The Glorification of Mary

St. Bernard of Clairvaux, one of the greatest theologians of the Middle Ages who was renowned for his love of the Blessed Mother, coined the phrase, De Maria Nunquam Satis, translated, “About Mary, one can never say enough.” As the mysteries of her life and the graces given to her are wrapped up with the very Incarnation itself, it is impossible to exhaust the richness of her life and destiny. It is important to acknowledge, as the popes do and as the famous Marian saint, Louis de Montfort does, that Marian devotion is not an end in and of itself. Only God is worshiped for His own sake. Mary is venerated as a means of bringing us closer to Christ and making us more Christlike. One may question why one “needs” to go through Mary to get to Jesus; it can be retorted that one does not “need” to so much as one ought to, and that this must be grounded in the larger context of the communion of saints to have a proper understanding of it. The saints and angels are means of grace to us, and Mary in an exemplary way. They do not stand between us and God; rather, they facilitate a more perfect union between us and God by their intercession, and among the members of the Church themselves.