Doctor Mellifluus - Mariology

Mariology

Bernard prayed for the intercession of Mary in his confused time. The faithful today are requested to equally turn to Mary to pray for peace and freedom for the Church and the nations of this world. “To this warm love of Jesus Christ was joined a most sweet and tender devotion towards His glorious Mother, whose motherly love he repaid with the affection of a child, and whom he jealously honoured. So great was his confidence in her most powerful intercession, that he did not hesitate to write: "It is the will of God that we should have nothing which has not passed through the hands of Mary." Likewise: "Such is the will of God, Who would have us obtain everything through the hands of Mary." Pope Pius concludes his Encyclical Letter in the words of Bernard " to invite all to be more and more devout to the loving Mother of God, and each in his respective state in life, to strive to imitate her exalted virtues”.

Doctor Mellifluus quotes three central elements of Bernard’s mariology: How he explained the virginity of Mary, the “Star of the Sea”, how the faithful should pray on the Virgin Mary, and how Bernard relied on the Virgin Mary as Mediatrix.

• Mary is interpreted to mean 'Star of the Sea'. This admirably befits the Virgin Mother. There is indeed a wonderful appropriateness in this comparison of her with a star, because as a star sends out its rays without harm to itself, so did the Virgin bring forth her Child without injury to her integrity. And as the ray does not diminish the rightness of the star, so neither did the Child born of her tarnish the beauty of Mary's virginity.

• When the storms to temptation burst upon you, when you see yourself driven upon the rocks of tribulation, look at the star, call upon Mary. When swallowed by pride or ambition, or hatred, or jealousy, look at the star, call upon Mary. Should anger, or avarice, or fleshly desire violently assail the frail vessel of your soul, look at the star, call upon Mary. If troubled on account of the heinousness of your sins, distressed at the filthy state of your conscience, and terrified at the thought of the awful judgment to come, you are beginning to sink into the bottomless gulf of sadness and to be swallowed in the abyss of despair, then think of Mary. In dangers, in doubts, in difficulties, think of Mary, call upon Mary. Let not her name leave thy lips, never suffer it to leave your heart.

Theologically, Bernard, a Doctor of the Church, is a fervent supporter of the Mediatrix interpretation of Mary. God and World meet in her. Divine life flows through her to the whole creation. She is one with Jesus, who wants to save all and who passes all graces through her. She is the mediatrix to God, the ladder on which sinners may climb up to him, the royal road to him, because she is full of grace.