Blessed Virgin Mary, who can worthily repay you with praise and thanksgiving for having rescued a fallen world by your generous consent? What songs of praise can our weak human nature offer in your honor, since it was through you that it has found the way to salvation? Accept then such poor thanks as we have to offer, unequal though they be to your merits. Receive our gratitude and obtain by your prayers the pardon of our sins. Take our prayers into the sanctuary of heaven and enable them to bring about our peace with God.
May the sins we penitently bring before Almighty God through you be pardoned. May what we beg with confidence be granted through you. Take our offerings and grant our request; obtain pardon for what we fear, for you are the only hope of sinners. We hope to obtain the forgiveness of our sins through you. Blessed Lady, in you is our hope of reward. Holy Mary, help the miserable, strengthen the discouraged, comfort the sorrowful, pray for your people, plead for the clergy, intercede for all women consecrated to God. May all who venerate you, feel now your help and protection. Be ready to help us when we pray, and bring back to us the answers to our prayers. Make it your continual care to pray for the People of God, for you were blessed by God and were made worthy to bear the Redeemer of the world, Who lives and reigns forever. [—Saint Augustine (d. 430). (Dictionary of Mary, Catholic Book Publishing Co.: New Jersey, 1997, 1985, p. 531.)]
The answer is, that Regeneration is conferred by the Sacrament and not by the parents' faith. 2 It is not written, says Augustine, except a man be born again of his parents' will, or of the faith of those who present him to Baptism or who minister the Sacrament ; but, except a man be born again of Water and of the Holy Spirit. Thus Regeneration is the work of the Holy Spirit. As Augustine puts it: the water externally manifesting the Sacrament of Grace, and the Spirit inwardly effecting the benefit of Grace. ("Aqua igitur exhibens forinsecus sacramentum gratiae, et Spiritus operans intrinsecus beneficium gratiae.") The Regenerating Spirit is present alike in the elders who offer the child, and in the child who is offered and born again. And it is this association in the one Spirit which gives value to the parents' faith. The stress, according to Augustine, must be laid on the Divine side and not on the mere human belief. (Augustine of Hippo, Letters 98:2)
True salvation is only found in the Lord Jesus. He is our life (1 John 5:12) and the only way to the Father (John 14:6). Jesus is the only hope of sinners, not Mary. Praying to Mary is not Biblical and will not assist you in obtaining forgiveness of sins. It is also disobedience in itself to how the Lord taught for us to pray (Mt. 6:6-8; Jn. 14:14 cf. Acts 7:59,60).
Here Is Proof That Alphonsus Liguori Prayed To Mary For Salvation
To be forgiven of your sins you must repent (turn away from your sins) and place a trusting and submitting faith in the Lord Jesus who shed his blood for your sins. Infants can NOT be born again at infant baptism! Please read the New Testament for yourself, believe what it says and change accordingly. The Bible Is Final Authority. Humbly seek the proper interpretation of Scripture by reading all of it, carefully examining the context and comparing Scripture with Scripture. The Holy Spirit is the Christian's teacher and guide, not John Calvin, Charles Spurgeon, the Pope or anyone else. Your eternal destiny depends on what you do with the message of the Bible. The Augustine of Hippo wrongly exalted by Calvinism (and Catholicism) was not sound. Augustine of Hippo was NOT a great theologian or a scholar as David Pawson called him. Augustine of Hippo believed in a mythical, non-existent Mary - not the real mother of Jesus shown in the Bible. Click here to purchase our book, Is This the Mary Of The Bible. Remember, your eternal destiny hinges on what you do with the message of the Bible, not how Augustine of Hippo prayed or believed!
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