Mark I. Miravalle - Introduction to Mary: The Heart of Marian Doctrine and Devotion

INTRODUCTION TO MARY

The Heart of Marian Doctrine and Devotion

MARK MIRAVALLE

Forewordby Edouard Cardinal Gagnon, P.s.s .

NewRevised Edition

queenship publishing

NIHIL OBSTAT

Father James Dunfee

Censor Librorum

IMPRIMATUR

Most Reverend Gilbert Sheldon

Bishop of Steubenville

January 12, 1993

Mark I. Miravalle , S.T.D.

All rights reserved.

Library of Congress Number: 93-083229

First Edition - 1992

Second Edition - March, 2006

Third Edition June, 2006

Queenship Publishing

P.O. Box 220 Goleta, CA 93116

(800) 647-9882, (805) 692-0043, Fax: (805) 967-5843

Printed in the United States of America

ISBN 1-882972-06-6

iSilo version by Scanda Luz ( 2012)

DEDICATION

To the Spiritual Mother of All Peoples; and to my wife, Lysbeth ,and our precious children, John-Mark, Michael, Sr. Maria, Mariana, Joseph, Annaleah , Mary-Bernadette and Philumena .

Contents

Foreword

How important it is for us all to turn tothe Mother of God and our Mother in our present historical moment for theChurch and for the world.

The more we know of the extraordinaryprerogatives of the Mother of God, the more we will love this Mother as ourown. The more we will love this Mother, the more we will go to her with trueconfidence and hope in the midst of our daily needs: in the face of ournumerous domestic and national situations which cause us anxiety and worry, inthe presence of world concerns of fratricidal struggle and terrorism, ofpoverty and plague, of global events of significant historic magnitude.

We must also keep in mind that Our Ladybears the ancient title and role of "Conqueror of All Heresies." Dowe not also have great need for the exercise of this role in our present era ofthe Church when strange and concerning ideas are being voiced, doctrinal andmoral positions which deny basic truths of divine revelation and the naturallaw, such as human life beginning at conception; the intrinsic evil ofcontraception; that marriage is only possible between a man and a woman; thedivinity and celibacy of Jesus Christ, and many more? We need our Lady, whoprotects the Church by protecting the deposition fidei and by guarding the Tradition and Life of the People of God infaithful discipleship to the Crucified and Risen Lord.

Dr. Mark Miravalle ,Professor of Theology and Mariology at the Franciscan University ofSteubenville, is internationally renowned for his unquestioned fidelity to theChurch's Magisterium and for his outstanding scholarship and love in honor ofthe Blessed Mother. You can rest assured that the Mariology contained in hisexcellent work, Introductionto Mary, is a true and faithfulsummary of Catholic teaching on the Mother of the Lord, and at the same timewill inspire you to a greater devotion to the Mother that the Crucified Jesusgave personally to each one of us from the Cross (cf. Jn .19:25-27). Introduction toMary is a must for every Catholic library, at school and at home.

Edouard Cardinal Gagnon, P.s.s .

President Emeritus, Pontifical Council forthe Family President Emeritus, Pontifical Committee for InternationalEucharistic Congresses

Preface

Introduction to Mary comes as a response to repeated requests fromMariology students, Marian conference members, and friends in and out of theCatholic Faith, for a contemporary book that would present the fundamentalelements of both authentic Catholic doctrine and devotion regarding Mary, theMother of Jesus.

Far from being a comprehensive treatmentof Mariology (the study of the theology of Mary), the goal of this work israther to synthesize Marian doctrine and devotion so as to serve as a basicintroduction for both the parish study group and the college classroom, forboth the inquiring non-Catholic and the longstanding Catholic. For a moreextensive work on Marian doctrine and devotion, I would refer you to the threevolume American work, Mariology, edited by the late Juniper Carol, O.F.M.(Milwaukee: Bruce Publishing Co., 1955-61), the Irish study by Fr. MichaelO'Carroll C.S.Sp ., Theotokos : A TheologicalEncyclopedia of the Blessed Virgin Mary, (Delaware: Michael Glazier, Inc., 1983), or the Italian work by Fr.Gabriel M. Roschini , O.S.V., Maria Santissima Nella Storia Delia Salvezza ( Editrice M. Pisani , 1969, 3volumes).

We find ourselves in the midst of a Marianreawakening. Any authentic renewal of the heart towards the Mother of Jesusmust be firmly based on the truth about Our Lord's Mother as taught by theChurch's Magisterium. I pray that this work will in some small way help toarticulate the proper doctrinal and devotional foundation to what many of ourcontemporaries see as a climax of our presently designated "Age of Mary."

Mark Miravalle

Professor of Theology and MariologyFranciscan University of Steubenville

ChapterOne

The Truth About Mary

Holy Mary, Mother of God, youhave given the world its true light, Jesus, your Sonthe Son of God. Youabandoned yourself completely to God's call and thus became a wellspring of thegoodness which flows forth from him. Show us Jesus. Lead us to him. Teach us toknow and love him, so that we too can become capable of true love and befountains of living water in the midst of a thirsting world. - Pope Benedict XVIEncyclical Deus Caritas Est ,No. 42

In discussing the person and role of Mary,Mother of Jesus, two extremes must always be avoided. The first extreme is Marian excess. This is to place the Blessed Virgin on the levelof a goddess, to ascribe to Mary a divine nature that would grant her equalitywith God himself. This excess radically violates the revealed biblical truthabout the singularity of God and the complete though exalted humanity of Mary.Although historically there have been very few occasions when the Mother ofJesus has been posed as a "goddess," nonetheless, it remains a Marianexcess that is obviously a grave rejection of and danger to the Christianfaith.

The second extreme regarding the personand role of the Blessed Virgin is what we can call Marian defect. This is to minimize the role of the BlessedVirgin, to ascribe to Mary less than what the sources of divine revelationreveal about her. Marian defect, for example, would limit the Mother of Jesusto being only a "good disciple," a "sister in the Lord," amere "physical channel of Jesus," but nothing more.

Unfortunately it is this second extreme ofMarian minimalization that is encountered more widelytoday. This extreme also violates the revealed truth of the role of the BlessedVirgin, for Mary is revealed, as we shall discuss, both as intercessor and asSpiritual Mother to all humanity. To deny Mary the role of Spiritual Mother isto deny that aspect so central to her own identity, and to her relationship with Christ and his Body, the Church.

As we will examine, examples of Mary'srole as intercessor and Spiritual Mother are clear in Scripture in such placesas John 2:1, at the Wedding of Cana , where Maryintercedes for the first miracle of Jesus, as well as in John 19:26, where atthe foot of the Cross Mary is given the role of Spiritual Mother of John, thebeloved disciple, and all later disciples of the Lord.

We can find warnings concerning theseextremes, Marian excess and Marian defect, generally referred to in a statementfrom the Second Vatican Council regarding the proper balance of devotion to theMother of Jesus:

It [the Council] strongly urgestheologians and preachers of the word of God to be careful to refrain as muchfrom all false exaggeration as from too summary an attitude in considering thespecial dignity of the Mother of God. Following the study of Sacred Scripture,the Fathers, the doctors and liturgy of the Church, and under the guidance ofthe Church's magisterium , let them rightly illustratethe duties and privileges of the Blessed Virgin which always refer to Christ,the source of all truth, sanctity, and devotion