Before I adopted the Blessed Virgin Mary as my Mother, life was so much harder. I fell victim to all of the seven deadly sins (lust, greed, gluttony, envy, anger, pride, and sloth) on a regular basis. Going to daily Mass, confession, praying, and saying the daily Rosary were all done begrudgingly and with no regularity. Daily life – including going to work, paying bills, and family interaction – was a struggle. Relationships which should have been loving were either very hard to maintain or just plain disappeared. Relatives and friends always seemed to be doing that one thing that always turned me off from them. Horrible thoughts of past sins and mistakes always clouded my mind, even though I confessed them all in the biblically-based sacrament of reconciliation, from John 20:21-23. In short, life didn’t seem worth living. (Sorry, Archbishop Sheen, it just didn’t). I still went to Sunday Mass and prayed occasionally, however, and those things seem to be the anchor that kept me sane during my Mary-less days.
Spiritual Reading about Mary vs. TV
Unlike most people in today’s society, I like to do spiritual reading. Spiritual reading leads us to imitate Mary, but it is abhorrent to a lot of Christians, it seems. Most people just refuse to read books, and others only read the Bible and nothing else. For some strange reason, a lot of Catholics just ignore reading the Bible (which puts God’s Word into your mind AND soul) or the writings of the saints. They instead prefer either to watch movies or news on TV or to read the newspaper, even though the Bible is God’s love letter to save them from hell. Reporters are just men and women with worldly opinions, which are usually contrary to holiness. I take Jesus (as the Eucharist) to elderly people in their homes, and one of the first things I always have to do is to get them to TURN DOWN THE TV! Without a doubt, when it is my turn to be home bound and have the Blessed Sacrament brought to me by Extraordinary Ministers of Holy Communion from Church, I will be getting ready to meet Jesus and not wasting my time watching continual LOUD daytime TV. But I digress.
St. Louis de Montfort
Spiritual reading led me to the wonderful writings of St. Louis de Montfort. This great French saint of the 18th century wrote several great books concerning the Mother of God, like “The Secret of the Rosary,” “The Secret of Mary,” and “True Devotion to Mary.” The common thread through them all is that if you adopt Mary as your mother, as Jesus said to His beloved disciple (we are ALL beloved disciples of Jesus) from the cross in John 19:27, then the road to find Jesus is faster, smoother, and always infallible. Why? Because Mary’s last recorded words in the Bible were, “Do whatever He tells you.” The ultimate meek and humble Mary, whom God exalted over every other human being ever created to be His earthly mother, will never lead you astray. She will always, always, always, lead you to Jesus faster and better than any of your own human efforts. Her supernatural guidance and protection from the devil are the ultimate flak jacket to protect you from his satanic wiles and temptations. Genesis 3:15 says that “The Woman” is at enmity with satan, which means a lifelong hatred. This enmity between Mary and the devil can be ours as well, if and only if we adopt Mary as our spiritual mother. Otherwise, the devil has a much easier time of it when it comes to leading us astray. Been there, done that
Saints Alive!
Mary’s Intercession Is Not Necromancy
But what about necromancy, you say? Necromancy is defined as conjuring up the dead to obtain arcane knowledge about the future. In no way do Catholics who ask Mary’s holy intercession with her Son commit the sin of necromancy. That is a canard which has no basis in fact. St. Peter talked to the dead in Acts 9:40! Revelation 5:8 even says that saints in heaven present our prayers to God in the form of incense! St. Paul advocates for intercessory prayer in 1 Timothy 2:1, and James 5:16 says that the prayers of a righteous person are very powerful. No one on earth is more righteous than a saint in heaven, and no saint is more righteous than the sinless Mary, who gave Jesus His sinless flesh. A bad tree CANNOT bear good fruit, according to Matthew 7:18, and Elizabeth said that Jesus is the fruit of Mary’s womb (Luke 1:42).
Life is Easier With Mary
So why is life easier with having Mary as our mother in heaven? Because like any good mother, she will see to it that you are properly educated (with the scriptures), properly fed (with her Son Jesus in the Eucharist), and always cleaned up (through the sacrament of confession). She will also make sure that you associate with good and holy people, instead of those who will drag you into hell. Before I totally adopted Mary as my spiritual mother, I had good old boy friends (boozers and losers) who were always on the prowl for a “good time.” If you want to know who you really are, just look at those persons with whom you associate! Now that I am fully consecrated to Jesus through Mary, my friends are good and holy people who love the Lord. And while I no longer associate with “earthly” friends, I do pray for them to find Jesus. It seems like one bad apple always makes the other apples go bad; the good apples rarely make the bad one go good. But, this is our challenge as followers of Jesus: to bring as many people into heaven with us as we can, even if they hate us for it while we are doing it. It seems like we have to drag them into heaven kicking and screaming the whole way! With Mary as our Mother, this task becomes a LOT easier because, even if they refuse to listen to us about Jesus, Mary is secretly working on them to save them. Why? Because Jesus told us from the cross that she is the mother of us all! Just as Eve became the physical mother of all of the living at the foot of the tree of knowledge of good and evil (Genesis 3:20), Mary became our spiritual mother at the foot of the tree of life known as the cross (John 19:27)! She loves her wayward children too!
Avoiding The Devil’s Traps
How To Know It’s Mary
A Guide for the Lost
When we go to some dangerous location, it’s always best to hire a guide to show us the way. For instance, when mountain climbers go to Mount Everest for the first time, they always hire a local Sherpa who already has been to the mountaintop and who knows the pitfalls along the way. The guide knows when and where to advise caution to his rookie climbers about the long climb in front of them and that they could fall or freeze to death in an instant. Just so, no one knows the way to Jesus better than His own mother, who also knows where the pitfalls in life are. It takes a long lifetime to become holy, but we can fall prey to mortal sin in an instant, and if we should die that way, unrepentant, we will go straight to hell. The heavenly intercession from Mary as our guide is like a shield around us helping to protect us from deadly sin.
Summary
Adopting Mary as your mother makes the road to follow Jesus slope downhill all the way. Doing things on your own without Mary in heaven helping you spiritually is like walking up a steep incline carrying a heavy load. The greatest human love on earth is between a mother and her child. Having Mary as your spiritual mother means that her virtues, along with the love she has for Jesus, start to become ours as well. All of the great saints had a strong devotion to Mary, and they set the example for us now. Since we are in a covenant relation with Jesus (the NEW Covenant), our family is His, and His family is ours. That means His whole family, including His mother! No Mary, no Jesus. Know Mary, know Jesus!
3 thoughts on “Life is Easier with Mary as Our Spiritual Mother”
Maybe…But it is a 2 way street. Mary adopts us, but until we adopt her as our spiritual mother with the Consecration to Jesus through Mary, we really don’t get the full spiritual benefits of her motherhood….
Is it better to say Mary adopted you rather than you adopted Mary?
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