Ave Maria!

Filmed two years ago at NACEPF host John Primeau and Fr. Angelo Geiger, FI discuss how Mel Gibson’s movie “The Passion” helps us to know Christ. Starting with the question “do we really know Christ??? they discuss how the movie shows that Jesus is God and God is Love by portraying His super-abundant love that is willing and able to suffer unto death for our redemption and then rise from the dead. Fr. Angelo then discusses how we should show our gratitude by repenting and being willing to suffer with him and so participate in the redemption of all mankind, “taking up our cross daily and following him.?? The movie destroys the modern idea that suffering and love is opposed. Christ suffers out of love for us. The superabundance of Christ’s suffering shows the goodness of God and the wickedness of sin. All of which makes the movie one of the best means today for counteracting the lax morality that is destroying our society.

Ave Maria!

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Starting with Genesis 3:15 Fr. Peter Mary Fehlner, FI discusses with host John Primeau how Mary fits into our redemption. Covers woman’s dignity, feminism, reincarnation and Protestantism. Filmed at NACEPF courtesy of John Primeau.

Ave Maria!

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Ave Maria!

Fr. Elias presents the 8th International Symposium on Marian Coredemption which is being held at Fatima July 17-19th by the Franciscans of the Immaculate in union with the Day with Mary apostolate in England. This year’s theme is Co-redemption as key to a correct understanding of Redemption. The symposium can be combined with a pilgrimage to Fatima from July 12-20

This symposium is part of one of our primary apostolates, promoting the Dogmatic declaration of Mary as Coredeemer, which this year will be combined with an initiative by Dr. Mark Miravalle at Vox Popoli to gather signatures for a petition to present to Pope Benedict XVI. This initiative was spear headed by over forty Bishops and Cardinals who believe we are in great need of Mary’s help. You can read the letter by Mark Miravalle about how you can submit your petition to the Holy Father and how these Bishops and Cardinals have already done so. And, you can see the book on the acts of a special symposium held on May 3rd to the 7th, 2005 in Fatima, Portugal led by these Cardinals and Bishops that the Franciscans of the Immaculate helped arrange and which led to this new petition initiative.

Mary, Unique Cooperator in the Redemption Why Mary should be dogmatically declared as Coredeemer Authored By Nine Cardinals of the Church and other Major Marian Theologians

Ave Maria!

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In this episode, Dr Mark Miravalle talks about Mary’s act of Coredemption at Cavalry, giving us an in-depth look at how Mary’s heart was truly pierced as foretold by the prophet Simon at the Presentation. Our Lady suffered greatly along with her most holy Son at the foot of the Cross, participating in the redemption of the human race as she had done before with her humble ‘Yes’ at the Annunciation. Listen to Dr. Miravalle’s clear and impassioned presentation on this sublime subject.

Ave Maria!

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Marycast #2 ( 10min) Play – In this episode Dr. Mark goes over the many topics that he will cover in this series – Her Role in Redemption, Marian apparitions, the Rosary, the Scapular, Totus Tuus, the Dogmas of the Church, the Traditions of the Church, the Mother of all Peoples, in short, everything about the Mother of God. We encourage you to email us at: marycast@airmaria.com with any questions you may have about Mary, or even any objections to our presentation. But most of all, come and join us.

Ave Maria!

Audio (MP3)

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Marycast Specials #1 ( 10min) Play – During the 16th World Day of the Sick on February 11, The Holy Father Pope Benedict XVI gives his strongest statement yet on the direct participation of Our Lady in the Redemption of the world at Calvary.“Mary is a model of total self-abandonment to the will of God: she received in her heart the eternal Word and she conceived it in her virginal womb; she trusted in God and, with her soul pierced by a sword (cf. Lk 2:35), she did not hesitate to share the passion of her Son, renewing on Calvary at the foot of the Cross her ‘Yes’ of the Annunciation.”

Ave Maria!

Audio (MP3)

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Our Lady Co-redemptrix

Mary, Coredemptrix

You are blessed among women, co?redemptrix! Blessed One selected in pref?erence to all who are blessed! Chosen One, singular among all who are chosen! Priceless Pearl that belongs in the treasury of God’s wisdom! Mother, you are the Glory of Mo?thers! We seek you, O Lady, and in all sincerity turn to you in prayer. Help us in our weak?ness; turn away from us all disgrace. Who is more worthy of entreating the Heart of our Lord Jesus Christ than you, blessed Mary, who live with your Son and speak with Him? Speak, Mother, for your Son listens to you; and whatever you desire you will receive. In?voke His holy name in our behalf.

– St. Bernard (+1153)

O Mary, Mary, bearer of the fire of love, and dispenser of mercy! Mary, co-redemptrix of the human race, when you clothed the Word with your flesh, the world was redeemed. Christ paid its ransom with His Passion and you paid it with the sorrows of your body and soul.

-St. Catherine of Siena

Papal Teachings on the coredemption of Our Lady

Again it must be stated that Mary’s participation in the redemption of the human family was completely and in every way secondary and dependent to the sacrifice of Jesus the Savior. Hence, the title Co-redemptrix should never be interpreted as Mary having an equal role in the salvation of the world with Jesus.

At the same time, her truly meritorious act of giving flesh to the Redeemer and of participating uniquely in Jesus’ painful sacrifice rightly won for her the title of Co-redemptrix. The Church’s Magisterium has unquestionably confirmed the completely subordinate but authentic co-redeeming role of the Mother of Jesus.

Let us cite a few papal examples:

+ Pope Benedict XV in his 1918 apostolic letter stated: “To such extent did she [Mary] suffer and almost die with her, suffering and dying Son, and to such extent did she surrender her maternal rights over her Son for man’s salvation ? that we may rightly say that she together with Christ redeemed the human race” (Inter Sodalicia) .

+ Pope Pius Xl (1922-1939) referred to Mary as the co-redemptrix no less than six times in various papal documents. One papal statement Pope Pius addressed Mary in these words, “0 Mother of piety, and mercy who, when thy most beloved Son was accomplishing the Redemption of the human race on altar of the cross, did stand there both suffering with Him, as a Co-redemptrix; preserve in us the precious fruit of Redemption and of thy compassion.?

+ Pope John Paul II specifically used the title Co-redemptrix in developing the understanding of Mary’s spiritual crucifixion at the foot of the cross: Crucified spiritually with her crucified Son (c? Gal 2:20), she contemplated with heroic love the death of her God, she “lovingly consented to the immolation of this Victim which she herself had brought forth” (Lumen Gentium, No. 58) ? as she was in a special way close to the Cross of her Son, she also had to have a privileged experience of his Resurrection. In fact, Mary’s role as coredemptrix did not cease with the glorification of her Son. – Mary entered, in a way all her own, into the one mediation “between God and men” which is the mediation of the man Christ Jesus [1 Tim2:5]. [W]e must say that through this fullness of grace and supernatural life she was especially predisposed to cooperation with Christ, the one Mediator of human salvation. And such cooperation is precisely this mediation subordinated to the mediation of Christ. In Mary’s case we have a special and exceptional mediation ?

(Pope John Paul II: Redemptoris Mater, No. 39).

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A decree of the Holy Office praises the custom of adding after the name of Jesus that of His Mother, our Co-Redetnptrix, the Blessed Virgin Mary. The same Congregation has indulgenced (Jan. 22nd, 1914) the prayer in which Mary is addressed as Co-redemptrix of the human race. Since the word ?co-redemptrix’ signifies of itself simple cooperation in the work of redemption, and since it has received in the theological usage of centuries the very precise meaning of secondary and dependent cooperation?there can be no serious objection to its use, on condition that it be accompanied by some expression indicating that Mary’s role in this co-operation is secondary and dependent.

Fr. Reginald Garrigou-LaGrance OP (The Mother of Our Savior and Our Interior Life)

Mary’s co-operation in the Redemption.

The title Corredemptrix= Coredemptress, which has been current since the fifteenth century, and which also appears in some official Church documents under Pius X (and other Popes) must not be conceived in the sense of an equation of the efficacy of Mary with the redemptive activity of Christ, the sole Redeemer of humanity (1 Tim. 2, s).

As she herself required redemption and in fact was redeemed by Christ, she could not of herself merit the grace of the redemption of humanity Her co-operation in the objective redemption is an indirect, remote cooperation and derives from this that she voluntarily devoted her whole life to the service of the Redeemer, and, under the Cross, suffered and sacrificed with Him.

As Pope Pius XII says in the Encyclical ?Mystici Corporis” (1943): She offered Him on Golgotha to the Eternal Father together with the holocaust of her maternal rights and her motherly love like a new Eve for all children of Adam As “The New Eve” she is, as the same Pope declares, in the Constitution” Muniticentissimus Deus” (1950), ?the sublime associate of the Redeemer?.

Dr. Ludwig Ott (Fundamentals of Catholic Dogma)

Dr. Mark Miravalle : Introduction to Mary, Advocate, Mediatrix and Coredemprix

Mary’s role as Mediatrix with Jesus, the one Mediator, has two fundamental expressions in the order of grace. First, Mary uniquely participated with Jesus Christ in reconciling God and man through the Redemption. For this role she has been called “Co-redemptrix” (meaning a secondary and subordinate participator in Jesus’ Redemption of the world).

Secondly, Mary gave birth to Jesus, source of all grace, she distributes the graces merited by Jesus on Calvary to human family. This role of Mary as the person responsible the distribution of graces is referred to as “Dispenser of all grace? or oftentimes by the more general title, “Mediatrix of graces?.

When the Church calls Mary the “Co-redemptrix,” she means that Mary uniquely participated in the Redemption of humanity with her Son Jesus Christ, although in a completely subordinate and dependent manner to that of her Son. Mary participated in Jesus’ reconciliation of the human family God like no other created person. Mary’s unique participation in the Redemption was scripturally foreshadowed in the prophecy of Simeon: ?A sword shall pierce your own heart also.? (Lk. 2:35)

Mary is our Co-redemptrix with Jesus. She gave Jesus his body and suffered with him at the foot of the Cross. Mary is the Mediatrix of all grace. She gave Jesus to us, and as our Mother she obtains for us all his graces. Mary is our Advocate who prays to Jesus for us. It is only through the Heart of Mary that we come to the Eucharistic Heart of Jesus. The papal definition of Mary as Co-redemptrix, Mediatrix, and Advocate will bring great graces to the Church. All for Jesus through Mary. God bless you.

Letter of Endorsement for the Papal Definition of Mary Co-redemptrix, Mediatrix, Advocate , Mother Teresa of Calcutta, August 14, 1993.

PRAYER to Mary, Mediatrix and Co-redemptrix

O Mary, Mother of God, I believe that as mediatrix with Jesus you share also in His sovereign dominion over the universe. You are Queen because you are the Mother of the Word Incarnate. Christ is universal King be?cause He rules all creatures by His personal union with the Divinity. You brought Him into the world that He might be King, according to the words of the archangel, “His reign will be without end.”

You are Queen also because you are coredemptrix. Jesus reigns over us not only by natural right, but also by the right of redemp?tion. As cooperator with your Son in that work of redemption, you also acquired the right to reign with Him.

God chose you to be His Mother and by that very choice has associated you with Himself in the work of the salvation of men. Since you had your place beside Jesus when there was question of ransoming us and merit?ing for us all the graces necessary for our salva?tion, you must in like manner have your place beside Him now, when there is question of securing for us by your prayers in heaven the graces prepared for us in view of the merits of Christ. This is my hope: that you will be a mother to me and obtain for me the grace I need to save my soul.

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Homily #080915 ( 8min) Play – On this Feast of Our Lady of Sorrows, Fr. Ignatius Manfredonia preaches on how Mary participates in the sufferings of Our Lord and how this suffering, which started as early as the Annunciation, is a participation in the Redemption.
Ave Maria!
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Marycast #20 ( 10min) Play –Dr Mark Miravalle continues the study of Mary in the New Testament with the climax of Our Lady’s role as Co-redemptrix, her participation in the Redemption at Calvary.

To ask questions regarding Mary, email Dr Mark Miravalle: marycast@airmaria.com

Ave Maria! +++

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MEDIATOR DEI

ENCYCLICAL OF POPE PIUS XII
ON THE SACRED LITURGY
TO THE VENERABLE BRETHREN, THE PATRIARCHS, PRIMATES,
ARCHBISHOPS, BISHIOPS, AND OTHER ORDINARIES
IN PEACE AND COMMUNION WITH THE APOSTOLIC SEE

Venerable Brethren,
Health and Apostolic Benediction.

Mediator between God and men and High Priest who has gone before us into heaven, Jesus the Son of God quite clearly had one aim in view when He undertook the mission of mercy which was to endow mankind with the rich blessings of supernatural grace. Sin had disturbed the right relationship between man and his Creator; the Son of God would restore it. The children of Adam were wretched heirs to the infection of original sin; He would bring them back to their heavenly Father, the primal source and final destiny of all things. For this reason He was not content, while He dwelt with us on earth, merely to give notice that redemption had begun, and to proclaim the long-awaited Kingdom of God, but gave Himself besides in prayer and sacrifice to the task of saving souls, even to the point of offering Himself, as He hung from the cross, a Victim unspotted unto God, to purify our conscience of dead works, to serve the living God. Thus happily were all men summoned back from the byways leading them down to ruin and disaster, to be set squarely once again upon the path that leads to God. Thanks to the shedding of the blood of the Immaculate Lamb, now each might set about the personal task of achieving his own sanctification, so rendering to God the glory due to Him.

18. But it is His will, besides, that the worship He instituted and practiced during His life on earth shall continue ever afterwards without intermission. For he has not left mankind an orphan. He still offers us the support of His powerful, unfailing intercession, acting as our “advocate with the Father.” He aids us likewise through His Church, where He is present indefectibly as the ages run their course: through the Church which He constituted “the pillar of truth”and dispenser of grace, and which by His sacrifice on the cross, He founded, consecrated and confirmed forever.

MYSTICI CORPORIS CHRISTI

Encyclical of Pope Pius XII “On the Mystical Body of Christ” on June 29, 1943

40. But we must not think that He rules only in a hidden or extraordinary manner. On the contrary, our Divine Redeemer also governs His Mystical Body in a visible and normal way through His Vicar on earth. You know, Venerable Brethren, that after He had ruled the “little flock” Himself during His mortal pilgrimage, Christ our Lord, when about to leave this world and return to the Father, entrusted to the Chief of the Apostles the visible government of the entire community He had founded. Since He was all wise He could not leave the body of the Church He had founded as a human society without a visible head. Nor against this may one argue that the primacy of jurisdiction established in the Church gives such a Mystical Body two heads. For Peter in virtue of his primacy is only Christ’s Vicar; so that there is only one chief Head of this Body, namely Christ, who never ceases Himself to guide the Church invisible, though at the same time He rules it visibly, through him who is His representative on earth. After His glorious Ascension into heaven this Church rested not on Him alone, but on Peter too, its visible foundation stone. That Christ and His Vicar constitute one only Head is the solemn teaching of Our predecessor of immortal memory Boniface VIII in the Apostolic Letter Unam Sanctam;  and his successors have never ceased to repeat the same.

41. They, therefore, walk in the path of dangerous error who believe that they can accept Christ as the Head of the Church, while not adhering loyally to His Vicar on earth. They have taken away the visible head, broken the visible bonds of unity and left the Mystical Body of the Redeemer so obscured and so maimed, that those who are seeking the haven of eternal salvation can neither see it nor find it.

50. Christ enlightens His whole Church, as numberless passages from the Sacred Scriptures and the holy Fathers prove. “No man hath seen God at any time; the only-begotten Son who is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him.” Coming as a teacher from God to give testimony to the truth,  He shed such light upon the nascent apostolic Church that the Prince of the apostles exclaimed: “Lord, to whom shall we go? thou hast the words of eternal life”; from heaven He assisted the evangelists in such a way that as members of Christ they wrote what they had learnt, as it were, at the dictation of the Head.  And for us today, who linger on in this earthly exile, He is still the author of faith as in our heavenly home He will be its finisher.  It is He who imparts the light of faith to believers; it is He who enriches pastors and teachers and above all His Vicar on earth with the supernatural gifts of knowledge, understanding and wisdom, so that they may loyally preserve the treasury of faith, defend it vigorously, and explain and confirm it with reverence and devotion. Finally it is He who, though unseen, presides at the Councils of the Church and guides them.

51. Holiness begins from Christ; and Christ is its cause. For no act conducive to salvation can be performed unless it proceeds from Him as from its supernatural source. “Without me,” He says, “you can do nothing.”

92. But lest we be deceived by the angel of darkness who transforms himself into an angel of light, let this be the supreme law of our love: to love the Spouse of Christ as Christ willed her to be, and as He purchased her with His blood

110. Venerable Brethren, may the Virgin Mother of God hear the prayers of Our paternal heart — which are yours also — and obtain for all a true love of the Church — she whose sinless soul was filled with the divine Spirit of Jesus Christ above all other created souls, and who “in the name of the whole human race” gave her consent “for a spiritual marriage between the Son of God and human nature.”  Within her virginal womb Christ our Lord already bore the exalted title of Head of the Church; in a marvelous birth she brought Him forth as the source of all supernatural life, and presented Him, newly born, as Prophet, King, and Priest to those who, from among Jews and Gentiles, were the first to come to adore Him. Furthermore, her only Son, condescending to His mother’s prayer in “Cana of Galilee,” performed the miracle by which “his disciples believed in him.”  It was she, the second Eve, who, free from all sin, original or personal, and always most intimately united with her Son, offered Him on Golgotha to the Eternal Father for all the children of Adam, sin-stained by his unhappy fall, and her mother’s rights and mother’s love were included in the holocaust. Thus she who, according to the flesh, was the mother of our Head, through the added title of pain and glory became, according to the Spirit, the mother of all His members. She it was who through her powerful prayers obtained that the Spirit of our Divine Redeemer, already given on the Cross, should be bestowed, accompanied by miraculous gifts, on the newly founded Church at Pentecost; and finally bearing with courage and confidence the tremendous burden of her sorrows and desolation, she, truly the Queen of Martyrs, more than all the faithful “filled up those things that are wanting of the sufferings of Christ . . . for His Body, which is the Church”; and she continues to have for the Mystical Body of Christ, born of the pierced Heart of the Saviour, the same motherly care and ardent love with which she cherished and fed the Infant Jesus in the crib.

The infinite distance between God and man, the impassable abyss, the breaking of every bond of friendship-all this was the tremendous consequence of sin. Then between God and man appeared the sweet Babe of Bethlehem; suddenly and completely the whole situation changes: distance is overcome, and across the abyss a wonderful bridge is erected which unites earth with heaven and re-establishes relations of intimacy between God and men. This bridge is Jesus, the “only Mediator between God and man,” who joins earth to heaven in a truly remarkable manner” (Mystici Corporis). In His office as Mediator, Jesus is really”at the center” : He is the point of union between divinity and humanity. His mediation has all the qualifications necessary for perfectly pleasing God, since He Himself is true God; at the same time, because He is true man and, as such, represents the whole human race, Jesus can make worthy satisfaction to God for the entire debt of sinful mankind.

The divinity possessed by Jesus as the Word is united in His Person with the humanity He possesses as man. These two natures are not merely in juxtaposition, but they embrace each other; even more, they are united in one Person, the Person of the Incarnate Word, Jesus Christ,Our Lord. In Him and through Him, all mankind is readmitted to friendship with the heavenly Father. In Him all can find again the way to reach union with the Trinity.

The eternal Father deigned to reveal this wonderful mystery to St. Catherine of Siena: ” It is My wish that you consider the bridge I have built in the Person of my only­ begotten Son, and that you notice that it reaches from earth to heaven, because in Him the majesty of the divinity is united with the lowliness of your human nature. It was necessary to construct this bridge in order to repair the road which had become impassable and to open a passage across the trials of this world to eternal life” (Dialogue).

2. “For it hath well pleased the Father that in [Jesus] all fullness should dwell, and that through Him He should reconcile all things unto Himself, making peace through the blood of His Cross, both as to the things that are on earth, and the things that are in heaven” (Gall, 1 9.20). Jesus accomplished His work as Mediator on Calvary, where He shed all His Blood as the price of our redemption. But His work began at Bethlehem, where the Word took, so to speak, that ineffable “giant’s step” which brought Him from heaven to earth, which made Him true Man as well as true God ..

The terrible abyss which sin had produced between God and man has been filled up by the Child who opens His arms to us from the manger. All that sin had spoiled and destroyed is now, by the will of God, saved, re-established in Christ” (Eph 1:10).

The grace which Adam had received directly from God, we now receive only through Jesus, our Mediator; our whole supernatural life always comes through Him. If we wish to be united to God, we have no other means than to attach ourselves to Jesus, to pass through Him, our Mediator, our Bridge, our Way. Jesus bas said, “I am the way” (Jn 14:6); ” I am the door. By Me, if any man enter in, he shall be saved”.

Fr. Gabriel of St. Mary Magdalene OCD (Divine Intimacy)

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