I’ve tried to come at this in multiple threads, with multiple different arguments, to show that this is not only true, but really not even controversial, but without apparent success.
The Church Fathers do say, and I can provide references/arguments if necessary, that Mary is co-redemptrix (‘Second Eve’), ever-Virgin, assumed into heaven, and queen of all saints and angels.
The question here is about Mediatrix of all graces, though: justtryin gives some good quotes. But the key thing, to free you from all doubt, or uncertainty, is to understand the WHAT and the WHY. So I will offer here a more philosophical approach, which I hope is at least faithful to the Fathers’ thinking, even if I do not quote them:
Are you familiar with the term theosis, or deification, and its importance in theology as the goal of Christian life? Of what heaven, truly, is? It is being with God, contemplating God, in the presence of God. If this is the Christian destination, then the saints are those that have arrived at it. And of all the saints, Mary is the most accomplished (as you will find abundant patristic witness).
Therefore, Mary beholds God in heaven more closely and more immediately than any creature, man or angel. What are the implications of this?
Well, I would argue, if we understand the concept of theosis, then, as theosis progresses, our wills become more perfectly attuned to the divine will. The ultimate goal of this, necessarily, is then that these wills become one. Disagreement with God’s will is sin, and there is no sin in heaven. If
anyone has achieved this goal of sainthood, Mary has, since she is first among the saints. And if she has achieved it, then by definition, the consequence is that what God wills, Mary wills, and what God does not will, Mary does not will.
This means that
anything God wishes to bestow a grace for, Mary wishes to pray for. That is what a perfect creature in heaven’s will should be, by definition.
And that is all that we are saying when we say that all graces come through Mary. Because Mary wants what God wants, anything God wants, Mary wants.
Therefore, Mary’s intercession is present for all graces. All graces do not come
from Mary–they come from God. But since her will is fully obedient to God’s, all graces coming from God are also graces that she desires–otherwise her adherence to God would be less than perfect, which neither the Church nor the Fathers would admit.
And, because she is in heaven, what she desires, is the same thing as what she intercedes for. Thus:
- God dispenses graces as He wills
- Whatever God does will, Mary wills, because she has achieved Theosis beyond any other creature
- Therefore, Mary’s intercession to God (=her prayer, for those in heaven express desire through constant prayer), corresponds exactly to God’s chosen graces
- Therefore, all graces come through Mary–not because she is in any way their originator, but because her will is perfectly conformed to God, therefore she by her very nature must intercede for all graces that God is disposed to grant, and must not intercede for any grace that God would not grant.
To get back to my initial frustration that this is not better understood, I am bothered by this because, given the logic above, saying that all graces do
not come through Mary is like saying that, in heaven, it would be possible
not to agree with everything God does. Which, for me, goes against the very definition of heaven.
To my thinking, saying that Mary is mediatrix of all graces does not place an intermediary between me and Christ–rather, saying that she is
not places an insurmountable barrier between me and Christ: if Christ’s own
mother cannot, in heavenly perfection, fully accord her will to God’s, what hope do I, a gentile 2000 years removed, possibly have to reconcile myself to the Father?
