Concerning the thesis that “The Bl. Virgin Mary participated in accomplishing the work of redemption principally by her virginal consent and by her maternal compassion”:
173. Doctrine of the Church. 1)
Pius VII: “The Christian faithful really owe reverence to the Bl. Virgin Mary,
as the sweet Parent of her Son, so that with careful zeal and benevolence they
may cultivate the memory of the sorrows—those intense sufferings that She,
while standing near the cross of Jesus, endured with singular and invincible
fortitude and constancy and which She offered to the Eternal Father for their
salvation” (In Bover, Soteriologia Mariana 453).
2) Leo XIII: “She took her part in
the laborious expiation made by her Son for the sins of the world. It is
certain, therefore, that she suffered in the very depths of her soul with His
most bitter sufferings and His torments. Moreover it was before the eyes of
Mary that was to be finished the Divine Sacrifice for which she had borne and
brought up the Victim . . . There stood by the Cross of Jesus his Mother, who,
in a miracle of charity, so that she might receive us as her sons, offered generously
to Divine Justice her own Son, and died in her heart with Him, stabbed with the
sword of sorrow” (Encyclical “Iucunda semper”: ASS 27, 178).
3) St. Pius X: “When the extreme
hour of the Son came, beside the Cross of Jesus there stood Mary His Mother,
not merely occupied in contemplating the cruel spectacle, but rejoicing that her
only Son was offered for the salvation of mankind, and so entirely participating
in His Passion, that if it had been possible she would have gladly borne all
the torments that her Son bore. And from this community of will and suffering between
Christ and Mary she merited to become most worthily the Reparatrix of the lost
world and Dispensatrix of all the gifts of our Savior purchased for us by His
Death and by His Blood” (Encyclical “Ad diem illum”: ASS 10 [1918] 182).
4) Benedict XV: “Thus with her
suffering and dying Son she almost died, and she so abandoned her maternal rights
to her Son for the salvation of mankind, and immolated her Son to placate the
Divine Justice as much as she could, that it can rightly be said that She along
with Christ redeemed the human race! (Apostolic Letter ”Inter Sodalicia”: ASS
10 [1918] 182).
5) Pius XI: “The sorrowful Virgin participated
with Christ in the work of redemption . . . “ (Apostolic Letter “Explorata
rest est”: AAS 15 [1921] 104) “O Mother of piety and mercy, who, as
compassionate and corredemptrix stood by your sweet Son as he was accomplishing
on the wood of the Cross the redemption of the human race . . . : preserve in
us, we pray, and daily increase the precious fruits of redemption and of your
compassion” (Prayer at the end of the Jubilee Year: L’Osservatore Romano, 29-30
April 1935)
6) Pius XII: “It was she . . ., always
most intimately united with her Son, offered Him on Golgotha to the Eternal
Father for all the children of Adam, sin-stained by his unhappy fall, and her
mother’s rights and mother’s love were included in the holocaust . . . “ (Encyclical
“Mystici Corporis”: AAS 35 [1943] 247). (Iesu Solano and J. A. de
Aldama, Sacrae Theologiae Summa, 4 vols. [trans. Kenneth Baker; Keep the
Faith, Inc., 2014], 3-A: 454-55)
On the thesis that “The Bl. Virgin Mary truly is the Dispensatrix
of all graces”:
194. Doctrines of the Church. Leo
XIII: We need to obtain the favor of “the great Virgin Mary, the Mother of God,
the guardian of our peace and the minister to us of heavenly grace, who is
placed on the highest summit of power and glory in heaven, in order that she
may bestow the help of her patronage on men who through so many labors and
dangers are striving to read that eternal city” (Encyclical ”Supremi
Apostolatus”: ASD 16,113). “God . . . listens to the prayers of her whom He
wished to be the minister of his heavenly graces” (Encyclical “Superiore
anno”: ASS 17,49). “With equal truth may it be also affirmed that, by the
will of God, Mary is the intermediary through whom is distributed unto us this
immense treasure of mercies gathered by God . . . Thus no man goes to the
Father but by the Son, and no man goes to Christ but by His Mother” (Encyclical
“Octobri mense”: ASS 24,195f.). “The recourse we have to Mary in prayer
follows upon the office she continually fills by the side of the throne of God as
Mediatrix of divine grace; being by worthiness and by merit most acceptable to
Him, and, therefore, surpassing in power all the angels and saints in Heaven .
. . And later, without measure and without end will she be able to plead our
cause, passing upon a day to life immortal . . . We turn out prayerful voices
to Mary. Thus is confirmed that law is merciful mediation of which We have
spoken, and which St. Bernardine of Siena expressed: ‘Every grace granted to
man has three degrees in order: for by God it is communicated to Christ, from
Christ it passed to the Virgin, and from the Virgin it descends to us” (Encyclical
“Iucunda semper”: ASS 27,178f.). “From her heavenly abode in she began,
by God’s decree, to watch over the Church, to assist and befriend us as our
Mother; so that she who was so intimately associated with the mystery of human
salvation is just as closely associated with the distribution of the graces
which for all time will flow from the Redemption . . . She is the Dispenser of
all heavenly gifts” (Encyclical “Adjutricem populi”: ASS 28,130f.). “From
her, as from an abundant stream, are derived the streams of heavenly graces. In
her hand are the treasures of the mercies of the Lord; God wished her to be the
beginning of all good things” (Encyclical “Diuturni temporis”: ASS
31,146f.). “Thus the most powerful Virgin Mother, who formerly cooperated in
charity that the faithful might be born in the Church, is also now the mediatrix
of our salvation . . .” (Apostolic Letter “Parta humano”: ASS 34,195)
2) St. Pius X: “And from this
communion of will and suffering between Christ and Mary, she merited to become
most worthily the reparatrix of the lost world and Dispensatrix of all the
gifts of Our Savior purchased for us by His Death and by his blood . . . Jesus
sits at the right hand of the majesty on high. Mary sits at the right hand of
her Son—a refuge to secure and so a help so trusty against all dangers that we
have nothing to fear or to despair of under her guidance, her patronage, her
protection” (Encyclical “Ad diem illum”: ASS 36,453f.). The Virgin is “the
Mediatrix of all graces” (Apostolic Letter ”Manilensium Archiepiscopus”: AAS
2 [1920] 901). For through her, who is the mirror of justice and seat of
wisdom, the Omnipotent willed us to have all things” (Sermo ad PP
Franciscales”: AAS 2 [1910] 909). This is the time of the feast and Mass
for B.M.V. Mediatrix.
3) Benedict XV: “But if for this
reason all of us have received these graces from the treasury of redemption,
they are administered as it were by the hands of the Sorrowful Virgin herself”
(Apostolic Letter “Inter Sodalicia”: AAS 10 [1918] 182). “Since the most
holy Virgin Mary was chosen with so many and such great merits to be the Mother
of God and at the same time was divinely constituted the mediatrix of graces
for all mankind” (Apostolic Letter “Cum Sanctissima Virgo Maria”: AAS 9
[1917] 324). “She is the most blessed Mother of God and has the power of
mediatrix of graces with the Lord” (Apostolic Letter “Locarni, intra fines”:
AAS 11 [1919] 67). “Whatever graces he [Christ] confers on men, she has
their distribution and appointment” (Encyclical “Fausto appetente die”: AAS
13 [1921] 334)
Pius XI: “Christ “since he is the
one Mediator of God and men, wished to join his Mother to Himself as the
advocate of sinners, the minister and mediatrix of grace” (Encyclical “Miserentissimus
Redemptor”: AAS 20 [1928] 178) “We know that everything is given to us by
the Excellent and Supreme God through the hands of the Mother of God” (Encyclical
“Ingravescentibus malis”: AAS 29 [1937] 380)
“The Virgin Mother herself, the
Mediatrix with God of all graces” (Apostolic Letter “Galliam Ecclesiae
filiam”: AAS 14 [1922] 186). “The Virgin Mary . . ., the Mediatrix with God
of all the charisms” (Apostolic Letter “Extat in civitate”: AAS 16
[1924] 152) “To the Virgin, the Mediatrix with God of all graces” (Apostolic
Letter “Cognitum sane”: ASS 18 [1924] 213). “For she is the Mother of God,
the administrator of heavenly graces . . .” (Letter “Sollemne semper”:
AAS 24 [1932] 376)
Pius XII: “For the Bl. Virgin has
so much grace with God, she enjoys such power with her Only-begotten Son, that
whoever in need of help does not run to her, is attempting to fly without
wings, as Dante sings” (Letter “Superiore anno”: AAS 32 [1940] 145). “May
she never cease to beg from him that copious streams of grace may flow from its
exalted Head into all the members of the Mystical Body (Encyclical “Mystici
Corporis”: AAS 35 [1943] 248).
195. Please
note concerning these texts: it is said in them: a) that in general we
have grace through Mary, that graces come to us from Her, that graces are in
Her hands; b) that in particular Mary procures graces for us from God, that she
is the Mediatrix of graces; c) that the graces, about which we are concerned,
are all graces of redemption, whatever Christ confers on men, or form a
negative point of view that Christ grants us nothing except through Mary. (Ibid.,
468-70)
Although the Roman Pontiffs in
these texts speak mainly about the Bl. Virgin as she is now in heaven, still
there are some texts in which tye speak about the graces granted by Christ
through Mary while she was on the earth. Thus Leo III: “During His private life
on earth He associated her with Himself in each of His first two miracles: the
miracle of grace, when at the salutation of Mary, the infant leaped in the womb
of Elizabeth: the miracle of nature when He turned water into wine at the
marriage-feast of Cana. And, at the supreme moment of His public life . . . “
(Encyclical “Augustissimae Virginis”: ASS 30,129). Thus Pius XII: “Furthermore,
her only Son, condescending to His prayer at Cana of Galilee, performed the
miracle by which His disciples believed in Him” (Encyclical “Mystici
Corporis”: AAS 35,247). (Ibid., 470 n. 26)
