From: richarra@gmail.com   
      
   November 8th - Our Lady Mediatrix of All Graces   
      
   This devotion honors Our Lady as a cooperating agent in the plan of God from   
   the   
   Incarnation of Jesus Christ to the Redemption. Mary was the intermediary   
   between   
   Jesus and St. John the Baptist, sanctifying him before his birth. She was   
   the   
   one who asked Christ to make His first miracle at the wedding of Canaan   
   before   
   his public life had begun.   
      
   During the Passion, she followed Him in every step of his sufferings,   
   showing us   
   that she was associated in the mission of reparation for the sins of   
   mankind.   
   After the Resurrection, the Holy Ghost descended upon her first, and then   
   upon   
   the Apostles, showing that she was the mediatrix of the graces for the   
   nascent   
   Church. By her divine maternity Mary became Co-Redemptix, taking on the role   
   of   
   Mediatrix of all graces.   
      
   In 1921 Pope Benedict XV instituted November 8 as the feast day of Our Lady   
   Mediatrix of All Graces.   
      
   A text by St. Louis Grignion de Montfort expresses this truth admirably:   
      
   "Only Mary found grace before God (Luke 1:30) without the help of any other   
   creature. And after her, all those who found grace before God found it only   
   through her. Mary was full of grace when the Archangel Gabriel saluted her   
   (Luke   
   1:28) and was filled with grace to overflowing when the Holy Ghost so   
   mysteriously overshadowed her (Luke 1:35).   
      
   "From day to day, from moment to moment, she increased so much this twofold   
   plenitude that she attained an immense and inconceivable degree of grace. So   
   much so, that the Almighty made of her the sole custodian of His treasures   
   and   
   sole dispenser of all His graces, so that she might ennoble, exalt and   
   enrich   
   all she chooses. She can lead them along the narrow path to Heaven and guide   
   them through the narrow gate to life. She can give a royal throne, scepter   
   and   
   crown to whomever she wishes. Jesus is always and everywhere the Fruit and   
   Son   
   of Mary, and Mary is everywhere the true tree that bears the Fruit of life,   
   the   
   true Mother who bears that Son.""    (True Devotion to Mary, n. 44)   
      
   Comments of the late Prof. Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira: (died 1995)   
      
   This is one of the most admirable texts of St. Louis Grignion de Montfort   
   that   
   almost dispenses with the need for commentary. But since our remarks are   
   just a   
   way to pay homage to Our Lady, let me go ahead.   
      
   Behind the thinking of this excerpt is the truth that Our Lady is the   
   Mediatrix   
   of All Graces. This thought is linked to an admirable fact in the lives both   
   of   
   Our Lady and the Child Jesus: it is how grace continually increased in her.   
   St.   
   Louis Grignion explains this process.   
      
   Before the Annunciation, she was already full of grace, and had always been.   
   But   
   at a certain moment, by her most perfect correspondence to every grace at   
   every   
   moment, and also by a special predilection of God Our Lord toward her, the   
   grace   
   increased in such way in her soul that she became worthy to be the Mother of   
   the   
   Second Person of the Holy Trinity. The Holy Ghost found her perfect to be   
   His   
   spouse, and the Word of God was conceived in her human flesh.   
      
   St. Louis offers the profound insight that at the moment of the Incarnation,   
   Our   
   Lady received a new plenitude of graces that was added to the first. She was   
   already worthy to be both the Spouse of the Holy Ghost and the Mother of the   
   Divine Word. Then, a new overflowing of graces occurred in her and she   
   acquired   
   a super-plenitude of grace.   
      
   One can imagine the immensity of graces she received during the gestation of   
   Our   
   Lord Jesus Christ as she formed Him, carrying Him in her womb for nine   
   months.   
   He lived in her as in a Tabernacle. One may only envisage the boons Our Lady   
   received in her spiritual life coming from this contact of souls. It was a   
   kind   
   of mutual gift: while she was forming His body, He was forming her soul and   
   making her still more perfect, bestowing unheard-of graces. I don't know if   
   even   
   the highest Angels are able to understand those graces. Now then, she   
   corresponded perfectly to all those graces with an astonishing fidelity.   
      
   After His birth, Our Lady continued to grow in her fidelity to grace during   
   the   
   30 years of Our Lord's private life, during which He desired that she   
   command   
   Him and He obey her. In the house of Nazareth, the human hierarchy was the   
   opposite of the supernatural hierarchy. Of the three, the least was the   
   enormously great St. Joseph, who was the head of the family; then, there was   
   Our   
   Lady, who, humanly speaking was subordinate to him even though she was   
   greater   
   than he in grace; finally in the last place of the human hierarchy was the   
   Son,   
   who nevertheless was God. The Gospel tells us that Our Lord obeyed them.   
      
   We can imagine how Our Lady and St. Joseph acted toward Him knowing that He   
   was   
   God: "Now, my Son, I ask that you be so good as to help me sand this piece   
   of   
   wood," or "Could you please help me set these plates of food so that we   
   might   
   eat?" We can only have a pale idea of the respect and adoration with which   
   they   
   would command their Divine Son. For those 30 years it is impossible to   
   imagine a   
   more delightful relationship than that of those three persons in Nazareth.   
   She   
   increased in grace every day during those 30 years.   
      
   Our Lady then participated in the three years of Our Lord's public life.   
   During   
   these years her close participation in the daily life of Our Lord   
   diminished.   
   She had to suffer the pain of the separation. To this also she was perfectly   
   faithful. When she was with Him, she could see all the benefits He was   
   giving to   
   people, but also she saw all the ingratitude and unfaithfulness with which   
   they   
   were received. She saw the glory of Our Lord, but also its futility for men   
   who   
   disregarded it. She saw the defeat that had already begun, the persecutions,   
   the   
   attempts of murder, and finally the entire Passion and most sorrowful Death   
   of   
   Our Lord. Who can imagine the spiritual advantages for her soul that came   
   from   
   all those graces?   
      
   The sanctification of Our Lady from the moment of the Ascension to the   
   moment   
   when the Holy Ghost descended upon her and the Apostles in the Cenacle only   
   grew. She remained on earth in order to help establish the Church. Then the   
   moment arrived when God Himself could not make her more perfect. It was the   
   moment of her Dormition, and her successive Assumption to Heaven.   
      
   Considering the ensemble of graces she received and corresponded to   
   perfectly,   
   St. Louis Grignion, with his eagle's gaze, says that she received more grace   
   than any other person ever did or ever will. She received more graces than   
   the   
   ensemble of mankind and, therefore, the graces others receive are but a   
   participation of the graces she received and an overflowing of them.   
      
      
   [continued in next message]   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)