Our Blessed Mother wants nothing more for us than to have a true relationship with her Son. In the current storm of misinformation, our Lady acts as a shield to protect the orthodoxy of our faith that keeps our eyes and hearts fixed on Christ.
After a previous attempt, I wish to promote another title for our Lady: Shield of Orthodoxy.
Christianity is not a mere set of ideas, it is a relationship with a real person: Jesus Christ. For any true relationship, we must have true knowledge of the other person. This means that faith is not just my own personal conviction or yours. If Jesus Christ is a real person, then our faith is only true by believing what is true about him (John 17:3, 2 Cor 11:3-4). The name we give this “true or right belief” is orthodoxy.
Our Blessed Mother wants nothing more for us than to have a true relationship with her Son. It is precisely because her own relationship with Jesus is so close that getting the wrong idea about the Blessed Virgin Mary can quickly lead to a wrong idea about Christ. And so the Church defends the four Marian Dogmas. These four truths, though about Mary, help us to understand Christ and our relationship with him. In the current storm of misinformation, our Lady acts as a shield to protect the orthodoxy of our faith that keeps our eyes and hearts fixed on Christ. But what exactly do the Marian Dogmas say about Jesus? I was hoping you would ask…
1. Mother of God — Is this just metaphorical or a title of honor? No. We really mean that Mary is the Mother of God Almighty. Jesus Christ is one Divine Person of a perfect Divine Nature as God and a perfect human nature as man. It is the same Divine Person who is begotten eternally of the Father and who was born in time of his mother. If we ask what kind of nature Mary gave birth to, it was a human nature. But if we ask the more important question of who she gave birth to, it is God the Son. We cannot believe that our Savior is true God and true man without also believing that Mary is the Mother of God. The one who came to suffer and die to save us is no one less than God himself.
2. Ever Virgin — By the power of God, Mary conceived as a virgin, gave birth as a virgin, and retained the immaculate purity of her virginity throughout her life. Christ establishes a relationship with us by pouring something of himself into our souls: his grace. He does not destroy our nature by doing this, he perfects it. To make this clear, God went above and beyond at the Incarnation by adding the dignity of motherhood to Mary without taking away the nobility of virginity. A true relationship with Christ does not involve any denial of what makes us human. The only thing grace removes is the damage caused by sin, which brings us to . . .
3. Immaculate Conception — By a singular privilege and by her Son’s atoning merit, Mary was preserved from the stain of all sin at her conception. In our own lives, after years of struggling with the same sins, we might be tempted to believe that Christ will not fully heal us or that Christ’s humanity was perfectly whole only because he was God. But with Mary we have another human being who is not God and in whom Christ showed that his grace has the power to perfect every aspect of our nature. Christ truly heals us and actually makes us holy and righteous. Grace is not just a “holiness” label slapped on the outside, leaving us interiorly disfigured. Christ is too powerful and loves us too much. He just cultivates our humility and trust in him by healing us in his own time and his own way.
4. Assumed into Heaven — Mary was preserved from the corruption of death by being taken up soul and body into heaven. Christ perfects the whole of who we are, even our bodies. Hence, our relationship with Christ must be embodied and lived. We must worship as united with Christ’s Mystical Body, not just in sentiment privately, but by our physical presence at Mass. We must embody our love and gratitude by our actions. We must allow our faith to shape how we live. Religion is not a private conviction because Christ is real and Christ is Lord.
We have only scratched the surface here. I invite you to spend some time in your own prayer to meditate further on the meaning of these Marian mysteries, which light the way to Christ and shield us from the confusion of errors.
Our Lady, Shield of Orthodoxy, pray for us!
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Republished with gracious permission from Dominicana (November 2025).
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Does not Orthodoxy rest in the objective truths, the proclamations that “ I am the Way, the Life and the Truth”, “I am” and the “Greatest Commandment that I am the Lord thy God and you shall have no strange gods before me.” Our prayers with St Mary are simply to make is worthy by obedience hence her call to the servants, sustain by the words “ welcome my good and faithful servant” to do whatever He tells you to do. I am concerned that the speculative theology promotes sentimental sophistry hence feminism within His Church.
Thank you for your great summary of the four well defined Marian dogmas, so far, Mother of God (Dei Genitrix), Forever Virgin, Immaculate conception in her parents’ Jewish marriage and into their Jewish religion and culture and society, and her assumption into the heavens. Thank you also, for emphasis on Mary’s orthodoxy, because she is orthodox Jew and catholic Christian alike, as is Jesus, because she fully submits her human will under Lord God’s divine will, as He fully submits His human will under His own divine will (and both are perfect muslims as well, because islamic denial of original sin is quite irrelevant to both).
Hence, in their human respect, Mary and Jesus are alike, new Eve and new Adam, and all human beings are called for like justification with participation in grace.
If the man Christ Jesus is catholic and sole redeemer, then the woman Virgin Mary is orthodox coredeemeress, like all of us are called by God for participation in coredemption, because God Is Love.
I also suggest that she is mediatrix of Trinitarian graces, that all exist in Jesus, because He came to be created man, and the Paschal mystery is real presence in holy mass of Him crucified and risen, so she is mediatrix of sacramental grace, because she gives birth to her Creator.
And she is spokeswoman or advocate of the souls, because she is mother of souls.
We are all in our human respect called for holiness not unlike Mary and Jesus.
Virgin Mary is (and the Church is) thus:
In God orthodox coredeemeress and mediatrix of Trinitarian graces and of the souls spokeswoman before our Lord.
There is one God, and one mediator between God and human beings, the man Christ Jesus. Because, the Holy Ghost proceeds from the Father and [instrumental ablative: through-with-in] the Son. Who is God and man alike and sole mediator and sole redeemer, since Trinitarian graces exist through-with-in Him. Still, she is coredeemeress and mediatrix and spokeswoman, fully alive and free and human, as we all shall be, because she gives birth to her Saviour.
Adam and Eve are the greatest persons in the old testament, but we shall join Jesus and Mary in the new testament, in justification in belief and baptism and in participation in life of amazing grace.
This fifth Marian dogma, like the already four well defined dogmas, is about us.
Because Christendom is philosophia vera and is true philosophy of God and all else and is hence relevant to all creation now.
Marian dogmas are not religious pieties, becauae they are actual catholic realities, as all human beings and all life face God.
Thus Marian dogmas are subordinate to the religious Trinitarian creed that exists for Christians, because Mary is human, while Jesus is divine, which is the core of Christianity, to restore all in glory of God.
Marian dogmas are greatly ecumenical, speaking of her human likeness new Eve, while they do derive from the Trinitarian creed, which is of course core Lord Jesus.