Mediatrix of All Grace, Pray for us

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Virgin with the Host
Ingres 1854

"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' (Roman Missal)." -- Divine Intimacy

"O Mary, God has given you the plenitude of all His benefits, to show us that all hope, all grace, all salvation come from your superabundance. Grant, therefore, O Mary, you who have found grace and have given us life, that through you we may approach your divine Son, O Blessed Mother of Salvation! Grant that through you we may receive Him who was given to us through you. Let your spotless purity excuse before His eyes the faults of our malice. May your humility, so pleasing to God, obtain pardon for our pride! May your immense charity cover the multitude of our sins, and may your glorious fruitfulness make our good works faithful!

"O Lady, our Mediatrix and our advocate, reconcile us with your Son, recommend us to your Son, present us to your Son! You are blessed by the grace you have found, by the privileges you have merited, by the mercy you have brought to the world. Obtain for us that Jesus, who through you deigned to share our infirmity and our wretchedness, may grant us also through you a share in His glory and in His beatitude." -- St Bernard

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