Praying to Mary
You’re in a large shopping mall. A red-headed stranger approaches and asks for $100. You’ve seen him before but he’s never acknowledged your presence, even though you’ve said Hi to him a couple of times. He always seemed singularly focused on himself and didn’t pay too much attention to what was going on around him other than how it affected him. Now, here he is asking you for a $100; he says he really needs it. Maybe he does and maybe he doesn’t. You don’t know. How could you? You’ve never talked with him. The probability is that he’s not going to get $100.
Ten minutes later your 19-year-old daughter joyously greets you. She has been a delight from the beginning. Full of love and loyalty. After a couple of minutes, she points to this man with red hair about 100 feet away on the other side of the escalator, and says, “Dad, I don’t know him very well but he’s really hurting. Do you think you could give him $100?” Same words, different asker, different results.
Your daughter’s request paralleled that of Moses recounted in Exodus 17 when he led the Israelites into battle. When they prayed not much good happened; when Moses prayed the results were startling more effective.
We should use all of God’s gifts
As was the case with the red-headed stranger, maybe Mary can help us in our faith and maybe it’s time to ask the Blessed Virgin for help. Some of us are just broken, and for some it’s easier to speak with Mary, particularly when we understand her love for Jesus and, by extension, for us. Since she was a mere mortal, however, we may wonder why we should pray to her and why not just directly to Jesus.
The fact is we should pray directly to Jesus. But that doesn’t preclude us from asking others to pray for us as well. If we can ask our neighbor, our friend, our close relative to pray for us, why wouldn’t we want the mother of Jesus, who was given to us at the foot of the cross to be our mother, to pray for us? Why wouldn’t we want the Blessed Mother of Jesus to receive our prayers, magnify them, and send them along to her Son, our Savior? If you are still not sure whether you should ask Mary to pray for you, perhaps the best approach would be to pray directly to Jesus and ask Mary to join in your prayer!
Honoring God
God needed Mary to complete his plan of salvation by bringing Jesus to us some 2,000 years ago. He created a very special mother-son relationship and has extended that relationship to all his children. Doesn’t it seem reasonable for us to accept this beautiful gift? To understand in more detail why Mary is so favored of God and is seated so close to Jesus please go to Mary’s Love and Fidelity and I think you will understand.
Many Christians believe that praying to Mary diminishes Jesus and would redirect their spiritual life away from him and towards her. On the contrary, when we pray to Mary we honor her, and she magnifies our prayer and the glory due God. It seems fitting that Jesus would be pleased when we honored his mother and our mother by asking her (as the wine-challenged guests apparently did at Cana) to ask her son. Mary’s proximity to Jesus can have only one effect and that is to bring us closer to Him. With your permission, she can become your conduit to the Savior.
Why not give it a go?
Some websites and references
- Luke 1:46-49
Last modified July 31, 2019