Introduction: terminology and our role

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“... Redemption generally means the act by which a person or thing, first possessed and then lost, is bought or redeemed by means of a fair price. Applied specifically to the work of Christ for the redemption of mankind, Redemption means the fair price paid by Christ, the Son of God and the leader of all mankind, especially with his supreme sacrifice on the Cross, in order to redeem man, who because of sin had lost the grace in which he was created, namely God’s friendship, adoptive filiation with the right to eternal life.

Theologians have attributed to Mary the title of Co-redemptrix, which means Mary’s cooperation, with her merits and satisfactions, especially at Calvary, at the price of Redemption. Mary’s cooperation was a real formal cooperation, because she freely consented to the redemptive Incarnation, by giving birth to and nourishing the Priest and Victim of redemptive Suffering, and because during her life she united her Faith, Obedience and Charity, her sorrows, especially beneath the Cross, to those of her divine Son, with the desire to unite herself to Him for man’s redemption.

God, - that is – ordered that man’s redemption be accomplished not only through the merits and satisfactions of Christ, but also through those of Mary.” (Dictionary of Mariology 1022-1023). According to some theologians, therefore, Mary’s merits had a true co-redemptive value for the redemption of man.

These theologians conclude that God proclaimed redemption in his eternal plan, which without the collaboration of Mary – the New Eve and Christ the New Adam – there wouldn’t be redemption.”

With this meditation we accept this doctrine.

 

#44 – April 1, 1974 “Even Jesus willed to offer to the Father all his sufferings through and with me. And it was thus that, offering my Son freely to the Father, I became true Co-redemptrix. Let these children of mine offer me all their sufferings, all their misunderstandings, all their difficulties. This is the greatest gift that they can make to me, because thus they allow me to carry out in time – in this, your time – my task as Mother and Co-redemptrix. I will save many souls redeemed by Jesus, but at present so far away from Him, because my sons, together with me, will pay for them.”

 

#203   - July 13, 1980 “My motherly task is that of helping my children in every way to attain salvation; and today still, it is that of co-operating in a very special way in the redemption accomplished by my Son Jesus. My role as true Mother and Co-redemptrix will become manifest to all. I want to carry out this action today through you, my beloved sons. This is why I have wanted to withdraw myself into the desert of your life, where I have set up my save refuge.”

 

We are co-redeemers too: During the Mass it is our Heavenly Mother who holds up our hands which offer Jesus to the Father.

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She is Mediatrix because she is Co-redemptrix: She explains Jesus’ essential role and then, as a consequence, Hers

 

#204 “Beloved children, I am the Mediatrix of Graces.  Grace is the very life of God which is communicated to you.  It springs from the bosom of the Father and is merited for you by the Word who, in my virginal womb, became man to share with you that same divine life, and for this He offered Himself as a ransom for you, becoming thus the one and only Mediator between God and all humanity. From the bosom of the Father, grace, in order to reach you, must therefore pass through the divine Heart of the Son, who communicates it to you in his Spirit of Love. Just as a ray of light, which passes through a window, assumes its shape, color and design, so too divine grace, merited by Jesus, can come to you only through Him, and it is for this reason that it reproduces in you his own image, the very same image which shapes you ever more and more to his own Person. Divine life can reach you only in the form of Jesus, and the more this increases in you, the more you are assimilated to Him, in such a way that you can really grow as his little brothers.

  By means of grace, the Father communicates Himself to you ever more and more, the Son assimilates you, the Holy Spirit transforms you, bringing about a relationship of life with the Most Holy Trinity, which becomes ever increasingly strong and active. Within souls who are in grace, it is the Most Holy Trinity Itself which takes up its dwelling place there.

  This life of grace has also a relationship with your heavenly Mother. As I am truly the Mother of Jesus and your Mother, my mediation is exercised between you and my Son Jesus.  This is the natural consequence of my divine motherhood.

   As the Mother of Jesus, I am the means chosen by God by which my Son can reach you.  In my virginal womb this first act of mediation of mine is carried out. As your Mother, I was the means chosen by Jesus so that through me all of you may reach Him.

   I am truly the Mediatrix of Grace between you and my Son Jesus.  My task is that of distributing to my little children that grace which flows out from the bosom of the Father, is merited for you by the Son and is given to you by the Holy Spirit. My task is that of distributing it to all my children, according to the particular needs of each one, which the Mother is very good at knowing. I am ever carrying out this duty of mine.  However, I can carry it out fully only in the case of those children who entrust themselves to me with perfect abandonment. I am above all able to carry it out in respect to you, my beloved sons who, by your consecration, have entrusted yourselves completely to me. I am the way which leads you to Jesus.  I am the safest and shortest way, the necessary way for each one of you.  If you refuse to go along this way, you run the danger of being lost in the course of your journey.” (16/7/80)

 

With the title of universal Mediatrix of all graces, the Mother of Jesus was given the task and mission of imploring God for every kind of grace and of distributing them to all mankind, from temporal graces to the graces of eternal salvation. That is to say, Our Lady is an instrument in the hands of God, for the outpouring and production of grace or favours for mankind.

Saint Bernard would conclude in this way: “Mary is the noble star come from Jacob, whose beams illuminate the entire universe, shine in Heaven and penetrate up to the abysses. She irradiates the earth, heats the souls rather than the bodies, helps the development of the virtues and consumes the vices…. If you follow her, you cannot go astray; if you pray to her, you cannot despair; if you think of her, you cannot be mistaken.

If she sustains you, you cannot fall; if she protects you, you have nothing to fear; if she guides you, do not tire; if she is propitious to you, you will reach the goal ..." (St. Bernard, Discourses, II,17).

#533 8/12/1994: “Because I am the Mother of Jesus, I have been intimately associated in the mystery of his work of redemption, as Co-redemptrix, and have thus become true Mediatrix of grace between you and my Son Jesus. Beneath the Cross, through the will of my Son, I have become Mother of all of you and in the Cenacle with the Apostles, I have participated as Mother in the birth of the Church.”

 

It is important to stress the trust and popular piety towards Mary’s “beseeching power” and motherly mercy. The title “Mediatrix”, that is to say the imploring invocation to Mary, which expresses trust in her intercession, has very ancient origins in the Church. We need only recall the prayer “sub tuum praesidium” of the III-IV century, which expresses a precise belief in the powerful intercession of Mary the Mother of God.

The title “Mediatrix” already existed in the VI century and it became increasingly common in the XII century, by entrusting Our Lady with the task of intercession and the distribution of Graces. We can mention Dante Alighieri, whose intent in the Divine Comedy – as the experts say – was to write a work on theological affirmations rather than a work of great poetic value as we see it today. So, when his guide in Paradise turns to Our Lady, the Poet has him say: “Lady thou art so great and hast such worth, that if one would have grace yet betaketh not himself to thee, his longing seeketh to fly without wings.”

In 1922 Benedict XV granted to the Diocese of Belgium and to all Dioceses requesting it the liturgical celebration of the Mass and Office of the Blessed Virgin Mary Mediatrix.

During the Council, more than 300 Bishops had requested that she be defined as the Blessed Virgin Mediatrix, but apparently it wasn’t accepted, perhaps due to a false ecumenism.

 

Saint Maximilian Kolbe said: “The union between the Immaculate and the Holy Spirit is so inexpressible and perfect that the Holy Spirit acts uniquely through the Immaculate, His Spouse. Consequently, she is the Mediatrix of all the graces of the Holy Spirit. Given that every grace is a gift of God the Father through the Son and the Holy Ghost, therefore there exists no grace that does not belong to the Immaculate, given to Her, at Her free disposition. Jesus Christ is the one mediator between God and mankind; the Immaculate is the one mediatrix between Jesus and mankind and we will be the fortunate mediators between the Immaculate and souls scattered throughout the world”.                             

These words of the great martyr of the last century tell us how important the work of the MMP is, as it has the mission of spreading Consecration to the Immaculate Heart of Mary.

“I am accomplishing the greatest prodigies in the desert in which I find myself.  I carry them out in silence and hiddenness to transform the souls and the lives of these sons of mine who have entrusted themselves completely to me. Thus each day I make their desert blossom within my garden, where I can still carry out my work fully and where the Most Holy Trinity can receive perfect glory.

   Sons, let yourselves be transformed by my powerful action as Mother, Mediatrix of Graces and Co-redemptrix.  Do not fear, because in the desert of your heart I have taken refuge and have set up my permanent dwelling place.

   Live in joy and confidence…” (June 14, 1980).

 

This is why we can affirm with certainty that as soon as these last privileges given by God to the Blessed Virgin will be acknowledge and proclaimed as dogmas of Faith, the problems of the church will cease, both internally and externally. She will intervene as an army set in battle array. God will act powerfully after the Church acknowledges the role which He himself gave to the Mother of Jesus. Unfortunately, we are free to use it or not. A Priest who has understood how important it is to believe that the Blessed Virgin is Mediatrix of all graces will obtain great fruits in his ministry and will advance more quickly to the goal God has called him to with his Priestly Ordination.

 

The Most Blessed Virgin’s role as Mediatrix and Co-redemptrix culminated at the foot of the Cross, when Jesus said to John: “Behold your Mother” and to Our Lady: “behold your son.”

This mandate, which Jesus gave us at the culmination of Redemption, just before He died, was given to us to show us that only after He had announced his Mother’s role for us, was His work as Saviour accomplished. When we consecrate ourselves to the Immaculate Heart of Mary all we are doing is obeying Jesus. As Our Lady often tells us, we must turn to the Gospel every day, in order to follow it literally. It is a good thing to read other books, but if we don't read the whole Gospel, it is as if we hadn't read anything at all. Jesus alone is the truth expressed until his very last breath.

Jesus' plan, which is the Plan of the Most Holy Trinity, does not derive from human logic, but from a historical event of the life of the Saviour and his Mother.

The plan of the Father was to make his Son Mediator through His Passion, Death, Resurrection and Ascension into Heaven. At the moment of his death, Jesus himself, according to an eternal plan, wished to tell us that his Mother was associated to him as our Co-redemptrix and thus Mediatrix.

 

432 “You are an important part of my plan as Mediatrix and Co-redemptrix. My Son Jesus wanted me beneath the Cross, to associate my immaculate suffering to his divine suffering. He wanted to unite my human suffering to his, and He associated me intimately in the mystery of his Redemption. Thus He called me to be true Co-redemptrix. The fruit of my co-redemption is my spiritual motherhood.

Beneath the cross, through the Will of my Son Jesus, in the cradle of a very great suffering, I became your Mother, Mother of all the redeemed, Mother of the Church and of all humanity.” (Sept. 15, 1990)

 

This function of the Blessed Virgin began at the Annunciation, and continued during Jesus' infancy at Nazareth, during his three years of preaching, passion and death and lastly she was given a place at the right hand of his throne of Lord of the Universe. At the Annunciation, it was the Most Holy Trinity who wished – we might say – to have need of the Mediation of the Virgin of Nazareth in order to become man. Moreover, Jesus, indeed, needed his Mother's mediation to sanctify John the Baptist and Saint Elizabeth. And at the Presentation at the Temple, when Jesus was 40 days old, apparently incapable of consciously offering himself to the Father, he needed his Mother and in a certain way Saint Joseph, so that the offering would be a conscious act accomplished by the mediation of his Mother. After hearing the words of old Simeon, at that moment She must have offered herself together with her Son too, as his associate in the same mission of the suffering Servant of Yahweh. At the miracle of Cana in Galilee it is easy to understand her power of Mediatrix between Jesus and us.

Paul VI wrote in Marialis cultus: “The Church's devotion to the Blessed Virgin is an intrinsic element of Christian worship” [56].

 

The Council, in Lumen Gentium says: “This plan was accomplished through the incarnation in the power of the Holy Spirit; but with the essential contribution of a woman, the Blessed Virgin Mary, who became an integral part in the economy of the Trinity in its communicating with humanity.” (53).

We can deduce that just as a mother is necessary in order to give birth to her son, so too God wanted the Blessed Virgin to be, in the same way, associated to his Son in his work of making us children of God again. Certainly we are not talking about human logic, but of the economy of salvation which was established by the Father, carried out by the Son and applied to us by the Holy Spirit. Since this concerns our life in God, this spiritual management will continue – as the Council affirms – until the day in which we will also take the place which Jesus has prepared for us in Heaven. We cannot understand the mysteries of God in his economy of salvation using our human intelligence alone. Indeed, we can only verify a fact, arising from his merciful and gratuitous economy of salvation. This is why the Saints, who were the most enlightened regarding the mysteries of God, were very precise in this regard.

 

The teachings of the Saints and devotion to the Two Hearts

 

We know what Montfort says in this regard. I will only quote a phrase taken from the Treatise on true Devotion (17,20); “God the Father imparted to Mary his fruitfulness as far as a mere creature was capable of receiving it, to enable her to bring forth his Son and all the members of his mystical body…The Holy Spirit became fruitful through Mary whom he espoused. It was with her, in her and of her that he produced his masterpiece, God-made-man, and that he produces every day until the end of the world the members of the body of this adorable Head, through Mary.”

 

Pius XII writes in the Encyclical Haurietis Aquas: “Another most precious gift of His Sacred Heart is Mary the beloved Mother of God and the most loving Mothing of us all. She who gave birth to our Saviour according to the flesh and was associated with Him in recalling the children of Eve to the life of divine grace has deservedly been hailed as the spiritual Mother of the whole human race. And so St. Augustine writes of her: “Clearly She is Mother of the members of the Saviour (which is what we are), because She laboured with Him in love that the faithful who are members of the Head might be born in the Church” (72).

The great teacher of spirituality St. Francis of Sales described the Heart of the Blessed Virgin Mary as the place where souls encounter the Holy Spirit. In this way, he concludes, She exercises her role as Mediatrix.

 

St. Gregory the Miracle-worker had already expressed the idea that the Heart of Mary was the vessel and tabernacle containing all mysteries.

Simeon Metafraste gives testimony to a long-standing Eastern tradition which makes the Heart of Mary the very place of Jesus’ passion. It is as if Our Lady had said: “Your side was pierced, but at the same time so was my Heart”.

 

St. John Eudes. In the history of devotion, a special place must be given to this holy apostle of the devotion to the sacred hearts of Jesus and Mary. St. John Eudes gave rise to: religious congregations devoted to the worship of the heart of Mary and the heart of Jesus; the first liturgical feasts, with their own office and Mass; the first systematic works of history, theology and devotion; the first confraternities; the first approvals by the Church.

 

Pope Pacelli, in his Encyclical “Haurietis aquas”, talks about devotion to the Heart of Mary: “In order that favours in greater abundance may flow on all Christians and on the whole human race, from the devotion to the most Sacred Heart of Jesus, let the faithful see to it that to this devotion the Immaculate Heart of the Mother of God is closely joined. For, by God’s Will, in carrying out the work of human Redemption the Blessed Virgin Mary was inseparably linked with Christ in such a manner that our salvation sprang from the love and the sufferings of Jesus Christ to which the love and sorrows of His Mother were intimately united. It is, then, entirely fitting that the Christian people – who received the divine life from Christ through Mary – after they have paid their debt of honour to the Sacred Heart of Jesus should also offer to the most loving Heart of their heavenly Mother the corresponding acts of piety, affection, gratitude and expiation.” (124)

 

St. John Paul II, in his first Encyclical “Redemptor hominis”, talking about the mystery of redemption, also said: “We can say that this mystery took shape beneath the heart of the Virgin of Nazareth…The special characteristic of the motherly love that the Mother of God inserts in the mystery of the Redemption and the life of the Church finds expression in its exceptional closeness to man and all that happens to him. It is in this that the mystery of the Mother consists.” No. 22

 

Father Croiset, who enjoyed St. Margaret Mary Alacoque’s confidence, summarized the function of the spirituality of the devotion to the heart of Mary: “The Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary are too much alike, and too closely united, for it to be possible that we should have an entrance into one and not gain an entrance into the other… Without a very tender love for the Blessed Virgin, one need never expect to get entrance into the Sacred Heart of Jesus Christ”.

 

In a message our Mother describes the work She is doing today, especially through the MMP: “My motherly action is preparing, in this time of yours, the coming of the glorious reign of my Son, Jesus. My Immaculate Heart is the way which leads you to his reign. In fact, the triumph of my Immaculate Heart will coincide with the triumph of my Son Jesus in his glorious Reign of holiness and grace, of love and of justice, of mercy and of peace, which will be established in the whole world.” (23/11/86)

7/3/76 “Therefore, I want you all consecrated to my Heart to make you all into perfect consolers of the Heart of my Son Jesus”.

 

23/1/74: “Let them live solely with me, to console the Heart of my Son Jesus. Jesus, at this time, must be consoled. Let it be my priests who will be the consolers of His Most Sacred Heart.”

A mystic of the last century said that when the Romans were preparing the Cross for Jesus, Jesus looked at St. John. The beloved disciple understood that he had to go and get the Mother of the Lord. At that terrible moment, the two Hearts needed each other’s support. But more precisely, Jesus knew well that His Mother also played a part in the Redemption, and therefore she had to accompany him to Calvary, because – as She says in one of her messages – Jesus was to die in the flesh and She was to die in the spirit.

In making the Stations of the Cross, for many years there has been the custom of repeating at each Station: “Holy Mother let the wounds of the Lord be imprinted in our hearts”. Why do we say or sing this? This role should belong to the Holy Spirit. However, Our Lady is the one who more than anyone else has shared in Her Heart all the sufferings of her Son. That is, Jesus wanted her next to him because his Mother is Co-redemptrix and therefore Mediatrix.

 

St Maximilian Kolbe: “The union between the Immaculate and the Holy Spirit is so inexpressible, yet so perfect, that the Holy Spirit acts only by the Most Blessed Virgin, his Spouse. This is why she is the Mediatrix of all grace given by the Holy Spirit. And since every grace is a gift of God the Father through the Son and by the Holy Spirit, it follows that there is no grace which Mary cannot dispose of as her own, which is not given to her for this purpose. Jesus Christ is the only mediator between God and mankind, the Immaculate is the sole mediatrix between Jesus and mankind and we will be the fortunate mediators between the Immaculate and souls scattered throughout the world”.

Montfort: “When Mary has taken root in a soul she produces in it wonders of grace which only she can produce; for she alone is the fruitful Virgin,… When the Holy Spirit, her Spouse, finds Mary in a soul, he hastens there and enters fully into it. He gives himself generously to that soul according to the place it has given to his Spouse. One of the main reasons why the Holy Spirit does not work striking wonders in souls is that he fails to find in them a sufficiently close union with his faithful and inseparable Spouse.”

This is the co-operation of the Most Blessed Virgin, which can be called co-redemption and mediation at the same time. Perhaps this was implicitly understood in the invocation which Don Stefano made us repeat at the end of the Holy Hour: “Thank you Jesus for giving us your Mother.”

 

The two Hearts

 

(29 July 1977) “The Son finds here his habitual dwelling place. My Heart is the house where the Word was formed in his human life; it is the refuge where Jesus withdrew to find aid and comfort.”

(7 June 1981) “My powerful function as Mediatrix between you and my Son Jesus is exercised above all in obtaining for you in superabundance, from the Father and the Son, the Spirit of Love.”

 

Jesus is the New Adam. Mary is the new Eve. Jesus is the Redeemer: His Mother was called to be Co-redemptrix. Jesus wanted his Mother to be at his side at the moment of his supreme sacrifice. Therefore, their hearts were as one soul in their work of Redemption. Today we also must honour the two Hearts. At the beginning of each day of the Spiritual Exercises, Don Stefano used to say: “Let us offer up this day as a crown of love to the Hearts of Jesus and Mary.”

“Just as there are secrets of nature, explained St. Louis Grignion de Montfort, there are also secrets of grace… This “secret” consists in uniting ourselves completely to Mary because she and her Son are always united” (TD, 247).

It is for this reason that the Church has placed the Feast of the Immaculate Heart of Mary the day after the Feast of the Sacred Heart, almost as if to highlight the importance of uniting the two Hearts…

Saint Paul said: “it is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me.” If this is true for St. Paul, let us imagine how the Most Blessed Virgin has always lived in Christ, at first as a Mother and then as a Disciple.

Pope Francis said that Our Lady is the caress of God. In the Gospel, Jesus says: “He who has seen me has seen the Father. Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father in me?” (Jn 14:9). At the three Fountains Our Lady said: “I am in the Trinity.” Let us then imagine her union with the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. Jesus then says: “The words that I say to you I do not speak on my own authority; but the Father who dwells in me does his works.” (Jn 14:10)… I am so bold as to conclude, from what we have said so far, as a logical consequence, that also at Lourdes, Fatima and in the Messages of the MMP, what Jesus said at the last Supper is applied to Our Lady: “I have called you friends – Our Lady would say to her beloved Sons – for all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you.” (15:15)

 

The miraculous Medal has two Hearts carved on it.

Jesus said to St. Catherine Labouré: “Everyone who wears this medal will receive great graces.”

Two thousand years ago, Love, salvation, light and reconciliation came through these two Hearts. Even today’s world will be renewed by the two Hearts, with the outpouring of the Holy Spirit in a second Pentecost, which the Father and the Son will send, if we persevere with the Most Blessed Virgin in prayer and in particular in the Cenacle.

We are living in very difficult times, where life and death, light and darkness, the enemies of Christ and true Christians, rebellion, falsehood, confusion and truth are confronted: between the true Gospel and the true Christ – as our Mother says – and the false Christ: “Today many have wished to put me aside, considering me an obstacle in reaching Jesus, because they have not understood my function as Mediatrix between you and my Son. And so, never before as in these present times, are so many of my children running the risk of not being able to reach Him. The Jesus whom they meet is often only the result of their human research, and corresponds to their aspirations and desires; he is a Jesus formed according to their measure: he is not Jesus, the Christ, the true Son of God and of your Immaculate Mother.

Entrust yourselves to me with confidence, and you will remain faithful, because I will be able to carry out fully my work as Mediatrix of Graces. I will take you each day along the way of my Son, in such a way that He may increase in you to his fullness. This is my great work, which I am still carrying out in silence and in the desert. Under my powerful action as Mediatrix of Graces, you are ever more transformed into Christ, that you may become fit for the task which awaits you. Forward then, with courage, along the way traced out by your heavenly Mother”. 16/7/80

 

This is the battle between the Woman Clothed with the sun and the Red Dragon. The battlefield is the hearts of men. So these are the times in which it is absolutely necessary for the Church to define the Dogma of Mary Co-redemptrix, Mediatrix and Advocate. We must remember that the power of the Redemption is far greater than all the sins of the world. By entering into the Hearts of Jesus and Mary, we receive all their love and their redeeming power. This is the true refuge in these terrible times.

 

St. John Paul II, while talking about the Rosary, told us to “love Jesus with Mary’s Heart”. Many Popes have written Encyclicals and Apostolic Exhortations and they have given speeches and homilies to inculcate the Recitation of the Holy Rosary. This prayer was recited by millions and millions of Catholics, where we pray to Our Lady 50 times saying: “Pray for us sinners…” That is, we place her in fact as a true Mediatrix between us and the Lord and at the same time, while we meditate on the Mysteries of her life with her Son, we affirm that she is Co-redemptrix. The prophecy of old Simeon sees her pierced as her Son was pierced.

This is why the Rosary is important in all its 20 mysteries, in order to grow in contemplation, communion and imitation of the Two Hearts.

 

The Servant of God Brother Leonard said: “To love you tenderly, oh my Queen: I cannot ask for a more precious favour because in you I find my God: Father, Son and Holy Spirit, whose radiance shines upon me and whose Love enraptures me. The “Three of them” are in Jesus; Jesus lives in Mary.”

 

We do not need to dwell on the love that existed between the two Hearts. The Blessed Virgin was the most perfect Mother. Moreover, she was in love with God, and therefore she loved Jesus as much as she loved God. In turn, Jesus, the most perfect son, loved his Mother with infinite love and tenderness. It was a love which also included the love of the Father and the Holy Spirit for their most beautiful creature. Since he associated her with his work of redemption, he didn’t spare the heart of his Mother from being pierced by the sword.

 

Fatima and the two Hearts

 

It is very surprising to me that in the apparitions of Fatima the Hearts of Jesus and Mary are almost always mentioned together. In the second apparition Our Lady said to Lucia: “Jesus wishes to use you in order to make me known and loved. He wishes to establish devotion to my Immaculate Heart in the world”. Indeed, Jesus knows very well that the work of His Mother is always directed towards the Heart of her Son.

In the first apparition, the Angel said to the children: “The Hearts of Jesus and Mary are attentive to the voice of your supplications”. In the second apparition the Angel said: “The Hearts of Jesus and Mary have merciful designs concerning you.” In the third apparition, in the prayer the Angel taught the children before giving them the Eucharist, he concluded with the two Hearts again: “Most Holy Trinity… and by the merits of His Most Sacred Heart and the Immaculate Heart of Mary, I beg the conversion of poor sinners.” Certainly at a different level, as we have explained at the beginning, but we have to conclude that in these passages Jesus and his Mother together exercise their role of mediation between the Father and us.

Jesus revealed himself to St. Margaret with his Heart surrounded with thorns and with a flame on top of it: “Behold the Heart which has so loved men, from whom he received only ingratitude and contempt.” He also exhorted the devotion of the First nine Fridays of each month as a means of reparation.

In 1924 the child Jesus and Our Lady appeared to Sister Lucia. Our Lady was holding a Heart surrounded with thorns. Jesus said: “You see the Heart of my Mother surrounded with thorns, caused by the sins of ungrateful men.” Then Our Lady repeated almost the same message as her Son and announced the devotion of the first five Saturdays. In this circumstance Jesus appeared as a child, almost as if to emphasize how much He depended on his Mother, as all children normally depend as well as to share her worries and their own work. Whatever is done to the Heart of Jesus is done to the Heart of his Mother and vice versa.

John Paul II said: “When the side of Christ was pierced with the centurion's lance, Simeon's prophecy was fulfilled: “And a sword will pierce your soul too” (Lk 2:25). The prophet's words foretell the definitive alliance of hearts: of the Son and of the Mother; of the Mother and of the Son. The Heart of Jesus, in which the whole fullness of divinity dwells. The Heart of Mary – heart of the sorrowful Virgin – heart of the Mother of God.” (Angelus 15/9/85).

The messages of the blue book are also the path our Mother makes us follow so that we may return to Jesus: “Jesus must be much more loved, listened to and followed by you, his brothers, his ministers, and my beloved sons. The more you penetrate into the deep mystery of his divine love, as into a blazing furnace, the more you will be purified from sin, from frailty, from miseries and from all your impurities. If you love and follow Jesus, you too will always walk along the road of an immaculate purity and of a great sanctity.” (8/12/84).

 

Therefore, our Consecration to the Immaculate Heart of Mary is the safest way to love, live, serve and belong to the Heart of Jesus.

In the house of the Spiritual Exercises in Sydney, Australia I was very impressed by the presence of many statues of Our Lady with Jesus in her arms: the child Jesus shows his Heart as it was revealed to St. Margaret. In a very beautiful depiction it was Our Lady who pointed to the Heart of the Child Jesus: at the same time, the child Jesus pointed to his Mother by turning his little hand towards her.

In Heaven there are only two human Hearts beating out of love for us.

 

Mary’s motherhood in our regard is manifested in a particular way in the places where she meets us: places in which a special presence of the Mother is felt.

There are many such dwelling places. They are of all kinds; from a special corner in the home or little wayside shrines adorned with an image of the Mother of God, to Chapels and Churches built in her honour. However, in certain places the Mother’s presence is felt in a particularly vivid way. These places sometimes radiate their light over a great distance and draw people from afar. Their radiance may extend over a diocese, a whole nation, or at times over several countries and even continents. These places are the Marian Shrines.

St. John Paul II: “Since Mary is the mother of us all, her care for the life of man is universal. The care of a mother embraces her child totally. Mary's motherhood has its beginning in her motherly care for Christ. In Christ, at the foot of the Cross, she accepted John, and in John she accepted all of us totally. Mary embraces us all with special solicitude in the Holy Spirit.” (13/5/82)

 

The beautiful mosaic of Santa Maria Maggiore describes the coronation of Our Lady, which obviously took place in Heaven: Jesus and the Blessed Virgin his Mother are seated on the same throne. She is the Queen Mother. It is not by chance that in a message we read “The Queen is seated at the right hand of the Son” as an “Omnipotentia Supplex”. The millions of Shrines, Churches, Chapels, Niches and Statues built in her honour represent precisely the criterion which the Church always follows: the “Vox populi, vox Dei.”

 

In fact, in the beliefs of the faithful, all the truths defined by the Church have existed for centuries, such as Our Lady Mother of God, Our Lady of the Assumption, the Immaculate Conception. Moreover, God himself has sent his “Missionary” as a true Prophetess – using the words of Benedict XVI – to speak to us, help us, encourage us and often correct us through her countless apparitions and for us in her messages.

Let us be careful, in this respect, not to belong to the “Sanhedrin” of today, who do not want to hear what God wants to say to us through his Mother. This has happened too many times.

 

Let us not forget that, according to the book of Genesis, Our Lady was present in God’s mind at the time when he revealed the future Messiah, and later, in the Book of Revelation, we see her as the leader of God’s people against the red Dragon, who is Satan… We, who belong to the MMP, consecrate ourselves to her Immaculate Heart in order to belong to her victorious cohort.

 

If, after what we have humbly and not perfectly nor thoroughly described in this meditation, it weren’t true that the Mother of Jesus was Mediatrix and Co-redemptrix, then those belonging to a denomination other than ours would be right in saying that we exaggerate when we talk about Our Lady…

 

Instead, we want to give glory to the Most Holy Trinity who during two thousand years has revealed to us the glory of his work in his Mother, Daughter and Spouse. We Priests should tell the souls entrusted to our ministry more often that Our Lady is Mediatrix of all graces. This will be the secret for the sanctity of the souls entrusted to us. Therefore, the secret of a fruitful priesthood, both in his life and his ministry, lies in placing his hands in the hands of Mary and his Heart in the Heart of the Mother.

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Her decisive role – as God intended it – in future events

 

479 m# - October 7, 1992: “Jesus consigns this key, which represents his divine power, into my hand because, as his Mother, Mediatrix between you and my Son, there is entrusted to me the task of conquering Satan and all his powerful army of evil. It is with this key that I am able to open and shut the door to the abyss… The chain, with which the great Dragon is to be bound, is made up of prayer made with Me and by means of Me.

This prayer is that of the Holy Rosary. A chain has in fact the function of first of all limiting action, then of imprisoning, and finally of making ineffective every activity of the one who has been bound by it.”

 

With the power of the Rosary, Our Mother can put into action her role of Mediatrix, Co-redemptrix and Advocate because she wants to involve us in her mission too:

334 g September 15, 1986

“I became true Co-redemptrix, and now I am able to offer myself as an example to each one of you in the giving of your own personal sufferings to the Lord, to assist everyone in walking along the way of good and of salvation. It is for this reason that, in all these bloody times of purification, my motherly task is that of forming you, above, all, to suffering.

I am also helping you to suffer, by my Motherly presence, which is urging you to transform all your suffering into a perfect gift of love.

For this, I am training you in docility, in gentleness, in humility of heart. I am helping you to suffer, with the joy of giving yourselves to your brothers, as Jesus gave Himself. Then you will carry your Cross with joy; your suffering will become sweet, and it will be the sure road which will lead you to true peace of heart. I comfort you in all sufferings, with the assurance that I am at your side, just as I was beneath the Cross of Jesus.

Today, when sufferings are increasing from all sides, everyone will become aware, in an ever stronger way, of the presence of your Heavenly Mother. Because this is my mission, as Mother and Co-redemptrix: to gather every drop of your suffering, to transform it into a precious gift of love and of reparation and to offer it, each day, to the Justice of God.

 

The co-operation of every Baptized person

 

We too, like all Christians, both now on earth, as one day in Heaven, are called to co-operate in this mediation and co-operation.

In the third Eucharistic prayer we say: “May he make us an everlasting gift to you.” After his Resurrection Jesus kept the signs of his passion, because he is always before the Father interceding for us. When we go before the Tabernacle in Adoration, we also should, so to say, enter into the Tabernacle with Him, and unite ourselves in this continuous act of love towards men.

Indeed, the Most Blessed Virgin, in all her apparitions and in her Messages, has always insisted on praying for sinners, on bringing them to Her Immaculate Heart, and on atoning for the sins (every sin, Sister Lucia said), committed against the Immaculate Heart of Mary. In the biography written after Sister Lucia’s death, we read how she used to repeat every day, until the end of her life, the prayer which Our Lady taught the three children: “Jesus, I offer this for love of Thee, for the conversion of sinners, and in reparation for the sins committed against the Immaculate Heart of Mary.” They were to say this prayer every time they offered a sacrifice or had to bear suffering.

Our Lady herself, therefore, has taught us to unite Her Heart with the Heart of Jesus in our prayer of intercession, and obviously in our daily meditation too.

 

In 1929, Sister Lucia had a vision – as she says - of the Trinity. In the centre she saw Jesus Crucified whose blood fell from his face and from his pierced Heart into the chalice. Beneath the Cross was Our Lady and in her left hand was her Immaculate Heart, surrounded with a crown of thorns with flames on top of it. Once again we can see how God wishes to emphasize the importance of our salvation which is renewed in the Sacrifice of the Mass, where Our Lady is present with her share of love and suffering, represented by the Heart with flames and surrounded by thorns. Therefore, She is Co-redemptrix in the Eucharistic Sacrifice too. For this reason, St. John Paul II often said that Our Lady is next to every Altar, every Baptistery and every confessional because she plays an active role in the work of Salvation which Jesus now accomplishes in the Sacraments of the Church.

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Our participation as Priests

 

Jesus, our Mediator, continues to intercede with the Father, as we read in Revelation: “Then I saw standing in the midst of the throne…a Lamb that seemed to have been slain.” (5:6) In that Chapter of the Book of Revelation Heaven sings a hymn to the Lamb, who is worthy to decide the future destiny of the world. It is the same Lamb which is present on every altar of our earthly liturgy. In the litanies we call Our Lady “Ianua Coeli”, Gate of Heaven, where our Mother will continue to lead her Priests, while they celebrate the earthly liturgy, precisely in the secrets of the Heavenly Liturgy.

 

The largest Marian Shrine in Ireland is situated in Knock, where Our Lady appeared on the external facade of the Church with Saint Joseph, Saint John the Evangelist and Jesus as a living Lamb, standing on the Altar, in the same way as it is described in Revelation, with the signs that it was immolated and that it is immolated every day on the Altar.

In this apparition Our Lady speaks to us Priests in a special way as a Teacher who helps us in our priestly work, especially in bringing the Eucharist to the faithful, as she teaches us in a message (31/3/88), to put our heart into the Eucharistic Heart of Jesus. We have discovered that the Priests consecrated to the Immaculate Heart of Mary, according to our experience of being in contact with many of them, also have a great love for Adoration to the Most Holy Sacrament.

 

Our Lady’s place is at the side of every priest, especially when he stands at the Altar to offer Jesus’ Sacrifice to the Father. We should never fail to recognize the mystical presence of the Mother of Jesus in the Holy Mass. She is there at our side; she rejoices in our distribution of the fruits of her Son’s Redemption and she also participates in it. The hands of every priest are, in some way, held in Our Lady’s hands. She acts with the priest. Her participation in the Holy Sacrifice renewed upon the Altar is silent but efficacious. Therefore, her presence at the Altar, though invisible, is real.

 

The Church has long acknowledged the presence of the Blessed Virgin at every moment of the life of Jesus our Redeemer. Consequently, just as the Sacrifice of Jesus is renewed mystically in every Mass, Our Lady’s offering as Co-redemptrix and her participation in her Son’s offering is also renewed. The priest who knows this and allows it to penetrate his heart, will be graced with a holy fervour in every Mass he celebrates.

 

So if we do not want to approach the Eucharistic Sacrifice with lack of reverence, attention and devotion, we must, at the beginning of every celebration, invite Our Mother to be present. Her task is to prepare our hearts to offer the Holy Sacrifice worthily. In this way we will realize that She is full of solicitude for us Priests. She wants to see us go to the Altar clothed in humility, in purity, in innocence of heart and in profound adoration. Indeed, she helps us to identify ourselves with Jesus himself in his offering to the Father.

For this reason, in a message she tells us: “You are especially dear to me because you are his priests. You have received a power which makes you very much like your Heavenly Mother. When you celebrate Holy Mass, you too beget my Son.” (24/12/77).

In this message and in many others our Mother urges us to thank the Most Holy Trinity for the privilege of feeling we are next to Jesus at the last Supper, while we pronounce the words which give the Holy Spirit the power to accomplish the great miracle of the Consecration.

 

The presence of Saint Joseph and Saint John at the Apparition of Knock teaches us that we must love Our Lady and Jesus in the same way Saint Joseph and Saint John honoured them. Our Mother will not refuse the grace of a special intimacy with Her, thus participating in this grace given to them. An author even says that these two Saints help us to have an almost spousal love – similar to Saint Joseph – for our Heavenly Mother.

She tells us: “...I am following you and am with you…I live with you”. And elsewhere she says: “Allow yourselves also to be carried in my motherly arms.” (2/2/88) That is, She follows us with her glance, she covers us with her mantle: she protects her Priests like a heavenly shield. She is attentive to all our needs, nothing passes unnoticed, just like the best mother. It would be nice to be able to experience being always in her company, while we acknowledge her, in our ministry, as Mediatrix of all graces.

 

Conclusion

 

The Gospel of St. John says that the disciple Jesus loved “took her into his home”: these words were fulfilled literally, because he took her into his home. Now it is up to us to take her into our home. That is why nothing should prevent us from having recourse to Her in all of our spiritual or material needs. She who stood beneath the Cross now stands with him in Glory. She was given, therefore, the task of being the dispenser of the fruits of the Redemption to all souls. The Heart of Jesus is always open and from his open wound our Mother always draws endless graces and mercy for souls. The Heart of Jesus is an inexhaustible treasure: our Mother is its guardian. Whoever desires graces from the Heart of Jesus should go to his Mother and she will obtain the graces in order to distribute them with her own hands, because she is the treasurer and dispenser of all the treasures of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus.

 

From the Cross Jesus entrusted his Mother with the heart of her priests. She transforms them, purifies them and sanctifies them by raising them up ever higher, so that they may have a greater intimacy with Jesus and through Jesus with the Father and the Holy Spirit. As a result, priests who are consecrated to the Immaculate Heart of Mary and who meditate and contemplate the Holy Rosary regularly, thanks to the Mediatrix of all graces, are already experiencing the new Pentecost. Even if at times they realize their weakness, the Rosary and Adoration of the Most Blessed Sacrament will allow them to discover the Devil’s plots. Indeed, it is actually in their humility that they will receive from Jesus, through their word and through their ministry, the same power which the Holy Spirit conveyed to the Apostles at the beginning of the Church.

How true are the words of the Salve Regina: “Turn, then, most gracious advocate, thine eyes of mercy toward us, and after this, our exile, show unto us the blessed fruit of thy womb, Jesus. O clement, O loving, O sweet Virgin Mary.”