"The will of God is that we should have everything through Mary," says St. Bernard. The Father has sent us His Son, but His will was to make His coming depend upon the Fiat of the Virgin, which He commanded to the angel Gabriel to solicit on the day of the Annunciation.

The Father and the Son send us the Holy Ghost, but it is through Mary that He comes down to men. On the day of Pentecost, according to an ancient Tradition, the heavenly fire which descended on the Cenacle first rested on Mary, and then on the apostles. This is a figure of what happens every day in the Church where the Holy Ghost is sent invisibly into our souls. "All the gifts of the Holy Ghost are distributed by Mary to those whom she chooses, whenever she wishes and as much as she wishes," says St. Bernardine of Siena.

The graces which the Holy Ghost pours down on us are due to the merits of Christ on Calvary; but in order that God may bestow them on the world, it is necessary that Mary should intervene. Having cooperated by her divine maternity and by her sufferings at the foot of the Cross in the Incarnation and Redemption, she has deserved to co-operate when they are continually applied to creatures by the most High. "By the communion of sorrows and of will between Christ and Mary," says St. Pius X, "she has deserved to become the dispenser of all the blessings which Jesus acquired for us by His blood" (Encyclical 2-2-1904). Such is His will, but it is essential that she should constantly intercede for each one of us. This she does, relying on the blood of Christ by whom she was herself saved, and who alone saves us. This actual intervention of Mary plays a preponderating part in the salvation of the world. It is important that we should realize this, and it is the object of the feast of Mary Mediatrix of all Graces. A clear idea of the fact may be obtained by simple reading the texts of the Mass and Vespers.

"Through the Virgin," says St. Bernardine of Siena, "life-giving graces flow from Christ, who is the head, into His mystical body." "Through her," adds St. Antoninus, "come from heaven all the graces granted to the world." "What all the saints united to thee may obtain for us by their intercession," writes St. Anselm, "thy pleading alone may obtain without the help of their prayers." The maternal solicitude of Mary for the whole human race is therefore continual, and it is because of this that unceasingly, through the Mass, the sacraments, the hierarchy and other channels of grace, the merits of Calvary are applied to our souls. "We may affirm," declared Pope Leo XIII, "that by the will of God, nothing is given to us without Mary's mediation, in such a way that  just as no one can approach the almighty Father but through His Son, so no one, so to speak, can approach Christ but through Hid Mother" (Encyclical, 9-22-1891).

Let us therefore not consider as of small importance the efforts made to establish this point of doctrine of Mary's mediation, since this doctrine enables us to understand the divine plan, and clearly manifests the mediation of the Son of God of which it is a corollary.

"My Father and eternal God, this is the Woman, that gave Me my human form in her virginal womb, that nourished Me at her breast and sustained labors for Me, that shared in my hardships and so-operated with Me in the works of Redemption. This is She, who was always most faithful and fulfilled our will according to our entire pleasure; She, pure and immaculate as my Mother, through her own works, has reached the summit of sanctity according to the measure of the gifts We have communicated to Her; and when She had merited her reward and could have enjoyed it forever, She deprived Herself of it for Our glory and returned to attend to the establishment, the government, and instruction of the Church militant; and We, in order that She might live in it for the succor of the faithful, deferred her eternal rest, which She has merited over and over again. In the highest bounty and equity of our Providence it is just, that my Mother should be remunerated for her works of love beyond all other creatures; and toward Her the common law of the other mortals should not apply. If I have merited for all infinite merits and boundless graces, it is proper that my Mother should partake of them above all the others who are so inferior; for She in her conduct corresponds to our liberality and puts no hindrance or obstacle to our infinite power of communicating our treasures and participating them as the Queen and Mistress of all that is created."

O Lord Jesus Christ, our Mediator with the Father, who hast appointed the most blessed Virgin, Thy mother, to be our mother also and our mediatrix before Thee: Grant that whosoever draweth nigh to Thee to beseech any benefit, may receive all things through her and rejoice.