Mary Co-redemptrix in the Writings of Maria Valtorta

The inspired writings of Maria Valtorta offer salient insights into Our Lady's role as the Co-redemptrix of humanity. The following constitutes various excerpts from the writings of Valtorta. For more information regarding the writings of Valtorta and its status in the Church please see "In Defense of The Poem of the Man-God," by Jonathan Baker.-Ed.

MARY - CO-REDEMPTRIX

"A Crown of Boundless Pain"

(Jesus says:)

"...Did I perhaps offend charity towards my Mother... by doing the whole Will of my Father? No, in all truth... I made Her, the Immaculate One, the Co-Redemptrix. I place this second glorious crown on her head which She would otherwise not have had.

"Nor did She refuse to wear it, though it was a crown of boundless pain. Look at Us. I was the Son who did not deny his most beloved Mother but set the Will of God before Her, because that Will must hold precedence over other loves, wills, and human rights, even the holiest ones. And look at Her: the Mother who did not keep her Son from doing the Will for which He had taken on flesh. Robe your heart in our heroism, and act with true charity..."(Notebooks 1945-50, p. 503) 

"Blessed are You Among All Women"

(Jesus says:)

"...Through Mary, Mother of the Redeemer, God has worked the salvation of the human race...

"[But] She was not superior to Pain. And great, huge, sovereign and absolute Pain penetrated into Her with the violence of a meteorite plunging from the sky, at the very moment She experienced the ecstasy of the embrace with the Creator Spirit.

"Blessedness¹ and pain held Mary's heart in a single knot, at the instant of her most lofty Fiat and her most chaste marriage. Blessedness and pain fused into one, as She had become one with God. Since She was called to a mission as Redemptrix, pain surpassed blessedness from the very start. Blessedness came at her Assumption...

"To the miracles connected with the Redemption - both known and unknown, and evident to all or revealed to the privileged - add this one, too: the continuation of life in Mary by the action of the Eternal, after her heart was broken by and for the human race, like that of her Son, Jesus...

"For the sake of the pain which tortured my Mother on your behalf, I would like you to give Her love. Great, most tender love, that of children for the most perfect of all mothers. [She is] the Mother who has still not ceased to suffer, shedding heavenly tears over the children of her love who repudiate their Father's house... "

(Notebooks 1943, pp. 290, 293-5)

 Pain, Redemption, and Hope

(Jesus says:)

"...Mary was the Co-Redemptrix. And the mission of a redeemer is always a mission of infinite pain. Otherwise, how could a redeemer pay the ransom for the sins of others? Or redeem his brothers and sisters as a victim? Mary was a redeemer, as I was the Redeemer. It was right, then, that Pain should be her companion...

"Always consider that She is the Master of Pain, as I am the Master of Life; always consider that Pain is real, absolute, only when God is no longer close to a spirit to support it in trial. Consider that Mary was alone, in the tremendous hour, to know the horror of solitude and to expiate your acts of desperation as creatures.

"She is Hope, in addition to Faith and Charity... She was an abyss of hope. And I have thus set Her as your Star, to show you the way to Heaven. If you believe in Her always, you will never know the horror of despair, and will not kill yourselves with despair. May Mary, the Hope of God who awaited Her to accomplish man's Redemption, be man's hope.

"O mortals, do not lose sight of the Morning Star, whose rays are made of the seven swords driven into her most sweet and pure Heart, driven in out of love for you. Live in Her. And die in the Holy One, Who is the Mother of God and who prays for you without wearying before Our Throne.

"Mary, Who fell asleep on God's Heart, now lives in Heaven with her glorified flesh. The soul that falls asleep upon the Heart of Mary will have its flesh glorified in Heaven when the time is fulfilled, for She is your Salvation." (Notebooks 1943, pp. 310-11)