"Why We Honor Mary"

Fr David Talk on Scripture at St. Joes - https://www.youtube.com/live/NCUJXR17cq8?si=TC2pjVJMBsauF1RZ

Our Lady Undoer of Knots - https://share.google/xvao2xf2c1htT1HSl

Music Copyright: https://artlist.io/

Transcript

SPEAKER_02 0:20

Hello everyone and welcome back to Parma Piles. I'm Father David. And I'm Mark Turnus. We're here for another episode, another conversation about unveiling Christianity, where we go into the good, true, and beautiful things about our faith. So excited for another time together today. Mark, how was your how was your week? How was your weekend?

SPEAKER_01 0:39

My my week has slowed down a little bit, and that's good. It's a little less hectic.

SPEAKER_02 0:49

It's amazing.

SPEAKER_01 0:50

I kind of like the lower gears. I kind of like to slow down a little bit.

SPEAKER_02 0:54

So holding a baby is such a beautiful experience, right? It is. They're so so little.

SPEAKER_01 1:00

Fragile. They're just they're they're it's amazing. Yeah. It's amazing.

SPEAKER_02 1:04

They say um that um the mothers and women have like the sense of smell to be able to smell a a new baby. I I don't I don't know if guys have that ability. It's really incredible. Like the scientific studies on um uh on women and their sensory capacity, so like being able to smell, taste, touch, kind of all these things.

SPEAKER_01 1:22

I I did not hear that.

SPEAKER_02 1:23

Uh hearing uh and things. Yeah, they're they have in general much far better than than guys. I think it's because of this maternal kind of role that they have, right?

SPEAKER_01 1:32

I'm I'm gonna confess because my daughter would call me out, I have not held her. Oh, I am one of the afraid grandfathers. Oh I I was fine with my kids, but I I didn't hold my little grandson for quite a while, too. I just when they're really, really new and young and fragile, I I love her dearly, but I have not held her yet. So that's something to look for. That's okay. The day the day will come. It will come. It will definitely come soon.

SPEAKER_02 2:01

That's uh well, that's definitely the best part of any week, right? Yep. Yeah, we uh had a good week. I um had the la well, it was bittersweet, the last snowboard at Boston Mills on Sunday.

SPEAKER_01 2:13

I can't believe you still got out. I did. Wow.

SPEAKER_02 2:16

Well, it was their f it was their final day. So we'll see if they whether they open up next weekend or not. I think it the weather is supposed to be not great, but it was it was uh yeah, as we all know, we hopefully got outside on Sunday. It was beautiful, right?

SPEAKER_01 2:27

It was sunny and 50s and I I shut the skis down long ago because of cross country is such a different different animal. And uh yeah, it's uh disc golf is coming up, outdoors, bicycling is coming up. So indeed. All those all those wonderful things. We had the time change, which is a good thing to do.

SPEAKER_02 2:46

Did you did you wake up at the right time?

SPEAKER_01 2:47

I I d I d don't have too many old clocks, I guess. I mean all my clocks are on you know my phone and my watch, and they all automatically do it. So I uh uh I I was on time wherever I went, but uh nice. I've I've never been that much of a proponent for the time change, never understood it.

SPEAKER_02 3:07

We'll see if it changes at some point, right?

SPEAKER_01 3:09

Well, my my friend, my great friend in Arizona, they don't change, and I love it. Why why do you need to change?

SPEAKER_02 3:15

Right.

SPEAKER_01 3:15

We're just pretending it's a different time. Times they are changing. Yep. Right. There's only so much daylight in the day. It doesn't matter what hour of the day it is.

SPEAKER_02 3:26

You still have 24 hours.

SPEAKER_01 3:27

That's exactly right. And you only have a certain amount of of daylight.

SPEAKER_02 3:31

Yes, we do not have a largely agricultural uh kind of lifestyle at this point.

SPEAKER_01 3:36

But I go with the flow. I'm I'm I'm ahead now, so indeed. I know what time it is.

SPEAKER_02 3:40

I'm just grateful for for phones nowadays because I don't have to think about yeah, you don't. Although I I I I watched a movie on Saturday night, uh, and I stayed up a little later than I probably could have or or should have and everything. But then I totally forgot it was also the time change. So then I woke up at six to get you know the church unlocked and everything in the mornings, and I was like, wow, I feel really tired. Yeah. Yeah. And then and then I looked at my watch, which obviously hadn't changed. I was like, oh, right. So that made for a little longer.

SPEAKER_01 4:13

Yeah, you can't you can get away with that in the fall, not in the spring.

SPEAKER_02 4:17

But but it was a good day. But yeah, we had masses and uh Woman of the Well uh gospel was pretty cool and snowboarding, and then I uh finished out the weekend with a little talk at St. Joe's in Strongsville. Yeah, I was trying to get there and I didn't. I really wanted to, but that's okay. Well, they actually they did uh they did live stream and record it. So I could put that on the show notes today. You should. It was a um uh a talk on scriptures and countering God in scriptures, so it was kind of fun. I uh like I've said I was there for my internship and seminary, so I was the third year of my of my graduate seminary year. You spend the year there as a or at a parish uh as a seminary and just kind of getting used to parish life, working in an office and uh you know, just doing ministry kind of things, so seeing how the the inner workings of uh parish life and stuff. So cool.

SPEAKER_01 5:05

Well that that's talk is right up my alley, and I'm sure it's right up the alley of most of our listeners. So we need to put that out there for if they didn't get a chance to get there.

SPEAKER_02 5:15

Yeah, it was a lot of fun. All right. Well, uh kind of with that, we're gonna have a kind of a beautiful and a good topic uh today. So last week we talked about the uh the saints and you know why we honor uh and pray to or rather venerate, pray through uh the the saints, our spiritual friends right on the other side of the veil, uh, that the church doesn't just exist here on earth but exists uh in heaven in the communion of saints. And so with that, we want to talk about uh the the next step in that, which would be, you know, Queen of the Saints, uh Mary, Jesus' mother. And as you probably would imagine, we could send we could say, you know, a ton of things on this, right? Uh so I mean books, anthologies have been written on Mary and what do we believe about Mary and why she's important and uh and this and that, and kind of with that, you know, uh with this such emphasis on Mary, you know, there can be misunderstandings from the non-Catholic world to say um that we spend a lot of time, we spend so much time on Mary, are we spending time on Jesus, right?

SPEAKER_00 6:16

Right.

SPEAKER_02 6:16

And that's a that is a good reflection, right? Uh it's always a both and because ultimately Mary, if we can say anything, uh Mary is super important, but she's only important because of Jesus.

SPEAKER_01 6:28

That is right.

SPEAKER_02 6:29

Right. Uh it's because uh Jesus and and and God who chose to work through her in this great plan of uh salvation, right?

SPEAKER_01 6:38

And everything related to Mary points to Jesus.

SPEAKER_02 6:43

Right, right. Uh but I mean there's been so much, you know, the church has had a great love uh for Mary, right? Uh throughout the ages, you know, like you know, just you know, we having a spiritual mother, right? We we want to know more about her and and uh all those things, right? So uh this chapter is on why we honor Mary. So to make the distinction, we do not worship Mary. Correct. Last time we had uh kind of a distinction of of of three words. Do you remember putting you on the spot here? Bob quiz.

SPEAKER_01 7:13

Do you remember I'm gonna I'm gonna surprise you now?

SPEAKER_02 7:15

I'm this is called Do you know what the three words to explain?

SPEAKER_01 7:20

Doia saints? Hyperdulia. Uh dulia would be for saints, hyperdulia would be uh a veneration of Mary, and the worship of God uh almost latria. Latria. Okay. Thank you. That's the one that was out there.

SPEAKER_02 7:38

Right. God alone is worshipped, no one else is worshipped besides God.

SPEAKER_01 7:42

But I got two out of three, that's 66%. It's an F.

SPEAKER_02 7:47

There you go.

SPEAKER_01 7:47

Where I went to school.

SPEAKER_02 7:49

Optimistic. Uh yes, Latria, worship God alone, hyperdulia, uh, veneration, kind of the highest honor. Uh and then dulia would be honor, you know, uh towards towards the saints uh as our as our spiritual friends uh on the journey. All right. So we alone worship God, but we but we do venerate, we do honor uh Mary. So what um I suppose where should we start? Uh let's start um I'm gonna I'm gonna I'm gonna change things up. Immaculate conception. So clarifying some of the doctrines we believe about Mary uh can be can really help be helpful and important. So um I'm I'm jumping a little bit where Mark and I have some notes and things. I'm gonna jump to the bottom here. So let's start at the Immaculate Conception. So Mark, what is the Immaculate Conception?

SPEAKER_01 8:32

Mary was conceived without the stain of original sin.

SPEAKER_02 8:37

Right. Okay, so uh Genesis, right? We know Adam and Eve, uh the the the the fruit uh that we uh grass for. Fun fact, it's not actually an apple uh described in the scriptures. I don't know, at one point in medieval history, I think, or something, uh someone called it an apple, and it's been an apple ever since.

SPEAKER_01 8:55

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 8:56

But uh which is kind of fun, just pay attention to the scriptures, you know, what what do they actually say versus what do we think they say? Right, right. Uh but because of the fall, we live in this fallen world uh with uh a fallen humanity, that we have a propensity, we have an inclination towards uh towards sin and towards ourselves. But Mary was conceived without original sin, without this. Why would that be important? Why would God do that?

SPEAKER_01 9:22

Because God wanted um a vessel for lack of a better term that was worthy of bringing his uh son into the world.

SPEAKER_02 9:31

Yeah, yeah. So it's really because of her role that God uh kind of a sense did a preemptive strike of grace, you know. Uh that ultimately the world's salvation has come through Jesus, right? But Mary was an instrument in that. Right. So the salvation of the world, for sure, definitively, came through the death and resurrection of Jesus, right? Mm-hmm. But God's plan, he made those, you know, and grace is outside of space and time, right? Yeah. So things can it's like a Christopher Nolan movie. You got you if you watch Christopher Nolan movies, uh Inception and all these things. Yep.

SPEAKER_01 10:05

You know, there's I I never understand them, but anyway, these are the meat and potatoes.

SPEAKER_02 10:10

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 10:10

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 10:11

But grace is outside of time and space. So it's like the graces of Jesus' resurrection was applied to Mary at the beginning of her life. So essentially it's it's she's l she lived the life from the beginning what we are destined to live. And if she was destined to be, uh, which we'll talk about in a second, you know, being the mother of God, uh, that you know, Mary needed to be a pure vessel. You know, if God was going to be literally within her, physically within her, God wanted to purify that that that vessel so that she would be without sin and everything.

SPEAKER_01 10:43

We talked when we talked about uh heaven, nothing unclean can ever be in heaven. So uh uh the vessel that that allowed God to enter our world could not be unclean.

SPEAKER_02 10:56

Yeah, and to say, like even just to reflect, you know, that that grace is it's a spiritual grace, right? To say, I mean, her body was in fact good, right? All of our bodies are in fact good. We hear that in Genesis. God created good and good. God did not create anything evil, but it is the sense spiritually that's what was remedied. That was not what that's what was fixed.

SPEAKER_01 11:18

That's a good point. I I yes, I'm not sure.

SPEAKER_02 11:20

Because I think sometimes, you know, as we're in this fasting time, right? Uh we fast from things. It's not that those things are bad. It's not even the the pleasures or the uh or the experiences we have from earthly things is bad, right? Uh that would be kind of uh a repression of our earthly existence. Like holiness is moving away from the world. Uh in a sense that's true. If we define the world as you know, this place of fallenness, that we move moving away from sin is what freedom is, not simply the goodness of human experience. Right. So sometimes I think that's where there's been kind of a a repressive tendency within Christianity sometimes. Like holiness is is getting away from all those experiences.

SPEAKER_01 11:59

Very much so there is, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 12:00

And that's not necessarily holiness, right? Right. It's our attachment uh to those things.

SPEAKER_01 12:04

Or over attachment to them.

SPEAKER_02 12:06

Yeah. Yeah. Uh okay, so Mary was immaculately conceived, not Jesus, right? So the Immaculate Conception on December 8th is about Mary, uh, not Jesus. Uh but then uh later on in life, right, uh, is the annunciation. Uh what would be the annunciation?

SPEAKER_01 12:23

When Mary was asked, because even though she was conceived without original sin, she had free will, like any other human being. When she was asked to bear the son of God, uh and the a and it was she was asked by the angel Gabriel. Saul, right.

SPEAKER_02 12:40

And she was right, so Angel Gabriel uh approaches her, sent from God. She's already betrothed to Joseph. And it's interesting to learn a little bit about you know that whole process in the history and the Jewish tradition that when they're betrothed, they're actually married. At that point, they're they're married, but they're not living together. There was a distinction between the betrothal period, uh, they wouldn't have lived together. Hence, you know, the issue of, you know, so yeah, as we know.

SPEAKER_01 13:08

I don't think a lot of people knew that. Now I didn't know that. So uh and I'm just uh Well, guess what?

SPEAKER_02 13:14

I didn't learn that I didn't really learn that or really realize that until like maybe a year ago or two.

SPEAKER_01 13:21

I learned that 30 seconds ago. That's interesting. That's very interesting.

SPEAKER_02 13:24

So they were already married, but they weren't living together. So as we know, Gabriel yes proposes, uh invites Mary to be the mother of God, of which she gives her fiat, her yes, to that proposal.

SPEAKER_01 13:37

Yeah. And the enunciation, you can go on about the annunciation forever, and it's one of my favorite uh mysteries of the rosary. But um, you know, there's this angel, and angels are are frightening creatures because most angels say the first words out of their mouth or do not be afraid because they're they're frightening. And and this angel comes with this greeting, you know, hail full of grace. I mean, it completely throws her off and really asks, tells her what's going to happen and waits for her response.

SPEAKER_02 14:04

Right. Have you ever seen one of those literal pictures uh on on the internet of like, you know, especially in uh Revelation, it describes, you know, the angel with like six wings, yeah, yeah. Ten heads and no forty feet or whatever, whichever it is. Uh so like it's kind of funny. There's like some literal, some literal uh depictions and artwork.

SPEAKER_00 14:23

Yep.

SPEAKER_02 14:23

And then it's the uh uh yeah, and then there's the line, do not be afraid.

SPEAKER_01 14:28

Don't freak out. I mean they they have to be the kind of stunning creatures, kind of uh spiritual beatings, right?

SPEAKER_02 14:34

They don't have bodies, right? That's exactly right. Yeah, so Mary gets this announcement of being the mother of of God and of being uh the mother of Jesus, right? She gives her her fiat. And so she becomes the in this in this in this moment, she becomes the new Eve. And uh I think we maybe mentioned this on the podcast before briefly. We have talked about it, yeah. So Adam and Eve, right, in the beginning of the scriptures, um, led to the fall. It was the first marriage, uh the marriage of humanity, uh led to the fall.

SPEAKER_01 15:11

As a matter of fact, Eve was conceived without a or Eve was created without original sin.

SPEAKER_02 15:15

Well, this is true, right? Well, because there was pre a fancy term would be pre-lapsarian.

SPEAKER_01 15:23

Oh boy. Okay.

SPEAKER_02 15:25

So lapse, fall, pre-prepsarian, right? So yes, before the fall, things were perfect. There was no evil, right? Yep. They lived in a sweet relationship with God. But Mary is now but so then you see, you're right, Mary is conceived without original sin, right? Right. God is doing and this is not because she's awesome and amazing by herself, it's because this is a work of God. She becomes the new Eve, Jesus becomes the new Adam. And there's a particular point in the scriptures that we can see this that's really beautiful. And this is where it's like sometimes uh at the scripture talk last night at St. Joe's, I was given the given uh the thought of, you know, there's a lot of difficult things in scripture or seemingly uh problematic maybe things in scripture. I would say pay attention to those things and don't just receive them at face value as difficult or confusing. Actually ask the question why? You know, maybe why is this way or what's the context of the book you're reading with this within? You know, context matters so much, right?

SPEAKER_01 16:26

That's exactly right.

SPEAKER_02 16:27

But there's uh there's the wedding of Cana. So Jesus' first miracle in John's gospel, uh turning water into wine, right? Yes, not not a bad first miracle, right?

SPEAKER_01 16:36

No, no, no, I guess so. Yeah. I I I'm on board with that.

SPEAKER_02 16:40

He's just this is a good guy. Yep. But in this course of the conversation, or so in in this situation of the the couple running out of wine, uh, this wedding, which would have been super embarrassing, the mare actually uh what's interesting is the couple doesn't even notice anything's happening the whole time. There's no detail about them, even knowing this is all happening.

SPEAKER_01 17:00

They're not running around like freaked out or anything. They just Right.

SPEAKER_02 17:03

It's the the head waiter is actually the one freaking out, right? But Mary attends to the situation. It's actually because of Mary. She she notices they're without wine, and then she goes to Jesus, which and I think that's that's that's the relationship between us and Mary and Jesus, right? That it's ultimately Jesus who answers our prayers, but Mary is a conduit through which uh they're answered.

SPEAKER_01 17:26

She's the go-through.

SPEAKER_02 17:27

But she notices this and you know, has hey, do something about this. And Jesus says this line uh woman, how does your concern affect me?

SPEAKER_00 17:35

Right.

SPEAKER_02 17:36

Okay, so uh what's before reading that with uh with a sense of dysfunction or like why would he talk to his mom that way, right? This is Jesus, he is without sin. So it's really important to understand the word that that woman word is. So that woman word is the same word that's referred to Eve at the beginning of the scriptures in Genesis. Right, right. It's biblical woman, right? And so you we see this recreation, we see this not the fall, but the fruition of uh of grace, right? So uh I thought it's an interesting way of really connecting those two. And then like literally, this is a marriage, this is the first Jesus' first miracle.

SPEAKER_01 18:17

Right. In in today's world, woman has a kind of a dismissive tone, but the way he had used it was totally different. It was uh back to the origin of man.

SPEAKER_02 18:27

He's signaling that something deeper is even happening here than just turning water into wine.

SPEAKER_01 18:33

That's exactly right.

SPEAKER_02 18:34

So um, I don't know. I've just always thought that's been very interesting.

SPEAKER_01 18:37

One of one of my favorite uh well, most of biblical stories are my favorite, but I do love the wedding feast.

SPEAKER_02 18:43

Yeah. Uh okay, so then from there, uh, we believe that um kind of going back a little bit, you know, Mary is the the mother of God.

SPEAKER_01 18:54

So we need to talk about that one. That's that's a deep.

SPEAKER_02 18:57

Yeah, and this is where there can be some hangups. What do we what do we mean by that, right? So uh what would Mark would you say based upon the chapter, right? So Trent Horns trying to help explain this to us and why this is true, good, and beautiful, what would he say? Uh what should we say about why Mary is the mother of God?

SPEAKER_01 19:13

She was the conduit, she assisted in incarnation of God as man.

SPEAKER_02 19:20

Did she create God?

SPEAKER_01 19:21

Not at all.

SPEAKER_02 19:22

Okay, because that might be interesting or problematic, right?

SPEAKER_01 19:25

That would be very problematic, right?

SPEAKER_02 19:27

Right.

SPEAKER_01 19:27

Or or interesting, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 19:29

So if we go back, um, if you didn't listen to this episode a bunch of episodes uh a bunch of episodes ago near the beginning, I forget which one it was, but we talked about um personhood and natures.

SPEAKER_01 19:42

Oh, that was early on, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 19:44

I forget which one it was, uh, but it was why we believe in God. Why we believe in God. Okay, there you go.

SPEAKER_01 19:49

Or like the third or fourth one.

SPEAKER_02 19:51

Perfect. So there's philosophically there's distinctions to be made, right, uh, between a person and uh and a nature, right? But we would say that, you know, Mary did not create God. God always existed, right?

SPEAKER_00 20:03

Right.

SPEAKER_02 20:05

So she didn't give birth to the nature of God, but she gave birth to the person of God. Persons are embodied, right? Uh persons have uh have have bodies, right? So she gave uh flesh to the humanity of Jesus. Jesus had Mary's DNA, right? To say, right?

SPEAKER_01 20:23

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_02 20:24

So she's the authentic uh uh uh mother uh of Jesus, the second person of the Trinity in his humanity. She was conceived, though Jesus was conceived in her not by human relations, but by the Holy Spirit. Right. And so God gave birth to God in Mary. But you know, it's in a in a real sense that we can call then Mary she is the true the true mother of God.

SPEAKER_00 20:49

Right.

SPEAKER_02 20:49

Right.

SPEAKER_01 20:50

I think I think Trent in the book says it so simplistically and sometimes simple is good for me. Um no one would doubt that God became man, no one it's no one doubts that God is man, and no one doubts that uh uh Mary is the mother and she gave birth to Jesus. And if she gave birth to Jesus and Jesus is God, then Mary's the mother of God.

SPEAKER_02 21:13

There you go.

SPEAKER_01 21:14

I mean simplistic terms, but very true.

SPEAKER_02 21:18

Yeah, and the um and the East, right? So Roman Catholicism uh is one kind of um is one uh rite uh of the church. It's the the largest rite of the church, but there's also eastern rites, right? So the Byzantines and different things. They refer to Mary as the Theotokos. I love the term. Yeah, which means God bearer. Right. And I think that even reveals, you know, not God creator, right? God bearer, right? She but she truly did bear God in her humanity, right? She had a a pregnancy, right?

SPEAKER_01 21:50

Yep, yes, yes, she did.

SPEAKER_02 21:52

And all of that, right? So yeah, so she's uh rightfully the mother of God, and then kind of lastly, of kind of the descriptive kind of things. We also believe that she is uh ever virgin. Yes. So that her uh so she was ever virgin, right? So how do we what is a virgin? One who has not had you know sexual relations, right? What does this mean? Uh why was why would this be important?

SPEAKER_01 22:17

We were talking about this a little bit because um yeah I I was a little bit at a loss here and uh I think I need to be educated a little bit as to uh uh why it's important that Mary remained a virgin.

SPEAKER_02 22:30

Right. So why was that important? Why why would we we believe that? Because okay how did Jesus come to birth? Because of the Holy Spirit right that's right. And in a sense it's it's because of Mary's fidelity to the Holy Spirit first first and foremost, right? That um right the Holy Spirit conceived Jesus within her. So in a sense Mary is the spouse of the Holy Spirit because God chose to do that but she was also she also gave her yes and she was willing right that's not to say oh Mary kind of disregarded Joseph right she was already married to Joseph she'd already given her life and her heart to Joseph right yes but Holy Spirit breaks in and I think this really emphasizes and highlights the fact that you know in all of our relationships in all of our marriages our first priority is to God and then it's to our spouse. Understanding that our our fidelity to God is not going to disregard or rupture our fidelity to our spouse. It's actually going to elevate that it's actually going to increase it and make it even better and higher right and so this union between the Holy Spirit and Mary is like it's the union it's what we're all meant for. And so after that she did not have sexual relations because that was the union right so anything else would have been in a sense lesser not bad but lesser right and so she drew Joseph into that relationship with the Holy Spirit right well that's a that's a beautiful way to look at it. So uh I think I'm right there.

SPEAKER_01 24:12

Uh if there's any any you are there every everybody has an understanding every human has an understanding of fidelity fidelity to their spouse and when you look at Mary's fidelity to the Holy Spirit it kind of brings everything into uh into focus including her relationship with her husband right right yeah and then so there's I mean there is the kind of the comment about you know there's uh the the reference to the brothers and sisters of Jesus and everything that was a different time when they used terms differently it really ex it it ex it refers to the extended family.

SPEAKER_02 24:42

Yeah I think they even use the word brethren instead right it doesn't necessarily mean he had biological that's right brothers and sisters right uh and all of that and there's also you know uh the scripture that says uh it's uh uh Matthew one twenty five that Mary did not have relations uh with her husband until she gave birth to Jesus he kind of gives a clarification here like how is the word until being used it's not to say like until and then necessarily you know she had relations with Joseph after that right uh you know until can be used uh in a in a number of different ways and he gives an example here you know in uh 2 Samuel uh chapter six it says you know Saul's daughter uh Michael uh bore no children from that day from that day on until the day she died right and to say it doesn't it doesn't mean that you know it it's it's reversed after that right just means until that time so it's not saying anything definitive about the time after it's just speaking of until that time right so yes anyway linguistics linguistics and things but that could be really important right it is it is important yeah the whole the whole count concept is important to get your head around yeah and then lastly uh kind of capping it off you know we believe in in the in the assumption of Mary the bodily assumption of Mary and why well it's if she was preserved from original sin and she was without sin in her life one of the consequences of sin is death and corruption uh right death and corruption so uh we have this belief that uh Mary was assumed uh into heaven Jesus ascended by his own power Mary was assumed by God's power within her right just as she was not conceived uh without sin uh she was not uh assumed into heaven herself right right and so that's in a real sense you know there's there's we know that there are two bodies in heaven Jesus and Mary's that's right two human bodies yep anticipating what we're all meant for our bodies are going with our souls because we believe in the resurrection of the body we say that in every uh every mass every Sunday every creed so every mass but that's a different different conversation for another day yep um yeah so otherwise so those are doctrinally those are some of the things we believe about Mary and why they're true otherwise we have a relationship with Mary right how would we have a relationship with Mary I'm devoted to Mary yeah I'm a knight of Columbus and I I I was always intrigued by the Knights of Columbus because they had such devotion to Mary every meeting started with a rosary and I thought well that's that's I I wanted to find out about that and it might sound strange but I kind of grew into a real devotion to Mary and it's a it's a concept that you really need to understand all of salvation history and everything we've been talking about and then you can grow into this true devotion to her. Right. Yeah she's the woman right uh and it's uh it's profound I've um had a relationship with Mary that's just certainly increased over the years and with priesthood and everything it's she's been a great help to me uh for sure and um but I think that's the key you know why why would we have a devotion Mary yes because we want to know and love her but ultimately because we want to know and love Jesus right that is absolutely true. So even to highlight you know within the Hail Mary uh you know what's what's the what's the word at the center of the Hail Mary do you know the Lord is with you? Jesus. Oh yeah okay Hail Mary full of grace the Lord is with thee blessed art thou among women and blessed is the fruit of thy womb. And you know what?

SPEAKER_01 28:23

You're everybody pauses at that point in the whole yep. Everyone pauses that thing because that's kind of a natural flow into the next part of the brain most people you'll see say that prayer they'll bow their head but yep okay I get it.

SPEAKER_02 28:34

Jesus is the point right of of the Hail Mary prayer and we're just really ask excuse me we're asking her to pray for us. But yeah we have the the rosary we have uh all kinds of different patronages of of Mary throughout the world she's appeared certainly miracles and lords and fatima and uh she's she's been at work you know helping to grow the church uh helping to protect the church and all these things and and then we can have a consecration you know to Mary um there'll be a little more to explain as to what that exactly means but why we would do that long story short is because we want to come closer to Jesus. So St. Louis de Montfort uh was a saint French saint and he had a great devotion to Mary and he di he developed this 33 day um preparation for a consecration to Mary and everything. And so it's essentially I'm it's a commitment to devote my life you know to um to to living for Jesus through her right and so it's a great reflection and everything we could spend some time maybe talking about that. I might feel called to do it myself. I've done it before but it's um I think it's um just helpful to I don't know get ourselves in the in the back state of grace and things too right so yeah all kinds of ways we can grow close to Mary ultimately to Jesus so all right with that let's jump into our reading for this weekend The Lord be with you. And with your spirit reading from the Holy Gospel according to John Glory to you Lord As Jesus passed by he saw a blind man from birth he spat on the ground and made clay with a saliva and smeared the clay on his eyes and said to him Go wash in the pool of Siloam, which means sent So he went and washed and came back came back able to see his neighbors and those who had seen him earlier as a beggar said, Isn't this the one who used to sit and beg? Some said it is but others said No, he just looks like him. He said, I am they brought the one who was once blind to the Pharisees now Jesus had made clay and opened his eyes on a Sabbath. So then the Pharisees also asked him how he was able to see he said to them He put clay on my eyes and I washed and now I can see some of the Pharisees said This man is not from God, because he does not keep the Sabbath but others said, How can a sinful man do such signs? And there was division among them. So they said to the blind man again, What do you have to say about him since he opened your eyes? He said he is a prophet They answered and said to him You were born totally in sin and are you trying to teach us? Then they threw him out when Jesus heard that they had thrown him out he found him and said Do you believe in the Son of Man? He answered and said Who is he, sir, that I may believe in him? Jesus said to him You have seen him and the one speaking with you is he. He said I do believe Lord and he worshipped him the gospel of the Lord praise to you Lord Jesus Christ.

SPEAKER_01 31:52

Anything strike you everything yep what what strikes yes yes the answer is yes. What strikes me here is what's literally happening and I and I use that word what's literally happening. Jesus makes clay to heal this man but I mean he spits into the earth he's he's mixing he's mingling his divinity with the earth or humanity and it just goes back to everything we've talked about today to that's that's what happened in Genesis uh that's what happens um when he uh institutes the Eucharist and that's where we're gonna end up in a union with humanity and I I just need I want I I want to pray about that uh this week yeah God wants to recreate our lives right hence he has to use our lives right in a sense it'd be it's the nitty gritty right that God that God gets into right and he he wants to mingle it mingle his divinity with our humanity and and and and that's the fulfillment in heaven that's the way it's gonna be and that's just something to really think about and pray about.

SPEAKER_02 32:58

Yeah I'm gonna sit with that experience what would it look like or what would it feel like to have Jesus spit on the ground and touch your eyeballs yeah I mean wow I mean it's it's amazing though but that's literally what he did there's nothing symbolic here.

SPEAKER_01 33:12

This it's so yeah so physical he's so physical yeah that's why I love this reading.

SPEAKER_02 33:18

Awesome.

SPEAKER_01 33:19

All right any prayer intentions?

SPEAKER_02 33:20

Yeah today uh I have a special intention I I pray for the intercession of Saint Monica uh that that she takes my prayer directly to God that he grants special grace to all those people who have returned to the church uh and uh those who might return to the church this Easter I know I forget whether I uh offered this intention before I think I did but uh we can do it again right yes uh just for uh yeah any mothers who are new mothers or expecting mothers that um Mary may just bring them their uh Mary may help to bring you know protection and and strength uh to them in this time so amen all right let's pray in the Father and Son and Holy Spirit gracious God Heavenly Father we just give you thanks and praise uh for this day of our lives uh of the saints of their help in our lives and also certainly uh of our blessed mother we asked to be with us today uh and whatever we may be going through or dealing with um that uh we may know of Mary's presence with us or of her uh care for us of her attention uh of her intercession and we pray this uh and invite her into all things as we pray hail Mary full of grace the Lord is with thee blessed art thou among women and blessed is the fruit of thy womb Jesus holy Mary Mother of God pray for us sinners now and at the hour of our death in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit everyone have a good week God bless you catch you soon,