Mary the Dawn
Mary the dawn, Christ the Perfect Day;
Mary the gate, Christ the Heavenly Way!
Mary the root, Christ the Mystic Vine;
Mary the grape, Christ the Sacred Wine!
Mary the wheat, Christ the Living Bread;
Mary the stem, Christ the Rose blood-red!
Mary the font, Christ the Cleansing Flood;
Mary the cup, Christ the Saving Blood!
Mary the temple, Christ the temple's Lord;
Mary the shrine, Christ the God adored!
Mary the beacon, Christ the Haven's Rest;
Mary the mirror, Christ the Vision Blest!
Mary the mother, Christ the mother's Son
By all things blest while endless ages run.
Amen.
"0 Blessed Lady, most holy Mother of God, full of grace,
inexhaustible ocean of the intimate divine liberality and gifts of God,
after the Lord of all, the Blessed Trinity, you are Lady of all;
after the Paraclete, you are the new Consoler of all;
and after the Mediator, you are the Mediatrix for the entire world.
Behold my faith and my desire inspired by heaven;
do not despise me although unworthy,
neither let the ugliness of my sins suspend the immensity of your mercy,
0 Mother of God, 0 name which surpasses all my desire! "
(St. Ephraem of Syria).
0 Mary, God has given you the plenitude of all His benefits, to show us that all hope, all grace, all salvation come from your superabundance. Grant, therefore, 0 Mary, you who have found grace and have given us life, that through you we may approach your divine Son, 0 Blessed Mother of Salvation!
Grant that through you we may receive Him who was given to us through you. Let your spotless purity excuse before His eyes the faults of our malice. May your humility, so pleasing to God, obtain pardon for our pride! May your immense charity cover the multitude of our sins, and may your glorious fruitfulness make our good works fruitful!
0 Lady, our Mediatrix and our advocate, reconcile us with your Son, recommend us to your Son, present us to your Son ! You are blessed by the grace you have found, by the privileges you have merited, by the mercy you have brought to the world. Obtain for us that Jesus, who through you deigned to share our infirmity and our wretchedness, may grant us also through you a share in His glory and in His beatitude" (St. Bernard).
Through Mary Jesus Will Reign
As it is through Mary that God came into the world the first time, in a state of humiliation and annihilation, may we not say that it is through Mary also that He will come the second time, as the whole Church expects Him to come, to rule everywhere and to judge the living and the dead?
Who knows how and when that will be accomplished? I do know that God, Whose thoughts are as far removed from ours as Heaven is distant from the earth, will come in a time and a manner that men expect the least, even those who are most learned and most versed in Holy Scripture, which is very obscure on this subject.
We ought also to believe that towards the end of time, and perhaps sooner than we think, God will raise up great men full of the Holy Ghost and imbued with the spirit of Mary, through whom this powerful Sovereign will work great wonders in the world, so as to destroy sin and to establish the kingdom of Jesus Christ, her Son.
Since she is the sure means, the direct and immaculate way to Jesus and the perfect guide to him, it is through her that souls who are to shine forth in sanctity must find him. He who finds Mary finds life, that is, Jesus Christ who is the way, the truth and the life. But no one can find Mary who does not look for her. No one can look for her who does not know her, for no one seeks or desires something unknown. Mary then must be better known than ever for the deeper understanding and the greater glory of the Blessed Trinity.
St. Louis-Marie Grignion De Montfort
It may be affirmed that, according to God's will, nothing comes to us without going through Mary's hands~ Just as no one can approach the Almighty Father except through the Son, so no one can approach Christ except through His Mother.
Pope Leo XII (Encyclical : Octobri Mense).
The Church teaches us to invoke Mary as Mediatrix of all graces. This title summarizes what the Blessed Virgin is for us, in our relations with her beloved Son : the Mediatrix grace, of mercy, the treasurer of all the graces which Jesus merited for us. "By the communion of sorrows and of will between Christ and Mary,she merited to become the dispenser of all the benefits which Jesus acquired for us by shedding His Blood"
Pope St. Pius X (Encyclical: Ad Diem Illum).
"Since the Mediatrix of All Graces is the Immaculata, the closer one draws to her the more abundant will be his spiritual life."
St. Maximilian Maria Kolbe
“When St. Padre Pio of Pietrelcina used to come down for Confessions every day, before he reached the confessional he would pass by a picture of the Immaculate. Without fail he would stop for a few minutes to pray before it. He was entrusting to Our Lady the Confessions that he was about to hear and was appealing for an abundance of graces. The fruitful results of his priestly ministry were the concrete answers to his prayer….
A Hail Mary before study, before work, before giving a talk, before an examination, before a journey, before surgery, before meals, before rest, etc., is an assurance of a grace that elevates and sanctifies the action.”
Father Stefano Manelli, FI (Devotion to Our Lady)
John Paul II : Mother of the Redeemer ( Redemptoris Mater)
(Mary) knows that she can point out to her Son the needs of mankind, and in fact, she "has the right" to do so. Her mediation is thus in the nature of intercession: Mary intercedes for mankind. And that is not all. As a mother she also wishes the messianic power of her Son to be manifested, that salvific power of his which is meant to help man in his misfortunes, to free him from the evil which in various forms and degrees weighs heavily upon his life
Another essential element of Mary's maternal task is found in her words to the servants: "Do whatever he tells you." The Mother of Christ presents herself as the spokeswoman of her Son’s will, pointing out those things which must be done so that the salvific power of the Messiah may be manifested. At Cana, thanks to the intercession of Mary and the obedience of the servants, Jesus begins "his hour."
At Cana Mary appears as believing in Jesus. Her faith evokes his first "sign" and helps to kindle the faith of the disciples. We can therefore say that in this passage of John's Gospel we find as it were a first manifestation of the truth concerning Mary's maternal care. This truth has also found expression in the teaching of the Second Vatican Council. It is important to note how the Council illustrates Mary's maternal role as it relates to the mediation of Christ. Thus we read: "Mary's maternal function towards mankind in no way obscures or diminishes the unique mediation of Christ, but rather shows its efficacy," because "there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus" (1 Tim. 2:5).
This maternal role of Mary flows, according to God's good pleasure, "from the superabundance of the merits of Christ; it is founded on his mediation, absolutely depends on it, and draws all its efficacy from it." It is precisely in this sense that the episode at Cana in Galilee offers us a sort of first announcement of Mary’s mediation; it is wholly oriented towards Christ and tending to the revelation of his salvific power.
Mary Mediatrix of all Graces
The Blessed Virgin Mary. the Tota Pulchra, the Most Pure Virgin, who conceived in her womb the Redeemer of Men and who was preserved from all original stain, wishes to be the definitive seal of our encounter with God, our Savior. There is not a single fruit of grace in the history of salvation which does not have as a necessary instrument the mediaton of Our Lady. … Let us thank God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit, from Whom, through the intercession of the Virgin Mary, all heavenly blessings come.
Pope Benedict XVI Homily – Holy Mass and canonization of Blessed Frei Galvão Campo de Marte airfield, São Paulo, Brazil May 11, 2007
