Devotion To The Virgin Mary and The Saints
Catholic belief holds that the church exists both on earth and in heaven simultaneously and thus, the Virgin Mary and the saints are alive and part of the living church. Prayers and devotions to Mary and the saints are common practices in Catholic life. These devotions are not worship, since only God is worshiped. The church teaches that the saints "do not cease to intercede with the Father for us... So by their fraternal concern is our weakness greatly helped."
Catholics venerate Mary with many loving titles such as "Blessed Virgin", "Mother of God". "Help of Christians", "Mother of the Faithful". She is given special honor and devotion above all other saints but this honor and devotion differs essentially from the adoration given to God. Catholics do not worship Mary but honor her as mother of Christ, mother of the church and as a spiritual mother to each believer of Christ. She is called the greatest of the saints, the first disciple, and Queen of Heaven. Catholic belief encourages following her example of holiness. Prayers and devotions asking for her intercession, such as the rosary, the Hail Mary, and the Memorare are common Catholic practice. The Church devotes several liturgical feasts to Mary. Although there are others, the major feasts of Mary celebrated on the liturgical calendar are: The Immaculate Conception, Mary, Mother of God, The Visitation, The Assumption, The Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary; and in the Americas the Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe. Pilgrimages to Marian shrines like Lourdes, France and Fátima, Portugal are also a common form of devotion and prayer asking for her intercession.
Read more about this topic: Roman Catholic Theology
Famous quotes containing the words devotion to the, devotion to, devotion, virgin, mary and/or saints:
“[James G. Blaine’s] devotion to the public interests, his marked ability, and his exalted patriotism have won for him the gratitude and affection of his countrymen and the admiration of the world. In the varied pursuits of legislation, diplomacy, and literature his genius has added new luster to American citizenship.”
—Benjamin Harrison (1833–1901)
“It requires more than a day’s devotion to know and to possess the wealth of a day.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“We must cultivate our garden.
Furia to God one day in seven allots;
The other six to scandal she devotes.
Satan, by false devotion never flammed,
Bets six to one, that Furia will be damned.”
—Horace Walpole (1717–1797)
“But see, the Virgin blest
Hath laid her Babe to rest:
Time is our tedious song should here have ending;
Heaven’s youngest teemed star,
Hath fixed her polished car,
Her sleeping Lord with handmaid lamp attending;
And all about the courtly stable,
Bright-harnessed angels sit in order serviceable.”
—John Milton (1608–1674)
“The first general store opened on the ‘Cold Saturday’ of the winter of 1833 ... Mrs. Mary Miller, daughter of the store’s promoter, recorded in a letter: ‘Chickens and birds fell dead from their roosts, cows ran bellowing through the streets’; but she failed to state what effect the freeze had on the gala occasion of the store opening.”
—Administration in the State of Sout, U.S. public relief program (1935-1943)
“How marvellous it all is! Built not by saints and angels, but the work of men’s hands; cemented with men’s honest blood and with a world of tears, welded by the best brains of centuries past; not without the taint and reproach incidental to all human work, but constructed on the whole with pure and splendid purpose. Human, and yet not wholly human—for the most heedless and the most cynical must see the finger of the Divine.”
—Archibald Philip Primrose, 5th Earl Rosebery (1847–1929)