WHY MARY IS HONOURED IN THE CATHOLIIC CHURCH

Of all women you are the most blessed, and blesses is the fruit of your woman.    Why should I be honoured with a visit from the Mother of my Lord?   Look, the moment your greeting reached my ears, the child in my womb leapt for joy.   Yes blessed is she who believed that the promise made her by the Lord would be fulfilled.   Luke 1:42

The above is the extraordinary greeting of Elizabeth to her cousin Mary.   “Why should I be honoured with a visit from the Mother of my Lord” she asks.  A woman approaching old age is saying this to a girl in her early teens.   So to her Mary is no longer ‘just another woman.   She is a woman above all other women, she is the Mother of Jesus, the Saviour   Then comes Marys reply…..”he has looked upon the lowliness of his handmaid, and from now onwards all generations shall call me blessed…”   So let us be clear Mary claims nothing on her own merits, It is Got and God alone who gave her the many blessings she has.

But the story of Mary starts when the angel Gabriel visits her in Nazareth to tell her that she is to give birth to the Messiah.   “Hail, full of grace…” he says.    He did not say “Hail, highly favoured..”  which is a corruption of the Text put in by modern scholars, not until recent translations was ‘highly’ favoured used.   No Luke 1:28 reads Hail Full of Grace.

We have already covered the Visitation so let us move on to the Marriage Feast at Cana.   We know that the hosts were running short of wine and Mary approached her son asking hum to help.  “O WOMAN, what has that to do with thee or me, my hour has not yet come”.   Not the word ‘woman.   This is the word used in Genesis 3:15, “I will put enmity between thee and the woman and between her seed and thy seed..   He will crush your head and you will lie in wait for her heel”   By using the word ‘woman’ Jesus was drawing the attention of others to this scripture.    She was the New Eve who would crush the serpent.   There is one other time that Jesus addresses his mother as ‘Woman’ and that is when from the Cross he says to his mother “Woman hold your son, son behold your mother”   These writings of Luke and John, which would be later accepted as the Word of God in the New Testament helped the early Church to reach the conclusion that Mary was indeed the new Eve promised in Genesis  who would put enmity between the seed of the Serpent and her seed.   Her seed would be a new creation called Christians who would be able to overcome sin.   Because the New Eve was born immaculate like the old Eve was born immaculate, nevertheless the New Eve, full of grace and born without sin, remained faithful to God, Christians are truly her seed and she is our mother.   It is also worthwhile turning to Revelations 12.

How then should we receive Mary into our homes?   She is not coming to demand we spend all our time in prayer and penance.    She is the visitor and just wants to be part of our family, she wants to see us laughing and loving one another.   OK watch the TV, play your games, play your music but remember that you are also hosts to Mary.   Every day light up the candles and make your devotions to her - the Rosary, scripture readings, and petitions.    If friends come round, perhaps you could invite friends to join you in a prayer or a Rosary, but that is your choice.     Do not feel you have to pray the full Rosary.    For children and teenagers, if they are enthusiastic fine, but one decade of the Rosary well said is better than five said without interest.   Just ask them to do so, Mary will help you.   One decade a night means a whole Roary in a week.     For safety we are using electric candles but if you wish a living flame then do so.   The advantage of the electric candle is that you can turn them on when you are in the kitchen cooking and slaving and offer your work to Mary.   Why not put the candles on and play a CD with hymns to Mary. 

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