CHAPTER XV
MARY MOTHER OF DIVINE GRACE
"Hapless are they who neglect Mary under pretext of the honour to be paid to Jesus Christ. As if the Child could be found elsewhere than with the Mother."— POPE Pius X.
IT is certain that all graces come to men from God and from God alone. They are His free gifts, to which, of our own merits, we can lay no claim. God is the sole source and origin of every supernatural assistance bestowed upon His creature, whether it be enlightenment of the mind or strengthening of the will. So close, however, and so intimate are the relations of the Blessed Virgin with her Divine Son—especially in His work of the salvation of mankind, which was accomplished through the Mysteries of the Incarnation and Redemption—that it has come to be widely believed in the Catholic Church that all graces are bestowed by God through Mary's hands, as the fruit of her intercession.This opinion is not only held by a number of the Faithful; it has been taught by great Saints and by learned Theologians. In our own day it has been inculcated by Popes—not of course in an ex Cathedra definition of Faith, but in Encyclical Letters addressed to the Universal Church.
Both Pius IX., in a letter to the Catholic world, written from Gaeta, and Leo XIII., in an Encyclical on the Rosary, quoted the words of St. Bernard: " God hath willed that we should receive all things through Mary," and Pius X. laid down the same principles emphatically in his Encyclical Letter on the Jubilee of the Definition of the Immaculate Conception.
In like manner, the Church prays : " O Lord God Almighty, who hast willed us to have all things through the Immaculate Mother of Thy Son. . . ." :
St. Alphonsus has written :
" I shall always deem myself happy to have embraced and preached it [the doctrine that all graces come to us through Mary]—were it only because this doctrine greatly enkindles my piety towards Mary, whereas the opposite doctrine chills it—a thing which is to my thinking of no small disadvantage."
And St. Germanus of Constantinople :
" No one is saved but through thee, O Mother of God; no one escapes from dangers but through thee, O Virgin Mother; no one receives any gift of God but through thee, O thou who art full of grace."
