TITLE: MARY AND THE EUCHARISTIC CONNECTION

Subtitle:  The Myth of Mary Continues To Grow

As a Catholic, I had often heard that Mary was the “Co-Mediatrix” and “Co-Redemptress” of the faith. Roman Catholicism teaches that all graces flow through Mary, and this includes the sacrament of the Eucharist. But it wasn’t until I purchased and read a small book called, Jesus Our Eucharistic Love, that I realized the “inseparable” connection between Rome’s “Mary” and the Eucharist. Theologians and saints are quoted in this book by “Father” Stephano Manelli, O.F.M. Conv., S.T.D., and it has been published in several different languages from the original Italian. It has the “imprimitur” by Antonius Zama, vic. Generalis Neapoli, die21 Aprilia 1973, and the “nihil obstat and imprimitur” from P. Antonius M. Di Monda, min.pov. Neapoli, 1973. It is put out by “Our Blessed Lady of Victory Mission”.

According to Manelli:

“Many Saints and theologians (St. Pater Damien, St. Bernard, St. Bonaventure, St. Bernadine …) say that Jesus instituted the Eucharist above all for Mary and then through Mary, the Universal Mediatrix of All Graces, for all of us” (107).

In the Biblical account of the last supper, Mary is not present. Since it is the teaching of Roman Catholicism that Jesus instituted the Mass at the last supper, then it would seem reasonable to question Mary’s absence from it especially if it were instituted “for Mary and then through Mary”. Romans 11:36 tells us:

“For of him, and through him, and to him, are all things: to whom be glory for ever. Amen.” It would also seem reasonable to question how she is present at each Mass. Since Mary is not omnipresent, as admitted by RCC, how then can one be sure that she is there to mediate the graces that flow through the Mass? Yet, from a child, the Catholic religion would teach us to go through Mary to get to Jesus. According to My Catholic Faith, page 312, we read:

“Children receiving Holy Communion ought to think of themselves approaching to take the Child Jesus from the arms of our Blessed Lady.”

If the Mass was instituted at the last supper, why are children being taught that they “ought to think of themselves approaching to take the Child Jesus from the arms” of Mary? Jesus was a 33 year old man when the last supper took place, not a young child in His mother’s arms. This has to be very confusing in the mind of a child.

Let’s examine just how the Catholic church, her saints and theologians feel Mary is present in the Eucharist. On page 106-107 of Jesus Our Eucharistic Love, we read:

“The Holy Eucharist is the Bread that comes from our Heavenly Mother. It is Bread produced by Mary from the flour of Her immaculate flesh, kneaded into dough with her virginal milk. St. Augustine wrote, ‘Jesus took His Flesh from the flesh of Mary’. We know, too, that united to the Divinity in the Eucharist there is Jesus' Body and Blood taken from the body and blood of the Blessed Virgin. Therefore at every Holy Communion we receive, it would be quite correct, and a very beautiful thing, to TAKE NOTICE OF OUR HOLY MOTHER’S SWEET AND MYSTERIOUS PRESENCE, INSEPARABLY UNITED WITH JESUS IN THIS HOST. Jesus is always the Son She adores. He is Flesh of Her flesh and Blood of Her blood. If Adam could call Eve when she had been taken from his rib, ‘bone of my bone and flesh of my flesh’ (Gen. 2:23), cannot the holy Virgin Mary even more rightly call Jesus 'Flesh of my flesh and Blood of my blood’? Taken from the ‘intact Virgin’ as says St. Thomas Aquinas, the flesh of Jesus is the maternal flesh of Mary, the blood of Jesus is the maternal blood of Mary. Therefore it will never be possible to separate Jesus from Mary. For this reason at every Holy Mass which is celebrated, the Blessed Virgin can repeat with truth to Jesus in the Host and in the Chalice, "You are my Son today I have generated you" (Ps.2:7). And justly St. Augustine teaches us that in the Eucharist "Mary extends and perpetuates Her Divine Maternity", while St. Albert the Great exhorts with love, ‘My Soul if you wish to experience intimacy with Mary let yourself be carried between Her arms and nourished with Her blood’ ... Go with this ineffable chaste thought to the banquet of God and you will find in the Blood of the Son the nourishment of the Mother.”

I’d like to start by commenting on their misuse of Psalms 2:7. The King James Bible reads: “I will declare the decree: the LORD hath said unto me, Thou art my Son; this day have I begotten thee.” Notice that the scriptures clearly say that it is the LORD speaking and not Mary. How then can Manelli (a Catholic priest) teach that those words can or are spoken by Mary at every Mass? Was it not the Father that had begotten His own Son? Could Mary have done the same? Does Mary have the ability to “generate” life within herself? Of course not!!!! She is not God, and it is erroneous for Manelli to apply that verse to Mary.

It is equally erroneous to say:

“Furthermore, if we reflect that Jesus, the Fruit of Mary's immaculate womb, constitutes Mary's love, all of Her sweetness, all of Her tenderness, Her whole riches, Her whole life, then we see that when we receive Him we cannot fail to also receive Her who, by ties of the highest love, as well as by ties of flesh and blood, forms with Jesus one unity, one whole, as She is always and inseparably "leaning upon Her Beloved” (cant. 8:5)” (ibid. 108)

It was not Mary’s love that saved mankind, but “...God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” (John 3:16) Neither is there any evidence from scripture that to receive Christ is to receive Mary. The scriptures clearly teach Christ came

“To redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons. And because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father. Wherefore thou art no more a servant, but a son; and if a son, then an heir of God through Christ.” (Gal.4:5-7)

Here we see there is no mention of Mary’s spirit, but rather it is the Spirit of his Son that comes into our hearts. Neither is there mention of us crying out to Mary, but rather, we cry “Abba Father”. Eph 2:18 says “For through him we both have access by one Spirit unto the Father.” Notice “one Spirit”...not two spirits! And again in Eph.4:4, “There is one body, and one Spirit, even as ye are called in one hope of your calling”. 1 Cor.12:13 says, “For by one Spirit are we all baptized into one body, whether we be Jews or Gentiles, whether we be bond or free; and have been all made to drink into one Spirit.” Seeing that Jesus is omnipresent, we are assured that His Spirit is everywhere, but Mary is not omnipresent, and her spirit cannot dwell in those who call on her! Yet, we read in Legio Mariae, pages 206-207:

 “From the moment when she conceived the Son of God in her womb, Mary possessed, so to speak, a certain authority or jurisdiction over every temporal procession of the Holy Ghost, in such sort that no creature receives any grace from God except through her mediation...ALL THE GIFTS AND VIRTUES AND GRACES OF THE SAME HOLY SPIRIT ARE ADMINISTERED BY HER TO WHOM SHE PLEASES, WHEN SHE PLEASES, AND IN THE QUANTITY AND MANNER SHE PLEASES .”

The Bible is very clear the it is God who dispenses the gifts, “...dividing to every man severally as he will.” (1Cor.12:11) Seems that Catholicism knows no bounds when it comes to lying against the scriptures. Mannelli goes on to say:

“When we go before Jesus on the altar, we ALWAYS FIND HIM ‘WITH MARY HIS MOTHER’...St. Augustine beautifully illustrates even better how MARY MAKES HERSELF OUR OWN AND UNIFIES HERSELF TO EACH ONE OF US IN HOLY COMMUNION. ‘The Word is the Food of the angels. Men have not the strength to feed it to themselves, nor need they do so. What is needed is a mother who may eat this supersubstantial Bread transform it into her milk and in this way feed her poor children. This mother is Mary. She nourishes Herself with the Word and transforms It into the Sacred humanity. She transforms It into Flesh and Blood, I.e., into this sweetest of milk which is called the Eucharist.”

1 John 5 tells us that there are three that bear witness in heaven, “Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost: and these three are one.” Where is the mention of Mary here? If RCC is correct, and Mary is in heaven sitting on the throne as “Queen of Heaven” and Mediatrix of all graces, then why is there no mention of her as a witness in heaven? Yet RCC would have us believe that Mary is in hypostatic union with the Godhead and inseparable in all His workings of grace. "St." Pater Damian went so far as to say that “the Son in His turn gives Himself wholly to the Mother, making Himself similar to Her and making Her fully Godlike”(109). “Fully Godlike”? Does that mean she isn’t lacking in any of the qualities and attributes of God? God says, “ To whom then will ye liken me, or shall I be equal? saith the Holy One.” (Isa.40:25) And again in Isa 46:5, “To whom will ye liken me, and make me equal, and compare me, that we may be like?” Yet for all the rebukes, the Catechism of the Catholic Church, #460 has no problem teaching that “The Son of God became man so that we might become God...the only-begotten Son of God, wanting to make us sharers in his divinity, assumed our nature, so that he made man, might make men gods.“ Is it any wonder why Manelli feels comfortable saying Mary is “fully Godlike“?

One more point should be made. Manelli quotes “St.” Augustine who claimed men are not able to feed themselves, so Mary has to nourish us. Eph.5:29 says, “For no man ever yet hated his own flesh; but nourisheth and cherisheth it, even as the Lord the church.” It is the Lord Jesus who nourishes us. He prepared a banquet and invited all men to come and eat. There simply is no scripture to support Mary as the one who nourishes the true church.

In Jesus Our Eucharistic Love, page 108, Manelli goes on to say:

“Is it not true that love, and above all divine love, unites and unifies? And aside from the Unity in the bosom of the Blessed Trinity, can we think of a unity more close and total than that between Jesus and the Virgin Mary? Mary's purity, Her virginity, Her tender ways, Her sweet manner, Her love, and even the very features of Her heavenly face -- all these we find in Jesus; for the most holy humanity assumed by the Word is wholly and only Mary's humanity, on account of the great mystery of the virginal Conception accomplished by the Holy Spirit, Who made Mary, Jesus' Mother, while consecrating Her as a Virgin that would be forever undefiled and glorious in soul and body. And thus "The Eucharist," writes St. Albert the Great, "produces impulses of a love that is angelic, and It has the unique power to put in souls a holy feeling of tenderness toward the Queen of Angels. She has given us what is Flesh of Her flesh and Bone of Her bone, and in the Eucharist She continues to give us this sweet, virginal, heavenly banquet.” Here we have Catholicism admitting that their Eucharist will produce “impulses of a love that is angelic” towards Mary. Then they pervert the word of God to make Mary the one who gives “flesh of HER FLESH and bone of HER BONE”. This is an obvious twisting of scriptures. Eph.5:30-32 clearly teaches:

“For we are members of his body, of his flesh, and of his bones. For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and shall be joined unto his wife, and they two shall be one flesh. This is a great mystery: but I speak concerning Christ and the church.”

Before we are finished, the RCC will be trying to tell us that it was Mary’s blood that was poured out on Calvary instead of our Lord Jesus Christ’s blood. Well...surprise...that’s exactly what they were bold enough to say! Just listen to this quote from Legio Mariae (Legion of Mary):

“It was first from HER VEINS THAT THE BLOOD WAS DRAWN WHICH NOW LIES SCATTERED CHEAPLY ABOUT, BUT WHICH HAS RANSOMED THE WORLD….That Precious Blood will henceforth flow through the Mystical Body, forcing life, so to speak, into every crevice of it...In that moment, those Sacred Hearts [Jesus and Mary] entered into a union so close as to approach IDENTITY. Henceforth, they will beat together in and for the Mystical Body. Thereby Mary has become the Mediatrix of all graces, the Spiritual Vessel which receives and gives Our Lord’s Most Precious Blood.” (164-165)

That statement alone is enough to expose Roman Catholicism as a cult. May I add, that the book from which it comes, Legio Mariae, has the endorsement of Pope Pius XI (Sept.16, 1933), Pope Pius XII (July 22, 1953), Pope John XXIII (Mar.19, 1960) and Pope Paul IV (Jan.6, 1965), so it is not some book no one ever heard of. Yet several popes endorsed and recommended this garbage. What a lack of discernment, and a total disregard for the evidence in the scriptures. They are without excuse and so are those that blindly follow them.

According to Manelli, there is a monstrance (a stand that holds the Eucharist when it is on display, usually made of gold) made in the figure of Mary carrying the Eucharist in her breast and contains the words, “O Christian who comest full of faith to receive the Bread of life, eat it worthily, and remember that it as fashioned out of Mary’s pure blood” (Jesus Our Eucharistic Love, 113).

Padre Pio of Pietrelcina would sometimes say to his “spiritual children”, "Do you not see the Madonna always beside the tabernacle?" How so? Is she omnipresent? Is she there at every altar? St. Alphensus Liguori, in his book of devotions, used to always join a visit to the “Virgin Mary” to each visit to Jesus in the “Holy Eucharist”. How could Liguori be sure that Mary was there to appreciate his “visit”? Saint Maximilian M. Kolbe asked to recommend that:

“When we go before Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament, we never fail to remember Mary's presence, calling on Her and associating ourselves with Her, at least seeing to it that Her sweet name comes to mind”. The word of God says in Col.3:17, “And whatsoever ye do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God and the Father by him.”

“In the life of the Dominican friar, St. Hyacinth, we read that once in order to avoid a profanation of the Blessed Sacrament, the Saint hastened to the tabernacle to take out the ciborium [resembles the chalice except with a cover] containing the sacred Particles [In Roman Catholicism it is believed that every crumb that falls from the host is the “whole and entire Christ”], in order to put it in a safer place. When, hugging Jesus in the Eucharist close to his breast, he was about to leave the altar, he heard a voice coming from the statue of the Blessed Virgin which was next to the altar saying, ‘What? Would you take Jesus away without taking me?’ The Saint halted in surprise. He understood the message, but he did not know how he could manage to carry Mary's statue too. Puzzled, he drew near the statue to see if he could take it with his one free hand. There was no need to strain himself, for the statue became as light as a feather. There is a precious lesson in this miracle: When we take Mary along with Jesus, she adds absolutely no weight or cost, for in a wonderful way they abide in one another (John 6:57)” (Jesus Our Eucharistic Love, Manelli, 109-110).

I’m not sure why they used John 6:57 as a proof text in their fable. It would have been more honest for them to have used 1Tim.1:4, “Neither give heed to fables….” When someone put the question to St. Bernadette Soubirous, "What would please you more, to receive Holy Communion, or to see the Madonna in the grotto?", she replied, "What a strange question! The two cannot be separated. Jesus and Mary always go together." It is evident that Mary and the Catholic Eucharist are intricately entwined, they cannot be separated. As Manelli says, “The Madonna and the Holy Eucharist are by the nature of things united inseparably 'even to the end of the world' (Mt. 28:20)". He goes on to say:

“For Mary with Her body and soul is the heavenly ‘tabernacle of God’ (Apoc.21:3). She is the incorruptible Host, "holy and immaculate" (Eph.5:271, who, with Her very self, clothes the Word of God made Man. St. Germain ventured to call Her ‘sweet paradise of God.’ According to a pious opinion, supported by the ecstasies and visions of St. Veronica Giuliani and especially those of Blessed Magdalen Martinengo, within Her breast the Blessed Virgin in paradise preserves and will always preserve Jesus in a visible Host; and this is for Her ‘eternal consolation, 'is an occasion of rejoicing for all the blessed inhabitants of Heaven, and in particular is an everlasting joy to all devotees of the Blessed Sacrament.’ This is represented in the ‘Madonna Mediatrice Universale,’ which Mother Speranza in recent times has painted and which has been placed in the Shrine at Collevalenza. It is the same as the image often reproduced in monstrances (sacred stands for exposing the Holy Eucharist for adoration) of the last century, which represent the Madonna, and make a place in her breast for the visible cavity in which the consecrated Host is put. ‘Blessed is the womb that bore Thee!’ cried the woman amid the crowd (Lk.11:27). [How convenient to have left off the next verse where Jesus replies to the woman’s comment, “...Yea rather, blessed are they that hear the word of God, and keep it.”] Thus in some of the churches in France the tabernacle used to be encased in a statue of Our Lady of the Assumption. "

"The significance is quite clear: IT IS ALWAYS THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY WHO GIVES US JESUS, Who is the blessed Fruit of Her virginal womb and the Heart of Her Immaculate Heart. And She will forever continue to carry Jesus in the Holy Eucharist within Her breast so as to present Him for the joyful contemplation of the Saints in Heaven, to whom it is even now given to see His divine Person in the Eucharistic Species, according to the teaching of the Angelic Doctor, St. Thomas Aquinas. It is in the Eucharist, and especially in Holy Communion, that our union with the Madonna becomes a full and loving conformity with Her. WE RECEIVE HER DEVOTED CARE AND PROTECTION ALONG WITH THE BLESSED SACRAMENT. Her tender attentions overlook nothing as Christ is united to each of us, Her children, moving Her to pour out all Her motherly love on our souls and bodies. The great St. Hilary, Father and Doctor of the Church, wrote this excellent passage: ‘The greatest joy that we can give Mary is that of bearing Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament within our breast.’ HER MOTHERLY UNION WITH JESUS BECOMES A UNION ALSO WITH WHOEVER IS UNITED TO JESUS, ESPECIALLY IN HOLY COMMUNION. And what can give as much joy to one who loves, as union with the person loved? And do we not happen to be beloved children of the heavenly Mother? When we go before Jesus on the altar, we always find Him ‘with Mary His Mother,’ as the Magi did at Bethlehem (Mt.2:11). And Jesus in the sacred Host from the altar of our hearts, can repeat to each of us what He said to St. John the Evangelist from the altar of Calvary, ‘Behold thy Mother’ (John 19:27)” (ibid. 111-112).

Again we see that RCC teaches that Mary and the Eucharist go hand in hand. That is why all the Marian shrines foster devotion to the Eucharist, so much that they are often referred to as “Eucharistic shrines”, such places as Fatima, Lourdes, Loretto, Pompie and Guatalupe. Although Rome will tell you that they do not worship Mary, it is evident that they do indeed worship her and give to her the attributes that belong to God alone. At the very end of the book, Manelli recommends the following prayer be said to Mary before receiving “Christ” in the Eucharist.

“O most holy, Immaculate Virgin and my Mother Mary, to Thee who are the Mother of my Lord, the Queen of the world, the Advocate, the hope, the refuge of sinners, I, who am the most miserable of all sinners, have recourse today. I venerate Thee, Oh great Queen, and I thank Thee for all the graces Thou hast conferred on me until now, especially for having delivered me from hell, which I have so often deserved. I love Thee, O Most amiable Lady, and because of the love I bear Thee, I promise to serve Thee always and do all in my power to make Thee loved by others. I place in Thee all my hopes; I confide my salvation to Thy care. Accept me as Thy servant, and shelter me under Thy mantle, O Mother of Mercy. And since You are so powerful with God, deliver me from all temptations, or obtain for me the strength to triumph over them until my death.” (ibid., 125)