Gate of Heaven

In the Litany of Loreto, Mary is called ‘Gate of Heaven’. She is not the guard that protects Heaven from anyone who is not worthy. It is the opposite. She is the way to Heaven for every sinner. If we trust completely in her, she will lead us into Heaven. As Saint Louis de Montfort said, “True devotion to our Blessed Lady is a secure way to go to Jesus and to acquire perfection by uniting ourselves to Him.” This Saint is urging us to go through Mary, the Gate, to Jesus.

Before the birth of Christ, the gates of Heaven were shut because of the sin of Adam and Eve. They stayed shut until the redemption of man. In Genesis 3:23 it states, “Therefore, the Lord God sent him forth from the garden of Eden, to till the ground from which he was taken.” Although all of us inherited that sin from Adam and Eve, Mary was preserved from it. She was the new Eve, the gate to heaven. “Then he brought me back to the outer gate of the sanctuary facing east, and it was shut.” (Ez. 44:1.) This verse shows that the gate of heaven was closed by original sin until the resurrection of Christ. Saint Ambrose and Saint Augustine both agreed that the verse was talking about Mary, the Gate of Heaven. 

She is not only the pathway for us to Heaven and the means by which Jesus came to earth. At the Annunciation when she said in Luke 1:38, “Behold I am the handmaid of the Lord, be it done to me according to thy word.” Mary became the Gate of Heaven the moment she consented. Mary’s consent to be the Gate of Heaven was foreshadowed in the Old Testament, in 2 Samuel. (19:8) When the king spoke to the people, he would often go to the gate to address them. After the resurrection, Jesus is the king that goes to the gate to address us, the gate being Mary. So, it is Mary who appears to us with Jesus’s wishes in such places as at Lourdes or Guadalupe.  

In our present time Mary is one way to help us get to heaven. She invites us to pass through her, she is the secure way to Heaven. Mary did so much for us; after the Gate of Heaven was closed by original sin, she helped open the Gate by agreeing to be the mother of God. Mary is the Gate through which Jesus came to earth. She sends us messages from Christ, our King. We must always listen and obey those messages while continuing to go to Jesus through Mary. She will always welcome us and let us pass.