Day 6: Mediatrix of All Graces

The sixth day of the Miraculous Medal Novena turns to a particular Catholic Marian title that the medal expresses with great visual force: Mary as Mediatrix of all graces. The rays of light streaming from the Virgin's hands on the front of the medal are the visible representation of this title, and the day's meditation deepens our understanding of what Mary's mediation means in the Catholic theological tradition.

Today's invocation

O Immaculate Virgin Mary, Mother of our Lord Jesus and our Mother... (the full opening prayer)

Today's meditation

The Catholic title Mediatrix of all graces (Latin: Mediatrix omnium gratiarum) names the Catholic conviction that all the graces won by Christ for the salvation of the human race are dispensed through the maternal hands of Mary. The Catholic doctrine has a long history. Saint Bernard of Clairvaux (Saint Bernard of Clairvaux) developed it extensively in his medieval Marian sermons, particularly in his sermon De Aqueductu (On the Aqueduct), in which he uses the image of Mary as the channel through which the grace of Christ flows from heaven to earth. Pope Leo XIII (1810-1903) developed the doctrine in his Marian encyclicals; Pope Saint John Paul II in Redemptoris Mater (1987) treats it at length.

The doctrine has not been solemnly defined as a dogma (some Catholic theologians have urged a fifth Marian dogma defining her as Mediatrix of all graces, but the Holy See has not yet acted), but it has been consistently taught by the magisterium and is held by the universal Catholic tradition. The Catechism of the Catholic Church affirms the substance: "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 fulfillment of all the elect" (CCC 969).

The image on the Miraculous Medal expresses this doctrine visually. The Mother of God stands with her hands open, palms downward, with rays of light streaming from her fingers toward the world. The rays are graces, given to her by her Son to be dispensed to the souls who ask her. The medal does not claim that Mary is a source of grace independent of Christ (the Catholic doctrine of grace insists on the unique mediation of Christ as the one Mediator between God and men, 1 Timothy 2:5); the medal claims that Mary, within the unique mediation of Christ, exercises a maternal mediation by which the graces won by her Son are distributed to the Church.

Today's intention

Today, in addition to your principal intention, ask Mary specifically for the graces you most need at this point in your life. Be specific. The Catholic tradition has long observed that we receive the graces we ask for: Mary, by her own promise, distributes them according to the maternal favor with which she views every petition.

A traditional Catholic invocation drawn from the Marian devotional tradition:

Mary, Mediatrix of all graces, I ask you today to obtain for me, through your maternal intercession, the specific graces I most need: (name them). I ask not by my own merit but by yours and your Son's.

Reflection

The Catholic devotion to Mary as Mediatrix of all graces is the doctrinal foundation of every Marian devotion. Every Catholic prayer to Mary is, in the deep theological sense, an act of confidence in her mediation. The Memorare, the Hail Mary, the Holy Rosary, every novena to Mary, the Marian consecration of Saint Louis-Marie de Montfort: all rest on the same theological conviction that the graces of Christ flow to us through her maternal hands.

The Miraculous Medal makes this doctrine visible. The Catholic who wears the medal carries on his person the visual reminder that he is a child of the Mother through whose hands grace flows; the prayer engraved on the medal (pray for us) is the verbal confession of this confident dependence on her mediation.

Closing prayers

Pray three Hail Marys in honor of the Immaculate Conception.

O Mary, conceived without sin, pray for us who have recourse to thee.