To thee do we cry, poor banished children of eve - 12

5.-THE NECESSITY OF MARY'S INTERCESSION FOR OUR SALVATION.

She is like the merchant's ship, she bringeth her bread from afar (Prov. xxxi. 14). Mary was this fortunate ship that brought us Jesus Christ from Heaven, Who is the Living Bread that comes down from Heaven to give us eternal life, as He Himself says: I am the living bread, which came down from heaven: if any man eat of this bread, he shall live forever (Jo. vi. 51, 52). And hence Richard of St. Laurence says that "in the sea of this world all will be lost who are not received into this ship; that is to say, all who are not protected by Mary"; and therefore he adds: "As often as we see ourselves in danger of perishing in the midst of the temptations and contending passions of this life, let us have recourse to Mary, and cry out quickly: O Lady, save us, we perish!

Remark that this writer does not scruple to address these words to Mary: "Save us, we perish!" as does a certain author already noticed, who asserts that we cannot ask Mary to save us, as this belongs to God alone. But since a culprit condemned to death can beg a royal favourite to save him by interceding with the king that his life may be spared, why cannot we ask the Mother of God to save us by obtaining us eternal life? St. John Damascene scrupled not to address her in these words: "Pure and immaculate Virgin, save me, and deliver me from eternal damnation." St. Bonaventure called Mary "the salvation of those who invoked her." The holy Church approves of the invocation by also calling her the "salvation of the weak." And shall we scruple to ask her to save us, when "the way of salvation is open to none otherwise than through Mary," as a certain author remarks? And before him St. Germanus had said the same thing, speaking of Mary: "No one is saved but through thee."

But let us now see what else the Saints say of the need in which we are of the intercession of the Divine Mother. The glorious St. Cajetan used to say that we may seek for graces, but shall never find them without the intercession of Mary. This is confirmed by St. Antoninus, who thus beautifully expresses himself: "Whoever asks and expects to obtain graces without the intercession of Mary endeavours to fly without wings"; for, as Pharaoh said to Joseph: the land of Egypt is in thy hands, and directed all who came to him for food to go to Joseph: Go to Joseph (Gen. xli. 55); so does God send us to Mary when we seek for grace: "Go to Mary"; for He has decreed," says St. Bernard, "that He will grant no graces otherwise than by the hands of Mary." "And thus," says Richard of St. Laurence, "our salvation is in the hands of Mary; so that we Christians may with much greater reason say to Mary than the Egyptians to Joseph: Our life is in thy hands (Gen. 25). The venerable Raymond Jordano speaks in the same way of Mary: "Our salvation is in her hands." Cassian speaks in still stronger terms. He says absolutely, that "the salvation of all depends on their being favoured and protected by Mary." He who is protected by Mary will be saved; he who is not, will be lost. St. Bernardine of Sienna thus addresses this Blessed Virgin: "O Lady, since thou art the dispenser of all graces, and since the grace of salvation can only come through thy hands, our salvation depends on thee."

Therefore Richard of St. Laurence had good reason for saying that, "as we should fall into the abyss if the ground were withdrawn from under our feet, so does a soul deprived of the succour of Mary first fall into sin, and then into hell." St. Bonaventure says that "God will not save us without the intercession of Mary." And that "as a child cannot live without a nurse to suckle it, so no one can be saved without the protection of Mary." Therefore he exhorts us "to thirst after devotion to her, to preserve it with care, and never to abandon it until we have received her maternal blessing in Heaven." "And whoever," exclaims St. Germanus, "could know God, were it not for thee, O most holy Mary? Who could be saved? Who would be preserved from dangers? Who would receive any grace, were it not for thee, O Mother of God, O full of grace?" These are his own beautiful words: "There is no one, O most holy Mary, who can know God but through thee! No one who can be saved or redeemed but through thee, O Mother of God! No one who can be delivered from dangers but through thee, O Virgin Mother! No one who obtains mercy but through thee, O thou who art filled with all grace!" And in another place, addressing her, he says, "No one would be free from the effects of the concupiscence of the flesh and from sin, unless thou didst open the way to him."