[00:00] ♪ Amen ♪ ♪ Regina Mater Misericordiae ♪ And in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. "Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee." "Blessed art thou amongst women" "and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus." "Holy Mary, Mother of God,"

[00:31] "pray for us sinners," "now and at the hour of our death." Our Lady Co-Redemptrix. Praise God. St. Joseph. Praise God. Our patron saints and guardian angels. Praise God. In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. In the Church's liturgical practice, there were two feasts in the Church prior to the Council where they would call to mind Our Lady's sorrows.

[01:03] That was September 15th, which is of course the feast of Our Lady of Sorrows. And the Friday before Palm Sunday, which I believe it even called it in the liturgical practice Our Lady Co-Redemptrix, Mary's cooperation at the foot of the cross. Because the Church wanted to, and I think this was brought about around in the 1800s or maybe even before that, they started to, but I think it was during the 1800s when the Church set aside this day

[01:34] to meditate on Our Lady's participation in the Passion. And you can even hear that in the opening prayer. The option, the other option the priest can choose for the opening prayer mentions this aspect of Our Lady's participation. It says contemplation, but she more than just contemplated it, she participated in this work of redemption. And of course, they wanted to focus on Our Lady's participation

[02:05] because they didn't want to over, you might say, overshadow or to kind of, it was too much to talk about on Good Friday. So they wanted to devote a special day to talk about Our Lady's participation, so that would be the Friday before Good Friday that the Church would do that. And it's so important because this is part of the mystery. You know,

[02:35] those who have been supporting the Fifth Marian Dogma, they refer to usually as Co-Redemptrix, Mediatrix, and Advocate. But the late Father Peter used to say looking at it from the Franciscan perspective, especially with the absolute primacy of Christ, and the joint predestination of Mary, of Jesus and Mary, that she was a Mediatrix from all eternity in God's mind. And so you could say it's Mediatrix, Co-Redemptrix, and Advocate.

[03:07] Because one of the ways in which Our Lady is a Mediatrix is she mediated to us the graces of redemption. And that is from Pius XII, who points this out, that Our Lady's unique participation at the foot of the cross means that she therefore was given the right to distribute those graces that she received from her Son at the foot of the cross. And that, of course, our Lord points out when He says, "Woman, behold your son." "Son, behold your mother."

[03:37] You know, so when the Church redid the translation of the Mass in 2000, it brought back again in the opening prayer as an option this calling to mind on this Friday of Lent Our Lady's unique cooperation with her Son in the work of redemption. Now, the fact that the Church celebrates that liturgically means that someone, other than some liturgist or some theologian,

[04:08] the Church very well knew what it was celebrating. It understands very clearly that Co-Redemptrix is not a confusing word. Matter of fact, the reason why we have Co-Redemptrix is because back in the 1700s when they started to really develop this understanding of Our Lady's cooperation with her Son in the work of redemption, they referred to Our Lord as the Redeemer and Our Lady as the Redemptrix.

[04:42] And they said, well, which means the feminine of the Redeemer. But they said, well, that makes it sound like we're making her equal to Our Lord in the work of redemption. So they put the word co-, the prefix co- meaning cum, meaning with, meaning subordinate to, but still she has a part to play. Just like a co-pilot is not equal to the pilot, but he does have a role to play. He does assist in the flying of the plane.

[05:14] Our Lady did assist her Son in the work of redemption. So it's important, I think, that we call this to mind, this participation. It's very Catholic, very understandable. Today would have been a beautiful day to sing as the opening hymn, Stabat Mater. And, you know, the Church has understood Our Lady's participation in the work of redemption from the very beginning, from the foot of the cross.

[05:46] They didn't have, oh, let's, you know, let's come up with some new idea. No, there was no innovation. It's just a development of understanding what took place on that first Good Friday. And so, therefore, you know, Giacopone da Todi, who wrote the Franciscan, who composed the Stabat Mater, was a contemporary of Bl. John Duns Scotus. Bl. John Duns Scotus died, like, in 1308,

[06:18] and Giacopone da Todi died in 1306. But before he died, he composed that beautiful hymn, Stabat Mater. So just think, that's the 1300s. They were already so well versed in contemplating Our Lady's role in the work of redemption that they could write a poem and compose a song calling to mind Our Lady's participation

[06:49] and inviting us to participate with her, to join her, to unite with her in her sorrows and her suffering with Jesus. So that Our Lady would then appear later on in Akita and manifest herself, as Father Yasuda said, as Our Lady Co-Redemptrix, because that's who Our Lady is depicted at Akita, it's Our Lady of All Nations standing at the foot of the cross with her hands out

[07:20] to distribute those graces. And what does she do? She, that wooden statue, bleeds human blood five consecutive weeks from her hands and she weeps human tears 101 times. And the significance of those 101 tears, as the guardian angel revealed to Sister Agnes,

[07:53] is the first one represents Eve, who by her disobedience caused man's downfall by tempting her husband to fall into sin by participating with him in our fall from grace. The zero represents the eternity of God that is watching over all. And the second one is Our Lady, who is the new Eve, who by her obedience undid the damage caused by the first Eve,

[08:24] by her participation in the work of redemption, co-redemption. Genesis 3:15 is what Sister Agnes was told or shown in a vision when she heard the angel tell her the significance of the 101 tears. So today we could have taken, even in the Church's liturgical celebration, in the 30 Masses that were promulgated after for the new rite,

[08:58] the ordinary form, there are two Masses that can be offered during the Lenten season if the priest decides it's pastorally good to do so. And today would have been one of those days that we could have done that, which is we could have celebrated. There's two Masses there, Our Lady at the foot of the cross. Now, they may not use the word Co-Redemptrix, but they understand the meaning of what it is. And so why are we afraid of that word?

[09:28] That word so well expresses everything that Our Lady did at Calvary. She didn't just supply the ransom, the material, the substance. She also participated by morally offering herself with Christ and giving her consent, sacrificing her maternal rights over Jesus by telling Him and giving Him permission

[09:58] to go to Calvary. That is the, you might say, co-redemption in a nutshell. And that it's all part of this mystery of her Immaculate Conception. In the last issue of the Missio, I encourage you to look at an article there that is the Miraculous Medal, the sacramental of the co-redemption and mediation of all graces of Our Lady because that's what it is depicting on the Miraculous Medal.

[10:29] We have on one side her Immaculate Conception, "O Mary conceived without sin," "full of grace," Mediatrix handing out those graces by rays of light. And on the back we have the cross and the M, Mary standing at the foot of the cross being offered with and that her Immaculate Conception is the first fruit of Our Lord's redemptive work. He would have gone and sacrificed Himself on Calvary just for Our Lady to receive the grace

[11:02] of the Immaculate Conception. That's why she so much loves her Son because of the great love that He has shown to her. And she therefore wants to show and share that love to us. So today as we honor Our Lady as Co-Redemptrix, she who stood faithfully at the foot of the cross, let us ask her to help us to prepare for this coming Holy Week

[11:32] that we will walk in footsteps of Our Lord accompanying Our Lady to help us to more fully realize and understand and receive the graces that Our Lord wants us to receive this Holy Week and during the Easter, the Paschal Triduum. Our Lady Co-Redemptrix, pray for us. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

[12:28] CoRedemptrix.org