It was one of the most difficult days in my career as a criminal defense attorney.
I had a 7 a.m. appointment at the office with a young mother facing child abuse charges. By the time she left, I had to go directly to the Supreme Court on Staten Island for the continuation of a criminal jury trial in which I was representing a man accused of extortion and related felonies.
After being on trial all day, I returned to the office around 5 p.m. to meet two new potential criminal clients. And when I finally got home around 9 p.m., I was facing several hours of preparation for the next day of trial.
I hadn’t eaten lunch because I had to review a transcript for the afternoon session. Nor did I have any time for dinner when I got home. So, I grabbed a few cookies and headed to my den to continue working. I had just settled down behind my desk when my mother called with a request.
While shopping at the supermarket that afternoon, she met a “really nice young man”, who said that he had known me when we were both kids. He told my mother that he and his wife had separated, and he was having great difficulty trying to see his two young daughters. He asked my mother if I would give him a call. She told him that I would do so – that very night.
The last thing I needed was to be tied up on the phone with some guy, whom I barely recalled, and listen to his child-related problems. And I told my mother so. “I’ll call him,” I assured her, “but it will have to wait until tomorrow”.
That was eminently reasonable, I thought, especially since there was no emergency.
Mom was not easily dissuaded, however, prodding me gently with, “But I promised you’d call him tonight”.
And so, because it was my mother doing the asking, I did as she asked. I called the guy then and there, and gave him more than an hour of my extremely precious time.
I often think of that story when I contemplate Mary’s intercessory power with Jesus, her son.
One need only look to the wedding feast at Cana where Jesus, at Mary’s plea, turned six stone 30-gallon jars of water into the finest wine. (John 2: 1-11)
It’s interesting to note that, when approached by his mother with word “they have no wine”, Jesus was initially reluctant to act. "Woman, how does your concern affect me?,” he asked. “My hour has not yet come."
And it’s even more interesting that instead of engaging in further discussion with Jesus, Mary was so confident that he would remedy the situation that she told the servers, "Do whatever he tells you".
To be clear: As Catholics, we certainly recognize that worship is due to God alone. Still, Mary’s unique role in Jesus’s life and, through it, the life of the Church, is such that she unquestionably merits veneration. As St. Vincent of Lerins aptly declared in Commonitoria 15:
"She is truly the Mother of God, not merely in name but rather because in her sacred womb was accomplished the mystery that, by reason of a certain singular and unique Unity of person, even as the Word is flesh in flesh, so the man is God in God.”
She’s also the most powerful intercessor with her son. Since Jesus came to us through Mary, it's reasonable that we go to him through her.
Some question why Catholics don't simply pray directly to Jesus. The answer, of course, is that we do, over and over again, in myriad contexts and in countless prayers. There are times, however, when approaching Jesus through his mother, or his Saints, seems a bit easier.
Consider, for example, the words of St. John Chrysostom, the Great Preacher of Antioch: "When you perceive that God is chastening you, fly not to his enemies…but to his friends, the martyrs, the saints, those who were pleasing to Him, and who have great power in God". (Orations, 396)
St. Paul sought prayers from his brother Christians as appears in the following two verses:
"Finally, brothers, pray for us, so that the word of the Lord may speed forward and be glorified, as it did among you." (2 Thess. 3:1)
"I urge you, (brothers,) by our Lord Jesus Christ and by the love of the Spirit, to join me in the struggle by your prayers to God on my behalf." (Romans 15:30)
It is also clear that the saints will intercede on our behalf with the God they so faithfully served on Earth. (Revelation 8:3-4)
If Jesus will be moved by the prayers of his friends, martyrs, saints, and ordinary people on earth, how much greater will he respond to the pleas of his Mother?
The numerous Marian apparitions approved by the Church as “worthy of belief” are powerful evidence of Mary’s stature with Jesus and of Catholic teaching regarding her.
For instance, on March 25, 1858, the Annunciation, Mary appeared for the 16th time to Bernadette Soubirous in Lourdes, France, identifying herself thusly, “I am the Immaculate Conception”.
If the Lourdes apparitions are true – and the 7,000 miracles flowing from them strongly suggest they are – then Mary was, indeed, born without original sin, and is now very nuch alive, and with Jesus in Heaven.
On May 13, 1917, the date of the first appearance of Mary to three shepherd children in Fatima, Portugal, she said, “I come from heaven” and urged the children to “say the Rosary every day”. Then, on October 13, 1917, the date of her last apparition, she told the children, “I am the Lady of the Rosary”.
So, once again, if the Fatima apparitions are true – and countless miracles, including the “Miracle of the Sun” say that they are – then Mary is, indeed, in heaven, and the Rosary is, indeed, an extraordinarily important and powerful prayer.
“The Rosary is a prayer both so humble and simple and theologically rich in biblical content. I beg you to pray it.” —Pope St. John Paul II
Here are some other very impressive endorsements of the Rosary:
“If I had an army to say the Rosary, I could conquer the world.” —Blessed Pope Pius IX
“The Rosary is the weapon.” —St. Padre Pio
“The greatest method of praying is to pray the Rosary.” —St. Francis de Sales
“When the Holy Rosary is said well, it gives Jesus and Mary more glory and is more meritorious than any other prayer.” —St. Louis de Montfort
“The Rosary is the most excellent form of prayer and the most efficacious means of attaining eternal life. It is the remedy for all our evils, the root of all our blessings. There is no more excellent way of praying.” —Pope Leo XIII
"Thumb your way to Heaven on your Rosary" — Sister Norbert, my fourth-grade teacher.
Finally, at the top of this page is a portrait of Our Lady of the Rosary. After ships of the Holy League, a coalition of European Catholic states created by Pope Pius V, scored a decisive naval victory over the Ottoman Empire in The Battle of Lepanto on October 7, 1571, several jubilant Venentian Senators declared, “It was not courage, not arms, not leaders, but Mary of the Rosary that made us victors”.