Devotion to Mary as Motivation to Pray the Rosary.

 taken from PrayOften.net

The Rosary is a Marian Devotion. This will motivate us to pray the Rosary in proportion to the degree that we are motivated to honor Mary. So, in this chapter we are going to talk about devotion to Mary with the aim of generating within ourselves a great desire for this devotion, thereby motivating us to pray the Rosary.

In the previous lesson, we concluded that the same Gospels that we read today were also reverenced by the early Christians. In a similar spirit, Blessed John Henry Newman (1801 - 1890) set about the task of showing that the beliefs and devotions that we have today regarding Mary are the very same as those practiced by the early Christians.

In one of his manuscripts, Blessed John Newman quotes 12 different early Christian writers and shows that from the very beginning Mary was recognized as a type of "second Eve." Let's consider what that implies. 

Adam, who was charged by God with the naming of all things, called Eve "the Mother of all the living." She had her own general relation to the human race and her own special place regarding its trial and its fall in Adam. She cooperated personally in the sin and brought it about. Blessed John Newman observes the following:

In that awful transaction there were three parties concerned: the serpent, the woman, and the man; and at the time of their sentence, an event was announced for the future, in which the three same parties were to meet again: the serpent, the woman, and the man. But it was to be a second Adam and a second Eve, and the new Eve was to be the mother of the new Adam. "I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed." The Seed of the woman is the Word Incarnate, and the Woman whose seed or son He is, is His mother Mary. This interpretation and the parallelism it involves, seem to me undeniable but at all events (and this is my point) the parallelism is the doctrine of the Fathers from the earliest times; and, this being established, we are able, by the position and office of Eve in our fall, to determine the position and office of Mary in our restoration.

Whereas Blessed John Newman goes on to quote 12 early Christian writers to illustrate this Marian devotion among the primitive Church, we are going to reproduce only 3 of them here: St. Justin Martyr (A.D. 120 - 165), St. Irenaeus (120 - 200), and Tertullian (160 - 240). These writers were appealed to in the previous chapter to show the integrity of our traditions concerning the written Gospels. We now use them to show that our traditions concerning Mary are equally reliable. The following passage comes from the writings of Blessed John Henry Newman:

Tertullian represents Africa and Rome; St. Justin represents Palestine; and St. Irenaeus Asia Minor and Gaul, or rather he represents St. John the Evangelist, for he had been taught by the Martyr St. Polycarp who was the intimate associate of St. John and of the other Apostles.

St. Justin:

"We know that He, before all creatures, proceeded from the Father by His power and will, ...and by means of the Virgin became man, that by what way the disobedience arising from the serpent had its beginning, by that way also it might have an undoing. For Eve, being a virgin and undefiled, conceiving the word that was from the serpent, brought forth disobedience and death; but the Virgin Mary, taking faith and joy, when the Angel told her the good tidings, that the Spirit of the Lord should come upon her and the power of the Highest overshadow her, and therefore the Holy One that was born of her was Son of God, answered, 'Be it to me according to Thy word.'"

-Tryph. 100.

Tertullian:

"God recovered His image and likeness, which the devil had seized, by a rival operation. For into Eve, as yet a virgin, had crept the word which was the framer of death. Equally into a virgin was to be introduced the Word of God which was the builder-up of life so that what by that sex had gone into perdition, by the same sex might be brought back to salvation. Eve had believed the serpent; Mary believed Gabriel. The fault which the one committed by believing, the other by believing has blotted out."

-De Carn. Christ. 17.

St. Irenaeus:

"With a fitness, Mary the Virgin is found obedient, saying, 'Behold Thy handmaid, O Lord; be it to me according to Thy word.' But Eve was disobedient; for she obeyed not, while she was yet a virgin. As she, having indeed Adam for a husband, but as yet being a virgin ...becoming disobedient, became the cause of death both to herself and to the whole human race, so also Mary, having the predestined man, and being yet a Virgin, being obedient, became both to herself and to the whole human race the cause of salvation. ...And on account of this the Lord said, that the first should be last and the last first. And the Prophet signifies the same, saying, 'Instead of fathers you have children.' For, whereas the Lord, when born, was the first-begotten of the dead, and received into His bosom the primitive fathers, He regenerated them into the life of God, He Himself becoming the beginning of the living, since Adam became the beginning of the dying. Therefore also Luke, commencing the line of generations from the Lord, referred it back to Adam, signifying that He regenerated the old fathers, not they Him, into the Gospel of life. And so the knot of Eve's disobedience received its unloosing through the obedience of Mary; for what Eve, a virgin, bound by incredulity, that Mary, a virgin, unloosed by faith."

-Adv. Haer. Iii. 22. 34.

And again:

"As Eve by the speech of an Angel was seduced, so as to flee God, transgressing His word, so also Mary received the good tidings by means of the Angel's speech, so as to bear God within her, being obedient to His word. And, though the one had disobeyed God, yet the other was drawn to obey God; that of the virgin Eve the Virgin Mary might become the advocate. And, as by a virgin the human race had been bound to death, by a virgin it is saved, the balance being preserved, a virgin's disobedience by a virgin's obedience."

-Ibid. v. 19.

Now what is especially noticeable in these three writers is that they do not speak of the Blessed Virgin merely as the physical instrument of our Lord's taking flesh, but as an intelligent, responsible cause of it; her faith and obedience being accessories to the Incarnation and gaining it as her reward. As Eve failed in these virtues and thereby brought on the fall of the race in Adam, so Mary by means of [these virtues] had a part in its restoration. ... they unanimously declare that she was not a mere instrument in the Incarnation such as David or Judah may be considered. They declare she cooperated in our salvation ... by specific holy acts, the effect of the Holy Spirit within her soul; that as Eve forfeited privileges by sin, so Mary earned privileges by the fruits of grace; that as Eve was disobedient and unbelieving, so Mary was obedient and believing; that as Eve was a cause of ruin to all, Mary was a cause of salvation to all; that as Eve made room for Adam's fall, so Mary made room for our Lord's reparation of it; and thus, whereas the free gift was not as the offense, but much greater, it follows that, as Eve cooperated in effecting a great evil, Mary cooperated in effecting a much greater good.

Blessed John Newman goes on to quote several other sources and then shows how various distinguishing features of Mary such as her Immaculate Conception and her Assumption into heaven can be seen to flow from her office as the Second Eve. By the Immaculate Conception of Mary is meant that she was conceived in the womb of her mother, St. Anne, without original sin, having the grace of God from the first moment of her being, as it had been given to Eve.

By her Assumption is meant that not only her soul, but her body also, was taken up to heaven upon her death, so that there was no long period of her body remaining in the grave, as is the case with others, even great Saints, who wait until the last day for the resurrection of their bodies. Perhaps one reason for this is because she was so transcendentally holy, so full and overflowing with grace. Adam and Eve were created upright and sinless and had a large measure of God's grace bestowed upon them. In consequence of this their bodies would never have crumbled into dust if they had not sinned. Therefore Mary, having never sinned, retained the gift which Eve by sinning lost.

After quoting a dozen early Christian writers, Blessed John Henry Newman concludes, "I fully grant that devotion towards the Blessed Virgin has increased among Catholics with the progress of centuries. [However,] I do not allow that the doctrine concerning her has undergone a growth, for I believe that it has been in substance one and the same from the beginning."

This lesson is to be continued with the following topics:

• Devotion to Mary is very pleasing to God:
  "And Jesus Christ himself revealed to the Blessed Veronica Binasco, that he takes more pleasure, as it were, in seeing his mother compassionated than himself; for thus he addressed her: 'My daughter, the tears you shed out of consideration of my passion are dear to me; but loving with so great a love my mother Mary, the meditation on the sorrows which she suffered at my death is more dear to me.'" - from "The Glories of Mary" by St. Alphonsus de Liguori
• Mary's intercession is very powerful
• Protection
• Conversion of sinners
• Loved ones
• Enemies
• Our own salvation
• etc.
• Other Marian Devotions
• The Brown Scapular
• The Miraculous Medal
• The First Five Saturdays devotion
• "True Devotion to Mary" by St. Louis de Montfort
• The Green Scapular for conversions (make your own?)
• The Litany of the Blessed Virgin Mary (aka The Litany of Loreto)
• but don't forget... the Rosary.

15 Promises that according to a popular legend were given By the Blessed Virgin to St. Dominic and Blessed Alan concerning Christians who are faithful to recite the Rosary:

1. Whoever shall faithfully serve me by the recitation of the Rosary, shall receive signal graces.
2. I promise my special protection and the greatest graces to all those who shall recite the Rosary.
3. The Rosary shall be a powerful armor against hell, it will destroy vice, decrease sin, and defeat heresies.
4. It will cause virtue and good works to flourish; it will obtain for souls the abundant mercy of God; it will withdraw the hearts of men from the love of the world and its vanities, and will lift them to the desire of eternal things. Oh, that souls would sanctify themselves by this means!
5. The soul which recommends itself to me by the recitation of the Rosary, shall not perish.
6. Whoever shall recite the rosary devoutly, applying himself to the consideration of its sacred mysteries shall never be conquered by misfortune. God will not chastise him in His justice, he shall not perish by an unprovided death; if he be just he shall remain in the grace of God, and become worthy of eternal life.
7. Whoever shall have a true devotion for the Rosary shall not die without the sacraments of the Church.
8. Those who are faithful to recite the Rosary shall have during their life and at their death the light of God and the plenitude of His graces; at the moment of death they shall participate in the merits of the saints in paradise.
9. I shall deliver from purgatory those who have been devoted to the Rosary.
10. The faithful children of the Rosary shall merit a high degree of glory in heaven.
11. You shall obtain all you ask of me by the recitation of the Rosary.
12. All those who propagate the Holy Rosary shall be aided by me in their necessities.
13. I have obtained from my Divine Son that all the advocates of the Rosary shall have for intercessors the entire celestial court during their life and at the hour of death.
14. All who recite the Rosary are my sons, and brothers of my only son, Jesus Christ.
15. Devotion of my Rosary is a great sign of predestination.