5 reasons why Mary is necessary for our spiritual growth
Modern people, Catholics themselves, like to see Mary as ‘something for it’. However, Our Lady is badly needed for everyone who wants spiritual growth.
1) The gradual decline in sin
Although we always receive the necessary graces for our salvation, we still need special graces to persist. This is because the soul when it falls into sin, this generally follows a certain pattern. First, one commits acts of ungratefulness that cause a reduction in grace. As a result, the person in the state of grace gradually declines and needs extraordinary graces. When the graces continue to diminish, one falls from one misstep to the next, to eventually fall into a very serious sin, a mortal sin.
2) A necessary leader
Devotion to Our Lady and a faithful relationship with her is crucial for obtaining the necessary graces to save the soul from this process of sin deceration. We need a leader who supplements this lack in our soul with requests for extra graces, so that we receive enough graces for our salvation and redemption.
3) A Forgiving Mother
Our Lady obtains for us the graces necessary to achieve salvation. The mere fact that we are devoted to her makes us pleasing to God, who is therefore inclined to answer our bedes. However, human nature is so weak again and again that we neglect grace and lose it. It is therefore difficult to find people who are sufficiently faithful to achieve salvation without the intervention of Our Lady.
She gets the minimum for us…
We might think that Our Lady is not the Mediator of all graces, but only of extraordinary graces. Yet that is not the case. No, our mother Mary also obtains the minimum of necessary graces for us. Our recurring wickedness and decay in sin is necessary to teach us again and again that we cannot sustain the spiritual life without her powerful support.
A comparison
Imagine a friend who is in a “state of grace”, so to speak, towards you. In other words, he is a friend who is completely dependent on your goodness, and generally behaves correctly towards you. But although this friend does not commit serious mistakes against you, he still constantly commits small missteps, such as lack of politeness, respect or affection. Of course, to the extent that he continues to do so, you gradually withdraw your friendship from him.
Her intercession prevents your fall
If he makes a serious mistake, it is understandable that you break your friendship with him. This is a good parallel with a sinner who, without immediately losing the state of grace, slowly but surely wanders so that he almost inevitably at a certain moment has fallen into a state of mortal sin. To prevent this fall, the intercession of Our Lady is badly needed. It is not only urgently needed, but also indispensable, because after a mortal sin, a person no longer has a claim to forgiveness. Even if he were to repent, it is doubtful whether God would give heaven to someone in this state of mind without subjecting him to severe trials as punishment for his rebellious attitude.
4) Devotion to Our Lady prepares us for a blissful death
Some people assume that death comes as an accident, a disaster outside the ways of Providence, and that God has nothing to do with death. Man walks the paths of spiritual life as he pleases, and then suddenly death comes and interrupts God’s plans and the development of his soul.
God sees everything
In fact, this is not the case at all. No hair falls from our heads without God’s permit. Everything is proportional to the orientation of our spiritual life. In fact, the moment of our death is perfectly chosen with regard to our sins and merits. Without the intercession and merits of Our Lady, it would be impossible for us to remain in a state of grace.
You can refuse
Imagine your friend complaining to you a few times because of his deeds and attitude, annoying but nothing horrible. Then he comes to ask you for a big gift. Would you be ready and willing to give it to him? A bit depending on the precise situation, but you would be entitled to refuse any request from his side.
5) A Mother who draws us up to grace
Our spiritual life is not a plateau next to an abyss. It is a sloping plane, in the middle of which runs a line that separates the state of grace from the state of mortal sin. When someone is on the upper half of this slope, he can slide down without immediately falling into mortal sin. When someone who is on the upper part of the slope commits infidelity, God usually reduces his graces; and by taking the grace, one can find himself in such a poor mental state that he is reduced to the strictly minimum grace.
Grace is quickly underestimated
When it is said that the original sin leads to mortal sin, this does not mean that man lacks sufficient mercy not to fall into sin, but that all too often he does not respond to grace and then falls. Human nature has a very strong tendency to underestimate and neglect grace, thereby abusing grace. However, in each concrete case, man has the will to react. However, man can only obtain the graces that are necessary and appropriate not to fall, if he takes refuge in Our Lady. And that is why Our Lady is necessary for our spiritual life.
This text is edited from a lecture by prof. Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira. She has been translated and edited for publication without his revision. – Vert.
Laatst bijgewerkt: 5 March 2026 14:10