sacred Heart of Jesus and on the other, Our Lady. People are enrolled in the Scapular only once, by a priest or a deacon. Both, Scapular and medal may be replaced without having to be blessed again.

So, why devotion to Mary? Because Jesus wills it by giving Her Mother as our Mother. Fr. Stefano Maria Pio, FFI, S.T.D. says: "The first foundation for devotion to
Mary is Her status as Mother and our status as Her children." This is the reason why the saints had a passionate love to the Blessed Virgin because they looked at Her as a fond Mother. They believed that only by casting themselves upon the maternal care of the Immaculate Mother that one can truly resemble Jesus who quietly rested in His Mother's arms. Only in frequent recourse to Her that one can be nearer to Jesus. And only in loving Her that one can love Jesus more than one can do by himself. Devotion to Mary is highly recommended in the school of the saints. There is no other way, that is surer, closer and quicker, to Jesus than Mary. AD JESUM PER MARIAM (To Jesus through Mary) is the watchword of the servants of God. In Her we have nothing to do but only a disposition: be a child to a mother; as simple as that and we will experience a sweet intimacy with Jesus, our Brother. Ave Maria!