CCC is referred to Catechism of the Catholic Church.
“What the Catholic faith believes about Mary is based on what it believes about Christ, and what it teaches about Mary illumines in turn its faith in Christ (CCC 487).” Here is some teaching about Mary according to the Roman Catholic Church:
1) By hers prayers, she will deliver our souls from death (CCC 966).
2) The Virgin Mary “co-operated through free faith and obedience in human salvation” (LG 56). She uttered her yes “in the name of all human nature” (St. Thomas Aquinas, S Th III, 30, 1), (CCC 511).
3) Made atonement for our sins:
“Mary, by her spiritual entering into the sacrifice of her divine son for men, made atonement for the sins of man,” (Fundamentals of Catholic Dogma4, Ott, page 213).
4) Continues to bring us the gifts of eternal salvation:
“This motherhood of Mary in the order of grace continues uninterruptedly from the consent which she loyally gave at the Annunciation and which she sustained without wavering beneath the cross, until the eternal fulfilment of all the elect. Taken up to heaven she did not lay aside this saving office but by her manifold intercession continues to bring us the gifts of eternal salvation.” (CCC 969)
5) Mary has crushed the poisonous head of the most cruel serpent and brought salvation to the world, and she is the most trustworthy helper of all who are in danger. (Pope Pius IX, Ineffabilis Deus):
Jesus Christ, our Lord, because through his singular grace he has granted to us, unworthy though we be, to decree and offer this honor and glory and praise to his most holy Mother. All our hope do we repose in the most Blessed Virgin — in the all fair and immaculate one who has crushed the poisonous head of the most cruel serpent and brought salvation to the world: in her who is the glory of the prophets and apostles, the honor of the martyrs, the crown and joy of all the saints; in her who is the safest refuge and the most trustworthy helper of all who are in danger; in her who, with her only-begotten Son, is the most powerful Mediatrix and Conciliatrix in the whole world; in her who is the most excellent glory, ornament, and impregnable stronghold of the holy Church; in her who has destroyed all heresies and snatched the faithful people and nations from all kinds of direst calamities; in her do we hope who has delivered us from so many threatening dangers. We have, therefore, a very certain hope and complete confidence that the most Blessed Virgin will ensure by her most powerful patronage that all difficulties be removed and all errors dissipated,
6) Immaculate Virgin, preserved free from all stain of original sin, and she remained pure from all personal sin throughout her life (CCC 966, 722, 508, 493, 494, 491,).
7) Mary is the mother to all believers:
. “The Virgin Mary… is acknowledged and honored as being truly the mother of God and of the redeemer…. She is clearly the mother of the members of Christ… since she has by her charity joined in bringing about the birth of believers in the Church, who are members of its head. Mary, mother of Christ, mother of the Church.” (CCC 963, 501).
8) We should entrust ourselves to Mary`s prayer, and abandon ourselves to the will of God together with Mary. By doing so we acknowledge ourselves to be poor sinners and we address ourselves to the “Mother of Mercy,” the All-Holy One. And we should give ourselves over to her now. We should surrender “the hour of our death” wholly to her care. And hope that she will be there as at her son’s death on the cross. And hope she will be there and welcome us as our mother at the hour of our passing to lead us to her son, Jesus, in paradise:
We can entrust all our cares and petitions to her: she prays for us as she prayed for herself: “Let it be to me according to your word.” By entrusting ourselves to her prayer, we abandon ourselves to the will of God together with her: “ Thy will be done.” By asking Mary to pray for us, we acknowledge ourselves to be poor sinners and we address ourselves to the “Mother of Mercy,” the All-Holy One. We give ourselves over to her now, in the Today of our lives. and our trust broadens further, already at the present moment, to surrender “the hour of our death” wholly to her care. May she be there as she was at her son’s death on the cross. May she welcome us as our mother at the hour of our passing to lead us to her son, Jesus, in paradise (CCC 2677).
9) ” the prayer of the Church is sustained by the prayer of Mary”
” Mary is the perfect Orans (prayer), a figure of the Church. When we pray to her, we are adhering with her to the plan of the Father, who sends his Son to save all men. Like the beloved disciple we welcome Jesus’ mother into our homes, for she has become the mother of all the living. We can pray with and to her. the prayer of the Church is sustained by the prayer of Mary and united with it in hope.” (CCC 2679).
10) ”The Church loves to pray in communion with the Virgin Mary, to magnify with her the great things the Lord has done for her, and to entrust supplications and praises to her.” (CCC 2682).
11) Mary is invoked in the Church under the titles of Advocate, Helper, Benefactress, and Mediatrix (CCC 969). “Mediatrix” refers to a higher level of saintly intercessory role of Mary (owing to her special relationship with her son Jesus). As a mediator in the salvific redemption by her son Jesus Christ, encompassing the belief that all the graces and blessings that her son gives come through her.
12) Her role in relation to the Church and to all humanity goes still further. “In a wholly singular way she cooperated by her obedience, faith, hope, and burning charity in the Savior’s work of restoring supernatural life to souls. For this reason she is a mother to us in the order of grace (CCC 968).
13) In paradise the church gathers “around Jesus and Mary” (CCC 1053).
14) Have special devotion to her:
“All generations will call me blessed”: “The Church’s devotion to the Blessed Virgin is intrinsic to Christian worship.”The Church rightly honors “the Blessed Virgin with special devotion. From the most ancient times the Blessed Virgin has been honored with the title of ‘Mother of God,’ to whose protection the faithful fly in all their dangers and needs…. This very special devotion … differs essentially from the adoration which is given to the incarnate Word and equally to the Father and the Holy Spirit, and greatly fosters this adoration.” The liturgical feasts dedicated to the Mother of God and Marian prayer, such as the rosary, an “epitome of the whole Gospel,” express this devotion to the Virgin Mary (CCC 971).
15) She was “taken up body and soul into the glory of heaven” (CCC 974).
16) ” is preserved from sin and the corruption of death” (CCC 2853).
17) ” Mary’s body rose into the sky, as Jesus did.” (CCC 2177).
18) ” Exalted by the Lord as “Queen over all things” (CCC 966),
19) Mary “stands out among the poor and humble of the Lord, who confidently hope for and receive salvation from Him (CCC 489). “The Father blessed Mary more than any other created person “in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places”(CCC 492).
20) She is second only to her Son, and she approaches as near to God himself as is possible for a created being:
”Placed by the grace of God, as God’s Mother, next to her Son, and exalted above all angels and men, Mary intervened in the mysteries of Christ and is justly honored by a special cult in the Church” (Vatican II, Dogmatic Constitution on the Church, par. 66). And: ”She approaches as near to God himself as is possible for a created being; and that she is above all men and angels in glory”.(Pope Pius IX, Ineffabilis Deus).
21) ”Queen of Heaven”, ”alone most admirable among all creatures, shines resplendent in unspeakable glory” (Pope Leo 13th, Octobri Mense, part 8).
22)The Fathers of the Eastern tradition call the Mother of God “the All-Holy” (Panagia), and celebrate her as “free from any stain of sin,as though fashioned by the Holy Spirit and formed as a new creature” (CCC 493).
23) Mary is the Church’s model of faith and charity (CCC 967)
24) Mary is the: “Seat of Wisdom.” (CCC 721).
25) The new Eve (“mother of the living”) (CCC 726)
26) In Mary, the church is already all-holy (CCC 867).
27) Pope Pius X, Ad Diem Illum Laetissimum, part 14:
We are then, it will be seen, very far from attributing to the Mother of God a productive power of grace – a power which belongs to God alone. Yet, since Mary carries it over all in holiness and union with Jesus Christ, and has been associated by Jesus Christ in the work of redemption, she merits for us de congruo, in the language of theologians, what Jesus Christ merits for us de condigno, and she is the supreme Minister of the distribution of graces. Jesus “sitteth on the right hand of the majesty on high” (Hebrews i. b.). Mary sitteth at the right hand of her Son – a refuge so secure and a help so trusty against all dangers that we have nothing to fear or to despair of under her guidance, her patronage, her protection. (Pius IX. in Bull Ineffabilis).
28) The mighty helper of Christians (Pope Leo 13th, Octobri Mense, part 1)
29) Mary is the image of Christ (Pope Leo 13th, Octobri Mense, part 3)
30) Thus as no man goeth to the Father but by the Son, so no man goeth to Christ but by His Mother. Mary is this glorious intermediary.(Pope Leo 13th, Octobri Mense, part 4)
31) Nothing is more natural, nothing more desirable than to seek a refuge in the protection and in the loyalty of her to whom we may confess our designs and our actions, our innocence and our repentance, our torments and our joys, our prayers and our desires – all our of fairs. (Pope Leo 13th, Octobri Mense, part 5)
32) All men, moreover, are filled with the hope and confidence that petitions which might be received with less favour from the lips of unworthy men, God will accept when they are recommended by the most Holy Mother, and will grant with all favours. (Pope Leo 13th, Octobri Mense, part 5)
33) Our holy Sovereign. (Pope Leo 13th, Octobri Mense, part 6)
34) Wherever the Catholic faith has penetrated – many hundreds of thousands of pious people uniting their praises and prayers with one voice and heart at every moment of the day, saluting Mary, invoking Mary, hoping everything through Mary. (Pope Leo 13th, Octobri Mense, part 13)
35) She is “redeemed, in a more exalted fashion, by reason of the merits of her Son” (CCC 492).
36) “Death through Eve, life through Mary.” (CCC 494)32) She is “redeemed, in a more exalted fashion, by reason of the merits of her Son” (CCC 492).
37) Jesus is the New Adam (The second Adam) and Mary the New Eve (Second Eve) Mother of the living:
“Jesus is conceived by the Holy Spirit in the Virgin Mary’s womb because he is the New Adam, who inaugurates the new creation: “The first man was from the earth, a man of dust; the second man is from heaven”. (CCC 505). By her obedience she became the new Eve, mother of the living” (CCC 511).
38) “We believe that the Holy Mother of God, the new Eve, Mother of the Church, continues in heaven to exercise her maternal role on behalf of the members of Christ” (Paul VI, CPG # 15), (CCC 975).
39) III. MARY – ESCHATOLOGICAL ICON OF THE CHURCH:
After speaking of the Church, her origin, mission, and destiny, we can find no better way to conclude than by looking to Mary. In her we contemplate what the Church already is in her mystery on her own “pilgrimage of faith,” and what she will be in the homeland at the end of her journey. There, “in the glory of the Most Holy and Undivided Trinity,” “in the communion of all the saints,” The Church is awaited by the one she venerates as Mother of her Lord and as her own mother. In the meantime the Mother of Jesus, in the glory which she possesses in body and soul in heaven, is the image and beginning of the Church as it is to be perfected in the world to come. Likewise she shines forth on earth until the day of the Lord shall come, a sign of certain hope and comfort to the pilgrim People of God (CCC 972).
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