And the wine failing, the mother of Jesus saith to him: They have no wine. And Jesus saith to her: Woman, what is that to me and to thee? my hour is not yet come. His mother saith to the waiters: Whatsoever he shall say to you, do ye. (John 2:3-5)

OCTOBRI MENSE

4. …With equal truth may it be also affirmed that, by the will of God, Mary is the intermediary through whom is distributed unto us this immense treasure of mercies gathered by God, for mercy and truth were created by Jesus Christ.[6] Thus as no man goeth to the Father but by the Son, so no man goeth to Christ but by His Mother. …

6. … Faithful to the religious example of our fathers, let us have recourse to Mary, our holy Sovereign. Let us entreat, let us beseech, with one heart, Mary, the Mother of Jesus Christ, our Mother. “Show thyself to be a mother; cause our prayers to be accepted by Him Who, born for us, consented to be thy Son.”[7]

6. Jn 1.17.
7. Ex sacr. liturg.

Source: OCTOBRI MENSE (On the Rosary), Encyclical of Pope Leo XIII, promulgated on September 22, 1891.

MAGNAE DEI MATRIS

9. When we have recourse to Mary in prayer, we are having recourse to the Mother of mercy, who is so well disposed toward us that, whatever the necessity that presses upon us especially in attaining eternal life, she is instantly at our side of her own accord, even though she has not been invoked. She dispenses grace with a generous hand from that treasure with which from the beginning she was divinely endowed in fullest abundance that she might be worthy to be the Mother of God. By the fullness of grace which confers on her the most illustrious of her many titles, the Blessed Virgin is infinitely superior to all the hierarchies of men and angels, the one creature who is closest of all to Christ. “It is a great thing in any saint to have grace sufficient for the salvation of many souls; but to have enough to suffice for the salvation of everybody in the world is the greatest of all; and this is found in Christ and in the Blessed Virgin.”[1]

1. St. Thomas Aquinas, Super Salut. Ang.

Source: MAGNAE DEI MATRIS (On the Rosary), Encyclical of Pope Leo XIII promulgated on September 8, 1892.

IUCUNDA SEMPER EXPECTATIONE

5. If in all this series of Mysteries, Venerable Brethren, are developed the counsels of God in regard to us — “counsels of wisdom and of tenderness” (St. Bernard) — not less apparent is the greatness of the benefits for which we are debtors to the Virgin Mother. No man can meditate upon these without feeling a new awakening in his heart of confidence that he will certainly obtain through Mary the fullness of the mercies of God. And to this end vocal prayer chimes well with the Mysteries. First, as is meet and right, comes the Lord’s Prayer, addressed to Our Father in Heaven: and having, with the elect petitions dictated by Our Divine Master, called upon the Father, from the throne of His Majesty we turn our prayerful voices to Mary. Thus is confirmed that law of merciful meditation of which We have spoken, and which St. Bernardine of Siena thus expresses: “Every grace granted to man has three degrees in order; for by God it is communicated to Christ, from Christ it passes to the Virgin, and from the Virgin it descends to us.”

Source: IUCUNDA SEMPER EXPECTATIONE (On the Rosary), Encyclical of Pope Leo XIII promulgated on September 8, 1894.

ADIUTRICEM

7. It is impossible to measure the power and scope of her offices since the day she was taken up to that height of heavenly glory in the company of her Son, to which the dignity and luster of her merits entitle her. From her heavenly abode she began, by God’s decree, to watch over the Church, to assist and befriend us as our Mother; so that she who was so intimately associated with the mystery of human salvation is just as closely associated with the distribution of the graces which for all time will flow from the Redemption.

8. The power thus put into her hands is all but unlimited. How unerringly right, then, are Christian souls when they turn to Mary for help as though impelled by an instinct of nature, confidently sharing with her their future hopes and past achievements, their sorrows and joys, commending themselves like children to the care of a bountiful mother. How rightly, too, has every nation and every liturgy without exception acclaimed her great renown, which has grown greater with the voice of each succeeding century. Among her many other titles we find her hailed as “our Lady, our Mediatrix,”[3] “the Reparatrix of the whole world,”[4] “the Dispenser of all heavenly gifts.”[5]

9. Since faith is the foundation, the source, of the gifts of God by which man is raised above the order of nature and is endowed with the dispositions requisite for life eternal, we are in justice bound to recognize the hidden influence of Mary in obtaining the gift of faith and its salutary cultivation – of Mary who brought the “author of faith”[6] into this world and who, because of her own great faith, was called “blessed.” “O Virgin most holy, none abounds in the knowledge of God except through thee; none, O Mother of God, attains salvation except through thee; none receives a gift from the throne of mercy except through thee.”[7]

3. St. Bernard, Serm.II in Adv.
4. St. Tharasius, Orat. in Praesentatione.
5. On Off. Graec., 8 Dec.
6. Hebr. 12:1.
7. St. Germ. Constantinop., Orat. 11, in Dortnitione B.M.V.

Source: ADIUTRICEM (On the Rosary), Encyclical of Pope Leo XIII, promulgated on September 5, 1895.

AD DIEM ILLUM LAETISSIMUM

12. … And from this community of will and suffering between Christ and Mary she merited to become most worthily the Reparatrix of the lost world (Eadmeri Mon. De Excellentia Virg. Mariae, c. 9) and Dispensatrix of all the gifts that Our Savior purchased for us by His Death and by His Blood.

13. … Nevertheless, by this companionship in sorrow and suffering already mentioned between the Mother and the Son, it has been allowed to the august Virgin to be the most powerful mediatrix and advocate of the whole world with her Divine Son (Pius IX. Ineffabilis). …

14. We are then, it will be seen, very far from attributing to the Mother of God a productive power of grace–a power which belongs to God alone. Yet, since Mary carries it over all in holiness and union with Jesus Christ, and has been associated by Jesus Christ in the work of redemption, she merits for us “de congruo,” in the language of theologians, what Jesus Christ merits for us “de condigno,” and she is the supreme Minister of the distribution of graces. …

15. … Those, alas! furnish us by their conduct with a peremptory proof of it, who seduced by the wiles of the demon or deceived by false doctrines think they can do without the help of the Virgin. Hapless are they who neglect Mary under pretext of the honor to be paid to Jesus Christ! …

Source: AD DIEM ILLUM LAETISSIMUM (On the Immaculate Conception), Encyclical of Pope Pius X, February 2, 1904.

THE APOSTOLIC LETTER INTER SODALICIA, 1918

The congregation of the Holy Office, in the decree Sunt quos amor, of June 26,1913, praised the custom of calling Mary Coredemptress; and on January 22, 1914, it affixed an indulgence to a prayer to which Mary is called Coredemptress of the human race. The role of Mary in Christ’s redeeming sacrifice is developed by Pope Benedict XV (1914-22) in his apostolic letter Inter Sodalicia, March 22, 1918.

As she suffered and almost died together with her suffering and dying Son, so she surrendered her mother’s rights over her Son for the salvation of the human race. And to satisfy the justice of God she sacrificed her Son, as well as she could, so that it may justly be said that she together with Christ has redeemed the human race.

Source: The Church Teaches , published by the Jesuit fathers of St. Mary’s College, bearing the IMPRIMI POTEST, NIHIL OBSTAT, AND IMPRIMATUR of the Catholic Church, pages 210-211.

Also from Pope Benedict XV in Inter Sodalicia :

It is for this reason that all graces contained in the treasury of the Redemption are given to us through the hands of the same sorrowful Virgin.

Source: Introduction to Mary , by Mark Miravalles, S.T.D., published by Queenship Publishing Company, P.O. Box 42028, Santa Barbara, CA. 93140-2028, page 76.

MISERENTISSIMUS REDEMPTOR

21. … And now lastly may the most benign Virgin Mother of God smile on this purpose and on these desires of ours; for since she brought forth for us Jesus our Redeemer, and nourished Him, and offered Him as a victim by the Cross, by her mystic union with Christ and His very special grace she likewise became and is piously called a reparatress. Trusting in her intercession with Christ, who whereas He is the “one mediator of God and men” (1 Timothy ii, 5), chose to make His Mother the advocate of sinners, and the minister and mediatress of grace, …

Source: MISERENTISSIMUS REDEMPTOR , (On Reparation To The Sacred Heart), Encyclical of Pope Pius XI, May 8th, 1928.

CARITATE CHRISTI COMPULSI

31. … Let them pray to Him [Jesus], interposing likewise the powerful patronage of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Mediatrix of all graces, for themselves and for their families, for their country, for the Church; …

Source: CARITATE CHRISTI COMPULSI (On the Sacred Heart), Encyclical of Pope Pius XI promulgated on May 3, 1932.

Thousands of souls perish because Mary is withheld from them. It is the miserable unworthy shadow which we call our devotion to the Blessed Virgin, that is the cause of all these wants and blights, these evils and omissions and declines. Yet, if we are to believe the revelations of the saints, God is pressing for a greater, a wider, a stronger, quite another devotion to His Blessed Mother.

Source: True Devotion to Mary , by St. Louis De Montfort, translated by Fr. Frederick Faber, published by Tan Books and Publishers Inc., copyright 1941 by the Fathers of the Company of Mary, Library of Congress Catalog Card No.: 85-50571, ISBN 0-89555-279-5, Preface by Faber, p. xxii.