Witness of the fathers, doctors, & saints of God! Acts 1:8
O Mary, Mother of God, you were foretold by the prophets, foreshadowed by the patriarchs in types and figures, described by the Evangelists, and saluted most graciously by the Angels. Lead us to the wisdom of the Presence of God now and forever.
St. Louis de Montfort: ”It all comes to this, then: that you should find an easy means for obtaining from God the grace necessary to make you holy…Now, I say that to find the grace of God, we must find Mary!”
Devotion to Mary is not an invention of man, much less is it based on mere sentimentality. It is part and parcel of our redemption because it stems from Mary’s preeminent position, in that God-given plan.
Because of her lofty dignity as Mother of God, Mary is entitled to a cult of hyperdulia or supreme dulia. “This cult leads effectively to salvation,” says the eminent theologian, Father Garrigou-Lagrange, O.P., “for Mary can obtain the grace of final perseverance for all those who pray faithfully to her for it. For this reason,” he adds, “true devotion to Our Lady is commonly looked on as one of the signs of predestination: though it does not give absolute and infallible certainty of salvation . . . (Due to free will) but it gives rise to a firm hope”! And as long we remain in Christ thru devotion to Mary we are assured of reaching the safe harbor of salvation!
(Cult from the latin cultus, following or devotion)
St. Louis de Montfort “devotion to the most holy Virgin Mary is necessary to all men for working out their salvation.”
“We must not confuse devotion to the Blessed Virgin with devotion to the other Saints,” he writes, “as if devotion to her were not far more necessary than devotion to them!”
“Mary is Necessary to All Men to Attain Salvation”!
The learned and pious Jesuit, Suarez, the erudite and devout, Justus Lipsius, doctor of Louvain, and many others have proved invincibly from the sentiments of the Fathers (among others, Saint Augustine, Saint Ephrem, Deacon of Edessa, Saint Cyril of Jerusalem, Saint Germanus of Constantinople, Saint John Damascene, Saint Anselm, Saint Bernard, Saint Bernadine, Saint Thomas and Saint Bonaventure,) that devotion to our Blessed Lady is necessary to salvation, and even in the opinion of heretics it is an infallible mark of reprobation to have no esteem and love for the holy Virgin; while on the other hand, it is an infallible mark of predestination to be entirely and truly devote to her. …
“To be devout to you, O holy Virgin,” says Saint John Damascene, “is an arm of salvation which God gives to those whom He wishes to save.”
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Ecclesiasticus 24:22-25
22 …my branches are of honour and grace.
23 As the vine I have brought forth a pleasant odour: and my flowers are the fruit of honour and riches.
24 I am the mother of fair love, (Jesus) and of fear, and of knowledge, and of holy hope.
25 In me is all grace of the way and of the truth, in me is all hope of life and of virtue.
The way, the truth, & the life! Jn 14:6
Marian quotes from the great Saints!
Acts 1:8 “my witnessess to the ends of the earth”!
(Unless your a fundamentalist, then they are really quotes from the great heretics, and the heretics that oppose them are really the great saints! Such as Helvidius, the Albigensian’s, Wycliffe, Hus, the so-called reformers, huguenots, etc.)
Holy Scripture was written for Mary, about Mary, and on account of Mary.
(St. Bernard)
“Queen of Heaven”
O chosen Queen of Heaven! You alone are the refuge of guilty mortals to whom so many a tearful eye, so many a wounded and miserable heart is raised . . .
You, O elect Queen, are the gate of all grace, the door of compassion that has never yet been shut!
(Bl. Henry Suso)
“Gate of Heaven”
Mary is the key to the gates of Heaven.
(St. Ephrem)
Open to us, O Mary, the gate of Paradise, since you have its keys!
(St. Ambrose)
God has entrusted the keys and treasures of Heaven to Mary.
(St. Thomas Aquinas)
No one can enter into Heaven except through Mary, as entering through a gate.
(St. Bonaventure)
This is the House of God and the Gate of Heaven.
(Genesis 28:17)
Mary is called "The Gate of Heaven" because no one can enter Heaven but through her means.
(St. Alphonsus Maria Liguori)
Who is this Gate if not Mary? Mary is the Gate through which Christ entered this world!
(St. Ambrose)
We had closed Paradise; you, O Mary, opened the entryway to the tree of life again . . . You are the bridge to life, the staircase to Heaven!
(St. John Damascene)
She is the stairway to Heaven, and the gate of Paradise!
(St. Lawrence Justinian)
All the Saints have a great devotion to Our Lady: no grace comes from Heaven without passing through her hands. We cannot go into a house without speaking to the doorkeeper. Well, the Holy Virgin is the doorkeeper of Heaven.
(St. John Mary Vianney)
All gifts, virtues, and graces of the Holy Ghost are administered by the hands of Mary to whomsoever she desires, when she desires, and in the manner she desires, and to whatever degree she desires.
(St. Bernardine of Siena)
She opens the abyss of God's mercy to whomsoever she wills, when she wills, and as she wills, so that there is no sinner however great who is lost if Mary protects him . . . All men: past, present, and to come, should look upon Mary as the means and negotiator of the salvation of all ages.
(St. Bernard)
Through you, Most Holy Lady, all glory, honor, and holiness vouchsafed to the human race from Adam to the last ages has been granted, is being granted, will be granted to apostles, prophets, Martyrs, and all the just and humble of heart.
(St. Ephrem)
Mary is the dispensatrix of all the graces God bestows on man.
(St. Bernardine of Siena)
No man is delivered or preserved from the world-wide snares of Satan except through Mary; and God grants His graces to no one except through her alone.
(St. Germanus of Constantinople)
God has decided that we should receive everything from the Father, from the Son, and from the Holy Spirit, and from the Immaculata. This is the only path that each and every grace can follow.
(St. Maximilian Mary Kolbe)
Every grace granted to man in this life has three successive steps: from God it comes to Christ, from Christ to the Virgin, and from the Virgin it descends to us.
(St. Bernardine of Siena)
All graces that have ever been bestowed on men, all of them came through Mary.
(St. Anthony)
Every grace and blessing possessed by the Church, all the treasures of light, holiness, and glory that abide in her, on earth as well as in Heaven, all are due to the intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary . . . Let us acknowledge, then, that her heart is the origin of everything noble, rich, and precious in all the holy souls who form the universal Church in Heaven and on earth. It is the source of salvation.
(St. John Eudes)
The Lord has placed in Mary the plenitude of all good, so that if any hope, or grace, or salvation is in us, we know that we derive it all from Mary.
(St. Bernard)
“Hail Mary, full of grace”!
(The Angelic Salutation Lk 1:28)
Every good, every help, every grace which men have received and will receive from God until the End of Time, came, and will come, to them by the intercession and through the hands of Mary . . . the whole Trinity gave thee a name, O Mary, which after that of thy most holy Son is above every name, so that at thy name every knee should genuflect in heaven, on earth, and under the earth, and every tongue should confess the grace, the glory, and the power of thy most holy name.
(Bl. Raymond Jordano)
The admirable name of Mary came forth from the treasury of the Divinity, and through it Redemption was effected.
(St. Peter Damian)
All the Elect obtain eternal salvation through the means of Mary!
With reason did the Most Holy Virgin predict that all generations would call her blessed, (Lk 1:48) for all the Elect obtain eternal salvation through the means of Mary.
(St. Ildephonsus)
There is no reconciliation, O Mary, except that which thou didst conceive in thy virginity, no justification save that which thou didst nurture inviolately in thy womb, no salvation but that which thou didst immaculately bear. Therefore, O Lady, thou art the mother of justification and of the justified, thou art the begetter of reconciliation and of the reconciled, the Mother of salvation and of the saved. O blessed assurance, O refuge without fear! The Mother of God is our mother, too! The mother of Him in Whom alone we hope, Whom alone we fear, is our mother. We have for our mother the mother of Him Who alone can save us, Who alone will be our judge!
(St. Anselm)
All creatures are obligated to render to Mary respect and homage as to their Queen and Sovereign to whom they belong and upon whom they depend, and will depend, for all eternity.
(St. John Eudes)
St. Augustine
Mary has the greatest and clearest claims to our homage and praise: she is the salvation of the world . . . Our dependence upon the august Mary is complete and universal . . . There is neither on earth nor in Heaven any justified soul, anyone of the Elect, who does not owe Mary his justice and his glory.
Ven. William Joseph Chaminade
All those who, to the end of time, shall receive the blessing of our heavenly Father . . . shall receive their graces only as a result of their perfect obedience to Mary.
St. Louis Marie de Montfort
Through thee, O Holy Virgin, Heaven was populated, Hell emptied, and the ruins of the heavenly Jerusalem rebuilt!
St. Bernard
Answer, then, O Sacred Virgin! Why do you delay the salvation of the world, which depends upon your consent?
St. Augustine
O salvation of all who call upon thee, save me!