Continuing....
Mary the Rival of Jesus.
“But God was pleased that Mary should in all things resemble Jesus; and as her Son died, it was becoming that the mother should also die.” Liguori, p. 407.
This is the fundamental leap of logic that the Roman Catholic Church employs. They use expressions such as “it was fitting,” “it was necessary,” “it was befitting.” Where do we find that in all things Mary was to resemble Jesus? She is actually a rival of Jesus and overshadows Jesus in Roman Catholic theology.
At Alphonsus di Ligouri
- lived in the 17th century
- 22 volumes of his work have been published.
- He was canonized as a saint by Pope Gregory XIV in 1839 and was declared a doctor of the church by Pope Pius IX. He is one of the 32 doctors of the church whose writings are especially trustworthy and of authority
- "The Glories of Mary" is one of these
- Lest you think that this volume contains one man’s opinion, I would mention that it is actually a collection of the patristic wisdom of the Roman Catholic Church from the Early Church Fathers till his day. Thus the book does not present his view or interpretation but what has been taught by Roman Catholic theologians, doctors and saints throughout the course of the centuries.
- Liguori himself expresses the reason for preparing his book: “I endeavored to collect, from as many authors as I could lay my hands on, the choicest passages, extracted from Fathers and theologians, and those which seemed to me to be the most to the point, and have put them together in this book, in order that the devout may with little trouble and expense be able to inflame themselves with the love of Mary, and more particularly to furnish the priests with matter for their sermons, wherewith to excite others to devotion towards this divine Mother.” The Glories of Mary , p. 30.
- The work consists of several chapters. In each, Lioguori seeks to prove a certain point about Mary. At the end of each chapter, he gives an illustration of the point and ends with a prayer to Mary based on the content of the chapter.
- The edition herein quoted was published by the Redemptorist Fathers in 1931 and bears the imprimatur by Patrick (Cardinal) Hayes on April 16, 1931.
- The preponderance of Liguori’s quotations come from the church fathers, the apocryphal books of Ecclesiasticus and Wisdom of Solomon and the Old Testament books of Proverbs and Song of Solomon. Most of these quotations apply to wisdom personified (Jesus) or to Solomon’s bride (the church) and yet they are applied to Mary because the Church has said so.
- Texts are persistently torn out of their contexts. Texts from the Old Testament are used without any New Testament corroboration. They originally apply to Jesus and they are applied to Mary.
- Liguori, p. 101: If Mary is for us, who can be against us? (Romans 8:31)
- “Mary was prefigured by the dove which returned to Noah in the Ark with an olive branch in its beak, as a pledge of the peace which God granted to men.” Liguori, p. 202
- “Glorious things are said of you, O city of God” St. Gregory but Mary is this city of God?” p. 244
- “Correctly, then, can we here say with St. Paul, Having this seal, the Lord knoweth who are His; that is to say, whoever carries with him the mark of devotion to Mary is recognized by God as his.” Liguori, pp. 244, 245
- After Liguouri died his grave was opened in Nocera. Three fingers were cut off and sent to Rome by wish of Pope Pius VII who said: “Let those three fingers that have written so well for the honor of God, of the Blessed Virgin and of religion, be carefully preserved and sent to Rome.” Cited in, The Glories of Mary , p. 20
Creator
St. Bonaventure: ‘The world which thou with God didst form from the beginning continues to exist at thy will, O most holy Virgin;’ the saint adhering in this to the words of Proverbs applied by the Church to Mary: I was with Him forming all things. St Bernardine adds, that it was for the love of Mary that God did not destroy man after Adam’s sin; ‘He preserved it on account of his most singular love for this Blessed Virgin.” Liguori, p. 368
Born immaculate and Holy
“Mary was conceived without sin, that the divine Son might be born of her without sin.” Liguori, p. 296 “By her Immaculate Conception, she shared in His victory over sin; by her bodily assumption into heaven, she shared in His victory over death.” Knights of Columbus, The Mother of Jesus , p. 25
Never sinned
“. . . the Blessed Virgin never committed any actual sin, not even a venial one.” Liguori, p. 299
God in the flesh
According to Dr. Mark Miravalle, Mary is the incarnation of the Holy Spirit: “Still, their union is so inexpressible and so perfect that the Holy Spirit acts only by the Immaculata, his spouse. . . The third Person of the Blessed Trinity never took flesh; still, our human word ‘spouse’ is far too weak to express the reality of the relationship between the Immaculata and the Holy Spirit. We can affirm that she is, in a certain sense, the ‘incarnation’ of the Holy Spirit.” Miravalle, Mary: Coredemptrix, Mediatrix, Advocate p. 54.
Full of grace
Father Contenson quotes Jesus as saying: “My wounds are ever-flowing fountains of grace; but their streams will reach no one but by the channel of Mary. In vain will he invoke me as a Father who has not venerated Mary as a Mother.” (Liguori, p. 155) “As the moon, which stands between the sun and the earth, transmits to this latter whatever it receives from the former, so does Mary pour out upon us who are in this world the heavenly graces that she receives from the divine sun of justice.” (Liguori, p. 159, 160) Words of St. Bernardine: “. . . from the moment that this Virgin Mother conceived the divine Word in her womb, she acquired a special jurisdiction, so to say, over all the gifts of the Holy Ghost, so that no creature has since received any grace from God otherwise than through the hands of Mary.” (Liguori, p. 161)
Took the humanity of Adam before the fall
“For not only is it true that the flesh of Jesus is the same as that of Mary, but, the flesh of our Savior, even after his resurrection, remained the same that he had taken from his Mother.” Liguori, p. 297
Loving, kind, accessible, compassionate and very sympathetic
Priest
“Hence St. Epiphanius calls her a ‘priest.’” Liguori, p. 394. Repeatedly we are told that she offered the life of her Son. She immolated him.
Our only Advocate or Mediator
St. Bonaventure: “O Mary, our advocate, it is for thee to defend thy clients, and to undertake their cause before the tribunal of Jesus Christ.” Liguori, p. 270 Words of St. Bonaventure: “‘. . . before Mary there was no one who could thus dare to restrain the arm of God.’ But now, if God is angry with a sinner, and Mary takes him under her protection, she withholds the avenging arm of her Son and saves him.” Liguori, p. 124 “Christ is a faithful and powerful mediator between God and men, but in him men fear the majesty of God. A mediator, then, was needed with the mediator himself, nor could a more fitting one be found than Mary.” Liguori, p. 196 The picture of Zechariah 3 with Satan contending with the angel over the sins of Joshua: About a certain sinner who found himself before the dread tribunal: “. . . the devil accused him, and Mary defended him. The enemy produced the catalogue of his sins; it was thrown into the scales of divine justice, and weighed far more that all his good works. But then his great advocate, extending her sweet hand, placed it on the balance, and so caused it to turn in favor of her client; giving him thereby to understand that she would obtain his pardon if he changed his life; and this he did after the vision, and was entirely converted.” Liguori, p. 128. “Frequently our petitions are heeded sooner when we address ourselves to Mary the Queen of Mercy and Compassion than when we go directly to Jesus who as King of Justice is our Judge.” Liguori, p. 246 “The Franciscan Chronicles relate that a certain Brother Leo saw in a vision two ladders the one red, the other white. On the upper end of the red ladder stood Jesus and on the other stood his holy Mother. The brother saw that some tried to climb the red ladder; but scarcely had they mounted some rungs when they fell back, they tried again but with no better success. Then they were advised to try the white ladder and to their surprise they succeeded for the Blessed Virgin stretched out her hand and with her aid they reached heaven.” Liguori, p. 246 St. Fulgentius: “O, how long since, would the world have been destroyed, had not Mary sustained it by her powerful intercession.” Liguori, p. 256 Prayer of St. Ephrem: “O immaculate Virgin, we are under thy protection, and therefore unitedly we have recourse to thee; and we beseech thee to prevent thy beloved Son, who is irritated by our sins, from abandoning us to the power of the devil.” Liguori, p. 273 Prayer of St. Bernard: “We fly to thy protection; appease the wrath of thy Son, and restore us to his grace.” Liguori, p. 274
I could add many many more, how Mary has been exalted way above her proper station, and despite the numerous protestations to the contrary, elevated to a position of worship, replacing Christ in His true office and ministry.
Is this not the heresy of all heresies, of far more import than the arguments over OSAS and millennialism and rapture? And yet the protestant church today walls hand in hand with Rome and claiming that the papal church had changed and is no longer worthy of protest as she once was. How is the Catholic Church not the Antichrist? How can any imaginary Jewish figure from Assyria, accomplish more damage to the church in a future 3 years than the Catholic Church has, and is still doing, over the last 1500 years?
