My Devotion to Mary


As a Catholic, I was taught that Mother Mary is the Mother of Our Lord and we should give her honour and respect. But I have this issue on asking Mary for her intercession, because I have seen other Catholics (especially from the older generation) attribute too much credit to her and it really bugs me to see Catholics bowing to statues of her and touching & kissing these stone images, as though she is truly present there! Therefore I have decided to keep a "safe distance" away from her, in terms of devotion (e.g. praying the rosary, scapulars, etc...)

I remembered I told Adrian many times before on this issue of mine, and praise God today he helped me gained a deeper understanding on the Marian devotion...

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In the book of Genesis 3:15 ("And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel."), we see that the bible talks about God putting enmity between the seed of the woman and the serpent (which is satan). The seed of the woman refers to Jesus and that makes the woman: the Blessed Virgin Mary. In Romans 16:20; we see a reference to the verse in Genesis, which says that "the God of peace will soon crush satan underneath our feet". When we link this verse with the one in Genesis; we can conclude that we too are offsprings of the woman.. And in John 19:26-28 ("When Jesus saw his mother there, and the disciple whom he loved standing nearby, he said to his mother, "Dear woman, here is your son," and to the disciple, "Here is your mother." From that time on, this disciple took her into his home. Later, knowing that all was now completed, and so that the Scripture would be fulfilled, Jesus said, "I am thirsty."), after Jesus introduced His disciple into a mother-son relationship with His mother, only then He knew everything is accomplished, and we must remember that Jesus was not being rude to His mother when he used the term "woman", rather He just wants us to refer this term to Genesis. And if we put all these pieces of puzzle together, we can see that Our Lord Jesus' will is for us to recognize His mother as our own because it is with her that our Faith is complete (refer to John 19:28)! Everytime when we receive the Eucharist, we are in Christ and Christ is in us, and that makes us all the more the offspring of the woman because we are in Christ!

With that in mind, I came to the conclusion that the Blessed Virgin is truly my spiritual mother, and it is important for me to take responsibilty to give her due honour and respect as it is written in the 10 Commandments (Honour your father and your mother) and what better way to give your mum honour and respect than to show the world, your prayers are answered through the intercession of your mum! Some of you might say, "Why go through the intercession of Mary? Why don't you pray to the Lord without a middle-woman?". Well, my answer to these questions is plain and simple. Jesus loves His Mother and He wants us to recognize the holiness of His mother. So how can we recognize the holiness of His mother? As the Bible says,"...The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective." (James 5:16), therefore when your prayers are answered you can be sure that the Blessed Virgin interceded for you. :) And that logic applies also to the saints. ;)

My point is, contrary to the popular Protestant belief: Mother Mary is more than a vessel to bear Jesus Christ. She IS the Ark of the Covenant that contained the Bread of Life (Jesus)! In the Old Testament, God instructed His people to build the Ark of the Covenant (which contained a jar of manna, Aaron's staff and the stone tablets) with much detail and precision; what more in the New Testament where the "Ark of The Covenant" will contain the Bread of Life? Therefore, Mother Mary is made full of grace (simply means that there is so much grace that sin cannot find a place in her) as a preparation for the coming of God's beloved Son.

Love Jesus, Love Mary.

Peace <><