Mediatrix

"Virgin Mother, Daughter of thy Son. Humble beyond all creatures yet more exalted. Predestined turning point of God's intention. Thy merit so ennobled human nature that its divine Creator did not scorn to make Himself the creature of His creature. O Lady, thou art so near God's recognizng that he who would seek grace without first seeking thee would have his wish fly upward without wings." (Dante)

In Dante's Divine Comedy St. Bernard proclaims this prayer to the Blessed Virgin. It is one of the most profoundly beautiful prayers in all of Roman Catholic literature. If you read these words carefully you could meditate upon them for years and only scratch the surface of the mysteries they reveal about the salvific plan of God for His creation.

It has been the constant teaching of the Church that the Blessed Virgin Mary played the most significant role in the work of our salvation next to her Son, Jesus Christ. It was through her obedience that God became man and thus through her "YES" that salvation came to the whole world. All generations have called her blessed. It was through her intercession that Jesus performed His first miracle. She was mystically nailed to the cross just as surely as Jesus was physically nailed to it.. No other human being has suffered the passion of Christ in such perfect union with His suffering nor gained as much merit in that suffering as did Our Lady. Thus she has been proclaimed by the Fathers of the Church and by countless saints as "Mediatrix of all Grace".

What exactly does Mediatrix of all Grace mean? Simply; that since God created and chose Mary to be the perfect vessel through which salvation would come to the world so He continues to use her as the vessel through which His grace is poured out upon mankind. God works through a hierarchy of mediation. He has always used man to save man. The one and only direct mediator between God and man is Our Lord Jesus Christ. "No one can come to the Father except through Me. And no one can come to Me unless the Father draw him." Nevertheless, He has constantly used other instruments to accomplish His will. Thus , while still on earth, Jesus sent the apostles to teach, heal and lead to Him all those who were in the grip of the devil. This hierarchy of mediation we call the "Communion of Saints". Every other mediator receives his/her power directly from Christ and must return to Christ with the prayers of the faithful. Jesus, as is obvious from the Scriptures, wants us to go to His emissaries to receive His grace. There is one who stands directly beneath Jesus in this hierarchy. Through her He pours His grace upon the world and through her we must go to Him that He might present us to the Father. The wedding feast at Cana is a perfect example of how, in the end, all the lesser mediators eventually go to Mary and she, in turn, goes to her Son. We are then commanded to do whatever He tells us.

You see, going to Mary never leads to Mary. She always takes us to her Son. She is merely the vessel, the tabernacle, the chalice that carries our petitions to Jesus and ultimately to God the Father. This is the way God has established the spiritual order. To refuse to abide by that order is to place oneself in a position contrary to God's will. This is not your religion. You cannot tell God how He is to answer your prayers. The Protestants think that they must go only directly to Jesus. Yet every single one of them was baptized by someone else. They protest the intercession of the saints yet they go to one another and ask for prayers. If going directly to Jesus is the only way to God why then do they ask for prayers from one another? To refuse to acknowledge an instrument that Jesus has chosen to accomplish His will would be equal to one of the Jews during the time of Christ refusing to be healed by the apostles and demanding to be healed by Jesus directly. It seems to me this would be not only insulting but arrogant.

Jesus has asked us to go through His Mother to come to Him just as we must go through Jesus to the Father. To refuse to acknowledge Mary's necessary role in the hierarchy God has established would be like a person saying he doesn't think he should have to go through Jesus to get to the Father. That is simply pride and the proud cannot stand before the throne of God.

Jesus came to us through Mary and we go to Jesus through Mary.

Mediatrix of all Grace, Pray for us.=