BEHOLD, YOUR MOTHER: COREDEMPTRIX

As Mary Coredemptrix leads us to participate ever more deeply in the Eucharistic Sacrifice of her Son, may

She also enable the Church to enter more lovingly into the daily commemoration of the many feast days in the Liturgical Year:

" …these devotions should be so drawn up that they harmonize with the liturgical seasons, accord with the sacred liturgy, are in some fashion derived from it, and lead the people to it… "(Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy, "Sacrosanctum Concilium," 13.)

In presenting a brief history of hymns from the earliest monastic offices through such well-known sequences as the "Lauda Sion", "Veni Sancte, Spiritus" and "Stabat Mater", it is hoped that the present, new sequences may also inspire deep love for Christ and Our Lady, thus combining deep faith with devotion. The 137 sequences may be sung to Gregorian Chant melodies--the "Stabat Mater", "Lauda Sion" and "Dies Irae" in the Liber Usualis. It is ardently anticipated that the Maternal Mediation of Mary as Coredemptrix, Mediatrix and Advocate be solemnly defined as the fifth and final Marian Dogma of the Roman Catholic Church, ushering in the great Triumph of the Immaculate Heart of Mary.

Born in Chicago, October 2, 1928, Mary Joan Fitzgerald attended Our Lady of Perpetual Help School, Glenview and Mallinckrodt High School, Wilmette, graduating in 1946. Ms. Fitzgerald earned a B.A. in Music Education and Liturgical Music (1965), Alverno College, Milwaukee; a Master equivalent in Church Music, DePaul University, Chicago (1980); and the M.P.S. from the Institute of Pastoral Studies, Loyola University Chicago (1987). After a ministry in Church Music, music education and private teaching in the Midwest, Ms. Fitzgerald resides at Mather Gardens, Evanston, Illinois. She has also written: SALVATION IN CHRIST THROUGH MARY (religious poetry); TO LIVE IS CHRIST; MARIAN SEQUENCES IN THE 21 ST CENTURY; and musical settings for three original sequences, "Thy Glories, Sing, We; Praises, Chime!" (unpublished).