Question about Mary

My New Year's resolution was to pray the rosary every day. My husband and I got married on May 13th of this year, which is the Feast of Our Lady of Fatima, and this year was the 100th anniversary of the first apparition. These helped me to start cultivating a greater appreciation for Mary.

I've also started praying the Angelus daily, though I don't usually get up for the 6am and there don't seem to be many church bells chiming at noon and 6pm anymore. :'( I end up praying it at random times of the day mostly.

Honoring Mary takes away nothing from God; besides, we can't love her more than her son Jesus! She has so many graces to bestow upon those who ask (according to the Miraculous Medal). I hope you can grow close to your heavenly mother!

Well, see, with five brothers already, I realized that OBVIOUSLY I needed another one who wouldn't tease me for having crushes, and Jesus is my brother. But you know, it was still awkward talking about relationships and such, so obviously I had to talk to Mother Mary, because if Jesus is my brother, then Mary is as much my mother as His.

So yeah. I never really ever thought I'd lose anything by being close to Mary, because Mary and Jesus obviously had a loving and good relationship in the Bible, and so how could I become distant from Christ just because I was close to His mother? Jesus doesn't do sibling rivalry.

“I have a hard time praying/talking to Mary and becoming close to her. I think I am afraid to lose something from my relationship with God because I owe Him everything. Can somebody tell me their experience as to how they opened up to the Blessed Mother? I know all the reasons she is important and loved but for some reason I have resistance to really let her into my heart”.

1. Where she is, Christ is, and His Father is.

“22 Judas (not Iscariot) asked Him, “Lord, why are You going to reveal Yourself to us and not to the world?” 23Jesus replied, “If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word. My Father will love him, and we will come to him and make Our home with him. 24Whoever does not love Me does not keep My words. The word that you hear is not My own, but it is from the Father who sent Me.…”

• St John 14.

So in those who love God, both the Father and the Son will dwell. And how can that blessing be denied to Our Lady ?

2. Or these words of Christ:

“Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.”

Our Lady is blessed by the Father - “Hail, full-of-grace: the Lord is with thee..Blessed art thou among women, and Blessed is the Fruit of thy womb”. St Elizabeth is not blessing Our Lady of her own accord; “filled with the Holy Spirit”, she is acknowledging that God has already blessed Our Lady, and is making God’s “attitude” to Our Lady her own. The angel Gabriel is not speaking of his own accord: he is acting as God’s herald, mouthpiece and messenger. His words to Our Lady, are God’s words to her.

“For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me”

Our Lady gave Him food, drink and welcome. Not once only, but for 30 years. She did far more than that - she gave her body and blood and life, that He might have a human body, human blood, and a human life. If those who give Him food, drink and welcome, by doing these things for “one of the least of these [His] brothers”, are blessed; how can she not be blessed, who gave Him all these things in His own Person ?

“I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you visited me, I was in prison and you came to me.’”

He was naked, and she clothed Him. Since He was truly man, and shared fully in human sorrows, it seems very probable that He would have been sick at times - if only when He was teething. The only action that Our Lady perhaps did not undertake, is the visiting Him in prison. In all other respects, the words of Our Lord are especially applicable to what she did for Him.

Then the righteous will answer him, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you drink? And when did we see you a stranger and welcome you, or naked and clothe you? And when did we see you sick or in prison and visit you?’ And the King will answer them, ‘Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me.’

• St Matthew 25.31-40

Father F. W. Faber answered the question, in his book “All for Jesus”, published in 1854, pages 152-55. It can be found here: https://archive.org/stream/AllForJesusOr#page/n177/mode/2up/

1. Does Our Lord love Our Lady ? Yes.
2. How ? He Loves her with His Most Sacred Heart, “burning with Love for men”.
3. Who is Our Lord ? He is God the Eternal Word, “God-with-us”, God made man; not a mere man.

That Jesus Christ, the Incarnate Word of God, Loves Our Lady, is the best of reasons for loving her. He Loved His Heavenly Father; that is self-evident. He Loved His mother; that is equally evident. So how can it be wrong for those who have been adopted by the Father as the “beloved children” of the Father, to love the one whom Our Lord loved as His mother ? How does it make sense not to ? Are we not supposed to love the same people as He does ? If He could Love His Heavenly Father, and His earthly mother, how can it dishonour or obscure Him for His members to do so ?

Fr. Faber is one of the authors who helped me to overcome my difficulties with devotion to Our Lady. Another thing that has helped enormously is the realisation that everything Our Lady is, has, and does, is totally and in every way a grace of God to her, and, is totally and in every way from God.

For if these things are so (they are);

and if Our Lady is unspeakably wonderful and marvellous (she is); and if “Mary, being a mere creature fashioned by the hands of God is, compared to his infinite majesty, less than an atom, or rather is simply nothing, since he alone can say, "I am He who Is””; (and she is as described);

then, how great must God be, if she, who seems so very great, is after all “simply nothing” compared to God. Everything in her, is an overflow or reflection of the Infinite Goodness, Wisdom, Love and Power of God.

So devotion to her, far from obscuring Christ, or taking our hearts away from Him, speaks of Christ, draws our hearts to Christ, sets Christ before us, impresses Christ on our attention.

I recommend "33 Days to Morning Glory." I think it's a much easier read that Saint Louis De Montfort's "True Devotion to Mary" which I tried twice to read and failed both times:(

Basically, the book invites you to read the perspective and teachings on Mary from 4 different saints and the shows you how you can consecrate your life to her if you choose to do so.

I also recommend this story about her powerful intercession which is one of my favorites:

Saint Gemma pleads for a sinner

God bless!

God and His sense of humor! Too funny! It was a blessing to run into you on Reddit:). God bless!