Mary, Mother of God I Cardinal Raymond Leo Burke

Hinzugefügt: 2026-05-15

[00:00:00]I was taken to the hospital and and I was told that I would more than likely die and and the doctors asked for my permission to put me on the respirator. I said it's the only possibility of trying to to save my life. When they took away the sedation and I was reanimated I had immediately the the sense of our of our lady especially under the title of Our Lady Guadalupe holding me and it was through her her intercession especially that God spared my life.

[00:00:43]>> [singing] [singing] >> It is a great honor to welcome His Eminence Cardinal Raymond Leo Burke.

[00:00:58]Today we will speak about the Blessed Virgin Mary and her importance [music] in the church today.

[00:01:04]Cardinal Burke has a deep devotion for Our Lady.

[00:01:07]Thank you for your time, Your Eminence.

[00:01:10]Your Eminence will lead us in an Ave Maria.

[00:01:14]In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

[00:01:19]Hail Mary, full of grace. The Lord is with thee. Blessed art thou among women and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus.

[00:01:28]Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners now and at the hour of our death. Amen.

[00:01:35]In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. When we speak today about Mariology as a Catholic, is it possible to over-venerate the Blessed Virgin Mary or is the greater risk today rather to neglect her?

[00:01:51]I think the greater risk is is to neglect her in a certain sense. We we can't over-venerate the Mother of God.

[00:01:59]The The only time that the our veneration of the Mother of God would be disordered would be if it wasn't true veneration, if indeed we were adoring the Blessed Mother, putting her, for instance, in the place of Christ. Uh but because of her unique cooperation, uh she the great her great title is Mother of God.

[00:02:25]She was the instrument the chosen instrument by which God the Son united our human nature to his divine nature.

[00:02:34]Uh there's in a certain sense, we can never honor her enough.

[00:02:38]There was a always a saying in Latin, "Numquam satis." There There was never enough honor given to our Blessed Mother. And I think today what's what's happened sadly is also from a loss of the sense of our personal relationship with our Lord and uh a kind of reduction of our Christian faith to ideas, uh then people don't see the importance anymore of the Mother of God, of our Blessed of our Blessed Mother.

[00:03:06]Has Marian devotion been present in all periods of church history?

[00:03:10]Oh, yes. There There There rich uh ness of the teaching with regard to the Blessed Mother goes back from to the earliest centuries. Also, in the sacred art, for instance, one of the more most ancient frescoes in the catacomb catacomb catacombs of Rome is uh our Blessed Mother holding the child Jesus uh in the catacombs of St. Priscilla.

[00:03:34]Uh but also uh in the 2nd century, St. Irenaeus, doctor of the church, is already teaching about the uh the role of the Blessed Mother, how her fiat, how her acceptance of the message of the Archangel Gabriel that she is to be the mother of God was the negation of the rebellion of Eve and her how her cooperation with our Lord in accepting to become his his mother on Earth was the act also we we see it foretold in the first promise of salvation in the book of Genesis her her act is reversed than the the the act of Adam and Eve. You mentioned Saint Irenaeus and Mary's obedience. What does Mary's fiat teach us about cooperating with God's grace?

[00:04:40]Well, all of us are called to be co-workers with Christ in in the salvation of the world. We're we're called in to obey the will of God and in that way to to work for the salvation of the world and so basically we don't have the great gift that Mary had of being conceived without original sin. She her immaculate conception but we do have we have the grace of Christ within us and so we want our hearts to be as much like her as possible in overcoming the temptations to sin the overcoming the temptations to rebel against God and the good order that he's placed in the world and in our hearts and in that way to to be cooperators of the truth as Saint John says in his third letter. That was also the motto of Pope Benedict the 16th to be cooperators with Christ in his his his saving work. Saint Paul has a beautiful expression of that too in the beginning of the letter to the Colossians where he he he says that he rejoices to fill out in his body what is lacking in the sufferings of Christ. By that he doesn't mean to say there was anything lacking in the sufferings of Christ, but that we have to unite our sufferings to his for for the salvation of the world.

[00:06:11]The Second Vatican Council teaches that Mary was chosen by God from the very beginning and is uniquely united with the redemptive work of her son. How would you describe Mary's role in God's plan of salvation in general?

[00:06:26]Well, God chose to save us by becoming one of us. Mhm.

[00:06:31]And uh which is most wonderful act of love.

[00:06:35]And how can God become man except through the cooperation of a woman?

[00:06:40]Yeah. He it's his you know, the great the great title of his mother of God and but at the same time she is the great cooperator the with with God in in the saving work. And so uh that we understand also from the when Adam and Eve had sinned and God had to put them out of of paradise, he said to the serpent who had tempted even Adam and Eve and and beguiled them, they fell and fell for his tricks and and sinned.

[00:07:20]He said, "I will put enmity between you and the woman between her seed and your seed." And that was already a reference to how he intended to to save us by his own son conceived of a woman, the Virgin Mary. And then in Isaiah 7:14 the prophecy a virgin will conceive and bear a son whose name will be Emmanuel, God with us.

[00:07:47]And of course we see in the whole scriptures then the preparation for the the great redemptive act. The council deliberately speaks of Mary's unique cooperation. How can this cooperation be described theologically without diminishing Christ's unique role as savior? Well, Christ alone is the savior.

[00:08:11]Only God himself could could restore our friendship with him, could save us from sin. Only God can give us the grace that we need to to overcome sin in our lives and to reach our final goal which is the eternal life.

[00:08:27]But by God's own desire, he wants us to cooperate with that saving work. It doesn't mean that we become the savior. It doesn't mean that the blessed mother becomes the savior.

[00:08:40]It means that she cooperates in a real way with his saving work and that doesn't diminish in any way that Christ is our savior. In fact, it it it enhances our love of our Lord when we think that as weak and as we are, he chooses us to share in his own life and in his his own saving work. And so Christ saves us, we say in in the first act by his death on Calvary and he he ascends to to heaven in our human nature, takes our human nature is in into glory.

[00:09:21]But then grace descends in the second act and now the blessed mother was part of both acts because she she shared in his his incarnation. She was his mother. And if people are upset the title mediatrix of all grace or or co-redemptrix, they should be more upset by by the title of Mother of God. But there's no reason to be upset because there's in no way this diminishing Christ's saving work. So then the grace descends and and that saving grace of Christ then has to be realized in each human life and in that we are all cooperators and we for instance we honor our blessed mother and the saints for the heroic way in which they cooperated with the grace of God. But all of us are called to to the same kind of heroism in our daily lives. You already talked about it.

[00:10:21]The title co-redemptrix is historically attested but is treated cautiously today. What theological truth was originally intended to be expressed by this term? The simple truth that God the son became man.

[00:10:38]How?

[00:10:40]The only way in which you become a man it was conceived in the womb granted by the overshadowing of the Holy Spirit.

[00:10:46]She remained a virgin because she by her perpetual virginity she was disposed to become the mother of God but she became the mother of God by conceiving God the son in in her womb. That's the long and the short of it and people say well you shouldn't use those terms today because people misunderstand them. Well, all you have to do is to to know that for in in the Latin language co-redemptrix means someone who cooperates with an act which is done by someone else principally and essentially namely Christ. Um but he calls us to to cooperate with him and of course the blessed mother in a most unique way by becoming his his mother. And then, of course, she shares in his whole life and in that way, too, we we we we venerate her.

[00:11:41]Uh but uh in modern languages, for instance, in English, if you say Corredemptrix, it can give you the idea that it's two people doing the act equally. But that's not the meaning. But all you have to do is explain that to people because in English it can also mean that you are cooperating with the act of someone else. And uh so uh that uh that has to be made clear. But the the term itself is perfectly fine.

[00:12:12]Okay, thank you for explaining this term. Mary is often called Mediatrix of all graces.

[00:12:18]Does she act purely passively through her fiat or actively in the distribution of graces?

[00:12:25]And how does the church navigate this discussion without compromising Christ's unique mediation?

[00:12:32]Well, it's as simple as this. Uh uh Um the model of Mary's cooperation in the gift of grace, her her mediation of grace, is the wedding feast at Cana.

[00:12:49]The wine stewards find themselves in the situation uh very embarrassing. They don't have enough wine for the guests.

[00:12:57]And they make this known to the mother of God.

[00:13:01]And what does she do? She takes them to her son and says, "Do whatever he tells you."

[00:13:06]And that's how it works with our blessed mother. She she's not just passive. She be- because she's the mother of Christ, the mother of God, she and he as he died on the cross gave her to us as our mother, she's our mother, she's active in her desire that that that we be in friendship with God, that we grow in the likeness of Christ, and so she is but she's never drawing us to herself for herself, but she whenever we get close to our blessed mother, she's taking us to our Lord. And uh all the places of pilgrimage, for instance, that are under title of Our Lady, Our Lady draws the pilgrims, but what to what? Confession, holy communion, a deeper knowledge of the teaching of Christ and so forth. So, it's it's ridiculous to to to characterize or to describe our blessed mother's mediation as somehow self-centered. She's all for Christ, as she was from the moment of her conception without sin throughout her life. She's all for Christ and and she is the sign that he alone is our savior. Many saints have received profound insights about Mary and written extensively about her greatness.

[00:14:32]Why are these insights so little recognized or utilized by the church, even though they could provide an important basis for acknowledging her role, for example, in dogmas? Yes.

[00:14:46]In October 25th, if I'm not mistaken, in 1995, Pope St. John Paul II gave a wonderful Wednesday audience reflection, and he reflected on how along the centuries the teaching on Mary was made clearer and clearer. Nothing Nothing new added. It's all all contained in the her relationship with Christ, but a deepening understanding. And this is what we need today.

[00:15:17]For instance, he talks about John the Geometer was in the 10th century wrote his uh uh The Life of Mary and and he in a beautiful way expounds Our Lady's sharing with Christ uh his whole saving work. He's the savior, she's not the savior, but as his mother, as one uh perpetual virgin, immaculately conceived totally united with him. Uh so she shares in in that and and other great saints, St. Bernard of Clairvaux and uh St. Alphonsus Liguori, we could go on and on. And of course, Pope St. John Paul II himself uh had a profound love of our Blessed Mother and uh uh uh St. Louis de Montfort and well, we could just uh all the great saints have uh have a very profound relationship with with the Mother of God. Do you realistically see the possibility for a further Marian dogma? Yes, I do. I I don't I'm not I can't predict when this would happen, but uh to complete the there are of course the the four Marian dogmas, but to complete them would be uh the teaching on on her role as the mediatrix of all grace or her co-redemptrix and uh I I think that it will happen, but I I don't I don't know when, but we already the church and of course, with all dogmas, a dogma is simply stating what the church has always taught. For instance, uh uh Pope Pius the XII proclaimed the dogma of the Assumption, but the church had but had taught that along all the centuries and uh so there will one day, I believe, be uh a proclamation of a dogma with regard to to Mary's uh uh maternity of divine grace if we want to call it that or her mediation in the work of salvation. Many non-Catholics struggle to understand why Catholics venerate Mary. How would you explain Marian devotion to them? Well, our Lord himself wanted us wants us to have a relationship with his mother. He He signified it in a wonderful way as he was dying on the cross when his seven last words one of them was to to hand over the church to to his mother as the mother of the church.

[00:17:55]This done symbolically through St. John Apostle and Evangelist representing the whole church at the foot of the cross.

[00:18:02]Our Lord himself in the throughout the the Gospels is always showing us the importance of for our faith in him of of love and veneration for his mother.

[00:18:18]And so recently there was a terrible tragedy in the United States a young man Charlie Kirk who was evangelizing in his own way regarding the truth with visiting with young people and answering very directly and charitably and very directly their questions trying to draw them to the truth.

[00:18:43]And he himself was not Catholic. He was an evangelical Christian if I understand correctly.

[00:18:49]But he had in the later these later years just before as he was assassinated he had said that he realized that in the Protestant church there had not been enough attention to the Blessed Virgin Mary and he was being drawn toward the Catholic church through his appreciation of Mary's essential part in the in the work of our our redemption.

[00:19:19]And so I I think that just an invite non-Catholic friends to to just reflect upon the relationship of of the Blessed Virgin Mary to our Lord Jesus Christ who alone is our savior and why because of that relationship why she has such a close relationship with us.

[00:19:40]Now the the latria is worship and that is given to God alone.

[00:19:47]No one else is worshipped but God and because God is the source of all our being and so forth.

[00:19:55]Uh dulia is is veneration for those who are close to God, a recognition of of holy people. We give dulia veneration would be a good translation to the saints for instance.

[00:20:10]But Mary it among those uh cooperators with with Christ's work is altogether special.

[00:20:20]She's the only one mother of God and so she has hyperdulia. So what might call super veneration but it's not worship.

[00:20:28]And it it never has been and uh uh it it can be that some people are extreme and they they say things or do things that are exaggerated. But in the whole history of the church that the church has never been that way. And uh it but simply always held our blessed mother in the place of high highest honor. Is the Jesus only approach that ignores everything else truly Christ-centered from a Catholic perspective or does it risk reducing the mystery of incarnation?

[00:21:01]Absolutely it it to take an approach it to say Jesus alone that we we when we talk about salvation, we need talk only about Jesus, about nobody else.

[00:21:14]That is that's not our Catholic faith and that that's not the Christian faith.

[00:21:19]The great miracle of God's love, the great manifestation of God's love is that he chose to save us by becoming one of us by making us cooperators with the saving work to It's not a question of that that we remain completely horrible and it just covered over by grace, but that grace actually works in us to to to make us holy and and so forth. If we say no, Christ alone is is saves us and that's it. Well, then that what does that mean for us?

[00:22:06]Can we just do whatever we want and and Christ is is going to No, Christ saves us. He says follow him. Take up your cross daily and follow me and this is the way to to your salvation. He provides the grace. We couldn't do it on our own, but we are called to to be to be part of it and so to to exclude for instance our blessed mother above all, but the saints and then the the cooperation of everyday Christians in the work of salvation, this is false.

[00:22:44]Yeah, okay. Well, Your Eminence, you are especially devoted to Our Lady of Guadalupe.

[00:22:50]Visiting the shrine website, one is greeted with the words to Jesus through Mary. How should this be understood concretely? Well, when our Our mother appeared to St. Juan Diego in 1531 from December 9th to to December 12th, she appeared four times to him and the bishop once and then once to her his his uh his dying uncle whom she restored to health.

[00:23:18]But she her very first apparition, she announces herself as the mother of God who has come to show us God's love, namely her son, our Lord Jesus Christ, and she appears with child. The whole symbolism and so forth, she it she is appears as the mother of God.

[00:23:39]And and so we understand that Mary uh by drawing close to the Blessed Virgin Mary, we are immediately going to be taken to Christ because that's her whole life is is is Christ. And and and so she helps us to make our whole life be more and more Christ-like. And so that's why we have that motto to to Jesus through Mary.

[00:24:05]And our blessed mother is uh says that our Lord is her salvation and she wants to show us show him to us as our salvation. Okay.

[00:24:16]Your Eminence, you have a devotion to Our Lady of Fatima.

[00:24:20]She asked for a special devotion of the first Saturdays. What exactly does this devotion involve? Yes.

[00:24:27]The devotion of first Saturday was revealed first at Fatima itself in the apparitions uh of our blessed mother to the three shepherd children, Saints Francisco and Jacinta and the servant of God, Sister Lucia.

[00:24:43]And uh and then uh the mother of God appeared in 1925 on December 10th to Sister Lucia. The two little her two little cousins had both died. They They died very shortly after the apparitions, but she she she had entered the the novitiate of the Dorothean nuns in in Spain, Pontevedra, and our Lord appeared there with the Blessed Mother and insisted on the First Saturday devotions as an act of love of God and of his of the Mother of God in sorrow for all the things that we do that offend our Lord and and his Blessed Mother and act of reparation.

[00:25:32]And so the the First Saturday, she asks that that for on the First Saturday of the month for 5 months that they one make a good confession, one participate in Holy Mass, one pray five decades of the Rosary, and and spend 15 minutes in the company of our Blessed Mother meditating on on the mystery of God's love meditating on the mystery of God's love in the life of Jesus and Mary as we do with the the Rosary. And it's as simple as that, but all of this is done not as some kind of magical formula, but it's all done out of an act of love. In other words, the recognition, the first thing is that I I have to recognize my own sins, the ways in which I offend God, and therefore I'm moved by my love of God to want to make reparation, and I do this by the way of the First Saturdays.

[00:26:39]The Our Blessed Mother promised that if two things happened, we that that the peace would come to the world and the the consecration of Russia to to immaculate heart and the first Saturdays. Now the consecration of Russia to her immaculate heart, that isn't our responsibility. That's with the Holy Father.

[00:27:02]But the first Saturdays, we can do that.

[00:27:05]And if our Blessed Mother is asking us, insisting on it, then why aren't we doing it? And it's beautiful devotion.

[00:27:13]And not only was December 10th, 1925, but again our Lord appeared to her again in February of 1926 at the same convent and the children insisted with her on this. And so this is something that we simply need to do what our Lady is asking us. And it's quite simple. It's very simple. It doesn't But the hard part is is to make it an act of love.

[00:27:43]In other words, not just something routine, but that this is a deeply inspired act of love. In sorrow for sin, reparation for for sins committed and and and in love of God. You have called a nine-month novena in preparation for a personal consecration to the Blessed Virgin of Guadalupe.

[00:28:02]What does a Marian consecration need in its essence?

[00:28:06]In its essence, it's a a union of heart with her immaculate heart to do whatever our Lord is asking. In other words, to put our hearts completely be into his his heart and to to do whatever he asks of us. And fundamentally the act of consecration is a giving ourselves to our Lady, asking her to intercede for the conversion of our hearts to the Sacred Heart of Jesus and then for the conversion of of the many souls who have who have known Christ and have gone away from him and for the many souls who've never known him, we ask as happened when she appeared in in Mexico in 1531, there were millions of conversions. We by this act of consecration, we devote ourselves to this work of bringing souls to Christ.

[00:29:07]And that is uh that is what the consecration is. We could say simply uh to give our hearts to the Immaculate Heart of Mary and thereby to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. To Jesus through Mary.

[00:29:24]>> Yes, that's true.

[00:29:25]Why would you recommend that every Catholic entrust themselves to the blessed blessed mother? She she is the the instrument God's chosen wonderful instrument by which she he brought to his own son to the world to save us. Uh how could we not love her who who who accepted this great mission from God and which is makes her our mother and I can say this that if you love Christ uh uh you you will want to know his mother and and you want to love and and venerate her. Your Eminence, finally, on a personal note, have you experienced a particular moment of effect of the Blessed Virgin Mary in your life?

[00:30:18]Well, I could talk about many uh moments from my childhood. As we in my in my home, my parents uh taught us a great love of the Blessed Mother and also in the Catholic school and the priests and the sisters.

[00:30:34]Um but I had a particular experience not that long ago in in August of 2021.

[00:30:41]I became very ill with the quote the contagion of the COVID virus and I was taken to the hospital and and I was told that I would more than likely die. And and the doctors asked for my permission to put me on the respirator as a as the only possibility of trying to to save my life. But and and in any case, I then was on the respirator for 9 days.

[00:31:10]But when I of course during those 9 days I have no memory of anything because they they sedate you in order that your system will permit this artificial respiration.

[00:31:23]So but when I when they took away the sedation and I was reanimated I had immediately the the sense of our of our Lady especially under the title of Our Lady of Guadalupe that she was holding me and that it was through her her intercession especially that God spared my life for whatever work he has for me to do in these last years. And so that was a very strong but I have I have to say I I have a daily sense of her her maternal care. Mhm. Thank you very much.

[00:32:01]>> You're welcome.

[00:32:02]>> For talking about this um very strong moment with the mother of Christ.

[00:32:08]And your Eminence, thank you. It was an honor to talk with you about the Blessed Virgin Mary.

[00:32:15]Thank you. God bless your work. Thanks.

[00:32:18]Yesus Maria >> [singing] [music] >> Maria Maria [singing] Maria Maria