Does Mary really interact with Catholics at Holy Communion? Does Mary have an active role in the Church Militant?
St. Cyril of Alexandria, the great Champion of the Council of Ephesus answers: “Through you (Mary) the apostles preached to the nations the doctrine of salvation; through you the holy Cross is celebrated and adored in the whole world; through you demons are put to flight and man is called to heaven; through you every creature held in the bonds of idolatry has been brought to the knowledge of truth; through you the faithful have been brought to holy Baptism and Churches founded in every nation.”
St. Cyril goes on to explain that She “maintained the faith firm, intact and fruitful among the people.” It was due to Her impetus that holy and apostolic men were raised up to repulse the efforts of heretics and it was Her intercession that roused the people from indifference to resist heresy.
What was true in the age of Faith when the Church defeated the great heresies remains true today. As the Church gathers around Christ at Mass, Mary prays for each one of its members, that they receive the Grace to receive Jesus, and from this Grace, the will and courage to follow Him. And this She does continually, and for every soul.
It can be difficult for the mind to grasp such a universal and yet personal Motherhood. Yet Mary is no office-bound bureaucrat automatically stamping an infinite pile of grace papers without any real idea of their contents.
She knows and thinks for each one of her many children as much as any mother on earth who gathers her children at her knees.
Though we cannot fully understand, we can easily know that the Glory of heaven surpasses Grace on earth.
Now Mary’s Grace on earth was to stand at the foot of the Cross as the active and intelligent Mother of the Redeemer and the redeemed. Therefore, Her Glory in heaven corresponds to this unique position. In this Glory that surpasses that of all the Saints put together, Mary sees souls as they are before God.
The whole glory of heaven resides essentially in the Blessed Sacrament, for heaven is centered on God, and Christ is God, the second Person of the Most Holy Trinity. If we try to look upon ourselves and upon the whole world from that angle of Glory, we begin to get an idea of Mary’s view of souls.
In heaven, her tender maternal compassion is exercised in fullness and perfection towards each of us. Never is our Mother more Mother than in eternal glory, in the bosom of the Holy Trinity, where she resides, acts and gives herself.
And what does she give us, this ineffable Mother? Firstly, she prepares us to receive Jesus, she ennobles our hearts with her virtues and makes them like hers: immaculate. For it is through her prayer in the bosom of this divine glory that we receive the graces we need to become worthy of communion with Jesus – Hostia.
And secondly, she gives us Jesus himself through the hands of the priest. No one could worthily receive Jesus without Our Lady of the Blessed Sacrament.
