Mary the Channel of All Graces?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Augustine3
  • Start date Start date
Status
Not open for further replies.
A

Augustine3

Guest
Please state if you think Mary is indeed the channel of all graces and most importantly why?
 
Our Lady of the Rosary fulfilled John’s Apocalypse 12 as a great sign appearing in the heavens, a woman clothed with the Sun, as Sister Lucia described her garb. The Blessed Virgin said God wishes to establish in the world devotion to the Immaculate Heart, her purity of intent. And the best way to express this devotion is to emulate her Immaculate Heart. Even the pagans, if their child asks for bread, would not hand over a stone.

God wishes to establish in the world devotion to Mary’s Immaculate Heart. Why are we handing God a stone at His request for devotion to (and ostensibly the honoring by emulating) the Immaculate Heart? If you were hungry and asked for bread would you accept a stone? Even a lovely diamond? There are hundreds of beautiful diamond-like titles of Mary to be discussed without coming to any conclusive action. Yes, Mary is the Channel of All Graces as Mother of God. No Jesus, no grace. But God wishes to establish in the world devotion to the Immaculate Heart of Mary. May we stick with God’s agenda?

Plenty there. The Five First Saturday’s. Confession, Mass & 15 minutes keeping her company, usually in the Rosary devotional, all to repair affronts to her Immaculate Heart. “Pray the daily Rosary for peace.” And well we might pray for another consecration of Russia to her Immaculate Heart as requested at Fatima: all bishops led by Peter, in their respective cathedrals, at one time in one solemn, public occasion specifically mentioning “Russia.” Blessed Mother then promised to convert Russia as the “only” means to a period of peace or the errors of Russia would spread leading to the “annihilation of nations.” Millions have died in Russian-derived genocide.

Russia sold nuclear materials to Iran in May 2004 and now Israel fears a nuclear attack from Iran which may be more properly attributed to Russia’s selling of nuclear materials to Iran in May 2004. Russia is still spreading her errors, comrade, unless America’s Marxist government can be backed off attacks on the Church. Passive deaths by rationing health care to those over the age of seven and those under fifty-six; birth control abortifacients doled out for free; and $100/day fines for Catholic organizations, that’s $100/day for each member of a convent or staff member of a Catholic hospital, anybody who refuses to provide insurance coverage that includes sterilization and birth control. Immaculate Heart of Mary, reign and rule in all hearts.
 
She gave birth to Christ (was a “channel”) who gives us all graces. So yes.
 
The Church has declared it.

papalencyclicals.net/Pius09/p9ineff.htm
When the Fathers and writers of the Church meditated on the fact that the most Blessed Virgin was, in the name and by order of God himself, proclaimed full of grace[22] by the Angel Gabriel when he announced her most sublime dignity of Mother of God, they thought that this singular and solemn salutation, never heard before, showed that the Mother of God is the seat of all divine graces and is adorned with all gifts of the Holy Spirit.
Click to expand...
papalencyclicals.net/Leo13/l13adiut.htm
  1. It is impossible to measure the power and scope of her offices since the day she was taken up to that height of heavenly glory in the company of her Son, to which the dignity and luster of her merits entitle her. From her heavenly abode she began, by God’s decree, to watch over the Church, to assist and befriend us as our Mother; so that she who was so intimately associated with the mystery of human salvation is just as closely associated with the distribution of the graces which for all time will flow from the Redemption.
Click to expand...
papalencyclicals.net/Pius10/p10imcon.htm
  1. 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).
Click to expand...
vatican.va/archive/hist_councils/ii_vatican_council/documents/vat-ii_const_19641121_lumen-gentium_en.html
  1. Predestined from eternity by that decree of divine providence which determined the incarnation of the Word to be the Mother of God, the Blessed Virgin was on this earth the virgin Mother of the Redeemer, and above all others and in a singular way the generous associate and humble handmaid of the Lord. She conceived, brought forth and nourished Christ. She presented Him to the Father in the temple, and was united with Him by compassion as He died on the Cross. In this singular way she cooperated by her obedience, faith, hope and burning charity in the work of the Saviour in giving back supernatural life to souls. Wherefore she is our mother in the order of grace.
Click to expand...
  1. This maternity of Mary in the order of grace began with the consent which she gave in faith at the Annunciation and which she sustained without wavering beneath the cross, and lasts until the eternal fulfillment of all the elect. Taken up to heaven she did not lay aside this salvific duty, but by her constant intercession continued to bring us the gifts of eternal salvation.(15*) By her maternal charity, she cares for the brethren of her Son, who still journey on earth surrounded by dangers and cultics, until they are led into the happiness of their true home. Therefore the Blessed Virgin is invoked by the Church under the titles of Advocate, Auxiliatrix, Adjutrix, and Mediatrix.(16*) This, however, is to be so understood that it neither takes away from nor adds anything to the dignity and efficaciousness of Christ the one Mediator.(17*)
Click to expand...
 
+JMJ+

Pope Benedict XV, back in the 1920’s, allowed Belgium to celebrate the Feast of Mary, Mediatrix of All Graces on May 31. This has been moved to August 31 for the Novus Ordo.

So yes, I believe that Mary Immaculata is the Madiatrix of All Graces.
 
The most holy Mary knew that the Lord had bestowed upon her the prerogative of being the special Mediatrix of the human race and the Dispensatrix of the treasures of the Divinity for her Son…
Click to expand...
and in a prayer to Mary…
…Make me partaker in the gifts which the Lord has placed in thy hands for distribution among the needy…
Click to expand...
both from a 17th c. work written by a Servant of God.

So, suppose Mary is the Mediatrix of the human race. What circumstances would her intercession be ineffective? Remember the wedding at Cana-- “My time has not yet come.” And she didn’t push him; she told them to “Do whatever he tells you.” And he ended up performing that miracle anyways. Mary’s will is perfectly aligned to God’s will, but how often does God end up doing x for love of her, if nothing else?

Suppose she’s the Dispensatrix of gifts and graces from God to humanity. What gifts and graces would God tell her she couldn’t distribute? Of course, there’s the obvious things— or else everyone on the planet would have a winning lottery ticket— but thinking a little more spiritually, or even maybe a little more allegorically, Mary exists to bring people to Christ. Under what circumstances would she be given this task-- assisting in the salvation of souls-- and then denied a method/opportunity of accomplishing it?

I was reading this article, and one of the interesting things it mentions is that there has never been any argument over the doctrine of whether or not Mary was the mediatrix of all graces. What’s been argued over is how, practically speaking, her involvement is structured. Is it limited to her prayers-- she prays for all graces for us, and all graces come to us as a result of those prayers? – or is it more literal? It’s healthy to realize that while theologians have historically not had any difficulty in agreeing that x exists, they have had quite a bit of debate as to how, precisely, x is accomplished.
 
I don’t think it’s a useful title at all. If Mary is the channel of all graces because of Jesus, why aren’t Adam and Eve also the channel of all graces?
 
snarflemike said:
I don’t think it’s a useful title at all. If Mary is the channel of all graces because of Jesus, why aren’t Adam and Eve also the channel of all graces?
Click to expand...
Nice point! 🙂 Adam and Eve, indeed, would have been the channel of of all graces since they had received sanctifying grace for all humanity - until they lost it. Which is why the Church also calls the Blessed Virgin “the new Eve” and our Lord “the new Adam” - in a mystical way, of course.
 
If Mary is the channel of all graces how did she channel them in the period between Christ’s ascension and her assumption into heaven? Surly she did not have the knowledge back then to dispense these graces as she does now…
 
Augustine3 said:
If Mary is the channel of all graces how did she channel them in the period between Christ’s ascension and her assumption into heaven? Surly she did not have the knowledge back then to dispense these graces as she does now…
Click to expand...
An article on the topic: here.

I also found this website but I haven’t read through it.
 
Augustine3 said:
If Mary is the channel of all graces how did she channel them in the period between Christ’s ascension and her assumption into heaven? Surly she did not have the knowledge back then to dispense these graces as she does now…
Click to expand...
I think you’re taking the title of “channel of all graces” too far in your interpretation. Jesus chose to impart grace to us through His incarnation and death on the cross, and the channel through which He chose to do so was the womb of Mary. The title of Channel of all graces applied to Mary ONLY applies to the birth of Christ, and not to her intercession on behalf of others. It’s a common misunderstanding that many protestants make in the application of the term.

Grace entered the world through the birth of Christ, and that birth was through Mary, that’s all the title means.
 
There is very little focus on Mary in scripture - Jesus is the one that mankind is asked to look to.

John 5:22&23:
*For the Father judgeth no man, but hath committed all judgment unto the Son:
That all men should honour the Son, even as they honour the Father. He that honoureth not the Son honoureth not the Father which hath sent him.
*
Why be so concerned with Mary, highly favoured though she was?

John 14:6:
Jesus saith unto him (Thomas), I am the way, the truth, and the life:no man cometh unto the Father but by me.

Jan
 
Augustine3 said:
Please state if you think Mary is indeed the channel of all graces and most importantly why?
Click to expand...
Early theologians had a good analogy for this: They said that Christ is the head of the Mystical Body of which we are all members; and in that metaphor, Mary could be thought of as the “neck”.

What is not mentioned in this discussion is that the Holy Spirit’s action in the economy of salvation is accomplished in and through Mary – this is why she was preserved from Original Sin in her Immaculate Conception-- a privilege not just for her, but which she holds in trust for us for our resurrected, glorified being in eternity. (A promise of this is her Assumption into Heaven body and soul.) We tend to forget that the economy of salvation is accomplished by the whole Trinity, though only the second person of the Trinity was made man, through the action of the Holy Spirit IN Mary.

People who do not understand the unique honor due to Mary forget or do not comprehend that it is the Holy Spirit they are honoring through her-- in a manner of speaking, Mary is “the Sacrament” (sign which accomplishes what it signifies) of the Holy Spirit – she by the will of the Eternal Father is the mother of all the faithful and co-operator (“helpmeet” according to Genesis–) with her Divine Son in His work of our redemption.

The Trinity willed in its infinite wisdom (which may not make sense to us until we reach Heaven) that the work of the New Adam required the “help-mate” of the New Eve to regenerate fallen mankind to the perfect children of God we shall be at the resurrection. Remember that the most perfect metaphor for the Trinity in eternity is the Holy Family on earth! Christ is the source of all grace; Mary is His chosen channel of those graces, bearing in mind that Mary is also exemplar of Holy Mother Church, custodian through history of the sacraments of that grace.

With this point of view it is no big problem, theologically, to think of Mary as Mediatrix (channel) of all Graces: because when you say Mary, she is simultaneously exemplar of the Church through time, and the action of the Holy Spirit through eternity-- all of which which are all in harmony in the grace bestowed on the individual, and in saved mankind as a whole.
 
Hi Aunt Raven,
Which scriptures would you cite to support your view?
Jan
 
janxharris said:
Hi Aunt Raven,
Which scriptures would you cite to support your view?
Jan
Click to expand...
Part of it comes directly from Genesis.

The LORD God said: "It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a suitable partner for him." … So the LORD God cast a deep sleep on the man, and while he was asleep, he took out one of his ribs and closed up its place with flesh. The LORD God then built up into a woman the rib that he had taken from the man. When he brought her to the man, the man said: “This one, at last, is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; This one shall be called ‘woman,’ for out of ‘her man’ this one has been taken.” (Genesis 2:18,22-23)

God recognized that it was not good that man be alone, and so he created a “suitable partner” for him. That is an unfortunate translation - some say “Suitable helper or helpmate”. The Church has always recognized Christ as the “New Adam” and Mary as the “New Eve.” The original Eve was a helpmate to the original Adam - she was to share in Adam’s vocation. The same it true of the New Eve, Mary, who was to share in the vocation of her Son, the New Adam. Mary is the “Suitable helpmate” for the Savior.

The Church has always recognized Mary as the Mother of the Church and as a model for the Church, as a “Type” of the Church. Just as Eve was created from a rib taken from Adam’s side. The Church, typified by Mary, was created when blood and water poured out of Christ’s side.

The Church also looks to the story of Rebekahy and Jacob. Just as Rebekah dressed her younger son Jacob in the clothing of the first born son Esau so that Jacob could obtain the blessing of his father, Mary too dresses us in the righteousness of her first born son, Jesus. so that we can obtain the blessing of God our Father.

But put on the Lord Jesus Christ (Romans 13:14)

Paul speaks in many places about “Clothing” ourselves in Christ and “Clothing” ourselves in righteousness. We see that the Mother of the son clothes her younger son in the clothing of the firstborn in the story of Rebekah and Jacob, and this points us to Mary and Christ, and how Mary “Clothes” us in the righteousness of Christ by giving us the necessary graces.

-Tim-
 
Thanks for your reply Tim.
Surely you are making an inference too far here in citing Genesis 2:18ff.? I am not aware that the Church has always recognised that Mary was the new ‘Eve’ just as Jesus was the new ‘Adam’. Does it not strike you as odd, that if, as you say, Mary shares in Jesus’ vocation, it’s not actually plainly stated in scripture?

Is not Christ alone enough for man’s salvation?

Cheers,
Jan
 
janxharris said:
Thanks for your reply Tim.
Surely you are making an inference too far here in citing Genesis 2:18ff.? I am not aware that the Church has always recognised that Mary was the new ‘Eve’ just as Jesus was the new ‘Adam’. Does it not strike you as odd, that if, as you say, Mary shares in Jesus’ vocation, it’s not actually plainly stated in scripture?

Is not Christ alone enough for man’s salvation?

Cheers,
Jan
Click to expand...
No, it is not a reach to go back to Genesis, nor to call Mary the “New Eve”. Many Church fathers wrote about it and Church Tradition teaches it clearly. Mary obeyed where Eve didn’t. Mary reversed Eve’s curse.

Here is a lecture titled “Early Church Fathers on Mary as the New Eve” by Professor Lawrence Feingold of the Kenrick-Glennon Seminary, St. Louis, MO.

Mary’s role is clearly stated for those who study scripture.

John places Mary at Jesus first public miracle and then again at the foot of the cross as Jesus dies. John is using a literary technique called “Bookending” whereby he places a character at the beginning of the story and then again at the end of the story. Mary’s place in the Gospel of John forms two bookends which hold the story together. The bookends of Mary’s presence at the beginning of Jesus’ ministry and at the end of his ministry show that Mary was there “From beginning to end”.

We have to know something about the ancient tradition of Hebrew storytelling to recognize what was going on. Hebrew storytelling doesn’t tell you the facts, but draws you into the story for you to find out the facts. The charcoal fire in John’s Gospel is another good example of Hebrew storytelling which you might want to explore.

No, it is not a reach to go back to Genesis, and for those who study how the Bible was written and how Jews wrote stories, poetry and instructional writings, Mary’s presence is all through the Bible.

-Tim-
 
Thanks again for this Tim. I will come back to you anon.

Do you think Christ alone is enough for man’s salvation?

Cheers,
Jan
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top