Mary, Mediatrix of All Graces: A Survey of Mary’s Role and Its Relation to Consecration

The Mariology of St. Maximilian Kolbe

St. Maximilian Kolbe was a Franciscan Polish priest who was martyred in Auschwitz in 1941. The greatness of Fr. Kolbe's Mariology is evidenced from the fact that it lent unique insights into Mary's role in relation to the Trinity. According to Pope Paul VI, he was an apostle of the formal veneration of Mary seen in all her pristine splendor, as the Immaculate Conception.

In H.M. Manteau-Bonamy's book The Immaculate Conception and the Holy Spirit, which compiles a portion Fr. Kolbe's works, we find his principal contribution to Marian theology. According to Kolbe, the Holy Spirit is the flowering between the Father and the Son; that is, he is the conception of the love between the Father and the Son. The Father eternally begets the Son, and then the Holy Spirit proceeds from both. He states that "the Holy Spirit is the uncreated eternal conception, the prototype of all the conceptions that multiply life throughout the whole universe."¹ He becomes the example of all later conception in the created world. He is also rightly called the Uncreated Eternal Immaculate Conception because the Father begets the Son, and from their infinite love, the Holy Spirit proceeds. This procession of the Spirit is one of divine purity, and therefore, he is the Uncreated Eternal Immaculate Conception.²

Moreover, Mary, as the Created Immaculate Conception, never contracted the slightest stain of sin. She is united to the Spirit as his holy spouse because she is most filled with God's love, which is the Holy Spirit. Mary is at the end of the action of the Trinity in grace, and the beginning of the return of creatures back to the Trinity. She has a profound unity with her spouse the Holy Spirit, who is the uncreated Immaculate Conception in God. Kolbe attributes the flow of grace as originating from God, and then proceeding from the Father, through the Son, in the Holy Spirit through Mary's intercession.

As such, there is a profound union between Mary and the Spirit, which can be truly expressed by the term "spouse" because the Immaculata is the creature who is most filled with God's love and the Holy Spirit is God's love. Their coming together as spouses at the Annunciation is what leads to the Incarnation. And, as the Son became a man because he desired to demonstrate the greatness of his love, so too the Holy Spirit, that is, God who is love, willed to show his mediation as regards the Father and the Son by means of a concrete sign. This sign was manifest in the form of the heart of the Immaculate Virgin, according to what the saints tell us especially those who love to consider Mary the spouse of the Holy Spirit.³

Still have a profound union, which is not captured by "spouse" because Mary, in a certain sense, is like the personification of the Spirit. She is the Spirit-filled response to God's initiative and thus becomes part of the revelation process itself.⁴ Kolbe proceeds saying that the term "spouse" is ultimately too weak to express the fullness of their intimacy. However, this profound union between the two can be compared, by analogy, with the hypostatic union. In Christ, two separate natures, one human and one divine, are united in one divine person.

Immediately, however, Kolbe begins to make distinctions because, while you can say that Mary is like the incarnation of the Holy Spirit, it always remains an analogy. Accordingly, the first distinction he makes is that the Holy Spirit and Mary are two separate persons, unlike Christ. Secondly, the Spirit never became incarnate, so their intimacy is not completely like that of the hypostatic union. Thus, contrary to Christ, Mary's nature and person are totally distinct from the nature of the Holy Spirit.

Nevertheless, to fully understand their intimacy we must compare the uncreated Immaculate Conception and the Created Immaculate Conception to the unity of the divine nature and the human nature of Christ. It is the only apt analogy. As the divine word is incarnate in the humanity of Christ, so Mary in a certain sense is like the personification of the Holy Spirit. "The third person of the Blessed Trinity never took flesh; still, our human word 'spouse' is far too weak to express the reality of the relationship between the Immaculata and the Holy Spirit. We can affirm that she is, in a certain sense, the 'incarnation' of the Holy Spirit."

Finally, his end conclusion is Verbum Dei incarnatus est: Iesus Christus ... Spiritus Sanctus quasi incarnatus est: Immaculata. What he is essentially saying is that although the Holy Spirit never became incarnate, if he did, it would look like Mary. So, although the union of the two is not of the same order as that of the hypostatic union, which links the human and the divine natures in Christ, it is nevertheless true to say that Mary's action is the very action of the Holy Spirit.⁵

Consequently, he progresses onward to talk about the way in which this union affects Mary's mediation. The Holy Spirit is the Divine Sanctifier from which all graces flow; he acts only through Mary-by providence, not necessity-and therefore, she is the Mediatrix of all graces.⁶ Mary, as Mother of Jesus our Savior, was made the Co-redemptrix of the human race; and as spouse of the Holy Spirit she shares in the distribution of all graces. Kolbe's syllogism therefore is as follows:

1.) Mary and the Holy Spirit are united.

2.) The Holy Spirit is the divine sanctifier through which all graces flow.

3.) The uncreated Immaculate Conception acts only through the created Immaculate Conception.

4.) Therefore Mary is the Mediatrix of all graces from the Spirit into the world.

This is very helpful in looking at the feminine dimension of God, which is best expressed by the Spirit. The maternity and femininity of Mary continually leads us back to this, and therefore, we applaud the beauty of femininity as it is expressed by the Holy Spirit. Further, knowing that Mary is the spouse of the Holy Spirit and the Mediatrix of all graces, we therefore, are to entrust ourselves to her by consecration, so that she may prepare for us eternal life. This consecration has as its particular emphasis the increase of the kingdom of God as a mission for the Immaculata.

The Mission of Marian Consecration

Consecration to Jesus through Mary is rightly called the crowning of Marian Devotion. St. Louis de Montfort once wrote that "This devotion consists, then, in giving ourselves entirely to the Blessed Virgin, in order to belong entirely to Jesus through her."⁷ It is solid Church tradition to give oneself to Jesus through Mary. The Latin word consecrare literally means "to set aside for a sacred purpose." This is the essential nature of what one is doing with himself by performing Marian consecration, namely, one is giving himself unconditionally to the Blessed Mother for the express purpose of living his full baptismal promises to Jesus. This was modeled in a secondary sense after the expression of St. Paul as a "slave of Jesus Christ." However, this is a filial slavery, not a servile one.

A rich history of this devotion through the ages can be seen in many saints and popes. De Montfort brought this devotion to new heights of understanding in his work True Devotion to Mary. The heart of this devotion is an act of formal consecration in order to allow the Mediatrix of all graces and our Spiritual Mother to grant us the full graces needed to live our baptismal promises. This adds a strong Christological focus.

Of course, every act of devotion must have its foundation in theology, and the theological foundation for this formal act of consecration lies in the doctrines of Spiritual Motherhood and Mediatrix of all graces, which are inextricably united. As the dispenser of all graces, Mary is allowed the spiritual capacity to receive us as children and to subsequently unite us to the Lord. Still, such a formal act of consecration to Jesus through Mary is an act that initiates a life of service to her. This is similar to baptism, which begins the Christian life:

"Like the other Christian virtues, true devotion [to Mary] grows in us with charity, advancing from the stage of the beginner to that of the more proficient, and continuing up to the stage of the perfect. The first degree or stage is to pray devoutly to Mary from time to time, for example, by saying the Angelus when the bells ring. The second degree is one of more perfect sentiments of veneration, confidence and love; it may be manifest by the daily recitation of the Rosary-five decades or all fifteen. In the third degree, the soul gives itself fully to Our Lady by an act of consecration so as to belong altogether to Jesus through her...this act of consecration consists in promising Mary to have constant filial recourse and to live in habitual dependence on her, so as to attain to a more intimate union with our Blessed Lord and through Him with the Blessed Trinity present in our souls."⁸

De Montfort's formula of consecration starts with a rejection of Satan, then an act of entire self-donation to Christ. Finally, the consecration ends with an act of self-donation to Mary in filial slavery. This is followed by the immediate consecration of oneself, as slave, to Our Lady. Explicit within this is the promise that all spiritual value will be given to her (body and soul, interior and exterior gifts) for life, that is, past, present and future. It is through her perfect intercession we are able to give to Christ, and the more a soul is consecrated to Mary, the more it is consecrated to Christ,⁹ because she can distribute all of our graces perfectly since she is the Mediatrix of all graces.

Kolbe's conception differs slightly. He sees the purpose of consecration as the means by which the Immaculata is able to conquer the whole world for herself so that she can bring all back to God. The means of this conquest is one's unconditional consecration to her. Like all consecrations, this allows the most efficient means of living the baptismal promises via a new openness to the plentitude of grace allotted to you. He calls for consecration under the model of "holy property." The intention here is to say that nothing is with held in the gift of the self to Our Lady. Slavery does the same thing. If a consecration is total, it makes one look to his baptismal promises and live them out. This includes the call for one to struggle under the banner of the Immaculata since consecration is an act that then bespeaks a life; it includes carrying the cross. However, this cross will be lighter, although simultaneously heavier because of the consecration to Mary and the intercession that it affords you. Her assistance becomes realized to the maximum extent.¹⁰

Conclusion

In conclusion, Mary is the Mediatrix of all graces. This mediation is however a participatory role in the one mediation of Christ. However, her mediation is altogether unique by virtue of the fact that she is the only one Mother of God, she alone possesses the fullness of grace, and she played a singular role in the distribution of graces won by Christ at Calvary.

As an extension of this unique mediation we discover Marian consecration as the crowning of Marian Devotion. It encompasses the giving of oneself entirely to Mary so that he may give himself entirely to Jesus through her. Consecration enables Our Lady to exercise the fullness of her mediatory power in one's life. Further, its benefits are that Mary distributes our merits perfectly, she perfects our vocations and fulfills our prayer needs, and finally, we are allowed to participate in redemption from a vantage point which is not limited like our own is.