Saint Paul reminds us that if we want to please God our Father, we must learn from His Son Jesus Christ. We must learn the details of His life. We must adopt his attitudes. We must contemplate His life. If we truly love Jesus Christ we will sincerely want to know all about His life and character so that we can become more like Him.
There is absolutely no quicker way to conform ourselves to the person of Jesus Christ than by meditating upon the mysteries of His life. We do this when we pray the Holy Rosary of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Saint Louis Marie de Montfort writes that: “All our perfection consists in being conformed, united and consecrated to Jesus Christ; and therefore the most perfect of all devotions is, without any doubt, that which the most perfectly conforms, unites and consecrates us to Jesus Christ. Now Mary, being the most conformed of all creatures to Jesus Christ, it follows that of all devotions, that which most consecrates and conforms the soul to our Lord is devotion to His Holy Mother; that the more a soul is consecrated to Mary, the more it is consecrated to Jesus Christ.”
There are guidelines for a sound theology and devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary. In his Apostolic Exhortation Marialis Cultus, Pope Paul VI laid down a number of guidelines that govern authentic Marian devotion. First he states that Marian piety must have a Trinitarian, Christological, pneumatological, and ecclesial aspect:
…It is extremely fitting that exercises of piety directed towards the Virgin Mary should clearly express the Trinitarian and Christological note that is intrinsic and essential to them.
(Trinitarian Aspect) Marian devotion, like all authentic Christian worship, keeps its focus on the Blessed Trinity. It sees Mary in relation to the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost; and leads to the Father, through the Son, in the Holy Ghost…
(Christological Aspect) In the Virgin Mary, everything is relative to Christ and dependent upon Him. It was with a view to Christ that God the Father from all eternity chose her to be the all holy Mother and adorned her with gifts of the Spirit granted to no one else…In the expressions of devotion to the Virgin the Christological aspect should have particular prominence…
Pneumatological Aspect) Marian piety should give prominence to…the Person and work of the Holy Ghost with regard to Mary’s place in the mystery of redemption…
(Ecclesial Aspect) It…should also clearly show the place that Mary occupies in the Church, “the highest place and the closest to us after Christ.”
Sincerely in Christ,
Rev. Jeffery A. Fasching
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