With Jesus

From the Author's Introduction "With Jesus," from the Annunciation to Calvary: this is the story of Mary Co-redemptrix. This little work is not primarily for the theologian, but for the reader who, while not necessarily having an extensive theological background, is nonetheless comfortable with citations and notes for the sake of a deeper investigation into this Mariological doctrine and mystery. I wish to confess to you from the outset, dear reader, my own deep love and gratitude for the Mother whom I hail, as does the Church, as the "Co-redemptrix." But I pray that my personal belief in this Marian mystery will not hamper an objective examination of the question, which must not be based on subjective dispositions, but rather on the objective historic revelation which flows from the Word of God "written," the Sacred Scriptures; the Word of God "oral and handed down," Sacred Tradition; and the guardianship of the Word of God by the Church's Magisterium, all of which is witnessed to and enfleshed in the lives and testimonies of the saints, mystics, popes, and doctors of the Church. From these sources, I seek to weave a little garland of the story of Mary Co-redemptrix. But just as the Rosary is a brief "compendium of the entire Gospel," so too this work will be only a brief telling of the whole story, the profundity and sublimity of which not even the world itself could contain the books that would have to be written (cf. Jn. 21:25). For her story is so united to His story that it participates in the very depths and breath of a God's desire to "buy back" (redimere) his people, and in doing so, God willed that this woman be intimately involved in the salvation of the human race. May the telling of this story, by God's infinite grace, satisfy your mind and bring peace, joy, and gratitude to your heart, for the gift and the mystery of Mary Co-redemptrix.