Mediatrix of All Graces
Marialis cultus
This feast day of the Visitation was once known as the feast of Mary, Mediatrix of all Graces, and in 1954 Pius XII proclaimed it as the feast of the Queenship of Mary. (At that time the Visitation was celebrated on July 2.) Obviously, after the Council, the Queenship of Mary was moved, and the Mediatrix of All Graces was suppressed, for whatever reason. I’m of the opinion that it was to appease our Protestant brothers and sisters, who, on the more fundamentalist level, have no theology or liturgy, and think the Catholic Church is the whore of Babylon anyway. Yet it was important to appease them I guess. The loss of this feast in no way diminishes the truth, the dignity, or the glory of Our Lady, rather it diminishes our consciousness of the Divine Mysteries associated with devotion to the Virgin.
However, when we meditate the Gospel of the Visitation, we can see how Our Lady acted as Mediatrix in the fact that her visit to Elizabeth, while carrying the Infant Jesus in her womb, occasioned the grace of sanctification for the Baptist yet in Elizabeth’s womb. His leap of joy seems to convey this truth in a mystical way. The Mother of God did not sanctify the infant St. John, Christ, the Son of God did so, through what I would call the Blessed Virgin’s mediation, in cooperating with the plan of God.
Hallowed Ground has a nice post on the history of the feast of the Queenship of Mary, Mediatrix of All Graces - with a link to Pius XII’s proclamation.
May 31st, 2007 at 11:05 am
I have a friend (cradle Catholic) who can’t stand Mary being addressed as “Co-Redemptrix” either. But he’s also been reading a lot of Richard Rohr & complaining there aren’t enough masculine men in the Church & bemoans the loss of “wild man spirituality.” That talk always reminds me of that song … “Bang a gong, get it on.” Whatever. Gimme the Blessed Mother. I’ve always had a special devotion to Her & like to beg for the graces of Christ from Her hands.
May 31st, 2007 at 1:30 pm
Perhaps the suppression of the feast of the Mediatrix of All Graces ties in with your post about falling into sins of impurity through pride. I suppose — and this is pure speculation on my part — it could have been, not only an unseemly desire to kowtow to people outside the Church, but also pride that led to the suppression of this feast. Something along the lines of: “Our devotion to the Blessed Mother is so strong, it can’t possibly be hurt by removing a feast here or a devotion there.”
But perhaps the very desire to suppress a Marian feast is itself a symptom of the weakening of devotion that was supposed not to have existed. And since then, Marian devotion has taken a lot of hits even from within the Church, even to the point of having priests refer to the Rosary as “primitive,” and forbid the singing of “Ave Maria” at funerals on the grounds that it’s not “liturgically correct.” God knows I myself had my period where I had a downright Protestant view of Mary. (I have now been duly corrected on that point.)
May 31st, 2007 at 3:49 pm
Anita, yeah that protestant thing about Mary, it has definitely crept into the Catholic Church in this country. You hear it all of the time.