The Church teaches us to invoke Mary as Mediatrix of all graces. This title summarizes what the Blessed Virgin is for us, in our relations with her beloved Son: the Mediatrix of grace, of mercy, the treasurer of all the graces which Jesus merited for us.
“By the communion of sorrows and of will between Christ and Mary,” says St. Pius X, “she merited to become the dispenser of all the benefits which Jesus acquired for us by shedding His Blood” (Encyclical Ad Diem Ilium).
Mary, who was associated in the closest and most intimate waywith the life, the work, and the Passion of her Son, cooperated with Him in our redemption to such an extent that the grace, which Jesus alone could merit for us condignly, was merited also by Mary, although in a secondary way and by congruity only. Thus Mary obtained real power over all the supernatural treasures acquired by her Son; and since she obtained them together with Him, she also distributes them to us with Him. After Jesus, who is the only Mediator, Mary is the Mediatrix: as Jesus continually intercedes with the Father in Heaven on our behalf, so Mary intercedes with Jesus for us; she obtains and dispenses to us all the graces we need.
The Introit of the Mass for the Feast of Mary Mediatrix of All Graces very fittingly applies to Mary the words spoken by St. Paul about Jesus: “Let us approach the throne of grace with confidence, to obtain mercy and pardon.” Next to Jesus, Mary is really the “throne of grace,” and she can obtain everything for us from her Son. She is the omnipotentia supplex, the all-powerful intercessor: all-powerful in her prayer as Mother.
Mary is the Mediatrix between her Son and us for a twofold reason: she gives Jesus to us and she brings us to Him. The Gospel tells us this several times, showing us the typically maternal attitude of Mary as she brought Jesus to mankind.
- Our Lady offered the Infant Jesus to the adoration of the shepherds and the Wise Men;
- she took Him to the Temple and presented Him to Simeon;
- by her intercession at Cana, she obtained the first miracle from her Son.
- On Calvary, Mary received into her arms the martyred, lifeless Body of her beloved Son, whom she offered to mankind as the price of its redemption.
- In the Cenacle, she begged the plenitude of the Holy Spirit for the Apostles and, from that day to the day of her Assumption, she sustained the infant Church by her prayers and maternal encouragement.
To find Mary is to find Jesus. This is the whole reason for her existence and her mission: to give Jesus to the world and to souls, and with Jesus, to give His grace and blessings. As St. Bernard says, Mary is truly the channel which carries the living water of grace to mankind; furthermore, she brings Jesus, the very source of grace.
As Mediatrix, Mary also leads men to Jesus by teaching them the way to her Son and by showing them how to please Him. We are always poor little children incapable of making presentable gifts to God, but Mary our Mother, with maternal delicacy, arranges and embellishes our gifts, our acts, our prayers and sacrifices, and offers them with her own hands to her divine Son. She, like a true mother, gives particular attention to our hearts, which she desires to make pleasing to Jesus: Mary wants to form in each one of us a heart which is pure, full of love and goodness, a heart which can beat in unison with the heart of her Son. Let us then, place our hearts in Mary’s hands, that she may fill them “with grace and truth, life and virtue”.
Fr. Karl Stehlin
Warsaw, on the 25th of March,
the Feast of the Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin Mary
