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Mgr. Louis de Ségur: Short Answers to Common Objections Against Religion - 1908
THIRTY-SIXTH OBJECTION. WHAT IS THE USE OF PRAYING TO THE VIRGIN MARY? IT IS GREAT SUPERSTITION. BESIDES, HOW CAN SHE HEAR US?
Answer. Tell me, how can you hear me?
I hear you with my ears.
I know that; it is not exactly what I asked you.
I ask you how you can hear me with your ears?
I move my lips; they slightly stir the air; and this air penetrates into your ear, and there is arrested by a little bone covered with skin, and called the tympanum of the ear. And this is how you hear what I say to you!
How is that brought about? What connection is there between the breath of air on the tympanum, and my thoughts which become manifested to your mind? If we did not daily witness this fact, we should certainly never credit it. It is, nevertheless, very certain that such is the case.
Well! when you have explained to me, how you, who are two paces distant from me, can hear me, and enter into communication with my thoughts when I speak to you, I will explain to you how the Blessed Virgin and the Saints, who are in heaven, can hear my prayers and answer them.
The same God who makes you hear me, makes them hear me, when I ask them to intercede for me to Him.
By what means does God effect this? It signifies little to me. What I know is, that it is the case; that God does make known to the Blessed Virgin, whom He has raised, alone among all His creatures, to the wonderful dignity of his mother, to her whom He gave to us to be a Mother, an advocate, and a protectress, when He died on the cross, that He does make known to the Blessed Virgin Mary, the prayers, and the wants of His people; that He always listens to the intercession of Her whom He loves above all the works of His hands; that He still comes among us through Her, as He did on the day of His Incarnation, and that the surest way to reach Jesus, is to go to Mary, who presents us before Her Son and our God, thus covering by Her protection our unworthiness and our imperfect dispositions.
What I also know is, that there is nothing more soothing, more cheering, more consoling, than to love the Blessed Virgin, to confide to Her our troubles, and to offer Her our hearts.
And, furthermore, that devotion toward Her makes us better, renders us chaste, pure, meek, humble, makes us love prayer, gives joy and peace of heart. . . .
What I know is, that in loving and serving Mary, I am only imitating, though very imperfectly, our Saviour Jesus Christ Himself.
He was the first who loved His mother; so good, so holy, beyond all creatures; He first ministered to Her, and rendered Her all sorts of honor, of duties, of obedience.
And as He said to me on the eve of His death, "I have given to you an example, so that what I have done, you may also do," I endeavor to love and honor in the most perfect manner the Blessed Virgin Mary, whom He so perfectly loved and honored.
This is not the proper place for a treatise on devotion to the Blessed Virgin.
But it is, however, the place in which to say that hatred to this particular devotion has been the universal mark of all heresies, of all religious insurrections; that Mary is never despised and forsaken without our soon seeing Jesus forsaken; and even that we never see any one neglect or lessen his devotion in order to become better, or to become better in consequence.
It must be said that the poor Protestants are much to be pitied that they do not know and love their Mother! . . . that they do not receive Her whom Jesus Christ has chosen, has loved, has united inseparably to the mystery of His incarnation, to the mystery of His manger in Bethlehem, to those of His infancy, of His hidden life, of His public life, to the mystery of His sufferings, and of our redemption; Her whom He associates in heaven with the adorable mysteries of His glory and His royalty.
They must surely tremble, when, casting their eyes over the history of all Christian ages, they find none which does not condemn their silence, and which has not realized the prophetic language of the Blessed Virgin herself: "All generations shall call me blessed." (St. Luke, c. i.)
Nowhere do we perceive that solitary Christ dreamed of by Luther, Calvin, and their disciples, but Christ as He appears in the eyes of the prophets, as He appears in the gospel histories, the Son of the Virgin, formed of her flesh and blood, borne so long in her womb and in her arms, fulfilling toward her, for a period of thirty years, the duties of the most obedient Son, expiring before her eyes, and again resting in her arms before being removed from the cross to the sepulchre. . . .
They seem to fear that they shall rob Jesus Christ of all the veneration that they pay to Mary. But does it not betray a great want of knowledge of the human heart, which is formed in the image of that of God, to fear to wound a friend, by showing, for his sake, a great affection for his mother? Is it not for the sake of the Son that we love the Mother? And is it not to Jesus Christ that all this homage returns?
Now, that there may be abuses of this principle, and some extravagances among the ignorant relative to this devotion to the Blessed Virgin, who denies? What is there, however holy, which has not been sometimes carried to excess? But these abuses are reproved by the Church. The bishops and clergy take suitable measures to remove such excesses among the faithful, as soon as ever they come to their knowledge.
In all that regards devotion to Mary, believe me, the most usual extreme is quite on the other side, she is too little venerated rather than too much. For any honor short of adoration (and she must not be adored; adoration is due to God alone) can hardly be too great for her. We shall never honor her in so eminent a degree as God honored her in making her His Mother. We shall never love her as much as Jesus, our model, loved her.
As Catholics we are the great family of Jesus Christ. Is it, then, astonishing that we should love His Mother?
THIRTY-SIXTH OBJECTION. WHAT IS THE USE OF PRAYING TO THE VIRGIN MARY? IT IS GREAT SUPERSTITION. BESIDES, HOW CAN SHE HEAR US?
Answer. Tell me, how can you hear me?
I hear you with my ears.
I know that; it is not exactly what I asked you.
I ask you how you can hear me with your ears?
I move my lips; they slightly stir the air; and this air penetrates into your ear, and there is arrested by a little bone covered with skin, and called the tympanum of the ear. And this is how you hear what I say to you!
How is that brought about? What connection is there between the breath of air on the tympanum, and my thoughts which become manifested to your mind? If we did not daily witness this fact, we should certainly never credit it. It is, nevertheless, very certain that such is the case.
Well! when you have explained to me, how you, who are two paces distant from me, can hear me, and enter into communication with my thoughts when I speak to you, I will explain to you how the Blessed Virgin and the Saints, who are in heaven, can hear my prayers and answer them.
The same God who makes you hear me, makes them hear me, when I ask them to intercede for me to Him.
By what means does God effect this? It signifies little to me. What I know is, that it is the case; that God does make known to the Blessed Virgin, whom He has raised, alone among all His creatures, to the wonderful dignity of his mother, to her whom He gave to us to be a Mother, an advocate, and a protectress, when He died on the cross, that He does make known to the Blessed Virgin Mary, the prayers, and the wants of His people; that He always listens to the intercession of Her whom He loves above all the works of His hands; that He still comes among us through Her, as He did on the day of His Incarnation, and that the surest way to reach Jesus, is to go to Mary, who presents us before Her Son and our God, thus covering by Her protection our unworthiness and our imperfect dispositions.
What I also know is, that there is nothing more soothing, more cheering, more consoling, than to love the Blessed Virgin, to confide to Her our troubles, and to offer Her our hearts.
And, furthermore, that devotion toward Her makes us better, renders us chaste, pure, meek, humble, makes us love prayer, gives joy and peace of heart. . . .
What I know is, that in loving and serving Mary, I am only imitating, though very imperfectly, our Saviour Jesus Christ Himself.
He was the first who loved His mother; so good, so holy, beyond all creatures; He first ministered to Her, and rendered Her all sorts of honor, of duties, of obedience.
And as He said to me on the eve of His death, "I have given to you an example, so that what I have done, you may also do," I endeavor to love and honor in the most perfect manner the Blessed Virgin Mary, whom He so perfectly loved and honored.
This is not the proper place for a treatise on devotion to the Blessed Virgin.
But it is, however, the place in which to say that hatred to this particular devotion has been the universal mark of all heresies, of all religious insurrections; that Mary is never despised and forsaken without our soon seeing Jesus forsaken; and even that we never see any one neglect or lessen his devotion in order to become better, or to become better in consequence.
It must be said that the poor Protestants are much to be pitied that they do not know and love their Mother! . . . that they do not receive Her whom Jesus Christ has chosen, has loved, has united inseparably to the mystery of His incarnation, to the mystery of His manger in Bethlehem, to those of His infancy, of His hidden life, of His public life, to the mystery of His sufferings, and of our redemption; Her whom He associates in heaven with the adorable mysteries of His glory and His royalty.
They must surely tremble, when, casting their eyes over the history of all Christian ages, they find none which does not condemn their silence, and which has not realized the prophetic language of the Blessed Virgin herself: "All generations shall call me blessed." (St. Luke, c. i.)
Nowhere do we perceive that solitary Christ dreamed of by Luther, Calvin, and their disciples, but Christ as He appears in the eyes of the prophets, as He appears in the gospel histories, the Son of the Virgin, formed of her flesh and blood, borne so long in her womb and in her arms, fulfilling toward her, for a period of thirty years, the duties of the most obedient Son, expiring before her eyes, and again resting in her arms before being removed from the cross to the sepulchre. . . .
They seem to fear that they shall rob Jesus Christ of all the veneration that they pay to Mary. But does it not betray a great want of knowledge of the human heart, which is formed in the image of that of God, to fear to wound a friend, by showing, for his sake, a great affection for his mother? Is it not for the sake of the Son that we love the Mother? And is it not to Jesus Christ that all this homage returns?
Now, that there may be abuses of this principle, and some extravagances among the ignorant relative to this devotion to the Blessed Virgin, who denies? What is there, however holy, which has not been sometimes carried to excess? But these abuses are reproved by the Church. The bishops and clergy take suitable measures to remove such excesses among the faithful, as soon as ever they come to their knowledge.
In all that regards devotion to Mary, believe me, the most usual extreme is quite on the other side, she is too little venerated rather than too much. For any honor short of adoration (and she must not be adored; adoration is due to God alone) can hardly be too great for her. We shall never honor her in so eminent a degree as God honored her in making her His Mother. We shall never love her as much as Jesus, our model, loved her.
As Catholics we are the great family of Jesus Christ. Is it, then, astonishing that we should love His Mother?
"So let us be confident, let us not be unprepared, let us not be outflanked, let us be wise, vigilant, fighting against those who are trying to tear the faith out of our souls and morality out of our hearts, so that we may remain Catholics, remain united to the Blessed Virgin Mary, remain united to the Roman Catholic Church, remain faithful children of the Church."- Abp. Lefebvre