Mary is the “best of Mothers” who faithfully keeps the candle of hope burning in the darkness, Pope Francis said today, as he invited Christians to pray as he journeys to Fatima to “entrust to Our Lady the temporal and eternal fate of mankind.”

Continuing his series on Christian hope, at the Wednesday general audience, the pope turned to Mary, Mother of Hope.

“Still in the flower of youth … she responds with courage, even though she did not know the fate that awaited her,” he said.

Hers is also a witness of quiet yet trusting obedience to God’s will amid the trials of life. “Mary appears in the Gospels as a silent woman, who often did not understand everything that was happening around her, but she meditated on every word and event in her heart,” he said.

“In this disposition, there is a beautiful detail about Mary’s psychology: she is not a woman who gets depressed when faced with life’s uncertainties, especially when nothing seems to be going right. Nor is she a woman who protests with violence, who rails against what life dictates, often with a hostile face. Instead, she is a woman who listens: do not forget that there is always a great relationship between hope and listening, and Mary is a woman who listens. Mary welcomes life as it is given to us, with its happy days, but also with its tragedies that we would never want to encounter. Until Mary’s supreme night, when her Son is nailed to the wood of the Cross.”

Note how the Pope persistently refers to Mary as a living person in heaven contrary to what the Bible teaches.

Pope Francis concluded:

“This is why we love her as a Mother. We are not orphans: we have a Mother in heaven, who is the Holy Mother of God. Because she teaches us the virtue of waiting, even when everything seems meaningless. She always trusts in the mystery of God, even when He seems to be eclipsed by the evil of the world. In times of difficulty, may Mary, the Mother Jesus has given to us all, always support our steps. May she say to our hearts: “Get up. Look ahead. Look to the horizon. For she is the Mother of Hope.” Read Is Mary the Queen of Heaven?

Pilgrimage to Fatima

In his greetings to pilgrims following his catechesis, the pope made a special request, saying:

“Dear pilgrims, … this Friday and Saturday — God willing — I will travel as a pilgrim to Fatima, to entrust to Our Lady the temporal and eternal fate of mankind, and to pray for God’s blessings on its ways. I ask you all to join me, as pilgrims of hope and peace: may your praying hands continue to support mine. May the greatest and best of Mothers watch over each of you all of your days until eternity!”

What a load of lies!

There is no queen of heaven. There has never been a queen of heaven. There is most certainly a King of Heaven, the Lord of hosts, Jehovah. He alone rules in heaven. He does not share His rule or His throne or His authority with anyone. The idea that Mary, the mother of Jesus, is the queen of heaven has no scriptural basis whatsoever, stemming instead from proclamations of priests and popes of the Roman Catholic Church. While Mary was certainly a godly young woman greatly blessed in that she was chosen to bear the Savior of the world, she was not in any way divine, nor was she sinless, nor is she to be worshipped, revered, venerated, orprayed to. All followers of the Lord God refuse worship. Peter and the apostles refused to be worshipped (Acts 10:25-26;14:13-14). The holy angels refuse to be worshipped (Revelation 19:10;22:9). The response is always the same, “Worship God!” To offer worship, reverence, or veneration to anyone but God is nothing short of idolatry. Mary’s own words in her “Magnificat” (Luke 1:46-55) reveal that she never thought of herself as “immaculate” and deserving of veneration, but was instead relying on the grace of God for salvation: “And my spirit rejoices in God my Savior.” Only sinners need a savior, and Mary recognized that need in herself.

Furthermore, Jesus Himself issued a mild rebuke to a woman who cried out to Him, “Blessed is the mother who gave you birth and nursed you” (Luke 11:27), replying to her, “Blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and obey it.” By doing so, He curtailed any tendency to elevate Mary as an object of worship. He could certainly have said, “Yes, blessed be the Queen of Heaven!” But He did not. He was affirming the same truth that the Bible affirms—there is no queen of heaven, and the only biblical references to the “queen of heaven” refer to the goddess of an idolatrous, false religion. Read more here