TO THEE DO WE SIGH, MOURNING AND WEEPING, ei IN THIS VALLEY OF TEARS.

SECTION Of the Necessity of the Intercession of Mary for our Salvation.

HAT it is not only lawful but useful to invoke, and pray to the Saints, and more especially to the Queen of Saints, the most holy and ever Blessed Virgin Mary, in order that they may obtain us the Divine grace, is an article of faith, and has been defined by general Councils, against heretics who condemned it as injurious to Jesus Christ, who is our only mediator; but if a Jeremias, after his death, prayed for Jerusalem; if the ancients of the Apocalypse presented the prayers of the Saints to God; if a Saint Peter promises his disciples that after his death he will be mindful of them; if a holy Stephen prays for his persecutors; if a Saint Paul prays for his companions; if, in fine, the Saints can pray for us, why cannot we beseech the Saints to intercede for us? Saint Paul recommends himself to the prayers of his disciples, Brethren, pray for us. "Saint James exhorts us to pray one for another: Pray one for another, that you may be saved."3 Then we can do the same.

No one denies that Jesus Christ is our only mediator of justice, and that He by His merits has obtained our reconciliation with God. But, on the other hand, it is impious to assert that God is not pleased to grant graces at the intercession of his Saints, and more especially of Mary, his Mother, whom Jesus desires so much to see loved and honoured by all. Who can pretend that the honour

"1

bestowed on a mother does not redound to the honour of the son? "The glory of Children are their Fathers." Whence Saint Bernard says, ‘Let us not imagine that we obscure the glory of the Son by the great praise we lavish on the Mother; for, the more she is honoured, the greater is the glory of her Son. There can be no doubt,' says the Saint, ‘that whatever we say in praise of the Mother is equally in praise of the Son. And Saint Ildephonsus also says, 'That which is given to the Mother redounds to the Son; the honour given to the Queen is honour bestowed on the King.' There can be no doubt that by the merits of Jesus, Mary was made the mediatress of our salvation, not indeed a mediatress of justice, but of grace and intercession; as Saint Bonaventure expressly calls her Mary the most faithful mediatress of our salvation.' 4 And Saint Lawrence Justinian asks, How can she be otherwise than full of grace, who has been made the ladder to paradise, the gate of heaven, the most true mediatress between God and man?' 5

Hence the learned Suarez justly remarks, that if we implore our Blessed Lady to obtain us a favour, it is not because we distrust the Divine mercy, but rather, that we fear our own unworthiness and the absence of proper dispositions; and we recommend ourselves to Mary, that her dignity may supply for our lowliness. He says, that we apply to Mary, in order that the dignity of the intercessor may supply for our misery. Hence, to invoke the aid of the most Blessed Virgin is not diffidence in the Divine mercy, but dread of our own unworthiness.'6

1 Gloria filiorum patres eorum.-Prov. xvii, 6.

* Non est dubium, quidquid in laudibus Matris proferimus, ad Filium pertinere. -Hom. iv, sup. Miss.

Redundat ad Filium, quod impenditur Matri... Transit honor in regem, qui defertur in famulatum reginæ.-De Virg. S. M. cap. xii.

• Maria... fidelissima mediatrix salutis fuit.-Spec. B. V. M. Lect. ix. *

5 Quomodo non est Maria, juxta Gabrielis oraculum, plena gratia, quæ effecta est Mater Dei, paradisi scala, cœli janua, interventrix mundi, dæmonum fuga, peccatorum spes, naufragrantium portus, maris stella, confugium periclitantium, solamen laborantium, fluctuantium robur, Dei et hominum verissima mediatrix?Serm. de Annunc.

6 Ut dignitas intercessoris suppleat inopiam nostram. Unde Virginem interpellare, non est de Divina misericordia diffidere, sed de propria indignitate et indispositione timere.-De Incarnat. P. II, Q. 37, Disp. 23, Sect. 3.

That it is most useful and holy to have recourse to the intercession of Mary can only be doubted by those who have not faith. But that which we intend to prove here, is, that the intercession of Mary is even necessary to salvation: we say necessary-not absolutely, but morally. This necessity proceeds from the will itself of God, that all graces that He dispenses should pass by the hands of Mary, according to the opinion of Saint Bernard, and which we may now with safety call the general opinion of theologians and learned men. The author of 'The Reign of Mary' positively asserts that such is the case. It is maintained by Vega, Mendoza, Pacciuchelli, Segneri, Poiré, Crasset, and by innumerable other learned authors. Even Father Natalis Alexander, who always uses so much reserve in his propositions, even he says that it is the will of God that we should expect all graces through the intercession of Mary. I will give his own words: God wills that we should obtain all good things that we hope for from Him, through the powerful intercession of the Virgin Mother, and we shall obtain them whenever (as we are in duty bound) we invoke her.'1 In confirmation of this, he quotes the following celebrated passage of Saint Bernard: Such is His will, that we should have all by Mary.' 2 Father Contenson is also of the same opinion; for, explaining the words, addressed by our Lord, on the cross, to Saint John: "Behold thy Mother," here marks, "That it is the same thing as if he had said—As no one can be saved except through the merits of my sufferings and death, so no one will be a partaker of the blood then shed, otherwise than through the prayer of my Mother. He alone is a son of my sorrows who has Mary for his Mother. My wounds are ever-flowing fountains of grace; but their streams will reach no one, but by the channel of Mary. In vain will he invoke Me as a Father, who has not venerated

1 Qui vult ut omnia bona ab ipso expectemus, potentissima Virginis matris intercessione; cum eam ut par est, invocamus impetranda.-Epist. lxxvi, in calce tom. iv, Moral.

2 Sic est voluntas ejus, qui totum nos habere voluit per Mariam.-Serm, de Aquæd.

Mary as a Mother. And thou, my disciple John, if thou lovest Me, love her; for thou wilt be beloved by Me, in proportion to thy love for her.'1

This proposition (that all that we receive from our Lord comes through Mary) does not exactly please a certain modern writer, who, although in other respects he speaks of true and false devotion with much learning and piety, yet when he treats of devotion towards the Divine Mother, he seems to grudge her that glory which was given her without scruple by a Saint Germanus, a Saint Anselm, a Saint John Damascen, a Saint Bonaventure, a Saint Antoninus, a Saint Bernardine, the Venerable Abbot of Celles, and so many other learned men, who had no difficulty in affirming that the intercession of Mary is not only useful but necessary. The author alluded to says, that the proposition that God grants no grace otherwise than through Mary, is hyperbolical and exaggerated, having dropped from the lips of some saints in the heat of fervour, but which, correctly speaking, is only to be understood as meaning, that through Mary we received Jesus Christ, by whose merits we obtain all graces; for he adds, 'To believe that God can grant us no graces without the intercession of Mary, would be contrary to faith and the doctrine of Saint Paul, who says, that we acknowledge but one God and one Mediator of God and men, the man Christ Jesus." "2

But with his leave, and going upon his own admissions, mediation of justice by way of merit is one thing, and mediation of grace by way of prayer is another. And again, it is one thing to say that God cannot, and another that He will not, grant graces without the intercession of Mary. We willingly admit, that God is the

1 Quasi aperte diceret, sicut nemo potest salvari nisi per meritum crucis et mortis meæ, ita nullus sanguinis illius particeps erit, nisi intercessione Matris meæ. Ille solus Filius dolorum meorum reputabitur, cui Maria Mater erit. Vulnera gratiarum fontes perennes et patentes sunt: sed ad nullos derivabuntur rivi, nisi per Marianum canalem et aquæductum. Frustra me invocabit Patrem, Mariam non fuerit veneratus ut Matrem. Tu ipsemet, prædilecte discipule Joannes, si me amas, eam ama: tantum enim a me amaberis quantum eam amaveris.-Theol. Mentis et Cord. tom. ii. lib. 10, D. 4, c. i.

qui

21 Tim. ii, 5.

source of every good, and the absolute Master of all graces; and that Mary is only a pure creature, who receives whatever she obtains, as a pure favour from God. But who can ever deny, that it is most reasonable and proper to assert, that God, in order to exalt this great creature, who more than all others honoured and loved Him during her life, and whom moreover He had chosen to be the Mother of His Son, our common Redeemer, wills that all graces that are granted to those whom he has redeemed, should pass through and be dispensed by the hands of Mary? We most readily admit, that Jesus Christ is the only Mediator of justice according to the distinction just made, and that by His merits He obtains us all graces and salvation; but we say that Mary is the Mediatress of grace; and that receiving all she obtains, through Jesus Christ, and because she prays and asks for it in the name of Jesus Christ, yet all the same whatever graces we receive, they come to us, through her intercession.

There is certainly nothing contrary to faith in this, but the reverse it is quite in accordance with the sentiments of the Church, which in its public and approved prayers, teaches us continually to have recourse to this Divine Mother, and to invoke her as the health of the weak, the refuge of sinners, the help of Christians, and as our life and hope.'1 In the office appointed to be said on the feasts of Mary, this same holy Church, applying the words of Ecclesiasticus to this blessed Virgin, gives us to understand that in her we find all hope: "In me is all hope of life and of virtue ;"2 in Mary is every grace: "In me is all

grace of the way and of the truth."% In Mary finally we

shall find life and eternal salvation: "Who finds me, finds life, and draws salvation from the Lord."4 And elsewhere, "They that work by me, shall not sin; they that explain

1 Salus infirmorum, refugium peccatorum, auxilium Christianorum, vita, spes nostra.

2 In me omnis spes vitæ et virtutis.-Eccl. xxiv, 25.

3 In me gratia omnis viæ et veritatis.—Ib.

Qui me invenerit, inveniet vitam, et hauriet salutem a Domino,-Prov. viii