Question about St. Maximilian Kolbe Quote

[Peverson]

I am reading 33 Days to Morning Glory and read this quote from St. Maximilian Kolbe about Our Lady: “The Holy Spirit does not act except through the Immaculata, his spouse [Mary].” I just don’t see how this can be true, as the Holy Spirit was acting long before Mary became the mother of Our Lord. I’m not trying to play dumb. I just don’t understand the claim, as in it makes absolutely no sense to me. Was it taken out of context? Thanks for any help!

 

[bsroufek]

God chose to make Mary the Mediatrix of All Graces. Grace comes through the Holy Spirit.

So, since Mary was crowned Queen in Heaven, she is, by God’s choice, the agent of grace.

This reminds me of her Canticle in the Gospel of Luke: “My soul magnifies the Lord…”

 

[Michael_Allen]

I know some see Mary as dispensing all graces (sometimes called "mediatrix of all graces), so perhaps St. Maximilian was speaking in that tradition. I assume that is after Mary’s taking into heaven.

I don’t believe that view has any foundation in scripture or the ancient traditions of the Church. I’d be interested in knowing what the earliest reference to that theology is. It would appear dangerously close to idolatry of mankind (in Mary) to me.

 

[Mintaka]

What part of the theology are you doubting?

Do you doubt that the Holy Spirit works through the Son, Jesus Christ? Because there never was a time when the Son did not exist, or the Holy Spirit, or the Father. God is eternal and predates the universe, much less Bethlehem and Nazareth. So yes, the Holy Spirit always worked through the Son. (And I’m sure the inner workings of the Trinity are full of the reciprocity of love, because God is Love, but Trinitarian theology is a whole other big subject I won’t tackle.) That’s not a problem.

Do you doubt that all graces come to humanity through the Son, Jesus Christ?

Do you doubt that the Son, Jesus Christ, was incarnate through the Virgin Mary?

This isn’t a matter of idolatry. It’s a matter of humbly recognizing that, mysteriously and kindly, God the Trinity chose to send the Son to us through the consent and the human body of Mary, a Jewish woman of faith. God, mysteriously and kindly, loves to dispense His graces to us through the instrumentality of normal human beings, including Mary, and sometimes including you and me. He loved it so much that He made Israel His covenant family, and then became Himself a son of Israel. Do you doubt this?

All God’s graces come to us through Christ, He Who came to us through Mary, He Who came to us through David, and Ruth, and Rahab and Tamar, and Abraham and Elizabeth, and Noah, and Adam and Eve. Do you doubt this?

Anyway, Pope Leo XIII quotes St. Bernardine of Siena as saying, “Every grace that is communicated to this world has a threefold course. For by excellent order, it is dispensed from God to Christ, from Christ to the Virgin, from the Virgin to us.” And St. Bernardine of Siena was all Christ all the time, believe me. His whole mission in life was promoting the Holy Name of Jesus. He would never have exalted Mary at the expense of Jesus’ glory.

I think the problem here may be that you think the person who gives out the king’s alms is as great as the king. That’s not the way it works. The king’s queen-mother and maidservant has only the glory that the king gives her and wants her to have, and if that glory is great it speaks of the king’s generosity, and how glorious beyond all bounds that the king must be. How can we treat the king’s mother less worthily than the king does?
And she would be the first one to tell you that she does not own the alms, but only gives them away.

 

[brumano]

I am reading 33 Days to Morning Glory and read this quote from St. Maximilian Kolbe about Our Lady: “The Holy Spirit does not act except through the Immaculata, his spouse [Mary].” I just don’t see how this can be true, as the Holy Spirit was acting long before Mary became the mother of Our Lord. I’m not trying to play dumb. I just don’t understand the claim, as in it makes absolutely no sense to me. Was it taken out of context? Thanks for any help!

maybe it is that this and very many seemingly unanswerable enigmas about Mary may simply be that before creation Mary won God’s heart over for us, and so the rest is history.

 

[detoutcoeur]

I am reading 33 Days to Morning Glory and read this quote from St. Maximilian Kolbe about Our Lady: “The Holy Spirit does not act except through the Immaculata, his spouse [Mary].” I just don’t see how this can be true, as the Holy Spirit was acting long before Mary became the mother of Our Lord. I’m not trying to play dumb. I just don’t understand the claim, as in it makes absolutely no sense to me. Was it taken out of context? Thanks for any help!

You might find these two articles helpful in understanding St. Maximilian Kolbe’s quote:

*For as St. Maximillian Kolbe says, when we say “to Jesus through Mary,” we mean essentially the same thing as “to Jesus through the Holy Spirit.” Why? because the Holy Spirit acts only in and through his beloved spouse, with whom he is so closely united by reason of Mary’s Immaculate Conception. As St. Maximillian correctly points out, **the Holy Spirit manifests his share in the work of Redemption through the Immaculate Virgin who, although she is a person entirely distinct from him, is so intimately associated with him that our minds cannot understand it. So, while their union is not of the same order as the hypostatic union linking the human and divine natures in Christ, it remains true to say that Mary’s action is the very action of the Holy Spirit. For Mary as the spouse of the Holy Spirit is raised to such a height of perfection above all other creatures that she accomplishes in everything the will of the Holy Spirit who dwelt in her from the first instant of her conception.25 (Emphasis added.) *
*A proper understanding of Mary’s relationship with Jesus in God’s plan of redemption, and her relationship with the Holy Spirit in God’s “plan of applied redemption” (i.e., in the distribution of grace merited by Christ), will help both Catholics and non-Catholics alike to see that we do not pray to Mary to Jesus, but through Mary to Jesus, and through him to the Father. And in light of what was said above about Mary being the Holy Spirit’s “living human instrument,” we realize that when we pray through Mary to Jesus, in a true sense we are praying through the Holy Spirit (and Mary) to Jesus. Furthermore, with Kolbe’s theological framework and his emphasis on Mary’s relationship with the Holy Spirit as the reason for her being Mediatrix of all grace, the hypothetical necessity of going through Mary becomes more readily apparent: if we know that the grace of Christ comes to us through the Holy Spirit and that we must respond to God’s grace by going through the Holy Spirit to Jesus, and if we also know that the Holy Spirit works only in and through Mary, his beloved spouse, then we realize the (hypothetical) necessity of having recourse to the Blessed Virgin. *
catholicculture.org/culture/library/view.cfm?recnum=4270

*In a letter to Fr. Mikolajczyk in 1935, Fr. Kolbe said: "The union between the Immaculata and the Holy Spirit is so inexpressible, yet so perfect, that the Holy Spirit acts only by the Most Blessed Virgin, his Spouse. This is why she is the Mediatrix of all grace given by the Holy Spirit."79
The Holy Spirit chooses to act in no other way than through Mary. The action of the Holy Spirit and the action of Our Lady are one. Mary, as the spouse of the Third Divine Person accomplishes in all things the will of the Holy Spirit.80 From the first moment of her conception He dwelt in her and during her earthly life her will never contradicted His.

According to Fr. Kolbe she always fulfills whatever God wants from her: "She makes perfect use of the powers and privileges God has given her, so as to fulfill always and in everything whatever God wants of her, purely for love of God, One and Three."81

There is no separation of aims or conflict of interest between Mary’s will and God’s will: She is God’s instrument. With full consciousness and total willingness she allows God to govern her; she consents to His will, desires only what He desires,and acts according to His will in the most perfect manner, without failing, without ever turning aside from His will.82 *
fatherpeffley.org/docs/Mary_HS.pdf

 

[Beryllos]

“The union between the Immaculata and the Holy Spirit is so inexpressible, yet so perfect, that the Holy Spirit acts only by the Most Blessed Virgin, his Spouse. This is why she is the Mediatrix of all grace given by the Holy Spirit.”
St. Maximilian Kolbe

In a quick review of the Catechism of the Catholic Church, I found the following (and I highlight a few interesting parts in bold):

…she is our Mother in the order of grace

967 By her complete adherence to the Father’s will, to his Son’s redemptive work, and to every prompting of the Holy Spirit, the Virgin Mary is the Church’s model of faith and charity. Thus she is a “preeminent and… wholly unique member of the Church”; indeed, she is the “exemplary realization” (typus) of the Church.

968 Her role in relation to the Church and to all humanity goes still further. “In a wholly singular way she cooperated by her obedience, faith, hope, and burning charity in the Savior’s work of restoring supernatural life to souls. For this reason she is a mother to us in the order of grace.”

969 “This motherhood of Mary in the order of grace continues uninterruptedly from the consent which she loyally gave at the Annunciation and which she sustained without wavering beneath the cross, until the eternal fulfilment of all the elect. Taken up to heaven she did not lay aside this saving office but by her manifold intercession continues to bring us the gifts of eternal salvation… Therefore the Blessed Virgin is invoked in the Church under the titles of Advocate, Helper, Benefactress, and Mediatrix.”

970 “Mary’s function as mother of men in no way obscures or diminishes this unique mediation of Christ, but rather shows its power. But the Blessed Virgin’s salutary influence on men… flows forth from the superabundance of the merits of Christ, rests on his mediation, depends entirely on it, and draws all its power from it.” “No creature could ever be counted along with the Incarnate Word and Redeemer; but just as the priesthood of Christ is shared in various ways both by his ministers and the faithful, and as the one goodness of God is radiated in different ways among his creatures, so also the unique mediation of the Redeemer does not exclude but rather gives rise to a manifold cooperation which is but a sharing in this one source.”

The parts I highlighted in bold appear significant. I think I can accept these church teachings, but I think St. Max took it a step further, and that is where he got it wrong, and that is what I cannot accept. The Holy Spirit acts through Mary, but not only through Mary. Mary is a mediatrix of grace, but not the mediatrix of all grace.

This may be slightly off topic, but I note that in the Hail Mary, we do not ask Mary to give us grace or to perform any works, except to pray for us.

 

[Dorothy]

What part of the theology are you doubting?

Do you doubt that the Holy Spirit works through the Son, Jesus Christ? Because there never was a time when the Son did not exist, or the Holy Spirit, or the Father. God is eternal and predates the universe, much less Bethlehem and Nazareth. So yes, the Holy Spirit always worked through the Son. (And I’m sure the inner workings of the Trinity are full of the reciprocity of love, because God is Love, but Trinitarian theology is a whole other big subject I won’t tackle.) That’s not a problem.

Do you doubt that all graces come to humanity through the Son, Jesus Christ?

Do you doubt that the Son, Jesus Christ, was incarnate through the Virgin Mary?

This isn’t a matter of idolatry. It’s a matter of humbly recognizing that, mysteriously and kindly, God the Trinity chose to send the Son to us through the consent and the human body of Mary, a Jewish woman of faith. God, mysteriously and kindly, loves to dispense His graces to us through the instrumentality of normal human beings, including Mary, and sometimes including you and me. He loved it so much that He made Israel His covenant family, and then became Himself a son of Israel. Do you doubt this?

All God’s graces come to us through Christ, He Who came to us through Mary, He Who came to us through David, and Ruth, and Rahab and Tamar, and Abraham and Elizabeth, and Noah, and Adam and Eve. Do you doubt this?

Anyway, Pope Leo XIII quotes St. Bernardine of Siena as saying, “Every grace that is communicated to this world has a threefold course. For by excellent order, it is dispensed from God to Christ, from Christ to the Virgin, from the Virgin to us.” And St. Bernardine of Siena was all Christ all the time, believe me. His whole mission in life was promoting the Holy Name of Jesus. He would never have exalted Mary at the expense of Jesus’ glory.

I think the problem here may be that you think the person who gives out the king’s alms is as great as the king. That’s not the way it works. The king’s queen-mother and maidservant has only the glory that the king gives her and wants her to have, and if that glory is great it speaks of the king’s generosity, and how glorious beyond all bounds that the king must be. How can we treat the king’s mother less worthily than the king does?
And she would be the first one to tell you that she does not own the alms, but only gives them away.

Thank you for your very insightful post!

 

[april32010]

Beryllos:

The parts I highlighted in bold appear significant. I think I can accept these church teachings, but I think St. Max took it a step further, and that is where he got it wrong, and that is what I cannot accept. The Holy Spirit acts through Mary, but not only through Mary. Mary is a mediatrix of grace, but not the mediatrix of all grace.

This may be slightly off topic, but I note that in the Hail Mary, we do not ask Mary to give us grace or to perform any works, except to pray for us.

i believe your correct,and furthermore just because Saint Kolbe said it doesn’t mean we have to assent to this.

 

[JReducation]

I am reading 33 Days to Morning Glory and read this quote from St. Maximilian Kolbe about Our Lady: “The Holy Spirit does not act except through the Immaculata, his spouse [Mary].” I just don’t see how this can be true, as the Holy Spirit was acting long before Mary became the mother of Our Lord. I’m not trying to play dumb. I just don’t understand the claim, as in it makes absolutely no sense to me. Was it taken out of context? Thanks for any help!

To best understand St. Maximilian one has to remember a number of things. He’s a Franciscan. His Mariology is deeply influenced by Francis of Assisi, Duns Scotus and Bonaventure. Later, Louis de Montford would enter the picture and pull together what Scotus and Bonaventure had taught about Mary.

Franciscan theology begins with the Incarnation. The entire life of a Franciscan is to live according to the Incarnate Christ who takes up his cross.

From that perspective, we can see how Mary comes into play. She is essential to Redemption. She is essential to the action of the Holy Spirit. She cooperates with redemption and she wills that which the Holy Spirit wills.

As the Eastern Christians say, she is the Theotokos, the God bearer. God is grace itself.

There is another important point that Bonaventure points out in his writings. The angel refers to Mary as being “full of grace”. All grace, which comes from the Holy Spirit, is to be found in her. It is the wish of the Holy Spirit to pour forth his grace in the Word (Logos) through her, remembering that Jesus is Grace Incarnate.

 

[Dorothy]

To best understand St. Maximilian one has to remember a number of things. He’s a Franciscan. His Mariology is deeply influenced by Francis of Assisi, Duns Scotus and Bonaventure. Later, Louis de Montford would enter the picture and pull together what Scotus and Bonaventure had taught about Mary.

Franciscan theology begins with the Incarnation. The entire life of a Franciscan is to live according to the Incarnate Christ who takes up his cross.

From that perspective, we can see how Mary comes into play. She is essential to Redemption. She is essential to the action of the Holy Spirit. She cooperates with redemption and she wills that which the Holy Spirit wills.

As the Eastern Christians say, she is the Theotokos, the God bearer. God is grace itself.

There is another important point that Bonaventure points out in his writings. The angel refers to Mary as being “full of grace”. All grace, which comes from the Holy Spirit, is to be found in her. It is the wish of the Holy Spirit to pour forth his grace in the Word (Logos) through her, remembering that Jesus is Grace Incarnate.

Thank you!

 

[Michael_Allen]

maybe it is that this and very many seemingly unanswerable enigmas about Mary may simply be that before creation Mary won God’s heart over for us, and so the rest is history.

I’m sorry, but there is absolutely no grounding in scripture, or ancient tradition, that Mary won over God’s heart for us before creation.

We are on safest ground, I believe, if we restrict ourselves to scripture and was is clearly evidenced of the earliest Apostolic tradition.

Mary, as Mother of our Lord, the theotokos, is special enough without making stuff up like God dispensing all graces via Mary (beyond understanding that as Mary bearing our Lord into the world), or Mary winning over God’s heart before creation.