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Mary
as Mediatrix / Co-Redemptrix
Also See:
Blessed Virgin Mary (Topic Page)
Note:
Items herein may apply to Mary's role as Christ's 'associate' or
'partner' in the redemption of man as well as her role of
distributing graces. Of course, redemption wouldn't be possible
without Christ - however, Christ made his coming to earth
dependent upon the fiat of Mary. Furthermore, it is given to Mary
to dispense graces: "To Mary, who reigns in heaven, humble
yet higher than any creature, near his throne, God grants the
custody of the treasures of his manifold graces. She is, moreover,
their minister and generous dispenser." (Pope Pius XII). Also
note that items herein are in no way to imply that Mary - a
creature - is equal to Christ - God! - or that our redemption is
independent from Christ.
Notice:
This topic is intended for orthodox statements only and has NO RELATION
WHATSOEVER to any alleged apparitions (readers are advised
that similar sounding concepts related to certain alleged
apparitions may present an erroneous version of Mary's role as
mediatix / co-redemptrix that wrongly supplants Christ. - We
reject all such errors). |
"Mary is a Mediatrix
and Dispenser of Graces." (Pope Pius XII)
"We owe to Mary for our reconciliation and
salvation" (Pope Leo XIII)
"[I]f
we have some chance of salvation, we have it all from Mary."
(St. Bernard of Clairvaux, Doctor of the Church)
"None,
O Mother of God, obtains salvation except through thee, none
receives a gift from the throne of mercy except through
thee." (Pope Leo XIII)
"Such
is the will of God, Who would have us obtain everything through
the hands of Mary." (St. Bernard of Clairvaux, Doctor of the
Church)
"In the Rosary the part Mary took as our
co-Redemptrix is set before us as though the facts were even then
taking place." (Pope Leo XIII)
"Every
grace granted to man has three degrees in order; for by God it is
communicated to Christ, from Christ it passes to the Virgin, and
from the Virgin it descends to us." (St. Bernardine of Siena)
"To
Mary, who reigns in heaven, humble yet higher than any creature,
near his throne, God grants the custody of the treasures of his
manifold graces. She is, moreover, their minister and generous
dispenser." (Pope Pius XII)
"[I]f
He uses His Sacraments and Saints as instruments for the salvation
of men, why should He not make use of the role and work of His
most holy Mother in imparting to us the fruits of redemption"
(Pope Pius XII, "Ad Caeli Reginam", 1954 A.D.)
"It
is right and proper to affirm that Mary, whom Jesus made his
constant companion from the house of Nazareth to the place of
Calvary, knew, as no other knew, the secrets of his Heart,
distributes as by a mother's right the treasures of his merits,
and is the surest help to the knowledge and love of Christ."
(Pope St. Pius X)
"It
is through thee the sinner comes to God, for this God came to the
sinner through thee, O thou the mediatrix between God and man! It
was for the sake of sinners that thou wast made worthy of such a
Son: canst thou, then despise them? It was because there were
sinners to be redeemed that thou wast made Mother of the
Redeemer." (Sequence, Fourteenth Century)
"The foundation of all Our
confidence, as you know well, Venerable Brethren, is found in the
Blessed Virgin Mary. For, 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. For
this is His will, that we obtain everything through Mary." (Bl.
Pope Pius IX, "Ubi Primum", 1849)
"With her suffering and dying Son she
suffered and almost died, so did she surrender her mother's rights
over her Son for the salvation of human beings, and to appease the
justice of God, so far as pertained to her, she immolated her Son,
so that it can be rightly said, that she together with Christ has
redeemed the human race." (Pope Benedict XV, "Admodum
probatur",
1917 A.D.)
"For
this reason we invoke her under the title of co-Redemptrix. She
gave us the Savior, she accompanied him in the work of redemption
as far as the Cross itself, sharing with him the sorrows of the
agony and the death in which Jesus consummated the redemption of
mankind. And immediately beneath the Cross, at the last moments of
his life, she was proclaimed by the Redeemer, our Mother, the
Mother of the whole universe." (Pope Pius XI)
"[S]he brought forth for us Jesus our Redeemer, and nourished
Him, and offered Him as a victim by the Cross, by her mystic union
with Christ and His very special grace she likewise became and is
piously called a reparatress. Trusting in her intercession with
Christ, who whereas He is the 'one mediator of God and men' (1
Timothy ii, 5), chose to make His Mother the advocate of sinners,
and the minister and mediatress of grace" (Pope Pius XI,
"Miserentissimus Redemptor", 1928 A.D.)
"Whoever, therefore, reverences the Queen of
heaven and earth - and let no one consider himself exempt from
this tribute of a grateful and loving soul - let him invoke the
most effective of Queens, the Mediatrix of peace; let him respect
and preserve peace, which is not wickedness unpunished nor freedom
without restraint, but a well-ordered harmony under the rule of
the will of God; to its safeguarding and growth the gentle urgings
and commands of the Virgin Mary impel us." (Pope Pius XII,
"Ad Caeli Reginam", 1954 A.D.)
"As [St. Thomas] Aquinas
truly and beautifully says, 'In the Annunciation the consent of
the Virgin was awaited in place of that of all human nature.'
Therefore, we may truly and fittingly affirm, that of the vast
treasure of all the grace which the Lord has won - since grace and
truth have come through Jesus Christ (John 1:17) - nothing at all
is given to us, in accordance with God's will, except through
Mary. And as no one may go to the great Father except through the
Son, in much the same way no one can go to Christ except through
his mother." (Pope Leo XIII, "Octobri Mense Matris")
"Certainly, in the full and strict meaning of the term, only Jesus Christ, the God-Man, is King; but Mary, too, as Mother of the divine Christ, as His associate in the redemption, in his struggle with His enemies and His final victory over them, has a share, though in a limited and analogous way, in His royal dignity. For from her union with Christ she attains a radiant eminence transcending that of any other creature; from her union with Christ she receives the royal right to dispose of the treasures of the Divine Redeemer's Kingdom; from her union with Christ finally is derived the inexhaustible efficacy of her maternal intercession before the Son and His Father." (Pope Pius XII)
"All
our hope do we repose in the most Blessed Virgin - in the all fair
and immaculate one who has crushed the poisonous head of the most
cruel [Satan] and brought salvation to the world:
in her who is the glory of the prophets and apostles, the honor of
the martyrs, the crown and joy of all the saints; in her who is
the safest refuge and the most trustworthy helper of all who are
in danger; in her who, with her only-begotten Son, is the most
powerful Mediatrix and Conciliatrix in the whole world; in her who
is the most excellent glory, ornament, and impregnable stronghold
of the holy Church; in her who has destroyed all heresies and
snatched the faithful people and nations from all kinds of direst
calamities; in her do we hope who has delivered us from so many
threatening dangers." (Bl. Pope Pius IX, "Ineffabilis
Deus", 1854)
"Mary, as St. Bernard justly remarks, is
the channel (Serm. de temp on the Nativ. B. V. De Aquaeductu n.
4); or, if you will, the connecting portion the function of which
is to join the body to the head and to transmit to the body the
influences and volitions of the head - We mean the neck. Yes, says
St. Bernardine of Sienna, 'she is the neck of Our Head, by which
He communicates to His mystical body all spiritual gifts' (Quadrag.
de Evangel. aetern. Serm. x., a. 3, c. iii.). We are then, it will
be seen, very far from attributing to the Mother of God a
productive power of grace - a power which belongs to God alone.
Yet, since Mary carries it over all in holiness and union with
Jesus Christ, and has been associated by Jesus Christ in the work
of redemption, she merits for us de congruo, in the language of
theologians, what Jesus Christ merits for us de condigno, and she
is the supreme Minister of the distribution of graces. Jesus 'sitteth
on the right hand of the majesty on high' (Hebrews i. b.). Mary
sitteth at the right hand of her Son - a refuge so secure and a
help so trusty against all dangers that we have nothing to fear or
to despair of under her guidance, her patronage, her protection.
(Pius IX in Bull Ineffabilis)." (Pope St. Pius X, "Ad
Diem Illum Laetissimum", 1904 A.D.)
"A
Mother of God! It is the mystery whose fulfillment the world,
without knowing it, was awaiting for four thousand years. It is
the work which, in God's eyes, was incomparably greater than that
of the creation of a million new worlds, for such a creation would
cost him nothing; he has but to speak, and all whatsoever he wills
is made. But that a creature should have become Mother of God, he
has had not only to suspend the laws of nature by making a Virgin
Mother, but also to put himself in a state of dependence upon the
happy creature he chose for his Mother. He had to give her rights
over himself, and contract the obligation of certain duties
towards her. He had to make her his Mother, and himself her Son.
It follows from all this, that the blessings of the Incarnation,
for which we are indebted to the love wherewith the Divine Word
loved us, may and ought to be referred, though in an inferior
degree, to Mary herself. If she be the Mother of God, it is
because she consented to it, for God vouchsafed not only to ask
her consent, but moreover to make the coming of his Son into this
world depend upon her giving it. As this his Son, the Eternal
Word, spoke his Fiat over chaos, and the answer to his word was
creation; so did Mary use the same word Fiat: let it be done unto
me, she said. God heard her word, and immediately the Son of God
descended into her virginal womb. After God, then, it is to Mary,
his ever blessed Mother, that we are indebted for our
Emmanuel." (Dom Gueranger)
"Let
us recall here, as a proof of the dependence we ought to have on
our Blessed Lady, what I have said above in bringing forward the
example which the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost give of this
dependence. The Father has not given, and does not give, His Son,
except by her; He has no children but by her, and communicates no
graces but through her. The Son has not been formed for the whole
world in general, except by her; and He is not daily formed and
engendered except by her, in union with the Holy Ghost; neither
does He communicate His merits and His virtues except through her.
The Holy Ghost has not formed Jesus Christ except by her; neither
does He form the members of Our Lord's Mystical Body, except by
her; and through her alone does He dispense His favors and His
gifts. After so many and such pressing examples of the Most Holy
Trinity, can we without extreme blindness dispense with Mary, can
we fail to consecrate ourselves to her and depend on her for the
purpose of going to God and sacrificing ourselves to God?"
(St. Louis Marie de Montfort)
"Moreover
it was not only the prerogative of the Most Holy Mother to have
furnished the material of His flesh to the Only Son of God, Who
was to be born with human members (S. Bede Ven. L. Iv. in Luc. xl.),
of which material should be prepared the Victim for the salvation
of men; but hers was also the office of tending and nourishing
that Victim, and at the appointed time presenting Him for the
sacrifice. Hence that uninterrupted community of life and labors
of the Son and the Mother, so that of both might have been uttered
the words of the Psalmist 'My life is consumed in sorrow and my
years in groans' (Ps xxx., 11). When the supreme 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 (S. Bonav. 1. Sent d. 48, ad Litt. dub. 4). And
from this community of will and suffering between Christ and Mary
she merited to become most worthily the Reparatrix of the lost
world (Eadmeri Mon. De Excellentia Virg. Mariae, c. 9) and
Dispensatrix of all the gifts that Our Savior purchased for us by
His Death and by His Blood." (Pope St. Pius X, "Ad Diem Illum Laetissimum",
1904 A.D.)
"And
who could think or say that the confidence so strongly felt in the
patronage and protection of the Blessed Virgin is excessive?
Undoubtedly the name and attributes of the absolute Mediator
belong to no other than to Christ, for being one person, and yet
both man and God, He restored the human race to the favor of the
Heavenly Father: One Mediator of God and men, the man Christ
Jesus, who gave Himself a redemption for all (1 Tim. ii. 5, 6).
And yet, as the Angelic Doctor teaches, there is no reason why
certain others should not be called in a certain way mediators
between God and man, that is to say, in so far as they co-operate
by predisposing and ministering in the union of man with God
(Summa, p. III., q. xxvi., articles 1, 2). Such are the angels and
saints, the prophets and priests of both Testaments; but
especially has the Blessed Virgin a claim to the glory of this
title. For no single individual can even be imagined who has ever
contributed or ever will contribute so much towards reconciling
man with God. She offered to mankind, hastening to eternal ruin, a
Savior, at that moment when she received the announcement of the
mystery of peace brought to this earth by the Angel, with that
admirable act of consent in the name of the whole human race
(Summa. p. III, q. xxx., art. 1). She it is from whom is born
Jesus; she is therefore truly His mother, and for this reason a
worthy and acceptable 'Mediatrix to the Mediator.'" (Pope Leo
XIII, "Fidentem Piumque Animum", 1896)
"God
vouchsafed to select the very things about Him which are most
incommunicable, and in a most mysteriously real way communicate
them to her. See how He had already mixed her up with the eternal
design of creation, making her almost a partial cause and
partial model of it. Our Lady's cooperation in the redemption of
the world gives us a fresh view of her magnificence. Neither the
Immaculate Conception nor the Assumption will give us a higher
idea of Mary's exaltation that the title of co-redemptress. Her
dolours were not necessary for the redemption of the world, but in
the councils of God they were inseparable from it. They belong to
the integrity of the divine plan. Are not Mary's mysteries Jesus'
mysteries, and His mysteries hers? The truth appears to be, that
all the mysteries of Jesus and Mary were in God's design as one
mystery. Jesus Himself was Mary's sorrow, seven times repeated,
aggravated sevenfold. During the hours of the Passion, the offering
of Jesus and the offering of Mary were tied in one. They kept pace
together; they were made of the same materials; they were perfumed
with kindred fragrance; they were lighted with the same fire; they
were offered with kindred dispositions. The two things were once
simultaneous oblation, interwoven each moment through the thickly
crowded mysteries of that dread time, unto the eternal Father, out
of the two sinless hearts, that were the hearts of the Son and
Mother, for the sins of a guilty world which fell on them contrary
to their merits, but according to their own free will."
(Faber)
"It is especially consoling to note - and also
accurate in accordance with the Gospel and history - that at the
side of Christ, in the first and most exalted place, there is
always his Mother through the exemplary testimony that she bears
by her whole life to this particular Gospel of suffering. In her,
the many and intense sufferings were amassed in such an
interconnected way that they were not only a proof of her
unshakeable faith but also a contribution to the redemption of
all. In reality, from the time of her secret conversation with the
angel, she began to see in her mission as a mother her 'destiny'
to share, in a singular and unrepeatable way, in the very mission
of her Son. And she very soon received a confirmation of this in
the events that accompanied the birth of Jesus in Bethlehem, and
in the solemn words of the aged Simeon, when he spoke of a sharp
sword that would pierce her heart. Yet a further confirmation was
in the anxieties and privations of the hurried flight into Egypt,
caused by the cruel decision of Herod. And again, after the events
of her Son's hidden and public life, events which she must have
shared with acute sensitivity, it was on Calvary that Mary's
suffering, beside the suffering of Jesus, reached an intensity
which can hardly be imagined from a human point of view but which
was mysterious and supernaturally fruitful for the redemption of
the world. Her ascent of Calvary and her standing at the foot of
the Cross together with the Beloved Disciple were a special sort
of sharing in the redeeming death of her Son. And the words which
she heard from his lips were a kind of solemn handing-over of this
Gospel of suffering so that it could be proclaimed to the whole
community of believers." (Pope John Paul II)
"The
Eternal Son of God, about to take upon Him our nature for the
saving and ennobling of man, and about to consummate thus a
mystical union between Himself and all mankind, did not accomplish
His design without adding there the free consent of the elect
Mother, who represented in some sort all human kind, according to
the illustrious and just opinion of St. Thomas, who says that the
Annunciation was effected with the consent of the Virgin standing
in the place of humanity. 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, for mercy and truth were created by Jesus Christ. Thus as no
man goeth to the Father but by the Son, so no man goeth to Christ
but by His Mother. How great are the goodness and mercy revealed
in this design of God! What a correspondence with the frailty of
man! We believe in the infinite goodness of the Most High, and we
rejoice in it; we believe also in His justice and we fear it. We
adore the beloved Savior, lavish of His blood and of His life; we
dread the inexorable Judge. Thus do those whose actions have
disturbed their consciences need an intercessor mighty in favor
with God, merciful enough not to reject the cause of the
desperate, merciful enough to lift up again towards hope in the
divine mercy the afflicted and the broken down. Mary is this
glorious intermediary; she is the mighty Mother of the Almighty;
but - what is still sweeter - she is gentle, extreme in
tenderness, of a limitless loving-kindness. As such God gave her
to us. Having chosen her for the Mother of His only begotten Son,
He taught her all a mother's feeling that breathes nothing but
pardon and love. Such Christ desired she should be, for He
consented to be subject to Mary and to obey her as a son a mother.
Such He proclaimed her from the cross when he entrusted to her
care and love the whole of the race of man in the person of His
disciple John. Such, finally, she proves herself by her courage in
gathering in the heritage of the enormous labors of her Son, and
in accepting the charge of her maternal duties towards us
all." (Pope Leo XIII, "Octobri Mense", 1891)
Also
See: Praise
of Mary | Mary
is Always Ready To Help Us | Powerful
Intercession of Mary | Mary
& Grace / Graces | Mary's
Maternity [Pg.] | The
Flesh of Jesus is the Flesh of Mary | Mary
& The Passion and Death of Jesus | Jesus
& Mary | Jesus
and Mary / United | Immaculate
Conception / Sinlessness | Infallible
Proclamation of the Immaculate Conception | Annunciation
/ Incarnation [Pg.] | The
Assumption of Mary Into Heaven | Infallible
Proclamation of the Assumption | The
Queenship of Mary | Devotion
to Mary / Devotion to Mary is Recommended | Do
Catholics Worship Mary? | Marian
Facts | Marian
Scriptural
References | Some
Reasons
to Honor the Blessed Virgin Mary | Some
Thoughts
on the Blessed Virgin Mary
Note:
Categories are subjective and may overlap. For more items related
to this topic, please review all applicable categories. For more
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