Pope Francis: God wants his ministers to be merciful

2015-10-06 Vatican Radio

(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis has warned against having a hard heart that is closed to God’s mercy.
Speaking on Tuesday morning during Mass at the Casa Santa Marta before joining the Synod Fathers gathered in the Vatican Synod Hall, the Pope urged the faithful not to put one’s own convictions or a list of commandments before the Lord’s mercy.

Drawing inspiration from the first reading of the Book of Jonah, the Pope pointed out that Jonah is initially resistant to God’s will, but eventually learns that he must obey the Lord.
Remarking on the fact that the city of Nineveh converts thanks to Jonah’s preaching, Pope Francis said “it really was a miracle, because in this case he abandons his stubbornness, his rigidity,  to obey the will of God, and he did what the Lord commanded him.”
And afterwards, the Pope said, after the conversion of Nineveh, Jonah “who was not a man who was docile to the Spirit of God, was angry”. The Pope said he even rebuked the Lord.
So, Pope Francis observed, the story of Jonah and Nineveh unfolds in three chapters:  the first “is Jonah’s resistance to the mission the Lord entrusts him with”; the second “is his obedience” and the ensuing miracle; in the third chapter, “there is resistance to God’s mercy”.
The Pope went on to say that Jesus too was misunderstood because of his mercy.
He recalled that Jesus lived with the Doctors of the Law who did not understand why he did not let the adulteress be stoned, they did not understand why he dined with publicans and sinners, “they did not understand. They did not understand mercy”.
Pope Francis said that the Psalm that we prayed today tells us to “wait for the Lord because with the Lord there is mercy, and redemption.”
“Where the Lord is – Francis concluded – there is mercy”. And, he added, as Ambrose said: “Where his ministers are there is rigidity. The rigidity that defies mission, which challenges mercy “:
“As we approach the Year of Mercy, let us pray the Lord to help us understand his heart, to understand what ‘mercy’ means, what it means when He says: ‘I want mercy, not sacrifice!’” he said.

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Taken from: http://www.news.va/en/news/pope-francis-god-wants-his-ministers-to-be-mercifu

Fatima and the First Saturdays Devotion



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The element I want to particularly concentrate on in this article is the question of the Five First Saturdays devotion, which was fully revealed to Sr. Lucia by Our Lady in 1925, when she had become a postulant with the Sisters of St Dorothy in Spain. Thus the following events took place some years after the actual apparitions at Fatima in 1917-but they are a continuation of the original message, which Our Lady indicated to the children in the words she spoke in July 1917, just after they had seen the vision of hell:

You have seen hell where the souls of poor sinners go. To save them, God wishes to establish in the world devotion to my Immaculate Heart. If what I say to you is done, many souls will be saved and there will be peace. The war is going to end; but if people do not cease offending God, a worse one will break out during the pontificate of Pius XI. When you see a night illumined by an unknown light, know that this is the great sign given you by God that he is about to punish the world for its crimes, by means of war, famine, and persecutions of the Church and of the Holy Father. To prevent this, I shall come to ask for the consecration of Russia to my Immaculate Heart, and the Communion of Reparation on the First Saturdays. If my requests are heeded, Russia will be converted, and there will be peace; if not, she will spread her errors throughout the world, causing wars and persecutions of the Church. The good will be martyred, the Holy Father will have much to suffer, various nations will be annihilated. In the end, my Immaculate Heart will triumph. The Holy Father will consecrate Russia to me and she will be converted, and a period of peace will be granted to the world.

(Fr. L. Kondor, Fatima in Lucia's own words, Postulation Center, Fatima, p. 162; cf. Fr.'s Antonio Martins & Robert Fox, Documents on Fatima & the Memoirs of Sister Lucia, Fatima Family Apostolate, 1992, p. 402).

The point to particularly note here is that the consecration of Russia to Mary's Immaculate Heart and the Five First Saturdays devotion of reparation are mentioned jointly, as the means by which manifold evils will be undone and peace brought to the world.

On Thursday 10 December 1925, the Blessed Virgin, accompanied by the Child Jesus on a little cloud, appeared to Sr. Lucia in her cell. In her memoirs, Lucia recounts that Mary rested her hand on her shoulder, while displaying her heart encircled by thorns in her other hand. The Child Jesus spoke first: "Have pity on the Heart of your Most Holy Mother. It is covered with the thorns with which ungrateful men pierce it at every moment, and there is no one to remove them with an act of reparation."

Then the Blessed Mother said:

My daughter, look at My Heart surrounded with thorns with which ungrateful men pierce it at every moment by their blasphemies and ingratitude. You, at least, try to console me, and say that I promise to assist at the hour of death, with all the graces necessary for salvation, all those who, on the first Saturday of five consecutive months go to confession and receive Holy Communion, recite five decades of the Rosary and keep me company for a quarter of an hour while meditating on the mysteries of the Rosary, with the intention of making reparation to me. (Fr. Robert Fox, Fatima Today, Christendom Publications, 1983, p. 217; cf. Martins & Fox, Documents on Fatima, pp. 241-42).

The Child Jesus appeared again to Lucia in February 1926 to encourage her to propagate this devotion, (Martins & Fox, Documents on Fatima, pp. 235-37, 242), and on 13 June 1929, Lucia was granted a further sublime apparition involving Mary, as she was making a Holy Hour in the convent chapel at Tuy in Spain, as was her custom on Thursday nights from eleven to twelve.

She was alone in the chapel, which was lit only by the sanctuary lamp, reciting the prayers that the Angel of Portugal had taught her and Jacinta and Francisco, when she saw an apparition of the Holy Trinity, in which the Son was represented as a man nailed to a cross, with the Father above him, and the Holy Spirit as a dove of light on Christ's breast. A chalice and Host were suspended to the side, and drops of blood from the crucified Christ's face and side fell into the chalice, while Our Lady was also present, holding her Immaculate Heart in her hand.

Lucia heard Mary say to her: "The moment has come in which God asks the Holy Father, in union with all the Bishops of the world, to make the consecration of Russia to my Immaculate Heart, promising to save it by this means. There are so many souls whom the Justice of God condemns for sins committed against me, that I have come to ask reparation: sacrifice yourself for this intention and pray."

Lucia repeated all this to her confessor who ordered her to write it down, and she also said that, later on, Jesus had spoken as follows to her: "They did not wish to heed My request. Like the king of France, they will repent and do it, but it will be late. Russia will have already spread her errors throughout the world, provoking wars and persecutions of the Church; the Holy Father will have much to suffer." (Fox, Fatima Today, pp. 221-22; cf. Martins & Fox, Documents on Fatima, pp. 355-56).

So we have two very important further apparitions here, which greatly enhance our understanding of the message of Fatima and it's critical importance for the Church. But while there has been much discussion of the collegial consecration of Russia, which was finally accomplished by Pope John Paul II, in union with a "moral totality" of the world's bishops in 1984, we have heard much less about the Five First Saturdays devotion.

Its significance comes out if we consider the correspondence Sr. Lucia had with her confessor, Fr. Gonzalves, in 1930, in which she reiterated the importance of the First Saturdays devotion of reparation and gave details of what was necessary to ensure the salvation of Russia.

"If I am not mistaken, Our Dear Lord God promises to end the persecution of Russia, if the Holy Father condescends to make, and likewise ordains the Bishops of the Catholic World to make, a solemn and public act of reparation and consecration of Russia to the Most Holy Hearts of Jesus and Mary. In response to the ending of this persecution, His Holiness is to promise to approve of and recommend the practice of the already mentioned devotion of reparation." (Martins & Fox, Documents on Fatima, p. 24).

This statement of Sr. Lucia's has to be understood in the light of the very strong statements which the Pope has made with regard to Fatima, and indeed with the words and actions of all the recent popes who have embraced its message. For example during his 1982 visit to the Portuguese shrine, John Paul II specifically described Fatima as a place "chosen" by Mary, thus indicating official confirmation of its status and intimating that we are to understand it as the major "prophecy" of the twentieth century. (cf. Joseph de Sainte-Marie, Reflections on the Act of Consecration, Augustine Publishing, 1983, pp. 1-4, 8).

During his homily the Pope made the following remarks:

If the Church has accepted the message of Fatima, it is above all because that message contains a truth and a call whose basic content is the truth and call of the Gospel itself. "Repent, and believe in the Gospel" (Mk. 1:15). These are the first words of the Messiah addressed to humanity. The message of Fatima is, in its basic nucleus, a call to conversion and repentance, as in the Gospel. This call was uttered at the beginning of the twentieth century, and it was thus addressed particularly to this present century. The Lady of the message seems to have read with special insight the "signs of the times," the signs of our time. (Timothy Tindal-Robertson, Fatima, Russia & Pope John Paul II, Gracewing Publishers, 1998, p. 243).

John Paul II also spoke during this homily in these significant terms: "The appeal of the Lady of the message of Fatima is so deeply rooted in the Gospel and the whole of Tradition that the Church feels that the message imposes a commitment on her." (Tindal-Robertson, Fatima, Russia & Pope John Paul II, p. 248).

In addition, the principle of devotion to Mary's Immaculate Heart is one which has deep roots in the Church, and is not just dependent on the 1925 vision. We find an allusion to it in the Gospels in Simeon's prediction of the sword of sorrow which would pierce her soul, (Lk 2:35), and certainly, since at least the medieval period, there is evidence of such devotion in the works of writers including St Anselm, St Bernard, Hugo of St Victor, and St Gertrude. Similarly, in the Counter Reformation era, St Francis de Sales, and particularly St John Eudes, were strong supporters of this devotion, with the latter composing a Mass and Office of the Heart of Mary. His approach finds parallels in the teachings of chapter 8 of Vatican II's Lumen Gentium. ( Francis Johnston, Fatima: The Great Sign, Augustine Publishing, 1980, pp. 112-119).

Honoring Mary's Immaculate Heart is really just another way of honoring Mary, as the person who was chosen to be the Mother of God, recognizing her extraordinary holiness and the immense love she bestowed on Jesus as his mother, the person who was called to share in and cooperate in his redemptive sufferings. The whole aim of this devotion is to unite mankind to God through Mary's heart, and this process involves the ideas of consecration and reparation. A person is consecrated to Mary's Immaculate Heart as a way of being completely devoted to God. This involves a total gift of self, something only ultimately possible with reference to God; but Mary is our intermediary in this process of consecration. She holds this position by reason of her dignity as Mother of God and her role as spiritual mother of all Christians. Because love and devotion shown to Mary are referred by her to God, it follows that acts of reparation for sin directed to her also apply to God, especially when we consider how closely united the hearts of Jesus and Mary were and are. (John F. Murphy, "The Immaculate Heart," in Mariology, Vol. 3, ed. Juniper B. Carol, The Bruce Publishing Company, 1961, pp. 168-178).

So, in sum, it seems fair to say that the Church upholds the principle of reparative devotion to the Immaculate Heart of Mary.
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Taken from: http://www.theotokos.org.uk/pages/articles/fatifive.html

"Modern times are dominated by Satan ...". St. Maximilian Kolbe.



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"The most deadly poison of our times is indifference. Its victims are found not only among worldly people, but in our own ranks as well….And this happens, although the praise of God should know no limits. We finite creatures cannot ever give Him the boundless glory He deserves. Let us strive therefore to praise Him to the greatest extent of our powers…. All that exists has value to the extent that it is related to Him, the Creator of the universe, the Savior of men. If our actions are directed to this God as our final good, He will give us His wisdom and prudence without limit. What a gift! That, dear brother, is the only way to realize our capacity of giving God the greatest glory.

"Life begins to make sense when we recognize and acknowledge God’s infinite goodness and our absolute dependence on Him. Our response will be praise and total love expressed in obedience."

Finally, after much prayer and consultation with his superiors, Kolbe worked out a precise strategy for his future army of militants of Mary. They would be totally consecrated to her to be used as instruments in her hands to win all souls present and to the very end of time. To the promise of victory in this total warfare between the serpent and the Woman as found in the first Book of the Bible – "I will put enmity between you [Satan] and the Woman, between your seed and hers [Jesus]. You will lie in wait for her heel and she will crush your head" (Genesis 3:15) – He would add a corollary to fit our modern age: "Modern times are dominated by Satan and will be more so in the future. The conflict with Hell cannot be engaged by men, even the most clever. The Immaculata alone has from God the promise of victory over Satan."

 

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Taken from: http://www.consecration.com/default.aspx?id=211

Fatima is a Message of Hope



 

·                 Fatima is a Message of Hope to a World in Great Need and a Message for All People and for All time.

·                 Fatima teaches us that the Cause of the Loss of Souls to Hell and War is Sin and the Spiritual Decay it breeds.

·                 Fatima teaches us the power of our Corporal and Spiritual Acts of Reparation for Sin.

·                 Fatima teaches us that we can Make Reparation for the Sins of Others as well as for our own sins.

·                 The magnitude of Fatima’s Miracle verifies the Paramount Importance of the Message it Authenticates.

·                 "Fatima is More Important Now Than Ever" - Pope John Paul II.

·                 "We would be Mistaken to Believe that Fatima's Prophetic Mission is Complete" - Pope Benedict XVI.

Fatima...Learn it, Live it, Spread it

http://www.wafusa.org/

Fatima scoops CNN



MARY'S PREDICTIONS COME TRUE

Dramatic events in the world of communism, such as the 1989 fall of the Berlin Wall and the subsequent advent of democracy, stirred journalists to reexamine the 1917 apparitions of Our Lady of Fatima.
A front-page boxed article in the Oct. 1, 1991 issue of the Asian Wall Street Journal took note of the collapse of communism; the event was seen as the Fatima prophecy fulfilled. The U.S. edition of the Sept. 27, 1991 Wall Street Journal also noted that the Blessed Virgin beat CNN to the news on the fall of communism by more than 74 years.  In this regard, Our Lady was featured as Time Magazine's cover story on Dec. 30, 1991.
On Nov. 7, 1991, the anniversary of the communist revolution, for the first time there was no official communist parade of strength in Russia, but a Russian TV station aired a program on Fatima - the second time it did so!
(Fatima Family Messenger, Jan.-March 1992).
In 1917, the Blessed Virgin Mary appeared to three children, Jacinta and Francisco Marto, and Lucia dos Santos, in Fatima, Portugal. The apparitions, which have been approved by the Catholic Church, revealed to the children coming events:

*  The End of World War I
*  World War II
*  The Rise of Communism and future wars it would bring about
*  The Fall of Communism
These prophecies have already come true.
Atheists Editor Sees Mary's Miracle
The children requested from Our Lady a sign of her presence, so Mary promised a great miracle would take place at Fatima on Oct. 13, 1917. It occurred on that date, as recorded by the Portuguese paper O Seculo which formerly denounced the apparitions as fraudulent. (The country then was under an anticlerical government.)
The atheist editor wrote the following article, obeying his duty as a journalist to report the truth:

TERRIFYING EVENT! HOW THE SUN DANCED AT MIDDAY IN THE SKY AT FATIMA

"We witness a spectacle unique and incredible. The sun resembles a dull silver plate. It does not warm, it does not dazzle. One would say that an eclispes had occurred. But now a shout is heard: "Miracle! Miracle." Before the astonished eyes of the crowd, whose attitude takes us back to biblical times, and who, pale with fear and with heads bare, look at the azure sky, the sun trembles. makes abrupt movements, never seen before, and outside all cosmic laws, the sun "begins to dance" as the peasants say.

"Only one thing remains to be done, namely for the scientists to explain from the height of their learning, the fantastic dance of the sun, which today at Fatima has made "Hosannas" burst forth from the hearts of the faithful, and which, as trustworthy people assure me, has impressed even freethinkers, as others not at all interested in religious matters, who have come to this spot, henceforth celebrated."
The solar miracle wasn't meant only as a show of God's power. It was objective proof that what Mary said at Fatima would really happen.
Mary Calls Us to Repentance
Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, the Vatican's chief theologian, spoke of the message of Fatima in his Report on Faith Today.
"A stern warning has been launched from Fatima which is directed against the prevailing frivolity, a summons to the seriousness of life, to the seriousness of history, to the perils which threaten humanity today. It is that which Jesus himself recalls very frequently, "Unless you repent, you will all likewise perish." (Luke 13:3)
"The contents of the Marian apparitions approved by the Church only reconfirm the urgency of penance, fasting, forgiveness, conversion."
Mary Predicts World War II
On July 13, 1917, Our Lady of Fatima said that another world war was coming and provided the signs:

"The war is going to end but if they do not stop offending God, another and worse one will begin in the reign of Pius XI. When you shall see a night illumined by an unknown light, you know that this is a great sign that God gives you that He is going to punish the world for its many crimes by means of war, hunger, and of persecution of the Church and the Holy Father.
"To prevent this, I shall come to ask the consecration of Russia to my Immaculate Heart, and the communion of reparation on the Five First Saturdays. If my requests are granted, atheistic Russia will be converted and there will be peace. If not, she will scatter her errors throughout the world, provoking wars and persecution of the Church. The good will be martyred, the Holy Father will suffer much, and various nations will be annihilated.

"In the end, my Immaculate Heart will triumph, the Holy Father will consecrate Russia to me and it will be converted and a certain period of peace will be granted to the world."
The war going on at that time was World War I, and Pius XI was not the pontiff then. The "unknown light" was seen on the night of January 25, 1938 and was described by scientists as a freak form of aurora borealis. But observers noted that unlike the aurora borealis, the streaks of light and color did not originate from below the horizon, but at the zenith of the sky, shining downwards. The New York Times reported the event as follows:

"London, January 25, 1938. The aurora borealis, rarely seen in Southern or Western Europe spread fear in parts of Portugal and Lower Austria tonight while thousands of Britons were brought running into the streets in wonderment."
Forty-five days later, Hitler invaded Austria, starting the World War II in the reign of Pius XI.
Significant World Events on Marian Feastdays
May 13, 1955, Feast of Our Lady of Fatima.  The Soviets pulled out from Austria after a daily rosary campaign involving some 700,000 individuals.
October 12-13, 1960, Anniversary of the Fatima Miracle.  Pope John XXIII gathered a million at Fatima to pray for Russia.  At the same time, a nuclear missile had malfunctioned and exploded at a Moscow launchpad, killing some 300 people. Among those killed were Soviet officials and the man reputed to be the USSR's best nuclear scientist then, Marhal Nedelin.

May 13, 1981, Fatima.  Pope John Paul II was gravely wounded by an assassin's bullet at St. Peter's square.
December 7, 1988, Eve of the Feast of the Immaculate Conception.
In his UN speech, Mikhail Gorbachev promised to withdraw 10,000 Soviet tanks, 8500 artillery pieces and 800 fighter aircraft from Hungary, East Germany and Czechoslovakia.

On the same day, Gorbachev and US President Ronald Reagan also signed a treaty on Intermediate Nuclear Forces (INF) to eliminate the entire array of shorter-range nuclear missles of both the United States and the Soviet Union.
September 14, 1989, Eve of the Feast of the Seven Sorrows of the Blessed Virgin. The last wave of 13,000 East Germans left Hungary for West Germany, an event which led to the toppling of the Berlin Wall.
November 20, 1989, Eve of the Feast of the Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary. The 200,000-strong protest march in Prague that demanded free elections and the resignation of Communist leaders caught fire in other cities, eventually leading to the fall of the Communist Party from power.

August 22, 1991, Feast of the Queenship of Mary.  The coup attempt in the Soviet Union was defeated.
December 8, 1991, Immaculate Conception. The Soviet Union was declared officially dead.

FATIMA VISIONARY JACINTA MARTO (died 1920) :
"I saw the Holy Father in a very big house.  He was kneeling before a table, holding his face in his hands and he was weeping.  Outside there were many people: some were throwing stones, others were cursing him and saying many ugly words to him."
POPE SAINT PIUS X (died 1914):
"I saw one of my successors by name fleeing over the corpses of his brethren.  He will flee to a place for a short respite where he is unknown, but he himself will die a cruel death."
KAROL CARDINAL WOJTYLA (later Pope John Paul II), June 24, 1977:
"We find ourselves in the presence of the greatest confrontation in history, the greatest mankind has ever had to confront. We are facing the final confrontation between the Church and the Anti-Church, between the Gospel and the Anti-Gospel."

POPE JOHN PAUL II (from Crossing the Threshold of Hope):

"And thus we come to May 13, 1981, when I was wounded by gunshots fired in St. Peter's Square. At first I did not pay attention to the fact that the assassination attempt had occurred on the exact anniversary of the day Mary appeared to the three children of Fatima in Portugal and spoke to them words that now, at the end of the century, seem close to their fulfillment."

PRAYER OF THE ANGEL AT FATIMA
"My God, I believe, I adore, I trust and I love you.  I beg pardon for those who do not believe, do not adore, do not trust and do not love you."

THIS IS WHAT OUR LADY OF FATIMA WANTS
"Do whatever He tells you."  - John 2:5
Convert.  Turn away from sin and go back to God "If you love Me, keep My commandments." - John 14:15

"Offer up each day whatever God requests of you. for the conversion of sinners and reparation for sin."

"Pray, fast and make sacrifices for your sins and for the sins of all sinners and unbelievers."
"Confess, offer Mass, receive Holy Communion on the First Saturday of five consecutive months with the intention of making reparation to me."

Pray the rosary every day.
Consecrate yourself to Jesus and to Mary's Immaculate Heart. Wear the brown scapular as a sign.

(Marian Messenger, Volume IV, Issue 1, October 1996)


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Taken from: http://www.mariansolidarity.com/features/fatima/marypredicts.htm

The Queenship of Mary

 

 

Mary's Queenship

 

 

by Fr. William G. Most

The beginning of the concept that Mary is a Queen is found in the annunciation narrative. For the angel tells her that her Son will be King over the house of Jacob forever. So she, His Mother, would be a Queen.

The Fathers of the Church soon picked up these implications. A text probably coming from Origen (died c. 254: cf. Marian Studies 4, 1953, 87) gives her the title domina, the feminine form of Latin dominus, Lord. That same title also appears in many other early writers, e.g. , St. Ephrem, St. Jerome, St. Peter Chrysologus (cf. Marian Studies 4. 87-91). The word "Queen" appears abut the sixth century, and is common thereafter (Marian Studies, 4, 91-94).

The titles "king" and "queen" are often used loosely, for those beings that excel in some way. Thus we call the lion the king of beasts, the rose the queen of flowers. Surely Our Lady deserves the title richly for such reasons. But there is much more.

Some inadequate reasons have been suggested: She is the daughter of David. But not every child of a king becomes a king or queen. Others have pointed out that she was free from original sin. Then, since Adam and Eve had a dominion over all things (Genesis 1. 26) she should have similar dominion. But the problem is that the royalty of Adam and Eve was largely metaphorical.

The solidly theological reasons for her title of Queen are expressed splendidly by Pius XII, in his Radiomessage to Fatima, Bendito seja (AAS 38. 266): "He, the Son of God, reflects on His heavenly Mother the glory, the majesty and the dominion of His kingship, for, having been associated to the King of Martyrs in the unspeakable work of human Redemption as Mother and cooperator, she remains forever associated to Him, with a practically unlimited power, in the distribution of the graces which flow from the Redemption. Jesus is King throughout all eternity by nature and by right of conquest: through Him, with Him, and subordinate to Him, Mary is Queen by grace, by divine relationship, by right of conquest, and by singular choice [of the Father]. And her kingdom is as vast as that of her Son and God, since nothing is excluded from her dominion."

We notice that there are two titles for the kingship of Christ: divine nature, and "right of conquest", i.e., the Redemption. She is Queen "through Him, with Him, and subordinate to Him." The qualifications are obvious, and need no explanation. Her Queenship is basically a sharing in the royalty of her Son. We do not think of two powers, one infinite, the other finite. No, she and her Son are inseparable, and operate as a unit.

Of the four titles Pius XII gave for her Queenship, we notice that two are closely parallel to those of Jesus:

(1) He is king by nature, as God; she is Queen by "divine relationship" that is, by being the Mother of God. In fact her relation to her Son is greater than that of ordinary Mothers of Kings. For she is the Mother of Him who is King by very nature, from all eternity, and the relationship is exclusive, for He had no human father. Still further, the ordinary queen-mother gives birth to a child who later will become king. The son of Mary is, as we said, eternally king, by His very nature. (2) He is king by right of conquest. She too is Queen by right of conquest. We already saw that this title for Him means that He redeemed us from the captivity of satan. She shared in the struggle and victory. Since the Pope expressed her dependence on Him in a threefold way--something we would have known anyway--then it is clear that he did not have in mind any other restriction which he did not express. So, maintaining this subordination, "by right of conquest" means the same for her as it does for Him.

The other two titles: (3) She is Queen by grace. She is full of grace, the highest in the category of grace besides her Son. (4) She is Queen by singular choice of the Father. A mere human can become King or Queen by choice of the people. How much greater a title is the choice of the Father Himself!

Pius XII added that "nothing is excluded from her dominion." As Mediatrix of all graces, who shared in earning all graces, she is, as Benedict XV said, "Suppliant omnipotence": she, united with her Son, can obtain by her intercession anything that the all-powerful God can do by His own inherent power.

In the Old Testament, under some Davidic kings, the gebirah, the "Great Lady", usually the Mother of the King, held great power as advocate with the king. Cf. 1 Kings 2:20, where Solomon said to his Mother Bathsheba, seated on a throne at his right: "Make your request, Mother, for I will not refuse you." Here is a sort of type of Our Lady.

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Excerpted and adapted from Theology 523: Our Lady in Doctrine and Devotion, by Father William G. Most.
Copyright (c) 1994 William G. Most

Electronic text (c) Copyright EWTN 1996. All rights reserved.


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Taken from: http://www.ewtn.com/faith/teachings/marya6.htm