Fatima Consecration | Can We Call Mother Mary Our Hope? (Day 5)
Welcome to Fatima Consecration, a 33 day preparation Marian Consecration retreat. We are on day 5 of our journey to Jesus through Mary. Today Sr Lucia challenges us to the call to hope. Can we call Mother Mary our hope? It may sound a bit usually at first because isn't Jesus supposed to be our only hope? And do Catholic's even call Mother Mary our hope?
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Recall the Salve Regina, is recited at the end of the Rosary and is also used in night prayers. It dates back to around the 11th century and is still sung today as a hymn in various forms, among them a beautiful chant. The words, "Hail Holy Queen, Mother of mercy, Our life, our sweetness, and our hope." How is it that we can call the Mother Mary, "Our Hope"?
St. Thomas says two cause of hope, primary and intermediate. Mary is the intermediate cause of our hope because we have confidence Jesus will listen to His mother.
What is the gift of hope? The Catechism of the Catholic Church teaches, in par 1817-119.
“Hope is the theological virtue by which we desire the kingdom of heaven and eternal life as our happiness, placing our trust in Christ's promises and relying not on our own strength, but on the help of the grace of the Holy Spirit. "Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful." "The Holy Spirit . . . he poured out upon us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that we might be justified by his grace and become heirs in hope of eternal life.”
The virtue of hope responds to the aspiration to happiness which God has placed in the heart of every man; it takes up the hopes that inspire men's activities and purifies them so as to order them to the Kingdom of heaven; it keeps man from discouragement; it sustains him during times of abandonment; it opens up his heart in expectation of eternal beatitude. Buoyed up by hope, he is preserved from selfishness and led to the happiness that flows from charity.
St Anselm said, “It is not that we distrust the divine mercy, but rather that we distrust our own unworthiness, and commend ourselves to Mary the her merits may compensate for our unworthiness.”
So can we call Mary our Hope - Yes.
St John of Damacus calls Mary, “The hope of the despairing.”
St Augustine calls Mary, “The only refuge of sinners.”
St Ephrem calls Mary, “The secure haven for the ship wrecked.”