Our Holy Father Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI has invoked Our Lady as Mediatrix of All Graces: “Pope Benedict entrusted the prelate’s mission “to the intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary Immaculate, Mediatrix of all graces” [intercessioni Beatae Virginis Mariae Immaculatae, Mediatricis omnium gratiarum].” Pope St. John Paul II likewise “referred to the Blessed Virgin in one of the documents (the 1987 apostolic constitution Frequentissimae) as the “most chaste Mediatrix of all graces.” Councils going back to the Second Vatican Council and Popes going back to Pope Leo XIII and Pope Bl. Pius IX have called Our Lady as Mediatrix.
Our Blessed Mother is Mediatrix of All Graces. That means there is no Grace, however difficult, which Mary cannot obtain for us if we have recourse to Her. She can and will obtain all graces. It also means Her Immaculate Heart is the channel through which all graces come to us from the Sacred Heart. It means the Holy Ghost has chosen Her as His Spouse and dispenses His Graces through Her.
Many voices who love the Church have been calling for a new Priestly Pentecost, where a Spirit-filled Clergy will be transformed by the love of the Holy Spirit to re-evangelize the world for Christ and build up the Church to be a holy people faithful to God in all things: “I want to come back to the world in My Priests. I want to renew the world of souls on manifesting Myself in My Priests. I want a powerful impulse in My Church on infusing upon Her the Holy Spirit as on a new Pentecost” (Diary, Jan. 5, 1928).” Our Lord desires to pour out His Spirit upon His Priests of today just like, through Mother Mary’s intercession in the upper room (Acts 1:14), He poured out His Spirit on the Apostles that First Pentecost Sunday. Some 34 years before that, from His Mother’s Womb, He poured out His Spirit upon the Baptist (Luk 1:15; Luk 1:41), to anoint and prepare the Precursor for his Mission.
Is the Church of Christ well prepared to receive the anointing again today? That anointing made great Saints in the early Church, and it could make even greater Saints among Priests today. Are we gathered in prayer around Mary Immaculate, Mediatrix of All Graces, persevering in prayer with Her? Are we united to the Cross of Jesus Christ, and have imbibed His Spirit of Sacrifice in all things?
Our Lord said also, “The Holy Spirit will reign the day when My sacrifice of suffering will also reign: the Cross in hearts. In so far as the Cross will not reign in souls, the Holy Spirit, He too will not reign” (Diary, May 26, 1901). This is the Message of the Bible. If we bear our difficulties and offer up our crosses patiently in imitation of Christ crucified, we will also share in His triumphs: “11A faithful saying: for if we be dead with him, we shall live also with him. 12If we suffer, we shall also reign with him.” (2 Tim 2:11-12). Let us resolve to die to the world and our desires, so as to live only for Christ.
Then and only then can we place our lives in loving service to God and others as Christ desires for us. Having no thought of self, God can use us for the Glory of His Spirit and the Triumph of His Mother, and the happiness of others, the sanctification and salvation of souls, just as He desires.
Our Lady has promised us Her Immaculate Heart will Triumph. Do we believe Her promise with all our hearts? Are we striving, through daily sacrifices, through prayer and reparation, to make that triumph a reality in our lives and in the lives of those we love?
When the Holy Spirit finds us empty of self, He can fill us with His Love and His Grace. Does He find us so? Or are we still full of self? Let us ask the Blessed Mother, the Immaculata, the Mediatrix of All Graces, so to transform us that He may find in us only the complete self-surrender of Her sacrificial fiat – the surrender of our wills, of our lives, of our entire beings, to God’s purposes and plans.
Let us pray very much for our Pope and our Bishops, for all Priests, Sisters and Monks, and Laity, that the whole Catholic Church may experience the wondrous infilling of a new Pentecost. May it transform us just as it transformed the original Apostles, to become more Christ-loving, others-centric, Mary-honouring, Cross-carrying, sacrificial true disciples of Jesus Christ Our Lord.
The Holy Spirit transformed the Apostles from being scared of the authorities at one point of time to becoming world-conquerors for Christ later in life. How much all Christians and the whole Church need this powerful Anointing of the Holy Spirit in the world today! And we are assured that whatever we ask of God through the Immaculate Mother, we will surely obtain.
In conclusion, let us heed what St. Alphonsus tells us: “So that every blessing and every gift of eternal life which each of the saints has received from God, has been obtained for them by Mary.
And it is this which the holy Church wishes us to understand, when she honors the divine mother by applying to her these passages of Ecclesiasticus: In me is all grace of the way and of the truth: ln me gratia omnis vise et veritatis.” It is said: Of the way, because through Mary all graces are dispensed to those who are still on the road to heaven; Of the truth, because through Mary is given the light of truth. In me is all hope of life and of virtue: “In me omnes spes vitse et virtutis.” Of life, because through Mary we hope to attain the life of grace upon earth, and of glory in heaven; and of virtue, because through Mary virtue is obtained, and especially the theological virtues, which are the principal virtues of the saints. I am the mother of fair love, and of fear, and of knowledge, and of holy hope. Mary by her intercession obtains for her servants the gifts of divine love, of holy fear, of celestial light, and of holy confidence. And St. Bernard infers that it is taught by the Church, that Mary is the universal mediatrix of our salvation. “Extol the finder of grace, the mediatrix of salvation, the restorer of ages.” Thus the Church sings of her to me, and hath taught me to sing the same.”
Nishant Xavier lives in Chennai, India. He works in investment banking. He has a great desire that India will be blessed and enriched with the wealth and treasures of the Gospel and the Sacraments. He wishes to work for the uplift of the poor and so that India may become the most advanced, prosperous and successful nation in the world. You can reach out to him anytime with questions or thoughts on [email protected]