Ave Maria Meditations
Our Lady’s dignity as Coredemptrix is well explained in the Second Vatican Council’s dogmatic constitution on the church, Lumen Gentium. “Embracing God’s salvific will with a full heart and impeded by no sin, she devoted herself totally as a handmaid of the Lord to the person and work of her Son, under Him and with Him, by the grace of Almighty God, serving the mystery of redemption. Rightly therefore the holy fathers see her as used by God not merely in a passive way, but as freely cooperating in the work of human salvation through faith and obedience…
The blessed virgin advanced in her pilgrimage of faith, and faithfully persevered in her union with her Son unto the cross where she stood in keeping with the divine plan, grieving exceedingly with her only begotten Son, uniting herself with a maternal heart with His sacrifice and lovingly consenting to the immolation of this Victim which she herself had brought forth…
She conceived, brought forth and nourished Christ, she presented Him to the Father in the temple, and was united with Him by compassion as He died on the cross. Is this singular way she cooperated by her obedience, faith, hope, and burning charity in the work of the Savior and giving back supernatural life to souls. Wherefore she is our Mother in the order of grace. (LG 56, 58, 61)
From In Sinu Jesu
