Keep in mind the wilted vs generated bandwidths of human existence. |
Symbolic of the Fountain of Grace, where the Holy Spirit is the actual water. |
When you become devoted to Mary, she becomes devoted to you. After all, love is devotion. The Early Church Fathers recognized her as the Ark of the New & Everlasting Covenant. Since her departure from this life, men & women in all subsequent generations have called her blessed, because he who is mighty has done great things for her, and no Protestant can overrule God. To call her blessed fulfills scripture, while refusing to do so makes you a very unrecognizable stranger to Christ.
Keep in mind the wilted vs generated bandwidths of human existence. |
Symbolic of the Fountain of Grace, where the Holy Spirit is the actual water. |
"Henceforth, all generations will call me blessed, because he who is mighty has done great things for me and holy is his name." Luke 1:48 - 1:49 (Marian Devotion fulfills this Biblical prophecy.) |
Perhaps you know the thought process of those who follow TV preachers clad in business suits. They claim that praying the Hail Mary is pagan idolatry, especially when done in front of a statue of Mary. They claim that Marian Devotion [1] detracts from Jesus ... that it [2] robs Christ of the attention due to him ... that it [3] draws people away from Jesus, making him a stranger to mankind. Do you see the supreme asininity in that claim?
Take Note:
To start, the Hail Mary comes directly from the Bible itself, in the Gospel of Luke ... at the very beginning of it. Things derived directly from the Bible cannot possibly be pagan idolatry. Next:
The most common Marian devotion is the Rosary. It was originally called, the Angelic Psalter. The Rosary consists in praying the Hail Mary several times in succession, while simultaneously meditating on specific events involving Jesus Christ.
The Hail Mary takes about 20 seconds to pray, unless if you're a contemplative, upon which it would take you about 35 to 45 seconds to complete. Well, at the eight second mark, a person praying the Hail Mary states (either verbally or silently) ... "blessed is the fruit of your womb," Luke 1:42, with the word, Jesus, added to the prayer.
Now, the Rosary consists in calling Jesus blessed every 20 to 35 seconds, time after time. How could a devotion which repeatedly calls Jesus blessed be one that detracts from Jesus? How could a devotion that consists in a person reflecting on the Incarnation, Life, Sufferings, Death, Resurrection, and Ascension of Jesus Christ detract from Christ? Hello? Is anybody home here?
The Centering Prayer
In addition, being that the name of Jesus is blessed by the Rosary devotee every 20 to 35 seconds during Rosary prayer, this means that within the Rosary is the CENTERING PRAYER that was done by contemplative monks in ages past. They simply repeated the name Jesus, within spaces of time, to keep focused. So, while you are praying the Rosary, you are simultaneously doing the Centering Prayer.
The Our Father, too
The meditation of each mystery of the Rosary actually begins with the Our Father, taught by Jesus, himself. So, how does observing the formula for prayer that was taught by Jesus detract from Jesus, especially when it's immediately followed by calling Jesus blessed, every 20 to 35 seconds? In fact, as soon as you pray the Our Father, you are acknowledging Jesus as your "teacher." Therefore, praying the Rosary consists in the devotee calling Jesus the blessed teacher --- or blessed rabbi. Now, how does this constitute pagan idolatry that detracts from Jesus?
One more thing about the Hail Mary:
The opening words of it are the words of God the Father, himself, spoken through the Archangel Gabriel. This is why the Hail Mary was originally called, the Angelic Salutation. In as much, to have an aversion to the Hail Mary is to have an aversion to the Will of God the Father, as was announced by an archangel.
Concerning the translation of "full of grace" in the Gospel of Luke, it comes from the common citizen's Greek. It is translated from KECHARITOMENE, and it refers to someone who has been completely graced and who remains in the process of being graced. It's like a flowing river which continues to get water from its tributary water sources. In Mary's case, the tributaries flowing into her are the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. So, the Hail Mary Prayer should actually be, "Hail Mary, fully graced, the Lord is with you."
People who condemn the Rosary have one thing in common
They're lazy. It's that simplex. The Rosary requires a person to state verbal prayer, at least in silence, while simultaneously meditating on an aspect of Christ and the Holy Spirit. They literally have trouble doing both types of prayer at the same time. So, instead of being honest about their lack of concentration, they condemn the Rosary. It's a lazy man's way of getting out of work.
Now, if you have trouble combining verbal prayer with meditation, simply pray one Our Father and One Hail Mary, and then meditate on at least one of the "mysteries" of the Rosary. Each mystery is basically an event. One is a repeated event, concerning one thing Christ said. The other mysteries are all single events.
There are the Joyous, Luminous, Sorrowful, and Glorious mysteries. Other mysteries not yet mentioned in this discourse include [1] Christ's baptism at the hands of his cousin, John ... [2] the Wedding Feast of Cana ... [3] Christ stating a couple times, in different places, that the "Kingdom of God is at hand"... [4] the Transfiguration, etc.
Now, meditating on those events should be within your capabilities, even if only for a short while. One Our Father and one Hail Mary will only take a minute and a half ... or even less time. Easy to do ... unless if you are pathologically lazy. If you're pathologically lazy, then you are also an impatient person. If you're an impatient person, you also have a violent streak within you. You need the Rosary all the more.
John the Baptist is a pivotal feature in Marian Devotion
Now, the words, "blessed is the fruit of your womb," were spoken by Mary's cousin, Elizabeth, after Elizabeth was "filled with the Holy Spirit." Thus, to hate the Hail Mary is to also hate the inspiration of the Holy Spirit --- or to be jealous of Elizabeth for getting it 2,000 years before you were even born.
Incidentally, Saint Elizabeth was the mother of John the Baptist, and the Visitation involves Mary visiting Elizabeth, when both women were pregnant. Elizabeth had a three month head start.
Now, the central
mystery of the Visitation was that, as soon as Mary greeted Elizabeth,
John the (Future) Baptist was rendered into the State of Grace. In
being rendered into the state of grace, he immediately recognized Christ
within Mary, and he leapt for joy. Ironically, it was Christ who
rendered him in the state of grace, in the first place. And Mary was there, front & center, like the miraculous Ark of the Covenant, literally carrying Christ.
John
the (Future) Baptist was not conceived in the state of grace, as was
Mary. But, he was born in the state of grace. Therefore, the Second
Joyous Mystery, namely the Visitation, is the Mystery of John the
Baptist. And being that John the Baptist was the prophet commissioned
to herald the arrival of the long-awaited Messiah, meditating on John
will NOT detract from Christ. It will enhance your understanding of
Christ, all the more. In fact, having John as your intercessor, praying for you, only makes you all the more protected from the servants of Lies & Violence.
By the way, being that John the Baptist was rendered into the State of Grace as a pre-born infant, he is proof that infant baptism is completely valid. The Anabaptists, aka the Baptists, aka the Born-again "Christians," long since claimed that infant baptism is invalid. St Luke says that they were & are hellishly wrong ... as usual. Next issue . . .
Mary walks into Elizabeth's dwelling and speaks. Immediately, John the Future Baptist is rendered in the State of Grace, upon the sound of Mary's voice. What does this illustrate?
ANS:
It illustrates that Mary is the Mediatrix of Grace ... as opposed to
the mediator of the expiation of sin --- as opposed to the mediator of
atonement. Christ, himself, is the sacrificial lamb whose blood washes away sin. Only the Eternal God could do that task, after having been made man. However, the Blood of Christ came from the blood of Mary. Yet, concerning those two circulatory systems, only Christ's blood was divine ... literally divine.
In review, to be the mediatrix of those graces which come from the Holy Spirit is something altogether different than to be the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. So, cool it with the "idolatry" accusations. It's just that the Virgin Mary walks into a dwelling, speaks, and voila; a child is rendered into the state of grace and leaps for joy. That's power, and that power was & is a Grace from God.
Very simply, Mary is the treasurer of the Grace of God. Jesus' act of redemption is what unlocked the treasure chest ... the bank vault of grace ... the front doors of the Spiritual Fort Knox. So, instead of regarding Mary as the Queen of Heaven, it is more proper to regard her as the Treasurer of Heaven.
More specifically, due to the sacrifice of Christ, God the Holy Spirit was empowered to bestow upon Mary a treasury of graces. Those graces became her possessions. And a person may do with her possessions as she wills. So, she shares her graces to others, in the millions ... the hundred millions ... even in the billions. However, asking for the graces is required. Graces aren't haphazardly strewn about, by her.
In review, by means of Christ's sacrifice, God gave Mary a wealth of graces. She does with those graces as she pleases. She explained this in Paris, in 1830, via a supernatural event endowed upon the incorruptible saint, Catherine Laboure. This was also explained in Naples, during a supernatural event in 1884. See: Rue de Bac apparitions, 1830 & 54 day novena apparition of 1884.
The bottom line is that the Rosary enhances awareness of the presence of Christ, the charism of Christ, the personality of Christ, the mission of Christ, and the commitment of Christ. Thus, the Rosary instills hope in Christ. So, how does the Rosary detract from Christ, again?
In summary, devotion to the Rosary is the act of joining Mary in being a fellow-follower of Jesus Christ. She happens to be the most insightful follower --- the most powerful follower. Jesus & Mary, as well as John the Baptist, can easily finish each other's sentences. In fact, when St. John leapt for joy in the womb of his mother, he was literally finishing Mary's sentence, when she was greeting Elizabeth.
Sometimes praying the Rosary is like having a consultation with Mary. At other times, it's like performing an inspection of the spiritual world. At other times, it's like standing in front of a Ferris Wheel, and getting swooped-up in one of the seats.
Prayer is the act of reaching out to God. Heaven then reaches back to you, extending graces to you. An actual grace is basically an impulse upon your soul. Sanctifying grace, on the other hand, is a constant state of being. It's like spiritual oxygen. Without it, you suffocate.
In review, Sacred Scripture itself states, "Henceforth, all generations will call me blessed, because he who is mighty has done great things for me, and holy is his name." Gospel of Luke, 1:48-49. Therefore, if you do NOT call Mary blessed, then you are anti-biblical, anti-gospel, and anti-Christ, no matter how saved you arrogantly think you are. After all, it was Christ who chose to become man in the Virgin Mary, and he was not required to first obtain the approval of Protestants to do so. Thus, the truth posted below triggers outrage & seething hatred in the individuals who call themselves "saved:"
The blood of Christ came from the blood of Mary.
In order for that to have happened, Mary needed to have already been pure. The Second Person of the Holy Trinity was not going to inhabit a trash bin. So, to deny Mary's purity is to deny that Christ came in the flesh and dwelt among us. It's also to deny that Christ was pure, from Day 1. All in all, to deny Mary is to simultaneously deny Christ ... and visa versa. So, if you despise Mary, then you are less than a Big Nothing. You're not even a Zero. You're Negative Digits.
For those unfamiliar with the rite of baptism, after a person is baptized in the Catholic
Church, the baptizing priest tells the person, in the presence of the person's sponsor,
that he/she is baptized a priest, prophet, and king. The meaning of the title goes as
follows:
Priest
Firstly, what does a priest generally do? ANS: A priest offers sacrifices to God. In as much, to be "baptized a priest" means that you have the power to offer prayers & sacrifices for the conversion of sinners and to obtain results in the process. This is a baptized layman's (laywoman's) most important power, because Christ came "to save his people from their sins.," When you partake in Christ's highest mission, it makes you the most Christlike amongst all of humanity.
Prophet
To be baptized a prophet means that you know the mind of God and the eventual
consequence of living contrary to God's mind. At baptism, the Holy Spirit bestows Infused Knowledge to the baptized individual. This translates into Catholic Instinct.
Now, the Mind of God, the Way of God, the Will of God, and the Law of God are
the exact same thing. In being baptized, you instinctively know the way God is. Prophets are social consciences. In being baptized a prophet, you literally receive an instinctive conscience. You instinctively know the intimate details of God's personality, including God's likes and dislikes. God's dislikes are known as sins.
King
Very simply, baptism makes you an heir to the Kingdom of God. In more detail ...
To be baptized a king means that you were christened as was King David and that
the christening enables you to share in the Divinity of Christ. This means that you
have the power to unite your works with Christ and make them infinite. This was
indicated at Fatima, in a prayer that the Angel of Peace taught the Fatima children,
in 1916.
As a qualifying note, in order to have the power to absolve penitents from sin, one
needs the sacrament of Holy Orders. Firstly, it is an absolute lie to claim that you
confess your sins in private and that God forgives you, as if you exist in a vacuum,
far far away from other human beings. Secondly, it's important to note that the priest-
hood powers of Holy Orders and the priesthood function that comes with baptism are
entirely distinct. A layman can obtain a person's conversion, by obtaining the grace
of conversion for that person. But, only the ordained priest has the power to absolve that person from his/her sins.
No matter how evil the priest is, he has the same power to absolve you of your sins as does any other priest. His problem is that he cannot absolve himself of his sins.
As an additional qualifying statement, if a person is near death, yet no priest is near-
by, the solution from God is that of giving the dying person the grace to commit either
a Perfect Act of Contrition or a Perfect Act of Love. If the person is not yet baptized,
then there is the possibility of the person receiving the grace to perform a baptism of
desire. If the person never heard of Christ and his church, the person is assessed by
the precepts of natural law. Contrary to the White Anglo Saxon Protestant mindset
of 19th Century America, in the Kingdom of God, ignorance IS an excuse of the law.
If you never heard of the Messiah, you are not bound to believe in someone you nev-
er knew existed. However, when you die, he will be presented to you, and that is
when you make your eternal decision.
Color ... and grace ... are more noticeable when surrounded by darkness. |
Now, it is a 100% lie to say that you chose "Jesus as your Lord and personal savior."
In the scriptures, Jesus is quoted as having said, "You did not chose me. Rather, I
chose you." You can chose nothing and no one without the grace to do so. Christ
choose to give grace. You have zero power to take it from him. In fact, the most
psychotically distrustful conspiracy theorists I have ever had the aggravation of
encountering all have one arrogant belief. It's the belief that "Christ conscious-
ness" is within us all, and all we have to do is extract it. These are the ones who
refer to a saint as a "highly evolved person." This is merely self-worship, in pro-
claiming that you're God with all the consciousness of divinity within you.
Each one of those persons had a few things in common. 1} They were never in
the "popular school clicks," 2} they were too uncoordinated to excel at sports
and even became envious at those who did. 3} They were emotionally cold and
even nerdlike. They were too proud to confess their sins to a priest, claiming to
be the new priests themselves ... the new cosmic conscious of the era. Again, they are cases of self-worship, and they were seething with envy. Concerning sin ...
Let's go one step further: If a person isn't sorry for his sins, but wills to cease
committing his mortal sins, the absolution given to him after confessing his sins
is valid. This is called attrition. Thus, there is contrition (sorrow for sin) and
there is attrition (admitting guilt and resolving to amend your ways without be-
ing contrite.) Attrition and a good confession results in the forgiveness of sins.
Perfect Contrition and the will to go to confession in the future, if the opportunity
ever presents itself, results in the forgiveness of sins, also. If you are near death
and are certain to never see a priest, the act of perfect contrition results in you be-
ing absolved of your sins. The act of perfect love does, also. Dying the death of
true martyrdom is an act of perfect love.
True martyrdom requires you to die unarmed. Dying while killing someone is not
martyrdom. It might be just warfare and an act of war heroism. It might even be
justified self-defense. But, it's not martyrdom. Furthermore, blowing yourself up,
along with many unarmed people on a bus, is never martyrdom. It's murder and
you will go to Hell for all eternity immediately after having wasted your life and
the lives of others, as a suicide bomber.
Conversion only comes through actual grace
As was previously mentioned, an important feature of the priest, prophet, and king
state is the power to obtain the conversion of sinners. Fatima affirmed how this
worked. No one is converted in a vacuum. Nobody is converted by persuasive talk.
A person is only converted by actual graces being bestowed upon the person in need
of conversion. A grace is an impulse upon the soul ... like anointing droplets of oil.
Grace will not come to any person without someone already baptized praying or sa-
crificing for the person in need of conversion. This is the case, no matter how many
TV evangelism shows the person watches. This is the case, no matter how many
pages of the Bible are read to the person. At Fatima, Our Lady said, "Poor sinners
go to Hell because they have no one to pray for them or make sacrifices for them."
This is the most important aspect of the Fatima apparitions, because Hell is forever.
After all, you take with you into eternity take the love or anti-love within you. Now, people have repeatedly witnessed Hell on Earth. If there is Hell on Earth, there most certainly is Hell in Eternity --- outside of time & space.
If you don't pray for conversions, people won't be converted. In having been bap-
tized a priest, you have the power to obtain the conversion of others even if you are
in a state of mortal sin. Sin doesn't take away your power to offer prayers and sa-
crifices for others, being that sin doesn't take away your baptism. When a person
commits mortal sin, the individual doesn't have to be baptized again. In as much,
the Anabaptist movement was an error. A person can only be baptized once. Any
further attempts at baptism it is an illusion. Anabaptists of old where called South-
ern Baptists.
If you don't know if you have ever been baptized, the officiating priest will perform
a Conditional Baptism upon you, just to make sure. If you are near death, and no
priest is available, a baptized layman becomes the one assigned to baptize you. The
laity does have the power to baptize. Using that power becomes lawful when death
is near and no priest is available. If no Christian is present to baptize you, your de-
sire to be baptized is baptism in itself. Such is the Baptism of Desire.
There is also Baptism by Blood. This is the case when you die for the faith before
receiving the opportunity to be baptized by water. There is only one door to mercy.
But, there is more than one key to open the door.
Now, in order to gain spiritual indulgences for the souls in Purgatory, you need to
be in the state of sanctifying grace. None the less, you need not worry if whether
or not you are in the state of grace when praying for the conversion of poor sinners
who will otherwise be in Hell for all eternity without your assistance.
If you are devoted to the Mercy of God, and if you are obtaining the conversion of
sinners while in the state of mortal sin, know that, one day, the sacrifices or prayers
of another person will obtain your conversion.
The Eternal God will open the doors of mercy to each person who displayed some
type of mercy in this life. God never grants any mercy to the merciless. Let it be
repeated: God never grants mercy to the merciless.
Of course, praying for the conversion of sinners is an act of mercy each time you
do so. St. Francis de Sales, former Bishop of Geneva Switzerland, wrote that pray-
ing for the souls in Purgatory is actually the act of performing all of the works of
mercy at once. Do not be deceived. Purgatory exists. Denying its existence illu-
strates that you are a lazy person who refuses to ease suffering. It also makes you
a coward in your perpetual denial. If you deny the existence of Purgatory, it simply
means that you are afraid of it... that you don't want it to exist.
The caveat is that, sometimes the grace of conversion given to the mercy worker
comes in the form of a fiery awakening, attached to an intense reality check of suf-
fering. This was the case with King David. Yet, it was for King David's own good.
After all, Christ stated in the Book of the Apocalypse and to Saint Teresa of Avila,
"I chastise the ones I love." Thus, if you have done much evil and never were pun-
ished for it, it is a sign that you are destined to Hell for all eternity.
Christ appeared a number of times to a German prioress named, Gertrude. So too
did Our Lady. Once, Gertrude saw a vision of Mary where she suddenly opened
her mantel (her long cloak), and near Mary's feet were an array of animals whom
Mary would occasionally pet. Gertrude asked who the animals were. Mary said
that they were the sinners who will one day convert. She said that she kept them
protected, so that their conversion would one day be assured. So, if you're the
greatest sinner on Earth, always feel welcomed to pick up a rosary, a chaplet,
the Psalms, or a prayer book, and start praying. Walk the Stations of the Cross.
Meditate on the meaning of various religious images. Pray what the Angel of
Peace taught the Fatima children in 1916. If you ask for the conversion of sin-
ners, one of those conversions will be your own.
If you state that your sins are too great for God to forgive, it means that you're an
arrogant person who claims that your actions are greater than God's actions. You
are claiming that your sinfulness is greater than God's mercy. If you are the most
evil human of all time, God's mercy is still available to you.
In addition, your power to offer acceptable sacrifices is not limited to the conver-
sion of sinners. You can make offerings for healings, external graces, internal
graces, the end of war, the end of drought, the end of pestilence, to get a spouse,
transportation, a house, employment, vocations, freedom from debt, freedom from
tyrants, and freedom from all types of misfortune. All begins with your power to
offer supplications to the Divine Sovereign, aka the Lord. If you're baptized, you
have a power you shouldn't waste. If you're not baptized, you can be. Christ estab-
lished a church with open doorways.
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Understanding the mystery of the Trinity with our finite minds is like trying to put an ocean into a beach pail. |