The Bible: The Testimony of Mary the Mother of God
If the evidence of the early Church, the evidence of the Bible, and the Proclaiming of Mary by so many saints through the ages, does not convince Rebellious Catholics of the place of Mary in Salvation History, then surely the testimony of the Mother of God herself should move their hearts.
Although what was called 'childish devotions' were removed from Catholic Schools and the excuse was they were immature, showing an amazing lack of humility from the perpetrators, surely the appearance of Mary to the humble Bernadette at Lourdes should move them. Certainly those opposing devotion to Mary in the Church, have found difficulty in opposing such devotions at Lourdes. They work in the background undermining at a Parish level devotional practices, but they do not want to be noticed too much. They do not oppose them, except when they have a sympathetic priest, but visits to pilgrim shrines are not a priority.
So as I wrote in my last blog that Mary was Full of Grace at the Annunciation was accepted in the early Church. In 1849 Pope Pius IX started consulting the bishops of the world if they were prepared to make the doctrine of Mary being conceived without sin be proclaimed as a Dogma. Now a Dogma is a teaching which the Church rules as being part of the Faith handed down from the Apostles, or as part of the deposit of Faith revealed by God. The Bishops assented and in 1854 this teaching became a dogma. It read "We declare, pronounce, and define that the doctrine which holds that the most Blessed Virgin Mary, in the first instance of her conception, by a singular grace and privilege granted by Almighty God, in view of the merits of Jesus Christ, the Savior of the human race, was preserved free from all stain of original sin, is a doctrine revealed by God and therefore to be believed firmly and constantly by all the faithful. Notice how this was worded. It did not use the phrase 'Immaculate Conception' It was at Lourdes in 1858 after refusing on previous occasions to say who she was that Mary answered "I am the Immaculate Conception", while raising her arms and her eyes to Heaven. In saying these words Mary was declaring her uniqueness. her position as a new creation, and also humbly thanking God for "He that is mighty has done great things to me".
At Fatima in 1917, Mary appeared to three children, the oldest 10, and the others 8 and 7. AS a mother she had come to warn her children of the horror that sin was producing in the world and that although the First World War would end unless there was penance and a turning back to Christ there would be a second world war. Christ died on the Cross for sin and Christ said "If you love me then keep my commandments" I was appalled in the 70's and 80's to hear from the pulpit that these commandments could be ignored for we now have only one commandment and that is to love. Love who, I wondered, ourselves or Jesus. Now of course we are weak, and of course we sin, but Jesus gave us the Sacraments to overcome sin. We just need to keep trying and not make excuses. The thousands of young people leaving school with littler knowledge of the real Jesus, and losing their way into lives of unhappiness is the responsibility of those who took the real Jesus from them. A recent statistic I read was that there was a growing suicide rate among 14 - 16 year olds. And if we do not see unhappy children around us it is because we are blinding ourselves to the truth. We need the real Jesus, and not the Jesus that false prophets have created. But to carry on, Jesus believed in Hell and so did Mary. the Apparitions at Fatima are easy to turn our backs on, and pretend we are mature, but the children of Fatima promised there would be a miracle on the 13th October, and that miracle happened. Never before in the history of the Church were people invited to a miracle, but on the 13th October over 70.000 people saw the sun fall from the sky and dance. The promised Miracle happened Are you one of the Catholic critics who say "I do not care if there was a million I am too mature to believe that" Then wait for your judgment.
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Although what was called 'childish devotions' were removed from Catholic Schools and the excuse was they were immature, showing an amazing lack of humility from the perpetrators, surely the appearance of Mary to the humble Bernadette at Lourdes should move them. Certainly those opposing devotion to Mary in the Church, have found difficulty in opposing such devotions at Lourdes. They work in the background undermining at a Parish level devotional practices, but they do not want to be noticed too much. They do not oppose them, except when they have a sympathetic priest, but visits to pilgrim shrines are not a priority.
So as I wrote in my last blog that Mary was Full of Grace at the Annunciation was accepted in the early Church. In 1849 Pope Pius IX started consulting the bishops of the world if they were prepared to make the doctrine of Mary being conceived without sin be proclaimed as a Dogma. Now a Dogma is a teaching which the Church rules as being part of the Faith handed down from the Apostles, or as part of the deposit of Faith revealed by God. The Bishops assented and in 1854 this teaching became a dogma. It read "We declare, pronounce, and define that the doctrine which holds that the most Blessed Virgin Mary, in the first instance of her conception, by a singular grace and privilege granted by Almighty God, in view of the merits of Jesus Christ, the Savior of the human race, was preserved free from all stain of original sin, is a doctrine revealed by God and therefore to be believed firmly and constantly by all the faithful. Notice how this was worded. It did not use the phrase 'Immaculate Conception' It was at Lourdes in 1858 after refusing on previous occasions to say who she was that Mary answered "I am the Immaculate Conception", while raising her arms and her eyes to Heaven. In saying these words Mary was declaring her uniqueness. her position as a new creation, and also humbly thanking God for "He that is mighty has done great things to me".
At Fatima in 1917, Mary appeared to three children, the oldest 10, and the others 8 and 7. AS a mother she had come to warn her children of the horror that sin was producing in the world and that although the First World War would end unless there was penance and a turning back to Christ there would be a second world war. Christ died on the Cross for sin and Christ said "If you love me then keep my commandments" I was appalled in the 70's and 80's to hear from the pulpit that these commandments could be ignored for we now have only one commandment and that is to love. Love who, I wondered, ourselves or Jesus. Now of course we are weak, and of course we sin, but Jesus gave us the Sacraments to overcome sin. We just need to keep trying and not make excuses. The thousands of young people leaving school with littler knowledge of the real Jesus, and losing their way into lives of unhappiness is the responsibility of those who took the real Jesus from them. A recent statistic I read was that there was a growing suicide rate among 14 - 16 year olds. And if we do not see unhappy children around us it is because we are blinding ourselves to the truth. We need the real Jesus, and not the Jesus that false prophets have created. But to carry on, Jesus believed in Hell and so did Mary. the Apparitions at Fatima are easy to turn our backs on, and pretend we are mature, but the children of Fatima promised there would be a miracle on the 13th October, and that miracle happened. Never before in the history of the Church were people invited to a miracle, but on the 13th October over 70.000 people saw the sun fall from the sky and dance. The promised Miracle happened Are you one of the Catholic critics who say "I do not care if there was a million I am too mature to believe that" Then wait for your judgment.
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