Praises to Mary

June 17, 2012 / MariaNews.com 

Praises to Mary

By Deacon Antonio Sandoval

            Sister Rosa Lombardi, MPF, author of the book, MARY Reflection of the Trinity and First-Fruits of creation, dedicated her work primarily to the Virgin Mother…that she may always be better known, loved and praised… and that every creature may experience her vibrant and light-filled presence.  I have selected some passages from Sister Rosa’s book that glow with praise for Mary.  My list is by no means comprehensive, but rather random and incomplete.  These passages are mostly quotes of other authors cited in Sister Rosa’s book.

Jean Galot says in the preface, “This work does not simply assert that Mary is an ‘enchanting creature, the most beautiful flower that ever bloomed in the garden of humanity, who sprang from God’s creative mind, from the very heart of the Trinity’.  It also shows us why this masterpiece came into being through God’s marvelous plan…Mary is not the center, but she is central to Christianity.  The person of Mary is not the center and cannot be made the center of the doctrine of salvation.  Christ always remains the center as the source of all divine life given to the human race.  But the Son of God entered the human world as a child of Mary and can no longer be separated from his Mother, who has been recognized as being the Mother of God.  In virtue of this motherhood Mary belongs to the center that is her Son.”

Pierre Teilhard de Chardin said, “When the time had come when God resolved to effect His Incarnation before our eyes… he created the Virgin Mary, that is to say, he called forth on earth a purity so great that, within this transparency, he would concentrate himself to the point of appearing as a child”.

Karl Rahner is quoted as saying, “We know that apart from Jesus there has been only one human being whose life was of a different kind:  Mary, the Virgin, the Immaculate, the ever pure.  In her something occurred which our hearts have difficulty in believing, because we always have our own bitter experiences before our eyes.  This is that a human being is capable of entering eternity without having to repent of anything.  Yet such a human being exists:  it is Mary.  There was not an instant of her life that she had to disown, or even an empty barren instant.  There was no action to make her blush, none wrapped in shadow, none that fell into the abyss of the past without having lit an everlasting light.”

According to the Dutch Catechism, “Mary lived in a sinful world and was affected by its sorrows, but not by its wickedness; she was our sister in suffering but not in evil.  The Virgin Mother owed everything to the redeemer, her Son.  She was redeemed beforehand; in her, evil met its first definitive defeat.”

We conclude our praises with a quote of the author, Rosa Lombardi:  “Before the Son descended to the earth, the Father willed to prepare a suitable dwelling for him:  Mary, the supreme gift which the Father gives to the Son after the complete gift of Himself.  Then in order that Mary might be worthy of him for whom she was intended, the Father sent his Spirit into Mary.  He did so in order that by wrapping her in redemptive and sanctifying love from the very instant of her conception, He might bring her into the world as the first-fruits of the new creation of which Paul speaks (2Cor 5:17; Gal 6:17) and thereby make her ready for her future mission.”

The reason for our praise of Mary is that true devotion to Mary includes loving, praising, and thanking Mary, and in so doing, we are, in fact, loving, praising, and thanking God for giving Mary to the world, the masterpiece of his creation.

Read more by Deacon Antonio here: http://marianews.com/wordpress/category/readersblog/deacon-antonio/

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