Mary and the Devotional Life

8/6/2019 Mary and the Devotional Life

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Mary and the devotional life.

Go back in your imagination 2000 years, and observe a young Jewish woman in

Nazareth in Roman occupied Galilee. She is humble, but there is an indefinable dignity

about her. For this is Miriam - daughter of Yoachim and Anna. We know her as Mary.

She is very focussed on her ordinary daily tasks, cooking, fetching water, cleaning,

washing, weaving - through these duties she expresses her love for her husband and

her Son, whose time is taken up with hard manual labour. She has an intense

relationship with the Most High. She has pondered much on the sacred scriptures, but

particularly since the birth of her Child, these scriptures have taken on a deeper,

advanced meaning. Every day, she watches her Son. Parents are supposed to form their

children and this, she and her husband seek to do, but it always seems to have been a

two-way process. Just watching their son and pondering him day after day, year after

year, their eyes are opened to new horizons of understanding of the mysteries of God

and of human life.

Their ordinary life of hard work and prayer, the joy of being together continues - to all

appearances, unremarkable. The son is in his mid-twenties now, strong and handsome,

obedient to his parents yet with his own undeniable authority. His mother, probably in

her early or mid-forties - a life of hard work and service has taken its toll, but she


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remains beautiful, as if her outward appearance is an expression of her inner self.

Who would think that this simple woman is the greatest human person ever to have

lived? Destined to be a Queen of Archangels? Although weve just conducted an

exercise of the imagination, the purpose was to bring out the truth that Mary is a REAL

PERSON. She had and has a real existence; she is not a figure of myth or legend, like

Snow White or Aphrodite. You cant have a personal relationship with Snow White - if

you do, you will also be wearing a straitjacket. Mary is real, Mary exists - and therefore

you can relate to her; and she can relate to you on a personal basis.

Should we pray to Mary & the saints?

But how do we relate to her? We know very well that worship and adoration are given

to God alone. However, we can and do lift up our heart and soul to Mary and speak to

her or in more everyday language, we pray to her and request help, and ask her to

present our needs before God. This is what we mean by having devotion to Mary. Let

us look at this question of whether we should pray to Mary or to other saints for that

matter, as some Christians still think this somehow offends God or gets in the way of

our relationship with Him. Actually, NOT having devotion to Mary is a fairly recent thing.

The first Christians seem to have naturally gathered round her after the Lords

Ascension into Heaven; already taking to heart the Lords dying words to St. John that


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Mary was to be the Mother of His disciples. How the infant Church must have delighted

in showing its love to Mary - she who had carried in her womb and given birth to God,

and even more: she who was the most perfect of all His followers, because she was

without sin. With what awe and love they would have approached her - and Mary, not

shutting herself away in some kind of blissful seclusion - no, she had a vocation: the

Mother of the new humanity - there was work to be done. She who had carried

Wisdom Incarnate could not herself fail to be full of wisdom. Many, including the

Apostles, would have approached her to ask for her advice and guidance, especially on

how to live the new life brought to mankind by Christ. Those in perplexity or difficulty

would have gone away from her with new-found strength. Many would have sought out

her company just to be with her and experience her motherly love and concern.

Would they have asked her to pray to God on their behalf? Of course they would have -

who can doubt it? They knew how close she was to God, not just because she had given

birth to Him, but because she was full of grace. On that basis, they asked her to take

their concerns and present them to God. Some Christians say we should just go direct

to Jesus when we pray. Of course, we can do that - no one is saying its obligatory to go

through Mary or a saint. But that overlooks the fact that God is constantly working with

us through other people. He is always using other people as channels of His love and

grace He sends people to help and support us or point us in the right direction, in


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many ways, to manifest His love for us. If he chooses to do that using people on earth,

why cant He do it using our brothers and sisters in Heaven the Saints, and His Mother

who is also ourMother? Furthermore, we cannot ignore the nature of the Church as a

Communion of believers - indeed, a family. The Church is not a mere loose federation of

individuals; its not just you & Jesus. We relate to God as apeople. That doesnt swamp

our individuality or deny that we have unique and personal needs - it means that we

have a real spiritual bond between us, just as any family has a real natural bond

between the members: each of us has a spiritual bond with each other, with the souls

in purgatory and the saints in Heaven. Mary and the saints are eager to pray for us and

help us because that is a manifestation of their familial love towards us. They dont act

independently of God and they dont pretend that its through their power that our

prayers are answered. All glory and all worship is always given to God, but He chooses

to honour His holy ones by hearing their prayers on our behalf; by receiving our

requests from their hands.

Actually, the concept of mediation and intercession on behalf of others is readily

seen in the Old Testament - Abraham and Moses both interceded with God on behalf of

others. And in the Book of Tobit, the archangel Raphael reveals his identity with these

words: I am Raphael, one of the seven holy angels who present the prayers of the

saints and enter into the presence of the glory of the Lord. [Tobit Ch. 12, 11- 15] So the


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prayers of Gods people are presented to Him through the ministry of angels. In the

New Testament, in the Book of Revelation, you will find a description of exactly the

same thing happening: prayers being presented to God through the mediation of angels

[Rev. Ch. 8]. The principle is well established then: that there are some that God

accepts, chooses, as intercessors and mediators on behalf of His people. We shall see

shortly that Marys role as our advocate and intercessor before God was prepared for in

the kingdom of ancient Israel.

Role of Mary in the life of the Christian.

Each human being is a unity of body and soul. We naturally seek to care for our bodies

and promote their well-being; and most people take that for granted and are pretty

good at that, especially as you can see the results quickly - good or bad. The soul too

must be cared for and its needs attended to. This is where prayer, the spiritual life, the

devotional life comes in. In fact, this invisible, interior life is all important for us. Why?

Because at its most basic, it is your relationship with GOD; it is your relationship with

your CREATOR; it is your relationship with your Saviour and Redeemer: your own proper

environment - the One you MUST come into contact with if you are to find the

fulfilment of your being.


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Where does Mary fit into this? First we must distinguish the unique place of Mary. She

is not an optional extra! You cant be a fully orthodox Christian without Mary the

Mother of God having a place in your spiritual life. This was commanded by God

Himself - This is your Mother. You dont ignore your mother.

Even in the Old Testament, we can see how God was preparing His people for Marys

role in the Life of the Church. In our modern understanding, the queen is the wife of

the king. But in ancient Israel, the person who had the title Queen usually referred to

the motherof the king. In Hebrew, she was called the Givorah - the Queen Mother. An

example of this would be King Solomon, whose mother, Bathsheba, held this unique

position. So in the first book of the Kings we read that Adonijah came to Bathsheba the

mother of Solomon and said I have a request to make of you; do not refuse

me.Please ask King Solomon - he will not refuse you - to give me Abishag the

Shunammite as my wife. Bathsheba said Very well, I will speak for you to the king. [1

Kings 2: 13-20]. This shows the figure of the queen mother as an intercessor for the

people with the king. Further on in the book, when subsequent kings are introduced,

the name of their mother is given straight afterwards. [1 Kings 14:21 & 1Kings 15:9-13]

And when God sent a message to His people through the prophet Jeremiah, He began

Say to the king and the queen mother [Jer. 13:18-20] - indicating her high

importance in the structure of the kingdom.


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So this concept or role of the queen mother was well known and recognised when

Christ came to lift up and bring all things to their fulfilment. The Queen Mother of the

new Kingdom and the new, eternal covenant, the advocate of the people with her Son,

the King, is Mary.

There is a multitude of prayers and devotions in the Church which we can choose to

adopt - all according to our personal taste or circumstances: the 30 days prayer,

novenas, this book or that book for spiritual reading etc. But Mary doesnt fall into that

category! Its not that someone could say X has devotion to Mary, but I read the

Bible, Mary is a MUST HAVE, by Divine plan. She is part of the very structure of the

building, not its optional decoration. Shes in the very blueprint for our salvation, not a

nice afterthought. Many good and holy people have devised prayers and devotions to

help people grow closer to God. But Mary is the work ofGods hands - her place in our

lives is willed directly by Him.

The place of Mary is integral to the Economy of Salvation

Consider: let us take as a given, that the coming among us of Christ in the flesh was

always a part of Gods plan that this was intended by God from the beginning,

irrespective of whether Man sinned or not. If God is going to become one of us, He

would need the means to take on a real human nature, with human flesh and blood, as


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well as a human soul. To fulfil this purpose, to make this possible, God programmed

evolution towards the division of the sexes, into male and female; embracing of course

human life too, at the apex of the development of life. And with the division of the

sexes into male and female, God would then have the means, the vehicle, to become

Incarnate. And that is precisely what He did do. At the moment planned and foreseen

and prepared for, the Holy Spirit, setting aside the male, worked directly on the womb

of the Woman - Mary of Nazareth, prompting life and joining the resulting human

nature to the Second Person of the Trinity. Nine months later, Jesus Christ is born: God

in the flesh. God could not have done this without Mary. Thus, I rest my case - the

person of Mary is fundamental to the working out of the plan of God.

Nor does her role end there. Mary is not discarded and forgotten by God - used only to

bring Him bodily into the world. Quite the contrary - Mary receives a unique vocation

from God, to which she also assents: to be the Mother of the human race, collectively

a new Eve. But also, she is given as Mother to each individual human being, Pope John

Paul said [Redemptoris Mater 23]. That is her vocation. We are meantto have a

relationship with Mary - we are meantto have devotion to her; for if Mary is integral

and fundamental to the plan of God - His economy of salvation, then she MUST be

integral to our lives as children of God too.


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How can we make Mary integral to our lives?

Short answer by coming to know her and growing in love for her. What we know

about Mary comes largely from what is recorded in the Gospels and from the living oral

Tradition of the Church. The Book of Revelation also has some things to teach us about

Mary which are very interesting and can help our understanding of her and thus bind us

more strongly to her.

For example, the Book of Revelation shows Mary to be the new Ark of the Covenant.

The Ark of the Covenant, lately of Indiana Jones fame, was the holiest object in ancient

Judaism. It had its origin in the Divine will, it wasnt a human idea. It was the golden

chest the Israelites carried with them until it was placed in the Temple in Jerusalem. In a

mysterious way, it was the vehicle for Gods Presence on earth. The Power of God also

came out of it and frazzled the enemies of the Jews. It was an object of the utmost

veneration.

However, in the later history of the Jews, the Ark was lost [hence the Indiana Jones

film!]. No one knew where it was; the prophet Jeremiah took it from Jerusalem when

the Babylonians invaded and sealed it in a cave - somewhere. In those dark days, the

Lord spoke this prophecy through Jeremiah:

And I will give you shepherds after my own heart, who will feed you with knowledge


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and understanding. And when you have multiplied and increased in the land, in those

days, says the Lord, they shall no more say, The Ark of the covenant of the Lord. It

shall not come to mind, or be remembered again, or missed; it shall not be made

again.That seems pretty clear, the Ark is finished, has fulfilled its purpose.

Then we jump ahead to the Book of Revelation, end of Ch. 11 and we read, after the

blowing of the seventh trumpet: Then Gods temple in heaven was opened, and the

Ark of his Covenant was seen within his temple. This would have made a first century

Christian, a convert from Judaism, sit bolt upright. St. John describes what he saw, the

doors of the temple in heaven opening - the Jews believed of course that their earthly

temple in Jerusalem was merely a copy of the real temple in heaven. Inside the

Jerusalem temple, in the space called the Holy of holies, screened by a veil, the Ark of

the Covenant was situated. Not in Herods temple though, at the time of Christ - the

Holy of holies was empty as the Ark was lost. So when St. John says he saw the Ark of

the Covenant in heaven, this was a hugely important thing. People knew what the ark

looked like, but St. John doesnt describe a golden chest - he doesnt describe an object

at all - he starts describing a Woman! A woman clothed with the sun, the moon under

her feet and crowned with 12 stars, who was also with child and in the pangs of birth.

We see this term or title of woman used in other places in the scriptures: in Genesis


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3:15, where after the disastrous fall of Man, God curses the serpent, or Satan, saying I

will put enmity between you and the woman - a woman who will crush the head of

the serpent.

Then in the New Testament, Our Lord uses the term woman when addressing His

Mother. Once at the wedding feast of Cana, where he worked His first miracle - we

might say because of the request His Mother presented to Him, He worked His first

miracle ahead of schedule! Then again, on the Cross, Our Lord addressed Mary as

woman when He gave her to St. John: Woman, behold your son.

So how do we interpret this woman in the BR? One obvious interpretation would be

that she is Mary. In which case, St. John is revealing to us that Mary is the new Ark of

the Covenant. And there are some other parallels which would also lead us to see Mary

in this light:

_______________________________________________________________________

[parallels with King Davids experience of the original ark. We find them in 2 Samuel &

the Gospel of Luke:

For example, in 2 Samuel 6, David arose and went to Judah [to bring the ark back to

Jerusalem]


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Luke says: Mary arose and went to the hill country of Judah.

2 Samuel: David exclaims How can the ark of God come to me?

Luke: Elizabeth says: why should I be honoured with a visit from the mother of my

Lord?

2 Samuel: as the ark is carried into Jerusalem, King David leaps and dances before the

Lord.

Luke: the child in Elizabeths womb leapt for joy in the presence of Marys Child.

2 Samuel: initially, King David kept the ark in the house of a righteous Jew, Obed-Edom

for three months.

Luke tells us that Mary stayed with Elizabeth for 3 months.

It looks like a certain pattern is emerging here - a certain parallel wording is used to

convey that Mary is indeed the new Ark of the Covenant]

_______________________________________________________________________

The original ark had these contents: a bowl of manna, the 2 tablets of stone with the 10

commandments on them and the rod or staff of Aaron, Moses brother which bloomed

miraculously to reveal him as the High priest God had chosen. Whereas Mary carried in


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her womb: Jesus Christ, the Living Bread come down from Heaven, the Word of God

made flesh, not stone, and He who was the King of kings, Lord of lords and the Great

High Priest, the true bridge between God and Man. This makes the person of Mary

hugely significant in the economy of salvation and redemption. Just as the Ark of the

Covenant in the Old Testament pointed beyond itself to the Presence of God, so Mary,

the new Ark points beyond herself towards God in the flesh, her Divine Son Jesus - the

One for whom we were made.

Given to St. John as the life drained from the Precious Body of her Son on the Cross,

Mary became the Mother of all believers - the Mother of the Church Jesus founded. Let

us think for a moment on the birth of Christ. Jesus Christ was not born as an individual

among many individuals. He was born, as Pope Benedict said recently to create a body

for Himself. [Address to Synod on the Middle East, October 2010]The Holy Father was

reminding us that Christ came to gather all things to Himself throughout the cosmos, to

reunite everything in Himself, such that He would become the head of a great body - of

humanity regenerated. This immense work of God would begin in earnest with Jesus

birth in Bethlehem. But at the same time, the great work of the construction of His

body - the holy church - also began. Mary the Mother of God therefore became Mary

Mother of the Church, because she is the Mother of Him who came to re-unite all in His

risen body.


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Saint Luke helps us to understand this. In the first chapter of his Gospel, the Holy Spirit

overshadows Mary, and so she gives birth and gives us the Son of God. In the first

chapter of his other book, the Acts of the Apostles, Mary is at the centre of the disciples

of Jesus who are all praying together, imploring the gift of the Holy Spirit, who descends

mightily upon them all. And so from these believers, with Mary at the centre, is born

the Church, the Body of Christ. Marys motherhood embraces both events - the birth of

Jesus Christ, the Head, and the birth of his Body - those who are joined to Him in the

Church.

In the same address, the Pope then moves to the Book of Revelation and the image of

the woman, clothed with the sun, who is in the pains of labour. He says we see the

same idea here as we did in the writings of St. Luke, but here the mystery of Mary is

placed on a cosmic level. In Ch.12, the woman gives birth with a cry of pain; she gives

birth with great suffering. For Christ is always being born again through all the

generations of suffering mankind. Yet through this process, Christ takes up, He gathers

humanity into Himself. This process is brought into especially sharp focus where

Christians are martyred for their faith; through their suffering and death, the Church

comes to life.

Ok Father, you may say - youve established that Mary is not an optional extra, that she


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is fundamental to Gods plan, to the Church, and that we are to see her and relate to

her as our Mother. What about our day to day life, how we live our faith and follow

Jesus in the often boring circumstances of our daily routine? I will acknowledge that a

large part of our lives seem very humdrum and unexciting. But we can, nay - must,

never forget that they are set against the backdrop of a continual titanic war between

good and evil, between the spiritual powers of good, and those of darkness. All human

beings are caught up in this, whether they are aware of it or not.

Directly after the image of the woman clothed with the sun in Ch. 12 of the BR, we have

another image - that of the great red dragon who seeks to devour the womans child

when it is born. The dragon or serpent is Satan. St. Michael hurls him out of heaven

down to the earth, where he pursues the woman and makes war on her offspring - all

those who keep the commandments of God and are faithful to Jesus. This is the war in

which we are all engaged on a daily basis. Satan continually strives to destroy the

Church and bring about our downfall through temptation.

In the midst of this battle, we are to follow Christ - strive for holiness, live Christs law of

love, conquer evil with goodness. Mary will help us on both counts: to seek, find and

follow Christ, and help us in the struggle against evil.

Now, I know people who ring their mothers every day, just to chat, say hello and check


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theyre ok. We need to do the same with Mary, our spiritual mother. But here, its the

children who benefit most. Our daily contact with our Heavenly Mother will be very

ordinary most of the time - but thats ok, as its in the ordinary circumstances of life that

we are given the opportunity to show love; just as Mary herself did in Nazareth.

But I do want to refer to two extraordinaryencounters with Mary that have had a great

impact on the Church and therefore on the world, and reveal how deeply Mary is

involved in humanity. These appearances are out of the ordinary, you dont need to

believe them to get to Heaven. However, they have been approved by the Church who

has supreme spiritual jurisdiction on earth, and therefore in my legal opinion, they are

to be admitted as evidence.

Firstly - Guadalupe. 1531, in the former Aztec Empire now conquered by Spain, the

Mother of God appears to an Aztec. She appears in royal garments, clothed with the

Sun, standing on the moon and surrounded by stars which are imprinted on her outer

cloak. She is also pregnant. This should immediately call to mind the image of the

woman in the BR. We know what Our lady of Guadalupe looked like, because the image

was somehow printed onto the Aztecs cactus fibre cloak, which is miraculously intact

and on display in Mexico. Mary states that she is the Mother of the True God - in

contrast to the many dreadful and bloodthirsty deities that the Aztecs worshipped; one


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of which was the serpent god. She asks for a church to be built, and promises that in

that place she will hear the petitions of all who come and confide in her, she will help

them in their sorrows and give comfort. She reveals herself with a name that sounded

to the Spanish like Guadalupe but was probably a mishearing, since she spoke in the

Aztec language and asked to be called Holy Mary Coatlaxopeuh which means literally

the one who treads on snakes - a title we instantly recognise as applying to Mary for

she is the one who crushes the head of the serpent according to the words of

Genesis. Through the Child she brings in to the world, the ancient serpent, the dragon

will be defeated. The Aztec religion was an ocean of blood and human sacrifice -

thousands upon thousands every year, including children were sacrificed to their gods.

However, in our time, in our country, children are being sacrificed again, by the million,

which dwarfs the cruelty of the Aztecs - this is the abortion holocaust of the modern

age. When the Aztecs stopped destroying life and turned to the True God, Who they

learnt had sacrificed Himself for them, the result was an ocean of belief, and renewal of

faith - 9 million Aztecs converted in 10 years, because of Our Lady of Guadalupe.

How many of you now or in the past have had to be kicked out of your bed in the

morning by your mother? Mothers act often as wake up calls dont they? Stops us

getting into trouble! It seems Mary appears in history to give us a wake-up call - relating

to something weve forgotten, or should be doing but arent. Or to communicate to us,


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nothing new but a sense of the urgency of the work of salvation and the danger of

spiritual drowsiness.

Our Lady of Guadalupe shows us that the serpent, the dragon is still active; and that

under his auspices, precious and vulnerable human life is still being destroyed and this

is something that must be stopped. We, the people of God must wake up and stop the

slaughter and Mary will be our great help in this battle, as she will be in all our personal

struggles with the Evil One. When Gods People pray, when they worship the True God,

the Heavens themselves are moved - things change, even the impossible. Pray to Our

Lady of Guadalupe for an end to the destruction of innocent human life.

Secondly - Fatima: the first booklet I ever read on Mary was about her appearance in

Fatima, Portugal in 1917. I read about the astonishing miracle of the sun, seen by

70,000 people and thinking how come nobody takes any notice of this? Another

manifestation of the motherly care Mary has for humanity - another wake-up call.

People must turn back to God Our Lady said, in 1917 or there will be another terrible

war. Not enough people listened and took her message to heart. If the Mother of God

deigns to reveal herself and communicate a message directly, I think we can assume the

situation is extremely urgent - its not something she would do idly. Therefore its not

something we can say Oh, how interesting, and go back to business as usual. 70,000


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people, including militant atheists, saw the sun spin in the sky and then appear to fall to

earth, on the day predicted. Thats a football stadiums worth of eye witnesses. They

cant all have been cock-a-doody. The miracle confirmed the authenticity of the

message as well as the identity of its bearer. The message: turn back to God, make

sacrifices for sinners, pray the rosary!!

The rosary is THE prayer of Our Lady, because her unique role is to point to Christ and

foster the growth of Christ within us. And this is what praying the rosary does. No

surprise then that Mary should request, as a matter of urgency, that it be prayed by

those who are her children [those who keep the commandments and are faithful to

Jesus].

An American Catholic priest related how, at some ecumenical gathering or other, he

said to his friend who was a protestant Baptist minister: So do you fancy joining me in

praying the rosary? The Baptist replied: Thats something you Catholics do, but we

dont pray rosaries! Why? the priest countered, What do you have against the

gospels? What do you mean what have we got against the gospels - no one is more

committed to the gospels than the Baptists, we base our whole lives around them.

Well - all the rosary is, is praying the gospels, said the priest. That is what the rosary

involves - praying over the scriptures, especially the gospels: there we find the


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Annunciation, the Institution of the Holy Eucharist, His sorrowful Passion & the

Resurrection of the Lord from the dead, to name just four earth-shattering mysteries in

the life of Christ and His Mother. Pondering those mysteries in the rosary will lead you

to Jesus, you will come to know Him personally, you will come to love Him more, you

will then grow spiritually and will start to spread and build His Kingdom.

Praying the rosary is NOT the babbling of 50 Hail Marys. It is meditation - something

going on in the depths of your soul, where Jesus is present. The rosary was given to us

so that it could be a door; a door to intimacy with God. This is why the rosary is also

such a powerful defence against evil, because if you are close to God, evil has no power

over you. If you pray the prayer of the Mother of the True God, she will crush the head

of the serpent for you.

Who, then, is dumb enough to ignore a request from the Mother of God herself to pray

the rosary?? No one could come to me and give me 10 - no just 2 good reasons why

they shouldnt pray the rosary. And I dont have time, and I dont get anything out of

it, are NOT good reasons. Let me dispose of them individually:

I dont have time - Come on.

Next, I dont get anything out of it. So what? What has that got to do with anything?

Oh, Im not going to do this particular task at work, because I dont get anything out of


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it. But my boss will understand. Really? Try it. Youll be fired.

Or, my daughter needs me to help her with her homework, but it looks boring and

time consuming, so Ill say do it yourself because I wouldnt get anything out of it.

Or, so-and-so has invited me round tonight for a social, and would really appreciate me

being there, but Im not going because I wouldnt get anything out if it. Im labouring

the point, but do you get my meaning? I dont get anything out if it is not a good

philosophy of life. You deprive yourself of opportunities to show love, and thus turn in

on yourself.

Besides, if you pray the rosary simply out of love for Jesus and Mary, I promise you, you

WILL get something out of it. Nobody makes a sacrifice for God without Him showering

you with grace in abundance. Perhaps you pray it but you dont feel youre very good at

it. Well, join the club! When I was little I used to make perfume for my mum using

rose petals collected from the garden and left to decompose in a jar of water for a few

days; because I knew roses smelled nice and mum liked perfume and this would save

her a lot of money. My mum was never cross or offended by my objectively pathetic

efforts. Because she understood that the apparent result didnt matter, what mattered

was the love which motivated it. She was always delighted. So is our heavenly Mother

when we pray the rosary, however badly, simply because she asked us to. See it not as a


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task, but as a meeting with your closest friends. Pray it! Pray it! Pray iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiit!! Life is

too short and the urgency of redeeming the world too great for us not to pray the

rosary. You must be militant Christians. That does not mean sending letter bombs to

atheists; it means living the Gospel of Christ with all your heart. Are you as militant as

the first Christians? They spoke the truth in love with great courage, popular or

unpopular; they fought evil using the weapons God had given them, especially the

invincible weapon of prayer. They put God before everything else. Prayer was natural to

them, the spiritual equivalent of breathing. We need to know and believe what they

did: that when Gods People engage in true worship think THE MASS - when Christians

pray, earth and heaven are moved, because prayer allows God to act. How did the

armies of Israel conquer Jericho? Through military superiority? No through worship

and prayer, God brought down the walls of the city. When St. Peter was in prison, the

prayers of the Church caused an angel to be sent to free him. At the battle of Lepanto in

the 1500s, the Muslim fleet was defeated because the Christians prayed the rosary

before it.

In this conference, the rationale of prayer, our capacity for it, our need for it has been

proposed and explained. But only YOU can make the act of will to take this further. No

angel is going to come down and make you pray God Himself will not make you pray;

though once you decide you are going to, He will be there immediately to help you.


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I think the hope is that you will go away from the conference with the intention of

seriously starting to pray if you dont already, and seeking to do deeper if you already

do. I address myself here too: I have been a Catholic for 28 years and have only

scratched the surface of the depth of prayer, compared to some of the great saints of

God but even doing that much has given me great joy and the peace the world cannot

give.

Please dont leave here and go back to business/life as usual. Resolve to do something

regarding prayer, the life of your soul even if its only to say Lord teach me to pray or

Lord help me to take this further. Be aware too that Satan will be waiting to carry

away any good seeds that have been planted in you here, so that they dont germinate

and bear fruit. Dont let him do that! Yes, prayer takes some effort but friendship with

God is worth it! Yes that is the result of prayer: friendship with God, and it will make

you so happy. To use Facebook language: Jesus Christ has sent each of you a friendship

request. So is it Confirm or Ignore??

There will, perhaps, be many things/tasks you start and later wish you hadnt. I promise

you: you will never regret praying and the friendship with God that it gives. Mary shares

our humanity, and knows how to pray. Look to her, and learn.

In a world of such moral confusion and lack of direction, of such darkness of intellect;


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where so many have been deceived once again by the whispering of the Ancient Enemy

to our first parents: You decide for yourselves whats right and wrong. we need a

beacon of Light to avoid the rocks which could shipwreck our lives, and to point to a

safe harbour. The beacon, the Star of the Sea, the one who crushes the serpent, the

Mother of us all is Mary.

[Given at Stonyhurst, Faith Winter Session, December 2010]

Documents

Mary and the Devotional Life