Resources for Marian Devotion

A devotion to Mary is when we grow in relationship with her in order to grow closer to her beloved Son. We trust her intercession and guidance will lead us to Heaven.

“Our devotion to her, our love for her, is our response to Jesus, who when he told John the Beloved to behold his mother (see John 19:27) also told each one of us to behold our mother. Our love for Mary never detracts from Jesus because we cannot love the Mother of God more than God himself did and does” (Behold the Handmaid of the Lord, 41).

According to Pope John Paul II, he says a healthy devotion to Mary should include a solid biblical character, marked by a litrugical sensitvity, rooted in Eucharistic worship, and attentive the the liturgical seasons (The Reed of God, xiv).

Popular Marian devotions include the Rosary, the Miraculous Medal, the Scapular, and the Seven Sorrows.

The Miraculous Medal was revealed in a Marian apparition to St. Catherine Labouré. The Virgin told her that “all who wore this sacramental would receive great graces” (Virgin, Mother, Queen, 88).

Similarly, Our Lady gave St. Simon Stock a brown scapular. This scapular is two pieces of cloth attached by a rope that goes over one's chest and back. Our Lady promised that those who died faithfully wearing it, she would bring to Heaven.

The Seven Sorrows' devotion is similar to the Rosary. It focuses on Mary's seven sorrows, which are based on the prophecy of Simeon (Birthing the Holy, 105).

According to St. Maximilian Kolbe, he said, “may the Miraculous Medal be the bullet in the hand of the Knights of the Immaculata and the holy rosary the sword” (Led by the Immaculata, 14).

Though sometimes we feel it is mundane, the Rosary is “a highway to the riches of the Heart of Christ.

To pray the Rosary is to set out on a journey of grace in which the pilgrim experiences the joys, the illuminations, the sorrows, and the glories of God's Son and his holy mother” (The Family That Prays Together Stays Together, xiii-xiv). 

“They are called Mysteries because they invite you to hold various tensions, such as Mary as both virgin and mother, Jesus as both human and divine, and the paradox of strength and resurrection found in the midst of vulnerability and death” (Birthing the Holy, 3–4). Through meditating on the Holy Rosary, we enter into the mysteries of Christ’s life, death, and resurrection.

If you would like a FREE downloadable guide to praying the Rosary, click here. 

Worship is reserved for God alone. Catholics venerate Mary because they acknowledge her importance in Salvation History and Jesus' life.

After the fall of man, God said to the serpent, “I will put enmity between your seed and her seed; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel” (Genesis 3:15) fortelling Christ's victory over Satan and Mary's role as his mother. 

As a result, Catholics venerate Mary as the Mother of Jesus and recognize that “it is by her and through her that we reach Jesus because it was by her and through her that we received him as our Savior and Redeemer” (Behold the Handmaid of the Lord, 46).

In addition to this, no one can honor Mary more than God does Himself. In scripture it says, “a great sign appeared in the sky, a women clothed with the sun. The moon (was) under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars” (Revelation 12:1) - (The Ave Guide to the Scriptural Rosary, 82) alluding to the coronation of Mary in which God made her queen of Heaven and Earth.

“In the Old Testament, the mother of a king, the queen mother would advocate for the people, making their concerns known to the king. Then the king would act. (See 1 Kings 2:20.) The same dynamic is at play in Marian intercession and mediation of grace. Mary approaches the Triune God for us, and God chooses to dispense graces to us through her” (Behold the Handmaid of the Lord, 62).

“The difference is not in what God can do and what Mary can do. The difference is in the way they do it. God wills something and it happens. Mary prays to him for something and he does it. He will never say no to her” (All for Her, 79–80). We ask for Mary’s help because we know she will listen and plead our case to her son better than we can. Mary, through her intercession, always leads the devoted faithful closer to her Son. 

“Mother, I believe that you are alive, that you are real, that you are a woman, that you have eyes, a face, a smile, a memory, an intelligence, a heart. You have a mother and a father of your own. You have a son, who is truly God, who loves you, who will deny you nothing you ask” (The Family That Prays Together Stays Together, xix).

Marian consecration is our choice to accept Mary as our spiritual mother and to make her the queen of our life. We have decided to live with Mary, just as John did.

What this means is that we give “Mary permission to conform our will to the will of God” (Led by the Immaculata, 4). 

Through our devotion, we talk to her as our mother, she listens to us and brings our needs before Jesus, and we hear her subtle voice speaking to us (Behold the Handmaid of the Lord, 78). There are many different versions of this consecration from the examples of Marian saints, but ultimately it is choosing to bring her into our lives.

Marian Apparitions are when Mary has appeared to an individual or individuals, often with a message or to offer consolation. “At different times and in different places, she has shown herself to her children in the way they most need her. Each and every time, she calls us to conversion and penance in order to draw us ever closer to her Son” (Virgin, Mother, Queen, x).

Some of the most famous Marian Apparitions include Our Lady of Guadalupe to St. Juan Diego, Our Lady of Lourdes to St. Bernadette, and Our Lady of Fatima to three children: Francisco, Jacinta, and Lucina. 

Though often confused with the conception of Jesus, the Immaculate Conception refers to the conception of Mary—in the womb of her mother—without the stain of original sin. “As the Immaculate Conception, Mary is the woman who was predestined to be the all-holy and sinless mother of the Word Incarnate” (Virgin, Mother, Queen, 59). It was necessary that she be conceived without sin because no sinful person would be worthy of carrying the Messiah in her womb.

“What (St. Maximilian) Kolbe understood from all of this is that at the moment of Mary's Immaculate Conception, because God had chosen her to be the Mother of God, the Holy Spirit poured so much grace into Mary that she exceeded the amount of grace of all the angels and saints combined. Mary is the most exalted of all creatures. Mary is the one who is “full of grace.” This came about by the Holy Spirit, whom the early church fathers first described as the “fount of all holiness” (Led by the Immaculata, 17). 

“The Church teaches dogmatically that Mary was a perpetual virgin, meaning she remained a virgin before, during, and after the birth of Jesus” (A Heart Like Mary’s, 9). This may be confusing because scripture does mention Jesus having brothers, but the term used in the original Greek is often translated to near relatives as well as brothers. 

Scripture also supports this claim during Christ's crucifixion. “Jesus said to his mother, 'Woman, behold your son.' Then he said to the disciple, 'Behold, your mother.' And from that hour the disciple took her into his home” (John 19:26-27) - (The Ave Guide to the Scriptural Rosary, 64). 

“if there had been other sons of Mary, one of them would have taken care of her after his oldest brother died. Instead, in Jesus’s last moments on the Cross, he committed his mother to the care of his beloved friend John” (History’s Queen, xx–xxi).