Saints on Saturdays: Mary through the ages

"We never give more honour to Jesus than when we honour his Mother, and we honour her simply and solely to honour him all the more perfectly. We go to her only as a way leading to the goal we seek - Jesus, her Son."
-Saint Louis Marie de Montfort

"Mary has the authority over the angels and the blessed in heaven. As a reward for her great humility, God gave her the power and mission of assigning to saints the thrones made vacant by the apostate angels who fell away through pride. Such is the will of the almighty God who exalts the humble, that the powers of heaven, earth and hell, willingly or unwillingly, must obey the commands of the humble Virgin Mary. For God has made her queen of heaven and earth, leader of his armies, keeper of his treasure, dispenser of his graces, mediatrix on behalf of men, destroyer of his enemies, and faithful associate in his great works and triumphs."
-Saint Louis Marie de Montfort, True Devotion to the Blessed Virgin: Part 28

"All true children of God have God for their father and Mary for his mother; anyone who does not have Mary for his mother, does not have God for his father."
-Saint Louis Marie de Montfort

"If anyone does not wish to have Mary Immaculate for his Mother, he will not have Christ for his Brother."
- Saint Maximilian Kolbe

“Never be afraid of loving the Blessed Virgin too much. You can never love her more than Jesus did.”
– Saint Maximilian Kolbe

"Let us not imagine that we obscure the glory of the Son by the great praise we lavish on the Mother; for the more she is honored, the greater is the glory of her Son. There can be no doubt that whatever we say in praise of the Mother gives equal praise to the Son."
-Saint Bernard of Clairvaux, Father and Doctor of the Church

“No matter how sinful one may have been, if he has devotion to Mary, it is impossible that he be lost."
-Saint Hilary of Poitiers - Bishop, Father, and Doctor of the Church

"Seek refuge in Mary because she is the city of refuge. We know that Moses set up three cities of refuge for anyone who inadvertently killed his neighbor. Now the Lord has established a refuge of mercy, Mary, even for those who deliberately commit evil. Mary provides shelter and strength for the sinner."
-Saint Anthony of Padua, Doctor of the Church

“If anyone does not believe that Holy Mary is the Mother of God, such a one is a stranger to the Godhead.”
-Saint Gregory Nazianzen, Father and Doctor of the Church

"Prayer is powerful beyond limits when we turn to the Immaculata who is queen even of God's heart."
-Saint Maximilian Kolbe

"She is more Mother than Queen."
-Saint Therese of Lisieux, Doctor of the Church

“In that first ‘fusion’ with Jesus (holy communion), it was my Heavenly Mother again who accompanied me to the altar for it was she herself who placed her Jesus into my soul.”
-Saint Therese of Lisieux, Doctor of the Church

“In trial or difficulty I have recourse to Mother Mary, whose glance alone is enough to dissipate every fear.”
-Saint Therese of Lisieux, Doctor of the Church

“What a joy to remember that she is our Mother! Since she loves us and knows our weakness, what have we to fear?”
- Saint Therese of Lisieux, Doctor of the Church

"Mary seeks for those who approach her devoutly and with reverence, for such she loves, nourishes, and adopts as her children."
- Saint Bonaventure, Doctor of the Church

“Think of what the Saints have done for their neighbor because they loved God. But what Saint's love for God can match Mary's? She loved Him more in the first moment of her existence than all the Saints and angels ever loved Him or will love Him. Our Lady herself revealed to Sister Mary Crucified that the fire of her love was most extreme. If Heaven and earth were placed in it, they would be instantly consumed. And the ardors of the seraphim, compared with it, are like cool breezes. Just as there is not one among all the Blessed who loves God as Mary does, so there is no one, after God, who loves us as much as this most loving Mother does. Furthermore, if we heaped together all the love that mothers have for their children, all the love of husbands and wives, all the love of all the angels and Saints for their clients, it could never equal Mary's love for even a single soul.”
-Saint Alphonsus Liguori, The Glories of Mary

"Do not marvel at the novelty of the thing, if a Virgin gives birth to God"
-Saint Jerome, Father and Doctor of the Church

“Even while living in the world, the heart of Mary was so filled with motherly tenderness and compassion for men that no-one ever suffered so much for their own pains, as Mary suffered for the pains of her children.”
-Saint Jerome, Father and Doctor of the Church

"The world being unworthy to receive the Son of God directly from the hands of the Father, he gave his Son to Mary for the world to receive him from her."
-Saint Augustine, Father and Doctor of the Church

“As mariners are guided into port by the shining of a star, so Christians are guided to heaven by Mary"
-Saint Thomas Aquinas, Doctor of the Church

"In dangers, in doubts, in difficulties, think of Mary, call upon Mary. Let not her name depart from your lips, never suffer it to leave your heart. And that you may obtain the assistance of her prayer, neglect not to walk in her footsteps. With her for guide, you shall never go astray; while invoking her, you shall never lose heart; so long as she is in your mind, you are safe from deception; while she holds your hand, you cannot fall; under her protection you have nothing to fear; if she walks before you, you shall not grow weary; if she shows you favor, you shall reach the goal."
- Saint Bernard of Clairvaux, Father and Doctor of the Church

“Let us then cast ourselves at the feet of this good Mother, and embracing them let us not depart until she blesses us, and accepts us for her children.”
-Saint Bernard of Clairvaux, Father and Doctor of the Church

"Let those, therefore, who deny that the Son is by nature from the Father and proper to his essence deny also that he took true human flesh from the ever-virgin Mary"
-Saint Athanasius, Father and Doctor of the Church

"That one woman is both mother and virgin, not in spirit only but even in body. In spirit she is mother, not of our head, who is our Savior himself—of whom all, even she herself, are rightly called children of the bridegroom—but plainly she is the mother of us who are his members, because by love she has cooperated so that the faithful, who are the members of that head, might be born in the Church. In body, indeed, she is the Mother of that very head"
-Saint Augustine, Father and Doctor of the Church

"The Virgin Mary, being obedient to his word, received from an angel the glad tidings that she would bear God"
-Saint Irenaeus, Father of the Church

“Let us run to her, and, as her little children, cast ourselves into her arms with a perfect confidence.”
-Saint Francis de Sales, Doctor of the Church

"The day of the Nativity of the Mother of God is a day of universal joy, because through the Mother of God, the entire human race was renewed, and the sorrow of the first mother, Eve, was transformed into joy."
-Saint John Damascene, Father and Doctor of the Church

“There is no danger of exaggerating. We an never hope to fathom this inexpressible mystery nor will we ever be able to give sufficient thanks to our Mother for bringing us into such intimacy with the Blessed Trinity.”
-Saint Josemaria Escriva

"The heart of her husband, that is, the heart of Christ, trusts in her and he will have no need of spoils, because she, as it were, enriches him with spoils taken from the devil."
-Richard of Saint Lawrence (this is and explanation of Prov 31:11)

“May the Mother of Jesus and our Mother, always smile on your spirit, obtaining for it, from her Most Holy Son, every heavenly blessing.”
-Saint Padre Pio

“Always stay close to this Heavenly Mother, because she is the sea to be crossed to reach the shores of Eternal Splendour.”
-Saint Padre Pio

"Let us bind ourselves tightly to the Sorrowful Heart of our Heavenly Mother and reflect on it's boundless grief and how precious is our soul."
-Saint Padre Pio

“Let the storm rage and the sky darken - not for that shall we be dismayed. If we trust as we should in Mary, we shall recognize in her, the Virgin Most Powerful ‘who with virginal foot did crush the head of the serpent’.”
-Pope Saint Pius X

"The reason why Christ is unknown today is because His Mother is unknown."
-Blessed Cardinal John Henry Newman

”Let those who think that the Church pays too much attention to Mary give heed to the fact that Our Blessed Lord Himself gave ten times as much of His life to her as He gave to His Apostles.”
-Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen (The World’s First Love)

"All my own perception of beauty both in majesty and simplicity is founded upon Our Lady."
-J.R.R. Tolkien

"I am not only the Queen of Heaven, but also the Mother of Mercy."
-Our Lady to Saint Faustina

"Whosoever shall die wearing my Scapular shall not suffer the flames of Hell."
-Our Lady of Mount Carmel

"We confess, then, our Lord Jesus Christ, the only begotten Son of God, perfect God and perfect man, of a rational soul and a body, begotten before all ages from the Father in his Godhead, the same in the last days, for us and for our salvation, born of Mary the Virgin according to his humanity, one and the same consubstantial with the Father in Godhead and consubstantial with us in humanity, for a union of two natures took place. Therefore we confess one Christ, one Son, one Lord. According to this understanding of the unconfused union, we confess the holy Virgin to be the Mother of God because God the Word took flesh and became man and from his very conception united to himself the temple he took from her"
-The Council of Ephesus, Formula of Union, A.D. 431

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