Mary, Spiritual Mother and Mediatrix

St. Maximilian Maria Kolbe (d.1941) the Polish martyr-saint who offered his life in exchange for another prisoner at Auschwitz, offers exceptional tribute to the Co-redemptrix as the one predestined with Christ to restore grace to mankind: "From that moment (of the Fall) God promised a Redeemer and a Co-redemptrix saying: 'I will place enmities between thee and the Woman, and thy seed and her Seed; She shall crush thy head.'" (15)

The acclaimed philosopher, convert and cloistered Carmelite nun, St. Teresa Benedicta of the Cross (d.1942), born Edith Stein, in her theological treatise, Scientia Crucis, said: "Mary leaves the natural order and is placed as Co-redemptrix alongside the Redeemer." (16)

St. Padre Pio (d.1968) writes in one of his letters: "Now I seem to be penetrating what was the martyrdom of our most beloved Mother.... Oh, if all people would but penetrate this martyrdom! Who could succeed in suffering with this, yes, our dear Coredemptrix? Who would refuse her the good title of Queen of Martyrs?" (17)

Opus Dei Founder, St. Jose Maria Escrivá (d.1975) vigorously defends Our Lady as the Co-redemptrix in this passage where he applauds the papal usage of the Co-redemptrix title and its doctrine: "The Supreme Pontiffs have rightly called Mary 'Co-redemptrix'.... one can rightly say that she redeemed the human race together with Christ." (18)

We close with the witness of Bl. Mother Teresa (d.1997), who succinctly put it: "Of course, Mary is the Co-redemptrix. She gave Jesus his body, and the body of Jesus is what saved us." (19)

Mediatrix of All Graces

Mary's role as dispenser or mediatrix of the graces of the Redemption follows appropriately from her role as Co-redemptrix. It is important to see that Our Lady dispenses the graces of Jesus because of her special participation in meriting the graces of Redemption.

Mary uniquely participated in the Redemption of humanity by Jesus Christ and, therefore, the Mother of Jesus, above all creatures, fittingly participates in the distribution of these graces to the members of the Mystical Body, theologically called "subjective redemption." By distributing sanctifying grace, Mary is able to fulfill her role as Spiritual Mother, since she spiritually nourishes the faithful of Christ's body in the order of grace. Mary's God-given ability to distribute the graces of Redemption by her intercession is an essential element and full flowering of her role as Spiritual Mother. For true motherhood goes beyond the birthing of children to include their nourishing, growth, and proper formation.

In sum, the Mother of Jesus mediates all the graces of Jesus to the human family in two regards. First, Mary mediated all graces to humanity by giving birth to Jesus and by bringing the source and author of all graces to the world (cf. Lk 2:6-7), theologically called "remote mediation." Secondly, Mary mediates all graces by distributing the graces merited on Calvary to the human family by her willed intercession (cf. Jn 19:26), theologically called "proximate" or "immediate" mediation.

Notice the divine consistency in Mary's role in the order of grace as designated by God's perfect will. First of all, Mary is conceived in sanctifying grace from the first instant of her existence by a unique act of God's perfect will. Then Mary gives birth to the source of all graces in Jesus Christ. With this birth of the Head of Grace, she also gives spiritual birth to the Body mystically united with the Head in grace. Furthermore, she participates with her Son in meriting grace that redeems the world on Calvary. Finally, from Heaven, Mary distributes the graces of the Redemption to grant to each open heart of the human family the saving supernatural life of Our Lord. As Vatican II ascribes to her, Mary is truly our Mother in the order of grace.

When the Church says that the Mother of Jesus is Mediatrix of all graces, she means that all favors and graces granted by God to humanity reach us through the intercession of Mary. To receive all graces through Mary is simply to continue the perfect plan of God which began with his gift of the source of all graces, Jesus Christ, who came to us through Mary. The Mother of Jesus, subordinate and perfectly conformed to the will of her Son, distributes the graces of Redemption to the human family by her willed intercession, theologically referred to as "secondary moral cause."

Does this mean that the graces of Jesus will not be distributed unless we pray directly to the Blessed Virgin? No. But it does express the truth that whether we call directly upon the name of Mary or not, we, nonetheless, receive all graces through her actual and personally willed intercession.

This is analogous to the authentic Catholic understanding of Baptism of desire. A person who is not Christian can attain eternal life under specific conditions of charity and contrition through Jesus, the one Redeemer and Mediator to the Father, without knowing during his earthly life that it is through the mediation of Jesus. In a similar way, all who receive the graces of Jesus Christ do so through Mary, even if they lack knowledge of the Blessed Virgin's intercession. Theologically, this is the difference between knowledge and causality.

At the same time, we must remember how pleasing it is to God when the human family does affirm his manifest will by directly invoking his appointed distributor of graces by name. It is our human way of saying yes to God's order of things, which includes Mary as the distributor of graces.

Papal Teaching on Mediatrix of All Graces

The unanimous voices of the popes of the last two centuries on this pivotal Marian doctrine of Mediatrix of all graces manifest nothing short of incontestable consistency and certainty regarding the revealed truth of this doctrine. Let us look at some of the more important papal pronouncements and explanations on this doctrine. Several of these papal statements provide profound, theological explanations as to why Mary is fitting distributor of all graces.

• Pope Pius VII (1800-1823) referred to Mary as the "Dispensatrix of all graces." (20)

• Pope Pius IX (1846-1878), the Marian pope who defined Mary's Immaculate Conception, wrote: "...God has committed to Mary the treasury of all good things, in order that everyone may know that through her are obtained every hope, every grace, and all salvation" (Ubi primum).

• Pope Leo XIII (1878-1903) frequently referred to Mary's role as "Dispenser of all heavenly graces" and boldly professed these words about Mary's role as Mediatrix of all graces:

This papal proclamation of Leo XIII not only proposed the truth that all graces of God come to us through Mary, but also that this belief has been the universal belief of the Church from the apostolic days to our present day. This reality, he said, can only be explained through God's revelation in "divine faith."

• Pope St. Pius X (1903-1914) continued the remarkable papal consistency by calling Mary "the dispenser of all gifts," and he discusses theologically how Jesus is the source of all graces, and Mary is the channel of all graces:

By this union of will and suffering between Christ and Mary, "she merited to become in a most worthy manner the Reparatrix of the lost world" and consequently, the Dispensatrix of all gifts which Jesus acquired for us through His death and blood. Indeed, we do not deny that the distribution of these gifts belongs by strict and proper right to Christ.... Yet...it was granted to the august Virgin to be together with her only-begotten Son the most powerful Mediatrix and conciliatrix of the whole world. So Christ is the source.... Mary, however, as St. Bernard justly remarks, is the channel, or she is the neck by which the Body is united to the Head and the Head sends power and strength through the Body. For she is the neck of our Head, through which all spiritual gifts are communicated to His Body (Ad diem illum).

• Pope Benedict XV (1914-1922) strongly encouraged the spread of the doctrine of Mediatrix of all graces by granting the special liturgical feast of "Mediatrix of all graces" to any bishop who desired to celebrate it in his diocese. Benedict XV also continued the unbroken papal consensus in various papal statements. In one statement, after affirming that Mary redeemed the world together with Christ, he immediately added: "It is for this reason that all the graces contained in the treasury of the Redemption are given to us through the hands of the same sorrowful Virgin" (Inter Sodalicia).

During part of the canonization process of St. Joan of Arc in 1926 (referring to a miracle through the intercession of Joan of Arc that took place at Lourdes), Benedict XV explained that the favors received through the intercession of the saints also come through the mediation of Mary:

• Pope Pius XI (1922-1939) several times continued the papal uniformity by making such statements about Mary as: "We have nothing more at heart than to promote more and more the piety of the Christian people toward the Virgin treasurer of all graces at the side of God" (Cognitum sane). And also: "Confiding in her intercession with Jesus, the one Mediator of God and man (1 Tim 2:5), who wished to associate his own Mother with himself as the advocate of sinners, as the dispenser and mediatrix of graces..." (Miserentissimus Redemptor).

• Pope Pius XII (1939-1958), the outstanding Marian pope who defined Mary's Assumption into Heaven, continued in perfect harmony the papal unanimity on Mediatrix of all graces: "And since, as St. Bernard declares, 'it is the will of God that we obtain all favors through Mary,' let everyone hasten to have recourse to Mary..." (Superiore anno). And also: "She teaches us all virtues; she gives us her Son and with him all the help we need, for 'God wished us to have everything through Mary'" (Mediator Dei).

• The Second Vatican Council (under the pontificates of Blessed John XXIII and Paul VI) referred to the Mother of God's authentic title as "Mediatrix" and her role as intercessor of the graces for eternal salvation: "Taken up to heaven she did not lay aside this saving office but by her manifold intercession continues to bring us the gifts of eternal salvation….Therefore the Blessed Virgin is invoked in the Church under the title...Mediatrix" (Lumen Gentium, No. 62).

Maternal Mediation

John Paul II dedicated considerable effort in spreading knowledge and understanding of Mary's role of mediation. In his 1987 Marian encyclical Mother of the Redeemer, he devoted an entire chapter to Mary's "maternal mediation," and explains in this passage how Mary's role as secondary mediator takes on a universal dimension:

Shortly after in the same encyclical, Pope John Paul II granted the Blessed Virgin a new title as "Mediatrix of Mercy" at the second coming of her Son: