Q&A: What Does Pray To Jesus Through Mary Mean?

To Jesus Through Mary

The word “through” has various shades of meaning, and this, I think, is what causes confusion for many people when they come across the expression; “To Jesus through Mary.”

I’ve never tried it myself, but I suppose that if you want to go “to” the President of the United States, you’d have to go “through” a host of minor government officials in order to get to him. Needless to say, this is now how we go “to” Christ; He is not surrounded by bureaucrats or appointment secretaries in heaven.

Nor is going to Christ anything like going through, let’s say, the Midtown Tunnel in order to get to Manhattan. Nor is it comparable to astronauts going through outer space to the moon.

Comparisons help at times, and sometimes they don’t. But let’s try one anyhow. There are people who can’t see without corrective lenses which sit athwart their noses and enable them to get a much better view of what’s going on in the world. These people see what they are looking at “through” their glasses.

The “through” in the expression; To Jesus through Mary, has somewhat this meaning, although not altogether, of course. We take our Blessed Lady as a model of our prayers and ask her assistance when we pray to our Divine Lord, as we must do. We present ourselves to Him in our prayers as people who are especially devoted to His Mother. And just as the person who wears spectacles doesn’t always consciously realize that he is looking through them, so in the same way those who practice the Montfort consecration pray “directly” to Christ “through” Mary.

Return to The Queen: Q&A