THE LITURGY OF THE EUCHARIST IN UNION WITH MARY

     Our Blessed Lord did not begin his work of redemption without the consent of Mary, solemnly asked and freely given. Likewise he did not complete it on Calvary without her presence and her consent. "From this union of sufferings and of will between Mary and Christ, she merited to become most worthily the restorer of the lost world and the dispenser of all the graces Jesus purchased by his death and by his Blood." (Ad Diem Illum, Pope St. Pius X, 1904) She stood by the cross of Jesus on Calvary, representing all mankind there, and at each new Mass the offering of the Saviour is accomplished subject to the same conditions. Mary stands at the altar no less than she stood by the cross. She is there, as ever, co-operating with Jesus - the Woman, foretold from the beginning, crushing the serpent's head. A loving attention to her ought, therefore, to form part of every Mass rightly heard.
     And also with Mary on Calvary were the representatives of a Legion, the Centurion and his men, who took a mournful part in the offering of the Victim, though indeed they did not know they were crucifying the Lord of Glory. (1 Cor 2:8) And, wonder of wonders, grace burst upon them! "Contemplate and see," says St. Bernard, "how piercing is the glance of faith. Consider attentively what lynx-eyes it possesses. On Calvary it enabled the Centurion to see life in death, and to recognize in a dying breath the sovereign Spirit." Looking upon their dead and disfigured victim, the legionaries proclaimed him to be the very Son of God. (Mt 27:54)
     These fierce rude converts were the fruits, swift and unexpected, of Mary's prayers. They were strange children that the mother of men first received on Calvary; yet they must have ever made the name of legionary dear to her. So, who can doubt that when her own legionaries - united to her intention, part of her co-operation - come to the daily Mass, she will gather them to her, and give to them the "lynx-eyes" of faith and her own overflowing heart, so that they will enter most intimately (and with surpassing profit) into that continuation of the sublime sacrifice of Calvary.
     When they see the Son of God lifted up, they will unite themselves to him to be but a single victim, for the Mass is their sacrifice as well as his sacrifice. Then they should receive his adorable Body; for this partaking, with the priest, in the flesh of the immolated Victim is essential, if the fullness of the fruit of the Divine Sacrifice is to be gathered.
     They will understand the essential part of Mary, the new Eve, in those holy mysteries-such a part that "when her beloved Son was consummating the redemption of mankind on the altar of the cross, she stood at his side, suffering and redeeming with him." (Pope Pius XI) And when they come away, Mary will be with her legionaries, giving them a share and part in her administration of graces, so that on each and all of those they meet and work for are lavished the infinite treasures of redemption.
 
     "Her motherhood is particularly noted and experienced by the Christian people at the Sacred Banquet - the liturgical celebration of the mystery of the Redemption - at which Christ, his true body born of the Virgin Mary, becomes present. The piety of the Christian people has always very rightly sensed a profound link between devotion to the Blessed Virgin and worship of the Eucharist: this is a fact that can be seen in the liturgy of both the West and the East, in the traditions of the Religious Families, in the modern movements of spirituality, including those for youth, and in the pastoral practice of the Marian Shrines. Mary guides the faithful to the Eucharist." (Mary, Mother of the Redeemer, Pope John Paul II, 1987)