Sandro Botticelli (Italian artist, 1445-1510) Virgin & Child

TOMORROW is the Feast of the Assumption of Our Lady, so I thought I would, for the sake of those who mistakenly believe that Catholics practice idolatry in their devotion to Mary, post this clear and brief explanation of the reasons for veneration of Mary. This is by Adolphe Tanquerey in A Manual of Dogmatic Theology (quoted here):

III. DEVOTION TO THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY

843 A. State of the Question.

1. Errors. The cult which Catholics pay to the Blessed Virgin Protestants bitterly attack as superstitious, illusive, even idolatrous.

2. Catholic doctrine. The cult of the Blessed Virgin is not the cult of latria, which is due to God alone, nor is it the simple cult of dulia due to the saints. But it is the cult of hyperdulia because of her singular supernatural superiority. Therefore devotion to Mary embraces:

1) Veneration and reverence because of the dignity of the divine maternity conferred on her and because of her outstanding holiness;

2) Invocation and confidence because she is a powerful and also a merciful mediatrix with Christ;

3) Filial love because she is our spiritual Mother; this love leads us on to an imitation of her virtues.

844 B. Thesis: Devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary is altogether legitimate and beneficial. This is de fide from the ordinary universal magisterium of the Church.

1. Proof from Scripture.

a. God teaches us how great a veneration we must have for Mary when, through the Angel Gabriel, He thus addressed her: “Hail, full of grace”; similarly when, through the mouth of Elizabeth, He says to the Blessed Virgin: “Blessed art thou among women”.

b. Christ instructs us how great a confidence we must have in Mary when He performs His first miracle at the request of the Blessed Virgin.

c. Finally, when dying upon the cross, Christ shows us with what great love we must cherish the Blessed Virgin when to John and to all Christians He addresses these words: “Behold thy mother”.

2. Proof from Tradition.

That devotion to the Blessed Virgin flourished in the first centuries is evident from the images found in the catacombs, from the temples, erected as soon as peace was granted to the Church, from the encomiums of the Fathers, from all the Liturgies.

3. Proof from Reason.

This cult is proper:

a. It is in no way offensive to God because ultimately it is referred to God, the author of all the gifts which we venerate to Mary;

b. It is an imitation of God’s way of acting: because He sent His word to us through Mary, it is right that we approach Jesus through Mary.

c. It is very profitable for obtaining graces more efficaciously: as in human affairs we obtain favors from the King through intercession of the Queen, so we gain many graces from the Supreme King through the intervention of the Queen of heaven. (The Manual of Dogmatic Theology, Adolph Tanguerey)

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From the Chaplet of the Twelve Privileges of Our Lady:

Antiphon. Thy Conception, Virgin Mother of GOD, brought joy to the whole world, for of thee was born the Sun of Justice, CHRIST our GOD, who, loosing the curse, bestowed the blessing, and, confounding death, gave unto us eternal life.

V. In thy Conception, Virgin Mary, thou wast Immaculate.
R. Pray to the FATHER for us, whose SON JESUS, conceived by the HOLY GHOST, thou didst bring forth.

Let us pray. GOD of mercy, GOD of pity, GOD of tenderness, who, pitying the affliction of thy people, didst say to the angel smiting them, “Withhold thy hand”; for the love of thy glorious Mother, at whose precious breast thou didst sweetly find an antidote to the venom of our sins, bestow on us the help of thy grace, that we may be freed from all evil, and mercifully protected from every onset of destruction. Who livest and reignest for ever and ever.

R. Amen.

— Comments —

Mary writes:

I am married to a Protestant convert who struggles with the idea of venerating Mary, wondering why it is necessary, as he feels his faith is strong enough without her help. Here are some things I’ve tried to explain in our discussions (but like any very deep idea it is not easy!).

1) Mary wasn’t chosen to be the Mother of God sort of randomly out of all other women because of her holiness, but created by God Himself – Immaculately Conceived – to be the Mother of God, and was holy because of that. The woman to carry the Son of God in her womb must be perfect; since Christ is perfect nothing else would befit Him. Therefore God in His wisdom created such a woman.

2) Her blood runs through His veins, an unspeakable honor. God did not merely select a woman out of those who already existed, no matter how holy, to receive that honor. No natural woman would be worthy, she must be from the realm of the supernatural.

3) God in His wisdom did not leave us to be spiritually “motherless” children here on earth. He gave us a Father – Himself – but also a Mother, who is our example of perfect, selfless motherhood (needed now more than ever). In His infinite wisdom he gave all mothers here on earth, charged with the salvation of their children, a woman from the supernatural realm to intercede for us (and indeed for all mankind).

4) She is God’s answer to Eve, the New Eve (as Christ is the New Adam). Mary “untied the knot” of Eve’s disobedience: A virgin disobeyed, a virgin obeyed; Eve listened to a serpent, Mary an angel, etc, etc. This has been believed since the first centuries of Christianity. Adam and Eve and the tree caused the Fall; the New Adam and the New Eve and a tree (the cross) will redeem us. This is a very profound and I am not doing it justice but there are many beautiful writings available that do do it justice.

There is, of course, so much more as the Church is inexhaustible in its depth. I think, as with many things, faith included, that a desire to understand Catholic beliefs about Mary greatly aids in opening our minds to acceptance. As I believe I’ve said before here on TTH, I think much of the confusion, the “block” if you will, comes from a Protestant sense of disloyalty in praying to Mary since they rightly reserve all worship – which for them lives in fervent prayer – for Jesus Christ. Catholicism is sacramental. Our highest form of worship is the Holy Sacrament of the Mass of which prayer is but a part. We can pray to Mary and the saints in veneration without fear of disloyalty to Our Lord.

Laura writes:

It may take a long time for someone like your husband to overcome years of conditioning on this issue.

Below is more from Adolphe Tanquerey, but I also wanted to add one more proof to your summary: The devotion of ordinary people for 2,000 years and the numerous miracles and apparitions attributed to Mary.

827. I. Thesis: The Blessed Virgin Mary is truly the Mother of God. In opposing the Nestorians, the Council of Ephesus made this a matter of faith: “If anyone does not confess that the Emmanuel in truth is God and that on this account the Holy Virgin is the Mother of God, let him be anathema.” The meaning of this thesis is that the Blessed Virgin brought forth Christ who is God.

a. Proof of thesis from Scripture. The Gospels narrate that the Blessed Virgin conceived and brought forth Christ who is truly God. Wherefore Elizabeth under the inspiration of the Holy Ghost, called the Blessed Virgin the mother of the Lord: “Whence is this to me that the mother of my Lord should come to me”?

b. Proof of thesis from Tradition.

1) Through the first three centuries the Fathers professed that Mary gave birth to God; “Christ, born of Mary, is Emmanuel or God with us”.

2) By the beginning of the fourth century the name God-bearing is given to Mary and the use of this appellation is so frequent that Julian the apostate reproached the Christians because they would not stop calling Mary God-bearing; and John of Antioch warned his friend Nestorius lest he stir up the crowds by persistently opposing this title.

3) In the fifth century, with Nestorius openly denying the divine maternity of the Blessed Virgin, St. Cyril vigorously defend and fought for this Catholic dogma, and the Council of Ephesus, to the great joy of the people, defined the Blessed Virgin as Theotokos.

c. Proof from Reason.

The Blessed Virgin conceived and brought forth the person who is God, namely Christ; But generation is not terminated at nature, but at the person who subsists and continues in the begotten nature; for example, the mother of Peter, although she produces his body only, is rightfully called the mother of Peter himself.

828 2. The Excellency of this dignity.

a. In Itself: the dignity of Mother of God far surpasses all other dignities, with the exception of the hypostatic union, because it proximately belongs to the order of the hypostatic union. For, in producing the matter of Christ’s body, in willingly conceiving, giving birth to, and nourishing that body, the Blessed Virgin was, so to speak, the instrumental cause of the hypostatic union and the cooperator with the divine persons in the great work of the Incarnation. Consequently, because she is the mother of God, she has a certain infinite dignity from the infinite good which is God.

b. In its consequences–As the Mother of God, the Blessed Virgin contracted special relations with the three divine persons:

1) In some manner she shares in the fruitfulness of the Father because she brings forth in time the same Son whom the Father alone generates from all eternity as one consubstantial to Himself.

2) She contracts a special affinity and a wonderful union with the Word in the Incarnation through generation, in the entire course of life through intimate communion, in the Passion through compassion, in glory through a glorious blessedness.

3) In a certain manner she has become the Spouse of the Holy Ghost, for the formation of Christ’s body in the Blessed Virgin’s womb is attributed to the Holy Ghost.

Thus Mary is also called at times the complement to the Trinity because de facto the Trinity has made use of the Blessed Virgin as an instrument for the purpose of accomplishing the work of the Incarnation.

From the dignity of the Divine Maternity proceed all the privileges granted to the Blessed Virgin, her most perfect sanctity, and her supernatural relations with creatures. . . .

II. THE RELATIONS OF MARY WITH CREATURES

These are four in particular which proceed from her divine maternity: The Blessed Virgin is first, the mother of Christians, secondly, the cooperatrix in the Redemption, thirdly, the queen of creatures, fourthly, the mediatrix of grace.

839 A. Mary is the spiritual mother of men.

1. This is proved from her divine maternity: Mary is the mother of Christ, the head of the mystical body the members of which are men. But the fact that she is the mother of the head makes her mother of her members. Mary’s spiritual motherhood is proved also from the title of donation or gift since Christ dying on the cross gave us to her as sons, saying to John (and through extension to all Christians): “Behold thy mother”.

2. The manner in which Mary is our spiritual mother. Truly she bears us spiritually because she is the meritorious (de congruo) and exemplar cause of our justification; in a secondary degree, however, dependently on Christ.

Kristor writes:

There is another respect in which Mary is set apart from all other creatures: the persistence in her body of cell lines arising from her son, a common phenomenon called fetomaternal microchimerism.

Mary then is one body with Christ in his Church not just to a superlative degree, but uniquely. Christ’s body contributes to those of the faithful at every Mass, when we eat it. So likewise for Mary when she partakes of the Bread of Heaven. But alone among all creatures, Mary has the privilege of phenomenally manifesting God’s body as a genetic element of her very own.

Who knows what preternatural powers she has by virtue of God’s genetic input to the assembly of her body from one moment to the next?

Fetomaternal microchimerism provides also a rationale for the Assumption – it was the last bit of the Ascension.

Paul C. writes:

Informative article.  Although I have heard similar ideas before, the commenter Mary said it well: “The woman to carry the Son of God in her womb must be perfect; since Christ is perfect nothing else would befit Him . . . No natural woman would be worthy, she must be from the realm of the supernatural.”

I like Kristor’s scientific bent on the subject: “Fetomaternal microchimerism provides also a rationale for the Assumption – it was the last bit of the Ascension.”  An additional rationale for the Assumption is the addition of twenty-three supernatural homologous chromosomes by the Holy Spirit at the Immaculate Conception.

As a result of God’s grace, I have two mothers to visit with today: the Blessed Virgin at Mass in about two hours followed fifteen minutes later at my Ma’s.

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