Saturday, May 24, 2014

Devotion to Mary

[A GRAMBUS post adapted from MARK MIRAVALLE]

All relationships, of course, are a two-way street. They require something from us — phone calls and visits, acts of thoughtfulness, time spent together. They demand that that we give some­thing of ourselves to the other. In our relationship with Mary, she helps give new life to our souls, prays for us, and provides us with what we need to grow in grace. In return, she deserves our honor and love, just as our earthly mothers do. She deserves our devotion.

To make sure we’re all on the same page, I want to spend a little time explaining what I mean by devotion. The word can have more than one meaning, and the Church uses Latin terms to help us dis­tinguish between the kind of devotion we give to Mary and the kind of devotion we give only to God. These words are dulia and latria.

Latria basically means adoration. Traditionally, it refers to the worship and homage that we give to God and God alone. When we adore God, we acknowledge him as an excellent, perfect, uncreated, divine person. We give him what he alone, as God, is due.

Dulia is very different.