Our Lady Mediatrix of All Graces Prof. Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira This devotion honors Our Lady as a cooperating agent in the plan of God from the Incarnation of Jesus Christ to the Redemption. Mary was the intermediary between Jesus and St. John the Baptist, sanctifying him before his birth. She was the one who asked Christ to make His first miracle at the wedding of Canaan before his public life had begun.
During the Passion, she followed Him in every step of his sufferings, showing us that she was associated in the mission of reparation for the sins of mankind. After the Resurrection, the Holy Ghost descended upon her first, and then upon the Apostles, showing that she was the mediatrix of the graces for the nascent Church. By her divine maternity Mary became Co-Redemptix, taking on the role of Mediatrix of all graces.
In 1921 Pope Benedict XV instituted November 8 as the feast day of Our Lady Mediatrix of All Graces.
A text by St. Louis Grignion de Montfort expresses this truth admirably:
"Only Mary found grace before God (Luke 1:30) without the help of any other creature. And after her, all those who found grace before God found it only through her. Mary was full of grace when the Archangel Gabriel saluted her (Luke 1:28) and was filled with grace to overflowing when the Holy Ghost so mysteriously overshadowed her (Luke 1:35).
"From day to day, from moment to moment, she increased so much this twofold plenitude that she attained an immense and inconceivable degree of grace. So much so, that the Almighty made of her the sole custodian of His treasures and sole dispenser of all His graces, so that she might ennoble, exalt and enrich all she chooses. She can lead them along the narrow path to Heaven and guide them through the narrow gate to life. She can give a royal throne, scepter and crown to whomever she wishes. Jesus is always and everywhere the Fruit and Son of Mary, and Mary is everywhere the true tree that bears the Fruit of life, the true Mother who bears that Son.”" (True Devotion to Mary, n. 44)
Comments of Prof. Plinio:
This is one of the most admirable texts of St. Louis Grignion de Montfort that almost dispenses with the need for commentary. But since our remarks are just a way to pay homage to Our Lady, let me go ahead.
The Annunciation by Fra Angelico Behind the thinking of this excerpt is the truth that Our Lady is the Mediatrix of All Graces. This thought is linked to an admirable fact in the lives both of Our Lady and the Child Jesus: it is how grace continually increased in her. St. Louis Grignion explains this process.
Before the Annunciation, she was already full of grace, and had always been. But at a certain moment, by her most perfect correspondence to every grace at every moment, and also by a special predilection of God Our Lord toward her, the grace increased in such a way in her soul that she became worthy to be the Mother of the Second Person of the Holy Trinity. The Holy Ghost found her perfect to be His spouse, and the Word of God was conceived in her human flesh.
