Consecration to the Immaculata - Preparation Day 12
Day Twelve
Wherever you enter you obtain the grace of conversion and
growth in holiness, since it is through your hands that all
graces come to us from the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus
The Immaculata is “Suppliant Omnipotence.” Each conversion
and each sanctification is the work of grace, and
she is the Mediatrix of all graces. So she alone is enough
to beseech and to distribute all the graces, whatever grace.
During the manifestation of the Miraculous Medal, Blessed
Catherine Labouré saw the rays that shone forth from the
precious rings that the Immaculata wore on her fingers. Such
rays symbolize the graces that the Immaculata generously
bestows upon all those who want them. Even Ratisbonne, in
the vision he had, speaks of the rays of graces.
Explanation:
All prayers, sacrifices and actions of the knight consist
in guiding souls to the Immaculata and in bringing the
Immaculata to souls so that SHE may enter into their lives.
Once the Mediatrix of all Graces has entered, she will
transform the robber's cave into a sanctuary. Then a cold,
empty and dark grave will turn into a shining home full of
love and joy.
48
However small the part we play in the salvation of souls
may seem, we should be firmly convinced that nothing
we do is ever unimportant and insignificant in HER eyes.
Even our little trifles (a pathetic ejaculation, the distribution
of a Miraculous Medal) actually have a great significance:
to prepare the way for HER to enter into souls. How,
when, where, through whom — that is her business, not
ours. If, however, we are not convinced of the effectiveness,
often verging on the miraculous, of our miserable apostolate,
then we will lack motivation sooner or later to be her
willing instru-ments always and everywhere.
Spiritual reading:
Chapter: Mediatrix of all Graces, p. 126
**********
CHAPTER TWO
Mediatrix of all Graces
THE TRUTH about Mary’s universal mediation of grace follows
from the dogma of the Immaculate Conception. If creation’s return to
God comes about only through the Immaculata, if Christ comes to us
in no other way than through Mary and we can return to him by no
other way than in her, then this means that we receive all graces only
through her immaculate hands.
Just as Jesus, as a proof of His immense love for us,
became the God-man, so too the Third Person [of the Holy
Trinity], the “God-love” wanted to indicate by an outward
sign His mediation between the Father and the Son. This sign
is the Heart of the Immaculate Virgin, which follows clearly
from the statements made by the Saints, especially those
who regard Mary as the Spouse of the Holy Ghost. Thus
St. Louis-Marie de Montfort reasons, in conformity with the
Church Fathers: “God the Holy Ghost, who does not produce
any divine person, became fruitful through Mary whom He
espoused. It was with her, in her and of her that He produced
His masterpiece, God-made-man, and that He produces
127
every day until the end of the world the members of the body
of this adorable Head. … This does not mean that the Blessed
Virgin confers on the Holy Ghost a fruitfulness which He
does not already possess. Being God, He has the ability to
produce just like the Father and the Son, although He does
not use this power and so does not produce another divine
person. But it does mean that the Holy Ghost chose to make
use of our Blessed Lady, although He had no absolute need
of her, in order to become actively fruitful in producing Jesus
Christ and His members in her and by her.”1
After Christ’s death, too, the Holy Ghost accomplishes
everything in us through Mary…. Accordingly, as the
incarnate Second Person of the Trinity reveals Himself under
the title of “Seed of the Woman”, so the Holy Ghost also
reveals His participation in the external work of redemption
through the Immaculate Virgin, more intimately united with
her than we could ever comprehend…. Mary, as the Spouse of
the Holy Ghost, and thus exalted above all created perfection,
fulfills completely and utterly the will of the Holy Ghost who
dwells within her from the first moment of her conception.
We can conclude from all this that Mary, as the Mother
of Jesus the Redeemer, became the Co-Redemptrix of the
human race, and that as the Spouse of the Holy Ghost she
participates in the distribution of all graces. Thus we can say
with the theologians: “As the first Eve through her free action
contributed to our ruin and also truly brought it about, so
1 The first internal quotation is from St. Louis-Marie Grignion de Montfort,
The first internal quotation is from St. Louis-Marie Grignion de Montfort, True
Devotion…, paragraphs 20–21.
128
does Mary cooperate truly by her free action in the work of
redemption.”2
Especially in recent times we comprehend the fact that the
Immaculata, the Spouse of the Holy Ghost, is our Mediatrix.
Thus the Immaculate Virgin appeared to Sister Catherine
Labour. in 1830. From statements made by the seer we
recognize that the purpose of Mary’s apparitions was to
demonstrate her Immaculate Conception and her marvelous
power of intercession with God: “The Most Blessed Virgin
turned her glance toward me and at the same time I heard
a voice say: ‘This globe represents all of humanity and each
individual person. This is the symbol of the graces that I pour
out on all those who call upon me.’ Afterward an oval frame
formed around the Blessed Virgin, on which was written in
golden letters: ‘O Mary, conceived without sin, pray for us
who have recourse to Thee.’ At that moment I heard a voice
say: ‘Have a medal stamped according to this image. All who
wear it will receive great graces.’”
In Lourdes the Immaculate Virgin appeared as Mediatrix:
she calls the sick, the lame and the infirm, in order to sanctify
them and to show our dependence upon her in our natural
life as well. She gently draws to herself those whose souls are
sick, namely, unbelievers and hardened sinners, pours supernatural
life into their hearts in order to convince them of
her power to impart supernatural life to us. … St. Bernard
summarizes as follows what the Immaculata has proved by
2 The second internal quotation is from J. Bittremieux, De meditatione universali
Beatæ Virginis Mariæ.
129
her deeds: “Thus it is the will of Him, who intended that we
should have everything through Mary.”3
This consoling truth is the heart of the M.I. and the central focus of
the life of a Knight of the Immaculata.
The movement of the Militia Immaculat. is founded upon
this truth, namely that Mary is the Mediatrix of all graces. If
she were not, then our work and our striving would be in
vain.4
Every single grace for souls comes from the hands of the
Mediatrix of all graces, and there is no moment in which she
is not sending fresh graces to every individual soul: graces
that illuminate the mind, strengthen the will, encourage good
deeds; ordinary and extraordinary graces; graces that pertain
to earthly life and graces that sanctify the soul. Only at the
last judgment and in heaven will we learn how much our
loving heavenly Mother cares for each soul, for each of her
children, in order to transform them according to Jesus, the
model.5
As Christ became for her the source of graces, so she
wishes to be for us the distributor of graces. Every grace is
produced by the life of the Holy Trinity: the Father eternally
begets the Son, and the Holy Ghost proceeds from them.
From this flows every perfection in all created order. Every
3 The passage as a whole is from “Miles Immaculatæ” 1 (1938), pp. 25–28.
4 Conference in Niepokalanów dated June 6, 1933.
5 Fragment of an unfinished book about the Immaculata, January 1940, BMK,
p. 596.
130
grace comes from the Father, who eternally begets the Son
and brings forth the grace with regard to the Son. The Holy
Ghost, who eternally proceeds from the Father and the Son,
forms this grace in the Immaculata and through her forms
souls according to the likeness of the firstborn God-man.6
From then on [i.e. after the Incarnation of the Second
Person of the Blessed Trinity in Mary’s womb], the Holy
Ghost does not confer any grace, the Father does not give
supernatural life to any soul by the Son and the Holy Ghost,
unless these gifts are bestowed through the Mediatrix of all
graces, the Immaculata, who cooperates in the giving, and
distributes them as she wills. She obtains from God all the
treasures of grace, as belonging to her, and she distributes
them to whomsoever she wills, as she wills. The fruit of the
love of God and of the Immaculata is Jesus, the Son of God
and Son of man, the Mediator between God and man. Just
as the Son from all eternity is, so to speak, the mediator
between the Father and the Holy Ghost, so too Jesus, the
incarnate Son, became the direct Mediator between the
Father and the Holy Ghost who dwells in the Immaculata
and is, so to speak, incarnate in her, and thus the Mediator
between the Father and the Immaculata, who is completely
filled with the Holy Ghost, the Representative and spiritual
Mother of all humanity. And it is by her and not otherwise
that the love of creatures can rise to Jesus, and by Him go
back to the Father.7
6 Ibid., p. 615.
7 Ibid., p. 591.
131
The Heart of the Immaculata becomes the mould of our hearts: from
her Heart flows an uninterrupted stream of graces, which permeates
our thoughts, words and deeds, the innermost recesses of our soul,
the most profound insights, the most important decisions, as well as
the usual everyday pulse of our life. To her we owe our existence, our
baptism, our conversion, our vocation, and all, absolutely all graces,
whether known to us or unknown. Her Heart, the treasury of these
graces, is really at the center of our manifold life.
Every conversion, every degree of sanctification is a
product of grace. Even cooperation is grace. Without God’s
grace we can do nothing. The Mediatrix of all graces is the
Immaculata. The closer a person draws to her, the more
graces he receives from her.8
We see her before us, with us, in us, as she invisibly leads us through
the confusion of our time, as she so often keeps us from falling and
even more often helps us up again after a fall, as she nourishes us
with the Blood of her Son and enlightens, warms, strengthens and
encourages us. And if we examine them carefully, then all our good
deeds, all our virtues, all perfections in us are more the fruit of her
graces and the presence of her Immaculate Heart than the result of
our own willing and doing.
Isn’t this the essential message of Fatima, where God gives the
Immaculate Heart of Mary to the world as its last great hope of
salvation, the sure and swift way to sanctity?9
8 Conference dated August 28, 1933.
9 See Part Six, Chapter 2.
132
Hence the truth of Mary’s mediation of graces is the theological
basis for the statement that the Knight can become an instrument of
the Immaculata to such a degree that she prays in him (even more
than he prays in her), and that in him she makes sacrifices, speaks,
vanquishes all heresies, converts and sanctifies souls and finally
crushes the head of the serpent.
What, then, does our path of life on earth consist of? What are we
to do in this valley of tears? What is the truly meaningful, deep-seated
purpose of our existence? The Heart of the Immaculata gives a clear
answer to this question as well: “Pray and make sacrifices, for so
many souls are lost because there is no one who prays and makes
sacrifices for them,” she said on August 19, 1917 in Fatima. All of
our pursuits, our actions, the various circumstances, where, when
and how something happens, is still only the surface of our life, the
external, visible side. The inner reality, though, the meaning of it all,
consists in pleasing God, serving the Truth, following the pathway to
heaven and leading others there. In other words: The Mediatrix of all
graces wants us to continue, as it were, this mediation in souls, so that
we might be channels, instruments, in order to pour out the graces of
conversion and sanctification upon as many souls as possible.
If Mary is the Mediatrix of all graces, then we can become
channels of grace to the extent that we draw close to her.
Then, however, we become mediators of the graces that pour
into us from the Father through the Son (who won them)
and the Immaculata (who is their custodian), and through us
into the souls of others.10
10 Letter to seminarians dated February 8, 1934.
Wherever you enter you obtain the grace of conversion and
growth in holiness, since it is through your hands that all
graces come to us from the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus
The Immaculata is “Suppliant Omnipotence.” Each conversion
and each sanctification is the work of grace, and
she is the Mediatrix of all graces. So she alone is enough
to beseech and to distribute all the graces, whatever grace.
During the manifestation of the Miraculous Medal, Blessed
Catherine Labouré saw the rays that shone forth from the
precious rings that the Immaculata wore on her fingers. Such
rays symbolize the graces that the Immaculata generously
bestows upon all those who want them. Even Ratisbonne, in
the vision he had, speaks of the rays of graces.
Explanation:
All prayers, sacrifices and actions of the knight consist
in guiding souls to the Immaculata and in bringing the
Immaculata to souls so that SHE may enter into their lives.
Once the Mediatrix of all Graces has entered, she will
transform the robber's cave into a sanctuary. Then a cold,
empty and dark grave will turn into a shining home full of
love and joy.
48
However small the part we play in the salvation of souls
may seem, we should be firmly convinced that nothing
we do is ever unimportant and insignificant in HER eyes.
Even our little trifles (a pathetic ejaculation, the distribution
of a Miraculous Medal) actually have a great significance:
to prepare the way for HER to enter into souls. How,
when, where, through whom — that is her business, not
ours. If, however, we are not convinced of the effectiveness,
often verging on the miraculous, of our miserable apostolate,
then we will lack motivation sooner or later to be her
willing instru-ments always and everywhere.
Spiritual reading:
Chapter: Mediatrix of all Graces, p. 126
**********
CHAPTER TWO
Mediatrix of all Graces
THE TRUTH about Mary’s universal mediation of grace follows
from the dogma of the Immaculate Conception. If creation’s return to
God comes about only through the Immaculata, if Christ comes to us
in no other way than through Mary and we can return to him by no
other way than in her, then this means that we receive all graces only
through her immaculate hands.
Just as Jesus, as a proof of His immense love for us,
became the God-man, so too the Third Person [of the Holy
Trinity], the “God-love” wanted to indicate by an outward
sign His mediation between the Father and the Son. This sign
is the Heart of the Immaculate Virgin, which follows clearly
from the statements made by the Saints, especially those
who regard Mary as the Spouse of the Holy Ghost. Thus
St. Louis-Marie de Montfort reasons, in conformity with the
Church Fathers: “God the Holy Ghost, who does not produce
any divine person, became fruitful through Mary whom He
espoused. It was with her, in her and of her that He produced
His masterpiece, God-made-man, and that He produces
127
every day until the end of the world the members of the body
of this adorable Head. … This does not mean that the Blessed
Virgin confers on the Holy Ghost a fruitfulness which He
does not already possess. Being God, He has the ability to
produce just like the Father and the Son, although He does
not use this power and so does not produce another divine
person. But it does mean that the Holy Ghost chose to make
use of our Blessed Lady, although He had no absolute need
of her, in order to become actively fruitful in producing Jesus
Christ and His members in her and by her.”1
After Christ’s death, too, the Holy Ghost accomplishes
everything in us through Mary…. Accordingly, as the
incarnate Second Person of the Trinity reveals Himself under
the title of “Seed of the Woman”, so the Holy Ghost also
reveals His participation in the external work of redemption
through the Immaculate Virgin, more intimately united with
her than we could ever comprehend…. Mary, as the Spouse of
the Holy Ghost, and thus exalted above all created perfection,
fulfills completely and utterly the will of the Holy Ghost who
dwells within her from the first moment of her conception.
We can conclude from all this that Mary, as the Mother
of Jesus the Redeemer, became the Co-Redemptrix of the
human race, and that as the Spouse of the Holy Ghost she
participates in the distribution of all graces. Thus we can say
with the theologians: “As the first Eve through her free action
contributed to our ruin and also truly brought it about, so
1 The first internal quotation is from St. Louis-Marie Grignion de Montfort,
The first internal quotation is from St. Louis-Marie Grignion de Montfort, True
Devotion…, paragraphs 20–21.
128
does Mary cooperate truly by her free action in the work of
redemption.”2
Especially in recent times we comprehend the fact that the
Immaculata, the Spouse of the Holy Ghost, is our Mediatrix.
Thus the Immaculate Virgin appeared to Sister Catherine
Labour. in 1830. From statements made by the seer we
recognize that the purpose of Mary’s apparitions was to
demonstrate her Immaculate Conception and her marvelous
power of intercession with God: “The Most Blessed Virgin
turned her glance toward me and at the same time I heard
a voice say: ‘This globe represents all of humanity and each
individual person. This is the symbol of the graces that I pour
out on all those who call upon me.’ Afterward an oval frame
formed around the Blessed Virgin, on which was written in
golden letters: ‘O Mary, conceived without sin, pray for us
who have recourse to Thee.’ At that moment I heard a voice
say: ‘Have a medal stamped according to this image. All who
wear it will receive great graces.’”
In Lourdes the Immaculate Virgin appeared as Mediatrix:
she calls the sick, the lame and the infirm, in order to sanctify
them and to show our dependence upon her in our natural
life as well. She gently draws to herself those whose souls are
sick, namely, unbelievers and hardened sinners, pours supernatural
life into their hearts in order to convince them of
her power to impart supernatural life to us. … St. Bernard
summarizes as follows what the Immaculata has proved by
2 The second internal quotation is from J. Bittremieux, De meditatione universali
Beatæ Virginis Mariæ.
129
her deeds: “Thus it is the will of Him, who intended that we
should have everything through Mary.”3
This consoling truth is the heart of the M.I. and the central focus of
the life of a Knight of the Immaculata.
The movement of the Militia Immaculat. is founded upon
this truth, namely that Mary is the Mediatrix of all graces. If
she were not, then our work and our striving would be in
vain.4
Every single grace for souls comes from the hands of the
Mediatrix of all graces, and there is no moment in which she
is not sending fresh graces to every individual soul: graces
that illuminate the mind, strengthen the will, encourage good
deeds; ordinary and extraordinary graces; graces that pertain
to earthly life and graces that sanctify the soul. Only at the
last judgment and in heaven will we learn how much our
loving heavenly Mother cares for each soul, for each of her
children, in order to transform them according to Jesus, the
model.5
As Christ became for her the source of graces, so she
wishes to be for us the distributor of graces. Every grace is
produced by the life of the Holy Trinity: the Father eternally
begets the Son, and the Holy Ghost proceeds from them.
From this flows every perfection in all created order. Every
3 The passage as a whole is from “Miles Immaculatæ” 1 (1938), pp. 25–28.
4 Conference in Niepokalanów dated June 6, 1933.
5 Fragment of an unfinished book about the Immaculata, January 1940, BMK,
p. 596.
130
grace comes from the Father, who eternally begets the Son
and brings forth the grace with regard to the Son. The Holy
Ghost, who eternally proceeds from the Father and the Son,
forms this grace in the Immaculata and through her forms
souls according to the likeness of the firstborn God-man.6
From then on [i.e. after the Incarnation of the Second
Person of the Blessed Trinity in Mary’s womb], the Holy
Ghost does not confer any grace, the Father does not give
supernatural life to any soul by the Son and the Holy Ghost,
unless these gifts are bestowed through the Mediatrix of all
graces, the Immaculata, who cooperates in the giving, and
distributes them as she wills. She obtains from God all the
treasures of grace, as belonging to her, and she distributes
them to whomsoever she wills, as she wills. The fruit of the
love of God and of the Immaculata is Jesus, the Son of God
and Son of man, the Mediator between God and man. Just
as the Son from all eternity is, so to speak, the mediator
between the Father and the Holy Ghost, so too Jesus, the
incarnate Son, became the direct Mediator between the
Father and the Holy Ghost who dwells in the Immaculata
and is, so to speak, incarnate in her, and thus the Mediator
between the Father and the Immaculata, who is completely
filled with the Holy Ghost, the Representative and spiritual
Mother of all humanity. And it is by her and not otherwise
that the love of creatures can rise to Jesus, and by Him go
back to the Father.7
6 Ibid., p. 615.
7 Ibid., p. 591.
131
The Heart of the Immaculata becomes the mould of our hearts: from
her Heart flows an uninterrupted stream of graces, which permeates
our thoughts, words and deeds, the innermost recesses of our soul,
the most profound insights, the most important decisions, as well as
the usual everyday pulse of our life. To her we owe our existence, our
baptism, our conversion, our vocation, and all, absolutely all graces,
whether known to us or unknown. Her Heart, the treasury of these
graces, is really at the center of our manifold life.
Every conversion, every degree of sanctification is a
product of grace. Even cooperation is grace. Without God’s
grace we can do nothing. The Mediatrix of all graces is the
Immaculata. The closer a person draws to her, the more
graces he receives from her.8
We see her before us, with us, in us, as she invisibly leads us through
the confusion of our time, as she so often keeps us from falling and
even more often helps us up again after a fall, as she nourishes us
with the Blood of her Son and enlightens, warms, strengthens and
encourages us. And if we examine them carefully, then all our good
deeds, all our virtues, all perfections in us are more the fruit of her
graces and the presence of her Immaculate Heart than the result of
our own willing and doing.
Isn’t this the essential message of Fatima, where God gives the
Immaculate Heart of Mary to the world as its last great hope of
salvation, the sure and swift way to sanctity?9
8 Conference dated August 28, 1933.
9 See Part Six, Chapter 2.
132
Hence the truth of Mary’s mediation of graces is the theological
basis for the statement that the Knight can become an instrument of
the Immaculata to such a degree that she prays in him (even more
than he prays in her), and that in him she makes sacrifices, speaks,
vanquishes all heresies, converts and sanctifies souls and finally
crushes the head of the serpent.
What, then, does our path of life on earth consist of? What are we
to do in this valley of tears? What is the truly meaningful, deep-seated
purpose of our existence? The Heart of the Immaculata gives a clear
answer to this question as well: “Pray and make sacrifices, for so
many souls are lost because there is no one who prays and makes
sacrifices for them,” she said on August 19, 1917 in Fatima. All of
our pursuits, our actions, the various circumstances, where, when
and how something happens, is still only the surface of our life, the
external, visible side. The inner reality, though, the meaning of it all,
consists in pleasing God, serving the Truth, following the pathway to
heaven and leading others there. In other words: The Mediatrix of all
graces wants us to continue, as it were, this mediation in souls, so that
we might be channels, instruments, in order to pour out the graces of
conversion and sanctification upon as many souls as possible.
If Mary is the Mediatrix of all graces, then we can become
channels of grace to the extent that we draw close to her.
Then, however, we become mediators of the graces that pour
into us from the Father through the Son (who won them)
and the Immaculata (who is their custodian), and through us
into the souls of others.10
10 Letter to seminarians dated February 8, 1934.