Hail Mary?
In the course of my Legion of Mary work, what we call a weekly "duty" I was in a so-called stall, outside the oldest Church in the city of Belfast (St Mary's Chapel Lane), here in Northern Ireland. It has been notorious the presence of atheists, lapsed Catholic, people of other religions and also protestants passing by.
What amazes me, the most of the time, is the arrogance in which protestants have when approaching Catholics, judging they are going to find people who are in the Church only per tradition, that they do not actually believe in what the Holy Mother Church teaches nor have a clue what their faith is about, that they need to accept Jesus...
It was one of these days, when a gentleman approached where we were standing with the beautiful paint of the Legion of Mary and started to point the finger out to some people who were with there. He started by saying, "This is outrageous... Only Jesus saves... There is no need for Mary, she was a normal woman, nothing outstanding, like you and me who were chosen by God... Now she is dead... You need to accept Jesus like your Lord and Savior..." and all this nonsense phrases of impact they learn in their temples.
By the grace of God I was there and was able to defend the faith in which we received by this holy and wonderful tradition of the Catholic Church. We shall not be afraid of them!
"Simply proclaim the Lord Christ holy in your hearts, and ALWAYS HAVE YOUR ANSWER READY FOR PEOPLE WHO ASK YOU THE REASON FOR THE HOPE THAT YOU HAVE." (1 Peter 3:15)
We should be more like Saint Paul and allow God to do and talk through us in the way he wants, for once we are baptized, we have the mission of preaching and living the gospel of Our Lord Jesus Christ.
"In fact, preaching the gospel gives me nothing to boast of, for I am under compulsion and I SHOULD BE IN TROUBLE IF I FAILED TO DO IT." (1 Corinthians 9:16)
Regardless of what these people and the false prophets behind them think that we are stuck in a fantasy, out of reality and that we do not know what we are doing, we should be firm and let them know the reason for our hope: and our hope is Christ himself, the start and the end of everything. We should not be afraid of keeping the treasure of the tradition of the faith we received.
"Stand firm, then, brothers, and KEEP THE TRADITIONS that we taught you, whether by word of mouth or by letter." (2 Thessalonians 2:15)
To tell the reason for the hope we have, I approached him to help my brothers who were listening respectfully to his nonsense and to put this brother into his place so he would stop bothering old people who in a very devoted way keep these traditions... By nonsense, I am not talking about the Bible, the wonderful Word of God, but the way they manipulate it and use it to lead people to the same error they live in to become protestants, against the Church, instead of being its members.
When he saw me he started by quoting the Bible, hoping that I would be impressed with the way he knows all of these by heart...
"What does it say, then? The word is very near to you; it is in your mouth and in your heart, that is, the word of faith, the faith which we preach, that if you declare with your mouth that Jesus is Lord, and if you believe with your heart that God raised him from the dead, then you will be saved. It is by believing with the heart that you are justified, and by making the declaration with your lips that you are saved". (Romans 10:9-10)
I told him then that Jesus is the Lord, he is the savior, he is the Lord of Lord, the only God, the almighty and ever living Son of God, who was raised from the dead, who is 100% man and 100% God, who is the reason of my life. He is everything!! And very much like Saint Paul, I told him...
"But what were once my assets I now though Christ Jesus COUNT AS LOSSES..." (Philippians 3:7) -- *access the whole formation based on the life of this great saint, the one who went to evangelize the pagans, Saint Paul, by clicking here.
When a Catholic quote the book and verse of the Scriptures to a protestant, still nowadays it causes people to be surprised. Well, the Bible is Catholic!! After Martin Luther who took 7 books of the original Bible to call "his Bible", in other words, an incomplete collection of the books of God's history, they claim to know the revelation of Heaven and Earth, Hell and sin and everything in between, but the treasure of faith and the grace of the Holy Scriptures is available to us due to the compilation made by the bishops in the Catholic Church!! BLESSED BE GOD FOR HIS HOLY CHURCH!!
There was so many subjects that he mentioned in which each of them could become one formation. Anyway, we went on and on for a while quoting the Bible verses back and forth until when he said:
What do you need Mary for? You need Jesus! She is dead and can do nothing! She was a regular woman, the bridesmaid of the Lord and that is it...
SO SOMEONE COME TO OUR LEGION OF MARY STALL, IN FRONT OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH, TO SAY INSULTS TO THE MOTHER OF GOD?? NO, MY FRIENDS! WE RESPECT, LOVE AND WILL DEFEND OUR BLESSED VIRGIN MARY UNTIL OUR DEATH BECAUSE WE ARE HER SLAVES, HER CONSECRATED PEOPLE. HE HAVE NOT REALIZED AS TO THE MOMENT THAT HE WAS TALKING TO SOLDIERS OF THE VIRGIN MARY...
Among everything he said and we spoke about, I would like to bring forth this small formation within the power of the name and blood of Christ Jesus, in communion with the saints, angels, the whole Church (Earth, Heaven and Purgatory) and through the intercession of the great mother of God. Whoever have ears to hear (or eyes to read) please do... and share with someone if you think this is important.
To start with, I only need to bring some basic concepts, so we can understand what are we going to talk about...
"To which of the angels has God ever said: Take your seat at my right hand till I have made your enemies ARE THEY NOT ALL MINISTERING SPIRITS, SENT TO SERVE FOR THE SAKE OF THOSE WHO ARE TO INHERIT SALVATION?" (Hebrews 1:13-14)
According to St Thomas Aquinas there are certain levels of knowledge, in which some people know more or better than others; adults often have more knowledge than children; teachers know more than their students; doctors are more knowledgeable than people who did not study and so on. Following this hierarchy, the most knowledgeable of the men know less than any angel.
The word ANGEL represents what they do and not what they are. They are all pure spirits to the service of God and according to the level of service or duty they have more or less contact with mankind. There are nine orders on the hierarchy of angels (going higher to lower orders): Seraphim, Cherubim, Thrones, Dominions, Virtues, Powers, Principalities, Archangels, Angels.
To get the point I spoke to this protestant we are going to explore some meetings of mankind with the second order of angels. You are not going to waste your time but gain graces reading below...
The Bible does not explicitly says this encounter refers to the archangel Michael, but as per tradition of our beloved Mother and Master, the Holy Catholic Church, we know it is him since he is the commander of the armies of the Lord. He was chosen to be the captain of the angels after the fall of the corrupted angels that followed Lucifer, the angel of light who became pure darkness.
"Now when Joshua was near Jericho, he looked up and saw a man standing in front of him, grasping a naked sword. Joshua walked towards him and said to him, 'Are you on our side or on that of our enemies?' He replied, 'On neither side. I have come now as the captain of the army of Yahweh.' Joshua fell on his face to the ground, worshiping him, and said, 'What has my Lord to say to his servant?' The captain of the army of Yahweh answered Joshua, 'Take your sandals off your feet, for the place where you are standing is holy.' And Joshua did so." (Joshua 5:13-15)
Have a look back to the first image above on the top of the page and imagine what an amazing encounter! It is not any angel, it is not any archangel, it is the great Saint Michael, the Archangel. Imagine how wonderful it should have been. Imagine looking with these human, weak and impure eyes to this heavenly prefiguration of the Lord through his messenger. That is what happened with the blessed Joshua!
WHEN SAINT MICHAEL, THE ARCHANGEL, MENTIONED WHO HE WAS, JOSHUA FELL ON HIS FACE TO THE GROUND, WORSHIPING HIM AND PUT HIMSELF IN THE POSITION OF SERVICE TO HEAR WHAT GOD HAD TO SAY TO HIS SERVANT.
The second meeting was between Tobias, son of Tobit, who went far away to seek help and get some money for his father and the great archangel Raphael. His father, Tobit, became blind because of an event that happened and when his son went on this long trip he told him to go and try to find someone to be his fellow traveler and he met someone. On leaving to their trip Tobit said that a good angel will go with him; not knowing that he was already speaking to an archangel.
Anyway, they went to their trip and had succeed in everything. Then after getting back they said they did not know how to pay their companion since he helped in everything. He, then on chapter 12 of the book of Tobit explained everything that had happened. Just not to make this too long, the main thing here is this:
"I am Raphael, one of the seven angels who stand ever ready to enter the presence of the glory of the Lord.' THEY WERE BOTH OVERWHELMED WITH AWE; THEY FELL ON THEIR FACES IN TERROR. But the angel said, 'Do not be afraid; peace be with you. Bless God for ever. (...) When they stood up again, he was no longer visible. They praised God with hymns; they thanked him for having performed such wonders; had not an angel of God appeared to them?" (Tobit 12:15-17.21)
Have a look at the second image above and imagine this great encounter. Tobias went far away with an archangel who was disguised as a men for quite a lot of time. They walked together, ate together (even though Saint Raphael, the archangel, was pretending he was eating), went along far away from Tobit's home beside each other. Raphael told Tobias what should he do and how. And so he did and that is why everything went well.
WHEN THE GREAT SAINT RAPHAEL, THE ARCHANGEL, REVEALED WHO HE WAS, TOBIAS AND HIS FATHER FELL ON THEIR FACES AND THEY WENT TO THE FLOOR. THEIR FACES WERE ON THE GROUND FROM THE MOMENT THEY DISCOVERED HE WAS NOT A MAN AND WHEN THEY STOOD UP RAPHAEL WAS NO LONGER THERE.
The third meeting, different than the others, is a wee bit more known for the most part of Catholics and Christians, since it is placed in the New Testament. In any case it is very good to bear in mind these other two meetings, so we can compare the three of them. This is also the most important of them all, since it is only because of this meeting that a God made man stepped into our World.
"In the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent by God to a town in Galilee called Nazareth, to a virgin betrothed to a man named Joseph, of the House of David; and the virgin's name was Mary. He went in and said to her, 'REJOICE, YOU WHO ENJOY GOD'S FAVOR! THE LORD IS WITH YOU.' She was deeply disturbed by these words and asked herself what this greeting could mean, but the angel said to her, 'Mary, do not be afraid; you have won God's favor. Look! You are to conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you must name him Jesus. He will be great and will be called Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his ancestor David; he will rule over the House of Jacob for ever and his reign will have no end.' Mary said to the angel, 'But how can this come about, since I have no knowledge of man?' The angel answered, 'The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will cover you with its shadow. And so the child will be holy and will be called Son of God. (...) Mary said, 'You see before you the Lord's servant, let it happen to me as you have said.' And the angel left her." (Luke 1:26-35.38)
That means that the archangel spoke to Mary in different way the other archangels spoke to manhood (you could argue it is a different archangel in each meeting and that is the reason for that - but then we could bring here the meeting Zechariah with the same Saint Gabriel, the archangel -- but we will do bring this up at another exclusive formation).
WHEN SAINT GABRIEL, THE ARCHANGEL, MET WITH THE BLESSED, IMMACULATE, PURE, HUMBLE, FULL OF GRACE (THAT MEANS PRESERVED FROM THE STAIN OF SIN) AND UNIQUE MARY, HE IS THE ONE THAT PROSTRATED, HE IS THE ONE THAT FELL ON HIS FACE TO THE FLOOR BEFORE HER. HE PROPOSED GOD'S PLANS FOR THE HUMBLE BRIDESMAID OF THE LORD AND SHE BECAME MOTHER OF GOD.
In one single meeting we could see the will of the Father: by sending his messenger with the annunciation of his great plan of salvation; the incarnation of the Son: since after Mary's fiat, the Word became flesh and dwelt among us; and the power of the Holy Spirit: the one who overshadowed the Virgin Mary and made her the place where the Holy Trinity could dwell in plenitude.
There is no comparison between these three meetings (and none of the other ones mentioned in the Holy Scriptures) with the one that Mary had. In all of the others, naturally, when an angel encounter a human being, the attitude is always the one of the human being bowing down before the angelical message and person of the messengers of the Lord.
With Mary things are different: the archangel did humiliate himself to the most pure of creatures. He did not act like Satan who did not accept his being being made smaller than a creature because of her dignity but he did WHAT GOD TOLD HIM TO DO!
Now, if God told Saint Gabriel, the archangel, in all his glory of beatific vision and plenitude of knowledge, to tell Mary he was looking to come to the World through her, who are we to say we should not follow the same way/path he took to come to us in first place: go to him, through her?!
We should and should do that so sure that there should not be space for any confusion...
The conversation with this gentleman went on and on and on until the point he said he did not accept any of this and, even though revealing to me that he did not read the whole Bible, he knew enough not to be fooled by these lies I was telling.
This was not supposed to take so long to be available for all those who have ears to hear to be able to receive this truth but God knows our limitations. He is the one who gave me inspiration to bring this very important message to you today. He is the one who chose Mary, why would we reject what he did if we want to accept his will?
Saint Augustine is the one who would say, "If we want to accept some things in the Gospel and reject others, it is not God we are willing to please or God's will we are willing to do, but our own". He is the one who would also say, "God came to us through Mary, we should go to him through her as well". He said as well that "The common characteristic in every saint is their devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary".
Saint Bernard of Claraval, great saint of the Church, aware of the reality that Jesus is the head of the Church and we are members of his mystical body, once said, "Jesus is the head and we are the members, but Mary is the neck who gathers the head with its members.
If all generations will call Blessed the Virgin Mary, we too, should say, like the archangel and be not worried on falling our faces to the floor before her: this is not adoration nor idolatry like many people like to say and repeat to their own people who hear their nonsense; this is the pure Catholic doctrine. this is the truth of 2000 years of history of the Church, this is greatest act of humility and grace for those who proclaim the wonders God made through Mary are in complete humbleness; whereas all those who say bad things about Mary and falsify the words of the Gospel, are united with the evil one by hating God and his way of doing things...
Let's pray together to the mother of Our Lord:
Hail Mary full of Grace, the Lord is with thee. Blessed are thou amongst women and blessed is the fruit of thy womb Jesus. Holy Mary Mother of God, pray for us sinners and at the hour of our death. Amen!!
May God bless us through the pure and Immaculate heart of Mary!!
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