“Why I love you, Mary”
Dear Friends in Christ,
Among Catholic Christians, it is common to invoke the intercession of the saints (novenas), especially patron saints for various causes: Michael the Archangel against evil, Anthony for lost objects, Jude for helpless causes, and so on.
God knows how much I love our saintly brothers and sisters in Christ: they are our best friends. I maintain relationships with them and look up to them for inspiration; yet when it comes to dire circumstances and in times of great need (habitual!), there is only one saint I ever need: Mary of Nazareth. Mary is the saint par excellence, the "Ace up the sleeve", she is THE go-to-saint in any situation, and my first line of defense against evil.
What child doesn't love its own mother? Mary is our mother in the order of grace, the first-born creature in the New Creation, authored through the redemptive action of our Lord Jesus... The natural love that any child has for his own mother is exponentially magnified in Mary, for she is THE all-beautiful and perfect Mother, by virtue of her loving capacity and freedom from sin. It is her freedom from sin that enables her to wield such clout against Satan. In the long battle against the ancient, dark adversary, I fear no evil, with "the Woman" (cfr Gen 3:15) at my side, I feel secure, just "as a child that rests in its mother’s arms" (cfr Ps 131:2).
There are some negative connotations of Marian devotion, even among Catholic Christians: the prejudice that it is unfitting or awkward for men to have such a childish relationship with "the Woman" (what son wouldn't love his own mother?); or that Marian devotion is "devotionalistic", too simpleton, un-sophisticated, sentimental, and not becoming of a rational, learned, and cultured person (what about Maximilian Kolbe or Karol Wojtyla?)
In the month of May, we particularly honor Her, let us pay tribute to the one woman whose "yes" to God had the greatest reverberations in the history of the world: it caused God Himself to come down in human form.
In Christ through Mary,
Fr. Edward
Dear Friends in Christ,
Among Catholic Christians, it is common to invoke the intercession of the saints (novenas), especially patron saints for various causes: Michael the Archangel against evil, Anthony for lost objects, Jude for helpless causes, and so on.
God knows how much I love our saintly brothers and sisters in Christ: they are our best friends. I maintain relationships with them and look up to them for inspiration; yet when it comes to dire circumstances and in times of great need (habitual!), there is only one saint I ever need: Mary of Nazareth. Mary is the saint par excellence, the "Ace up the sleeve", she is THE go-to-saint in any situation, and my first line of defense against evil.
What child doesn't love its own mother? Mary is our mother in the order of grace, the first-born creature in the New Creation, authored through the redemptive action of our Lord Jesus... The natural love that any child has for his own mother is exponentially magnified in Mary, for she is THE all-beautiful and perfect Mother, by virtue of her loving capacity and freedom from sin. It is her freedom from sin that enables her to wield such clout against Satan. In the long battle against the ancient, dark adversary, I fear no evil, with "the Woman" (cfr Gen 3:15) at my side, I feel secure, just "as a child that rests in its mother’s arms" (cfr Ps 131:2).
There are some negative connotations of Marian devotion, even among Catholic Christians: the prejudice that it is unfitting or awkward for men to have such a childish relationship with "the Woman" (what son wouldn't love his own mother?); or that Marian devotion is "devotionalistic", too simpleton, un-sophisticated, sentimental, and not becoming of a rational, learned, and cultured person (what about Maximilian Kolbe or Karol Wojtyla?)
In the month of May, we particularly honor Her, let us pay tribute to the one woman whose "yes" to God had the greatest reverberations in the history of the world: it caused God Himself to come down in human form.
In Christ through Mary,
Fr. Edward