The Mother of God: A Spiritual Mother Who Intercedes For Her Children

When we contemplate the Virgin Mary's earthly life, from that moment she said yes during the Annunciation, to her anxiety she experienced before having found her Son in the Temple, to that Friday afternoon when she stood before that bloodied Roman Cross on which her Son was cruelly fixed, there is one element of her life more than any other that brilliantly lights up before us: her love. Yet by virtue of her pure and sinless life as the Mother of God, her love far exceeds our understanding.

DENVER, CO (Catholic Online) - We live in a world of seemingly endless pressures and distractions. Each day there are a hundred demands on our time. There is always, as a result of what is often a noisy and cluttered existence, the temptation to become spiritually lazy. And yet, regardless of these thorns which trouble us, from deep within that secret well which lies in the unseen and unheard recesses of the human heart, we recognize, however subtly or strongly, our desperate need for peace, for that tranquility and joy which is so transient in this place. From within those unfathomable depths, as a result of an insatiable desire which the Creator himself has imprinted upon us, a silent call reverberates from within, yearning with inexplicable groans for the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit of Love.

We silently cry: O Father, O Peace Eternal, O Tranquility of Infinite Depth, come! Remove us from these trials! Take us in your arms, raise us into the Heat of Love as a mote of dust before the greatness of the Sun!

Do we not want, more than anything, to be with God? Is that not our deepest, most pressing desire? If we are not sure about this, then we place to much importance on the material; we have let the glittery and passing objects of the world catch our attention. Let us contemplate the greatness of God; his limitless power, his caring providence which sustains us each moment, his unfathomable, burning love: a love so powerful that none could endure even a small fraction of its full force and yet live. Who should not want to be caught up in this Love?

The Immaculate Mother: A Most Caring and Loving Intercessor

It was St. Teresa of Avila who said, "Christ does not force our will, He takes only what we give Him. But He does not give Himself entirely until He sees we give ourselves entirely to Him."
Yet how can we give ourselves entirely over to God unless he first grant us the grace to do so? St. Augustine once commented on this rather perplexing element of reality, on the fact that if we want to know God we must first ask to know him. It is God who first loves us: we simply respond. Yet that is not all. For God, in his infinite knowledge, knows who will respond and to what degree, and he is in possession of this knowledge even before we exist.

Simply, we must realize the need to ask God for all his graces, whatever they may be; for we need his help that we are able to respond. We must be willing to truly commend our spirit unto the Father. And, in giving our life unto God, there is no better example of total dedication and obedience than our Blessed Mother.

Let us not forget to ask the Mother of God for her help; for no human being exists whose understanding of faith, trust and love surpasses that of the Blessed Virgin's. We must recognize our Mother's purity, the perfect life she lived in complete and constant obedience to the will of God. Her Son, Jesus Christ, loves his Mother with the Love of God. Who can comprehend the powerful bond and depth of this Love between Mother and Son? We may feel a profound love for our own biological mother, but what must be contained in the depths of God's love for his Mother?

When we contemplate the Virgin Mary's earthly life, from that moment she said yes during the Annunciation, to her anxiety she experienced before having found her Son in the Temple, to that Friday afternoon when she stood before that bloodied Roman Cross on which her Son was cruelly fixed, there is one element of her life more than any other that brilliantly lights up before us: her love. Yet by virtue of her pure and sinless life as the Mother of God, her love far exceeds our understanding.

Several Popes have reminded us that Mary is our spiritual Mother. As Our Lady stands before God face to face, caught up in the heavenly fires of Divine Love, her compassion and love for all her earthly children far exceeds what we can comprehend. Let us not neglect to fly to our Immaculate Mother, let us not hesitate to place ourselves before her, to honor her and to love her.

Catholics for many centuries have, in their love for God and for is Mother, engaged with devotion in the praying of the Holy Rosary. Ask them what they know of the Rosary, and they will readily admit that it is a powerful weapon against evil; an indispensable prayer for the faithful which builds virtue and draws us nearer to God; and a beautiful method of prayer that soon brings spiritual fruitfulness and peace to our lives. Of course it is God who grants us these wondrous graces, but it is through the intercession of Mary -- the Mediatrix -- who obtains for us these wonders. Our Catholic Catechism instructs us:

"This motherhood of Mary in the order of grace continues uninterruptedly from the consent which she loyally gave at the Annunciation and which she sustained without wavering beneath the cross, until the eternal fulfillment of all the elect. Taken up to heaven she did not lay aside this saving office but by her manifold intercession continues to bring us the gifts of eternal salvation. . . . Therefore the Blessed Virgin is invoked in the Church under the titles of Advocate, Helper, Benefactress, and Mediatrix" (CCC No. 969).

Blessed Alan tells us that a nun who had always displayed a great devotion to the Holy Rosary appeared after her death to one of her religious sisters, revealing to her the inestimable worth of even one Hail Mary: "If I were allowed to go back into my body, to have the chance of saying just one single Hail Mary -- even if I said it quickly and without great fervor -- I would gladly go through the sufferings that I had during my last illness all over again, in order to gain the merit of this prayer" (Blessed Alan de la Roche, De Dignitate Psalterii, LXIX).

The Fifteen Promises of Mary

Our Immaculate Mother gave to St. Dominic and Blessed Alan the following fifteen promises for those Christians who recite the Holy Rosary:
1) Whoever shall faithfully serve me by the recitation of the Rosary shall receive signal graces.

2) I promise my special protection and the greatest graces to all those who shall recite the Rosary.

3) The Rosary shall be a powerful armor against Hell; it will destroy vice, decrease sin and defeat heresies.

4) It will cause virtue and good works to flourish; it will obtain for souls the abundant mercy of God; it will withdraw the hearts of men from the love of the world and its vanities and will lift them to the desire of eternal things. Oh, that souls would sanctify themselves by this means!

5) The soul which recommends itself to me by the recitation of the Rosary shall not perish.

6) Whoever shall recite the Rosary devoutly, applying himself to the consideration of its sacred Mysteries, shall never be conquered by misfortune. God will not chastise him in His justice; he shall not perish by an unprovided death; if he be just, he shall remain in the grace of God and become worthy of eternal life.

7) Whoever shall have a true devotion for the Rosary shall not die without the Sacraments of the Church.

8) Those who are faithful to recite the Rosary shall have during their life and at their death the light of God and the plentitude of His graces; at the moment of death they shall participate in the merits of the Saints in Paradise.

9) I shall deliver from Purgatory those who have been devoted to the Rosary.

10) The faithful children of the Rosary shall merit a high degree of glory in Heaven.

11) You shall obtain all you ask of me by the recitation of the Rosary.

12) All those who propagate the Holy Rosary shall be aided by me in their necessities.

13) I have obtained from my Divine Son that all the advocates of the Rosary shall have for intercessors the entire celestial court during their life and at the hour of death.

 14) All who recite the Rosary are my sons, and brothers of my only Son, Jesus Christ.

 15) Devotion to my Rosary is a great sign of predestination.

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F. K. Bartels is a Catholic writer who knows his Catholic Faith is one of the greatest treasures a man could ever have. He is managing editor of catholicpathways.com, and a contributing writer for Catholic Online.

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