...She is God's Mother. And she is also our Mother! In heaven she continues to work for our salvation. Her glorious intercession is directed above all to the great, essential things which she views in God's plans. She will not pray away every cross; she was not even allowed to lift the cross from the shoulders of her Son. Her pleading is for her children who are away from home: that they might not succumb to dangers; that they might reach maturity in Christ; that they might attain eternal salvation. A mother never ceases to pray for her children. A friend may plead for us once, ten times, perhaps a hundred times. A mother prays always; her loving concern never ceases. She believes all, she hopes all, she suffers all, she conquers all. With gracious tenacity Mary prays for us, even when our depravity or obstinacy makes everything look useless and hopeless. She is the refuge of sinners. What wonders of grace has not Mary been able to obtain by her pleading! Our Saviour's words to the Canaanite woman are far more true of Mary: "O woman, great is thy faith--and thy love!--Let it be done to thee as thou wilt." (Mt. 1 5:28)
Mary's intercession is therefore mightier than that of any other. She stands beside the throne of the King as the great intercessor, the 'advocate' of mankind, according to the beautiful prayer, the Salve Regina, pointing out our needs to His eye and His heart. There, at the throne, Peter and Paul, Anthony, Therese, the great little saint, also pray for us. The mystery of this intercession of the blessed in heaven is their love: love of God and love of us. The more intimately they were united with God in love on earth, the more radiantly can their love for us stream forth from heaven in our behalf. Mary's intercession surpasses that of all others, is more powerful than that of all others, however holy. It is the pleading of the Mother of God, not only of the friends of God. A well founded opinion holds that the prayers of all others must be supported by Mary's if they are to find a hearing: "Whatever the others pray for, they pray for in some way through the blessed Virgin." Mary is, St. Pius X declares, "the principal mediatrix of all graces and the dispenser of all graces."
We now come to the prerogative of Mary as Universal Mediatrix of Grace.
The work of all other saints was limited on earth by a certain period of time, by a country, a station in life. The power of their intercession in heaven is therefore also limited, for heavenly existence corresponds to the earthly. Mary is the Mother of all the redeemed. Her concern and her prayers are for the welfare of all, for their growth and perfection in grace. She spoke her Yes (Fiat) at the Incarnation for all of us. She wept and suffered on Calvary for all of us. She prayed that the Holy Spirit come down for all of us. Pope Leo XIII therefore makes the conclusion: "Just as she was once associated in effecting the mystery of redemption, so she is also now associated in the dispensing of graces from this mystery for all times." In 1921 Pope Benedict XV, at the request of Cardinal Mercier, granted permission to the bishops of Belgium to observe a feast of Mary as 'Mediatrix of All Graces.' Pope Pius XI, in 1931, then extended this permission to all dioceses.
This title leaves several questions unanswered. In this matter we should like to be rather cautious than hasty, for the teaching authority of the Church has not determined the content of this title exactly or definitely. (Following is the footnote for this statement)
'The important question here is this: did God Himself build Mary's motherly solicitude so firmly into the order of the distribution of grace that He simply dispenses no grace whatever without her intercessory mediation, or is it merely a case of Mary's motherly love embracing all human beings with such loving solicitude that God grants every prayer of hers in our behalf?
The number of theologians is not small who regard Mary's universal mediation as necessary, so that all graces not only go actually through Mary's hands, but must do so. This opinion rests on theological-scientific speculation. "A real proof for the existence of this order (fixed by God Himself by which every grace is granted only as conjointly obtained by her) can be built up as follows: we must show that it forms an integral part of a special and actual order capable of proof, which, without it, would be incomplete, or interrupted in its natural development. Thus the non-existence of this order would be objected to as a real anomaly." (M. Scheeben) Theologians who rely on Scripture rather than on speculation find little basis for this opinion. The necessity of a universal mediation of grace on the part of Mary cannot be proved from holy Scripture. Neither from Genesis (3:15) nor from John (19:26) can the doctrine of the necessity of a universal mediation of grace be deduced. Tradition, likewise, furnishes no proof, for Mary's mediatorship came into full light only in the Middle Ages. Furthermore, the teaching authority of the Church has made no authoritative decision.
The popes of our century (the past 100+ years or so), especially Leo XIII, St. Pius X, Benedict XV, and Pius XII favor Mary's universal mediation of graces in several allocutions and writings. Leo XIII wrote: By her oneness of will and suffering with Christ Mary merited the honor to be the restorer of the world which was lost and hence also the dispenser of all the graces which Christ merited for us by His death and His blood." Again: One may say that from superabundant treasure of graces nothing is imparted to us, according to God's will, except through Mary, so that, just as no one can come to the Father except the the Son, so in a similar way no one can come to Christ except through Mary. St. Pius X: Mary is the dispenser of all graces which Christ has merited for us by His death." Pius XII: Mary it was who through her powerful prayers obtained the grace that the Spirit of our Divine Redeemer, already given to the Church on the cross, should be bestowed through miraculous gifts on the newly founded hierarchy on Pentecost.
These pronouncements of the popes are 'still far from a definition of an article of faith, yet a step in that direction.' One should note in the statement of Pope Leo XIII the restricting words: "One may say." Not: "One must say." Nor is it definitely established whether these statements mean only an actual or a necessary mediatorship of Mary.
In many circles there is great activity, spurred on by the dogmatization of Mary's Assumption, to have Mary's universal mediation of graces be declared a dogma. The dogma, however, shows that a particular doctrine must pass through a long process of clarification, limitation, and also reverses, before the final is made.'
The Marian Congress held in Rome in 1954 has been cautious in making the declaration: that the opinions of theologians regarding Mary as dispenser of graces--and still more regarding her title as Co-redeemer, have not yet been so firmly established that a uniform evaluation could be expressed; and that the problem should be approached in different ways and from different aspects.
It is certainly not the meaning of this title that we obtain grace only by imploring Mary's intercession. Such an interpretation is contrary to the practice of the Latin Church itself. Without mentioning Mary, the Church asks the intercession of other saints as well. A still more potent proof is this: in the official books of prayer, the Breviary and the Missal, the Church addresses her prayers, even on Marian feasts, directly to God, not even to Christ (with a few exceptions); she prays to the Father "through Jesus Christ our Lord." Mary as Mediatrix of all graces should not mean that her intercession is altogether and in general necessary to move Christ to make intercession for us, as if, of Himself, He were not willing to do so.
The meaning of this title is rather this: Mary receives all our poor prayers into her holy hands and imparts to them a fragrance, splendor, and power which they would never possess of themselves. With us, and for us, she kneels pleadingly at the throne of her Son and raises up to Him, as in a chalice, all our human misery, our sufferings, and needs. Could any ordinary son see his mother kneeling before him without answering her pleas? The Lord takes our prayers, which now have become also those of His Mother, from her hands and fills these motherly hands with the golden gifts of His grace, so that she might distribute them. "Whatever therefore is found in us of hope, of grace, of salvation, flows to us through Mary. This is the will of Him Who has decided that we should possess all things through Mary." (Pope Pius IX) "For because Mary was drawn by God Himself into the accomplishment of the work of salvation with the intention that she be congruously the Mediatrix on our behalf of those things which Christ merited condignly, she therefore is and remains the principal cooperator in the distribution of grace." (St. Pius X)
O Lord Jesus Christ, our Mediator with the Father, who hast appointed the most blessed Virgin, Thy Mother, our Mother also, and our Mediatrix before Thee: grant that whosoever draws nigh to Thee to beseech any good things, may rejoice to receive them all through her. Amen. (Oration for the feast of Mary, Mediatrix of All Graces, Roman Missal)
And, remember that she said at Fatima, Portugal, in 1917, "Only I can help you."
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