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Chapter 1: The Necessity of Prayer
4. The Intercession of the Blessed Virgin
And if this is true of the Saints, much more is it true of the
intercession of the Mother of God, whose prayers are certainly
of more value in His sight than those of all the rest of the
Inhabitants of Heaven together.
For St. Thomas says, that the
Saints, in proportion to the merits by which they have obtained
grace for themselves, are able also to save others; but that
Jesus Christ, and so also his Mother, have merited so much
grace, that they can save all men. "it is a great thing in any
Saint that he should have grace enough for the salvation of many
beside himself; but if he had enough for the salvation of all
men, this would be the greatest of all; and this is the case
with Christ, and with the Blessed Virgin." [Expos. in Sal. Aug.]
And St. Bernard speaks thus to Mary: "Through thee we have
access to thy Son, O discoverer of grace and Mother of
salvation, that through thee he may receive us, who through thee
was given to us." [In Adv. Dom. s. 2] These words signify, that
as we only have access to the Father by means of the Son, Who is
the Mediator of justice, so we only have access to the Son by
means of the Mother, who is mediator of grace, and who obtains
for us, by her intercession, the gifts which Jesus Christ has
merited for us.
And therefore St. Bernard says, in another
place, that Mary has received a twofold fullness of grace. The
first was the Incarnation of the Word, who was made Man inner
most holy womb; the second is that fullness of grace which we
receive from God by means of her prayers. Hence the Saint adds:
"God has placed the fullness of all good in Mary, that if we
have any hope, any grace, any salvation, we may know that it
overflows from her who 'ascendeth abounding with delights." [De
Aquaed.]
She is a garden of delights, whose doors spread abroad
and abound; that is, the gifts of graces. So that whatever good
we have from God, we receive all by the intercession of Mary.
Any why so? Because, says St. Bernard, it is God's will: "Such
is his will, who would have us receive everything through Mary."
But the more precise reason is deduced from the expression of
St. Augustine, that Mary is justly called our Mother, because
she co-operated by her charity in the birth of the faithful to
the life of grace, by which we become members of Jesus Christ,
our head: "But clearly she is the mother of his members [which
we are]; because she cooperated by her charity in the birth of
the faithful in the Church, and they are members of that Head."
[De S. Virginit. c. 6] Therefore, as Mary co-operated by her
charity in the spiritual birth of the faithful, so also God
willed that she should co-operate by her intercession to make
them enjoy the life of grace in this world, and the life of
glory in the next; and therefore the Church makes us call her
and salute her, without any circumlocution by the names, "our
life, our sweetness, and our hope."
Hence St. Bernard exhorts us to have continual recourse to the
Mother of God; because her prayers are certain to be heard by
her Son: "Go to Mary, I say, without hesitation; the Son will
hear the Mother." And then he says: "My children, she is the
ladder of sinners, she is my chief confidence, she is the whole
ground of my hope."
He calls her "ladder," because, as you
cannot mount the third step except you first put your foot on
the second, nor can you arrive at the second except by the
first, so you cannot come to God except by means of Jesus
Christ, nor can you come to Christ except by means of his
Mother. Then he calls her "his greatest security, and the whole
ground of his hope;" because, as he affirms, God wills that all
the graces which he gives us should pass through the hands of
Mary. And he concludes by saying, that we ought to ask all the
graces which we desire through Mary; because she obtains
whatever she seeks, and her prayers cannot be rejected. "Let us
seek grace, and let us seek it through Mary; because she obtains
whatever she seeks she finds, and she cannot be disappointed."
The following Saints teach the same as St. Bernard: St. Ephrem,
"We have no other confidence than from thee, O purest Virgin!"
St. Ildephonsus, "All the good things that the Divine Majesty
has determined to give them, he has determined to commit to thy
hands; for to thee are entrusted the treasures and the wardrobes
of grace."[De Cor. Virg. c. 15]
St. Germanus, "If thou desertest us, what will become of
us, O life of Christians?" St. Peter Damian, "In thy hands are
all the treasures of the mercies of God." [De Nativ. s. 1] St.
Antonius, "Who seeks without her aid, attempts to fly without
wings."
St. Bernardine of Siena, "Thou art the dispenser of all
graces; our salvation is in thy hands." In another place, he not
only says that all graces are transmitted to us by means of
Mary, but he also asserts that the Blessed Virgin, from the time
she became Mother of God, acquired a certain jurisdiction over
all the graces that are given to us. "Through the Virgin the
vital graces are transfused from Christ, the Head, into his
mystical body." "From the time when the Virgin Mother conceived
in her womb the Word of God, she obtained a certain jurisdiction
[if I may so speak] over every temporal procession of the Holy
Ghost; so that no creature could obtain any grace from God,
except by the dispensation of his sweet Mother." And he
concludes, 'Therefore all gifts, virtues, and graces are
dispensed through her hands to whom she wills, and as she
wills."
St. Bonaventure says the same: "Since the whole Divine
nature was in the womb of the Virgin, I do not fear to teach
that she has a certain jurisdiction over all the streams of
grace; as her womb was, as it were, an ocean of the Divine
nature, whence all the streams of grace must emanate."
On the
authority of these Saints, many theologians have piously and
reasonably defended the opinion, that there is no grace given to
us except by means of the intercession of Mary; so Mendoza,
Vega, Paciucchelli, Segneri, Piore, Crasset, and others, as also
the learned Alexander Natalis who says: "It is God's will that
we should look to him for all good things, to e procured by the
most powerful intercession of the Blessed Virgin, when we invoke
her, as it is fit." [Ep. 50, in calce Theol.] And he quotes in
confirmation the passage of St. Bernard: "Such is his will who
has determined that we should receive all through Mary."
Contenson says the same, in a comment on the words addressed by
Jesus on the cross to St. John, "Behold thy Mother:" As though
he had said, "No one shall be partaker of my blood except by the
intercession of my Mother. [John 19: 27] My wounds are fountains
of grace; but their streams shall flow to on one, except through
the canal of Mary. O my disciple John, I will love you as you
love her!"
For the rest, it is certain, that if God is pleased
when we have recourse to the Saints, he will be much more
pleased when we avail ourselves of the intercession of Mary,
that she, by her merits, may compensate for our unworthiness,
according to the words of St. Anselm: "That the dignity of the
intercessor may supply for our poverty. So that, to invoke the
Virgin, is not to distrust God's mercy, but to fear our own
unworthiness." [De incarn. q. 37, a. 4, d. 23, s. 3]
St. Thomas,
speaking of her dignity, calls it, as it were, infinite: "From
the fact that she is the Mother of God, she has a certain
infinite dignity." [P. 1, q. 25, a. 6, ad 4] So that it may be
said with reason, that the prayers of Mary have more power with
God than those of all Heaven together.
Conclusion of the Chapter
Let us conclude this first point by giving the gist of all that
has been said hitherto. He who prays is certainly saved. He who
prays not is certainly damned. All the blessed [except infants]
have been saved by prayer. All the damned have been lost through
not praying; if they had prayed, they would not have been lost.
And this is, and will be, their greatest torment in Hell, to
think how easily they might have been saved, only by asking God
for His grace; but that now it is too late,-----the time of
prayer is over.
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