Do we pray to picture and statues of Mary? Of couse,not! Picture are made of canvas or paper.

Statues are cut from wood or stone or marble.Prayer to such objects does not make sence.they cannot hear,still less help us. If we do not pray to pictures and statues,what do we do? We pray before them.Just as we use photographs to remind us of those we know or love,so we may use picture and statues to remind us of Mary,when we speak to her in prayer.Most people find pictures and statues wonderful help to fight distractions during prayer.The mind tends to wander less. Try it and see! What actually happens when we pray to Mary? let us begin by saying what does not happen . Mary does not, as it were,reach into her pocket,take out our request and give it to us.She lacks the power to grant our requests.She is a creature.She in not the Creator. When we pray to Mary,we are really saying to her;"Will you who are so close and dear to your Son speak to him on our behalf? Will you ask Him to mediate with His Father for me in this need? Precisely because Mary is so close and dear to her Son,that her Son listens with the greatest attention. Why is Mary called "a model of the Church"? The Church is like a mother.She brings forth Christians,childen of God by baptism.The idea of mother on whom the Church should model herself is Mary who conceived and brought forth Christ.Her vitues,especially her faith,her dedicated obedience to God ,her self-giving service provide the pattern,the ideal for the Church. Not only Our lady is the model of what the church ought to be during her pilgrimage here on earth,but also words, just our lady is now forever united to Christ in heaven so will the Church one day be. Mary demonstrates what Christ came on earth to do.He came to redeem humankind.In the Church composed of people like us we cannot see the full effect of that Redemption.But in our lady we can. She co-operated perfectly with God and in her the Redemption had its full effect. She is the perfect Christian; and looking at her we see" a sign of sure hope and solace for the pilgrim people of God. Why should we honour Mary? When God chose to redeem humankind by sending His Son on earth to be born of a women,the women He chose for this singular honour was Mary.The Vatican Council reminds us that at the message of the angle,Mary conceived and became the Mother of God,united to Christ "by a close and indissoluble tie". "As a result, she is also the favourite daughter of the Father and the temple of the Holy Spirit, Because of she gift of sublime grace; she far surpasses all

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other creature both in heaven and on earth". This is the fundamental reason why the Church down the ages has honoured Mary. Christ is the only Redeemer,the only Saviour of humankind;but in God's plan,Mary,a creature like us,co-operated in that redemption in a unique and intimate way. All the titles bestowed on Mary , all the doctrines about her privileges and graces stem from this. This is fundamentally why we should honour her still. Why should we love our lady? Any reader of the Gospels can see the intimacy of the son/mother relationship between Jesus and Mary. If He is the ideal man, then He must have been the ideal Son. If He was the ideal Son, then he must have loved His mother with a love that was warm and deep and true. Being a Christian means being a person"conformed to the image of christ",having a Christ-like personality having His values, loving as He loved. The closer our conformity, the more intimate our union with Christ, the better we will be as Christians. But how can we claim to be conformed to His image unless like Him we have a love for Mary that is genuine and filial, a love we express by our words and deeds?Without such a love ,our Christianity will always be incomplete. What's so special about her? The Gospel of St luke record s Mary's reaction to God's call, how she reached out beyond herself and her natural limitations to accept God's Word and submit to Him. Her reply:"Behold the handmaid of the lord, be it done unto me according to your Word"came from her loving trust in God Whom she had neither seen nor touched. She courageously surrendered to Him and by that surrender enabled Him to do great things for her and through her. We too are called to believed, to trust and to put ourselves in God's hands. We all know how hard it is to do that. We lack courage, we give with reservations; we are worried by doubts.But not Mary. She not only gave herself to God but she never retracted that offering.There was no change of mind, no rationalizing doubts about her vocation when sorrow and difficulty came, no turning back. True, God gave her grace to do all this. But He gave us grace too and we fail sometimes.that is why Mary is so special!! Why is Mary called "Mother of God"? Mary is called Mother of God because Jesus Christ, her son, who was born of her as man, is not only man, but is also truly God. Mary is not a goddess. She is as human as our own mothers. The big difference lies in the son-Mary's son and our mothers' sons. Mary's Son is the Son of

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God. Our mothers' sons are human, very human. How true were the words of her cousin Elizabeth when she greeted Mary in the gospel:"Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb, And why is this granted me, that the mother of my lord should come to me?(Luke 1:42-43) How true are our words when we say:"Holy Mary,mother of God, pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death." Mary indeed is the mother of God! How did Mary become our mother? Mary become our mother when she conceived her son, Jesus Christ. He is the source of supernatural life. We share that life with Him. So Mary who is the mother of Jesus Christ is also our mother. Also on the Cross, Jesus reminded us that Mary is our mother when He said to John who represented the whole human race," Behold your mother!" Of Courses there is the difference. Mary is the mother of Christ in a physical sense; She is our mother in the spiritual sense. Being our mother, Mary is a place in her heart for all of us. Our worries are her worries ,our fears hers, our difficulties hers, our problems hers. Mary is the world's greatest mother! She is certainly a mother for the troubled world we live in. Thanks to our good lord,she is our mother. How we can pray to Mary when St.Paul tells us that Jesus Christ is the 'one Mediator between God and man'? Jesus Christ is indeed our principal Mediator. However there may be secondary mediators. Mary is one of these of mediators. The practice of asking the prayers of other (secondary mediators) is common sense. We have all asked friends to speak on our behalf at some time or other. It may be to obtain an increase in our salary or to find a place in the kindergarten for one of the children or to get a good price on something we are buying ....in praying to Mary ,we are asking her to speak to her Son on our behalf.So He is still the principal Mediator with God. Further, Mary has the God-given role of mother -Mother of Christ and mother of all who are united to Him. Just as Jesus sought her comfort and care during His life on earth, so we who follow Him should also turn to her in our needs, confident of motherly concern for us. We can pray directly to God, why do we need to go through Mary? This is a good question, except for one thing. It fails to recognize that we are sinners! Prayer prayed by a sinner lacks the power of prayer prayed by someone who is sinless-Mary. Of course, usually most of our prayer are prayed directly to God , for

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example, the Mass and the majority of the prayers we pray each day. However we always have the freedom to go to Mary or some other intercessor. We do this, for example, at the Novena and the Rosary. This freedom most of us use is with the blessing of the good lord! Was Mary really sinless? Yes, really sinless! More than that, not only Mary was free of sin, she was also full of grace! This God -given privilege is called her Immaculate Conception. It should surprise none of us . If we were able to choose our own mother, wouldn't we choose the most perfect women we could find? God could not only choose the most perfect of women for His Son's mother, He could personally form her begrudge the good God this wonderful use of His power? Prayer of confidence Mother of perpetual Help, we come to you and place our trust in you.You are a Mother of mercy.You are called by all the refuge and the hope of sinners; Be then our refuge and our hope. Help us for the love of Jesus Christ . Stretch out your hands to us poor sinners. We bless and thank God for giving us this confidence in you. In the past we have so often sinned, But with your help we can conquer, and you will help us if if we pray to you . In all our temptations may we always turn to you and say: Mary, help me .Let me never lose my god. Amen.

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