Letter from a faithful Catholic laywoman in Rome to a dear priest, regarding the Doctrinal Note Mater Populi Fidelis
Rome, December 6, 2025
Dear Father,
I share in your sorrow over the recent offenses against Our Lady. You have told me, now is the time to perform acts of faith: I believe that You can do all, O Queen of Heaven and Earth, seated at the right hand of the Son, above all the angels and saints, Mediatrix of All Graces, Coredemptrix, Immaculata full of grace, Mother of God! And above all, you have told me, now is the time to multiply acts of love. Loving is the most perfect way to make reparation (and if Our Lady was able to make reparation, with and under Christ, through Her Compassion on Calvary, it is precisely because, from all eternity, the Most Holy Trinity had placed all its love in Her: no creature, even all the holy creatures combined, will ever be loved by God as the Most Holy Virgin is loved, nor will they ever be able to love as She loves). To love Our Lady more means to love Our Lord Jesus Christ more, the Mother and the Son being united and conform in all things; to love Her Immaculate Heart more means to love the Sacred Heart of Jesus more, the two hearts being but one heart; and to love the Cross more means to love the Son and the Mother more, and through them, the Father, and us sinners too, for it was by embracing the Cross that Christ and the Virgin Mary, the formerthrough an external and internal sacrifice, the latter through a whollyinternal sacrifice, loved the Father perfectly, loved one another perfectly, and loved us perfectly, accomplishing our redemption together.
I therefore unite myself with you in the work of reparation that these offenses call for, with you who always keep your heart within the Heart of the Blessed Virgin and your gaze fixed upon Calvary, and, for you and for all priests, for whom I always pray and offer as I can, I ask Our Lady, whose beloved sons you are, to always nurtureyou with Her spirit of oblation and immolation. Allow me, however, dear Father, to express my maternal apprehension for the souls of priests, for adherence to the perennial doctrine on the Virgin Mary is an essential distinguishing criterion: many will be put to the test, many will sacrifice themselves so as to continue defending the Truth, but many could give in to pressure, out of false prudence, and endanger their souls and the souls of those for whom they are responsible.
This spirit of oblation and sacrifice of Our Lady, which founds Her titles of Coredemptrix and universal Mediatrix, is manifested in the Tridentine rite of Holy Mass. Indeed, it is by attending this holy rite that I am able to delve more deeply into the mystery of these Marian privileges, while I pray the Rosary of Our Lady of Seven Sorrows, which allows me to unite myself more profoundly to the Sacrifice of the Altar, for, indeed, I pass through Mary uniting Herself to the Sacrifice of Calvary: Ad Jesum per Mariam.
Therefore, allow me, dear and good Father, to write to you, who sacrifice every day at the altar, about the things I see from a different perspective than yours, that of a simple laywoman who seeks to unite Herself interiorly with the Holy Sacrifice by attending Mass piously and silently. I see these things in particular, in the intimacy of Low Mass, when the identification between the priest and Christ is more noticeable as he is alone. Yet, he is not alone, for with him, as with Christ, is the Virgin Mary, who always acts spiritually as well! And if, at the moment of consecration the priest acts in persona Christi, by virtue of the unique ministry that Christ confers on particular men whom he has chosen from all eternity (and for this may you be forever blessed!), at the moment of the Offertory, the priest looks to Mary, Virgo offerens.
No man comes closer to the Sacred Mysteries than the priest; no one touches more closely the mystery by which, on the altar, the Holy Sacrifice of Calvary is sacramentally made present, which Christ Himself offers at that moment through his minister, alter Christus. And no one knows better than he how, in the sublime liturgy of the Holy Mass, which encapsulates the whole mystery of the Incarnation-Redemption, She also acts, from beginning to end, whom God from all eternity, by one and the same decree, associated with Our Lord Jesus Christ in this work, from beginning to end, as Mother of God-Coredemptrix. Almighty God could have acted quite differently, but according to the way in which He decided to act, He willed that the Most Holy Virgin give this consent, pronounce this Fiat without which the Incarnation-Redemption would not have taken place. Forgive me, most patient Father, if I repeat things that everyone has learned in catechism, but it is too beautiful and too great for it to remain veiled in silence: by pronouncing Her Fiat, the Blessed Virgin Mary consents to become the Mother of God and the Mother of the Redeemer, that is to say, She consents to the Word taking flesh in Her and offering Himself in sacrifice for our salvation. She consents to give birth to Him in order to immolate Him in sacrifice, and She collaborated in this from beginning to end, adhering completely to the Divine Will: it is on Calvary, apex of thePassion and the Compassion, that Her Fiat, given at the moment of the Annunciation, attains its perfection ‒ and that the divine Maternity finds its form. Now, every day at Mass, Our Lady, mother and mold of the priest, repeats Her Fiat and Her participation in the Sacrifice. And the association of the Blessed Virgin Mary with Her Son throughout the work of Redemption, from the Incarnation to Calvary (and then, in Heaven, in the distribution of the fruits of Redemption), corresponds to Her association with the priest, Her beloved son, throughout the liturgy of the Mass, from the preparation in the sacristy to the Sacrifice of the Altar (and then, after the union of the Eucharistic species, during the distribution of the glorious Body of Christ at Communion).
Saint Bernard says that all creation withheld its breath in prayer at the moment when the Virgin Mary was about to give Her Fiat to the Incarnation and Redemption. This prayerful, anxious awaiting is that of the pious soul during the moments preceding the priest’s coming forth from the sacristy. When, in the dimness, beforethe start of the celebration, the sacristan lights the first, then the second candle on either side of the altar, I think of God the Father who, after the original sin, announces to Adam and Eve the Woman who will crush the head of the serpent, that is, the Virgin Mary (the first glimmer of hope, the Morning Star), and Her offspring, that is, Christ (the fullness of light, the lux vera). The anticipation of thefaithful grows more intense. And now, as then, the mystery is being prepared in secret. When the fullness of time had come, the Virgin pronounced Her Fiat and the Word became flesh in Her womb, and in that enclosed and most holy garden, She began to prepare Christ: all that the Word took on as human comes from Her; it was She who gave Him His Body, which was Her own body and no other than Her own body; it was She who gave Him His Blood, the blood that was to be shed, which was Her own blood and no other than Her own blood; it was She who gave Him that Sacred Heart, to which Her Immaculate Heart is indissolubly united ‒ two hearts pierced as one by the lance and the spiritual sword on Calvary ‒; it was She who clothed Jesus Christ in the priestly garments with which He came forth from Her womb, ready to be sacrificed. What actually happened at that unique moment, in the secret of the mind and body of the Virgin Mary, is symbolically reproduced every day in the sacristy, symbol of the womb of the Virgin Mary. In the sacristy, the priest cloaks himself in the liturgical vestments one by one, offering a prayer to the Lord for each one: the amice to ward off the assaultsof the devil, the alb to be purified, the cincture to preserve chastity, the maniple to obtain the tears and the sorrow of his ministry, the stole of immortality, the chasuble which is the yoke of the Lord: so many graces that the priest obtains through Our Lady, universal Mediatrix of All Graces. And the priest comes forth from the sacristy “ready” for the sacrifice, like Christ coming forth from the sacred womb of his Most Holy Mother.
When the priest emerges from the Sacristy-Virgin Mary, to the sound of the bell, the faithful bow their heads like the shepherds adoring the Little King and Priest in Bethlehem. And he immediately goes to the altar, the future place of Sacrifice, to arrange the still-covered oblates. But it is the Virgin who leads him there, as when She brought the Child Jesus for His presentation in the Temple, the first symbolic offering that the Mother makes of the Son to the Father, the “morning offering” (St. Bernard), whose meaning is revealed by Simeon’s prophecy, the first of the Seven Sorrows of Our Lady. Then he returns to the foot of the altar, and that is where the Mass itself begins. Introibo ad altare Dei. Ad Deum qui laetificat juventutem meam. And immediately comes the hour of Herod’s persecution and the flight into Egypt (second of the Seven Sorrows): Judica me Deus, et discerne causam meam de gente non sancta: ab homine iniquo et doloso erue me (Render me justice, O God, deliver me from an unholy nation, from the wicked and deceitful man). The Mother carries the Child Jesus and protects Him from the murderer and the pagans, and She carries and protects the priest in the world, against external attacks, but above all against the only true evil, which is sin, introduced by the Confiteor.
Then the priest ascends definitively to the altar, the place of sacrifice for which he came into the world. After a didactic period, representing the phase of Christ’s public life, the teaching of Truth by the One who is the Truth (a phase which, in history, was heralded by the preaching to the doctors of the Temple, when the Virgin Mary was given a foretaste of the third of the Seven Sorrows, the torments of separation She would experience at the death of Her Son), we approach the climax of the Holy Mass.
The Offertory, dearest Father, is one of the most beautiful moments for the priest, but also for the faithful who have the privilege of attending the ancient rite of Holy Mass, and it is one of the treasures that priests and the faithful have unfortunately been deprived of by the liturgical reform. By what I am about to say, I do not wish to justify those who do not grasp the unspeakable gravity of the recent Doctrinal Note on the Virgin Mary, but I want to try to understand how it is possible that they do not grasp it, and I think that this inability to comprehend is not unrelated to the liturgical reform: how, indeed, can those “poor ones”, from whom the Offertory has been taken away, to whom the sacrificial meaning of the Holy Mass has been hidden, who have thereby lost the disposition to unite themselves to the Sacrifice, understand the Coredemption? The two things go together. Lex orandi, lex credendi.And the Offertory is one of the moments when the role of the Coredemptrix is most clearly revealed. In fact, moments of offering are repeated throughout the Mass, and each time, with Christ offering Himself, there is the Virgin Mary offering Him as well. What took place in the secrecy of the sacristy in a still hidden way (the preparation of Jesus-Host in the womb of the Virgin Mary and Her interior offering), then in a suggestive way during the priest’s first ascent to the altar (which may recall the Presentation in the Temple), is made explicit in the Offertory, when the priest uncovers the host and then offers it. Just as the Virgin Mary offers Her Son before the Sacrifice that He will then make of Himself, so the priest here offers the oblates, which he already designates as the “host”, the victim of the sacrifice (hanc immaculatam hostiam, calicem salutaris), before the Sacrifice itself, which he will then make present, in persona Christi, at the moment of consecration. The Offertory also corresponds to the moment when Christ Himself offers Himself to the Father, both at the Last Supper, where, on the eve of His sacrifice, He already offers His Body and Blood, and in His prayer in the Garden of Olives; and the Offertory culminates in the tremendous moment, when, after pronouncing, in the name of the Church, the prayer of offering to the Most Holy Trinity, the priest, speaking then in the name of Christ Himself, turns one last time to the faithful and invites them to pray with words reminiscent of those spoken by Jesus to the sleeping apostles: Orate fratres... Here, the faithful, recollected in their offering of themselves, which they unitewith the offering of Our Lord, instinctively bow their heads or close their eyes: they cannot meet the gaze of the priest who turns towards the faithful, for at this moment the priest is Christ, and to look at him at this solemn moment would seem irreverent. Then the priest collects himself in the secret prayer, which corresponds to Jesus’prayer in Gethsemane.
We now move on to the Canon, and after the Sanctus and the other prayers which, with wise insistence, reaffirm the offering, we arrive at the climax of the liturgy, which is the consecration, the central part, the most solemn, the most mysterious, the most silent, the most secret, the most essential part of the Mass: we are at Calvary. Here, it is Christ who acts. And, with and under Christ, the Blessed Virgin also acts, immolating Him and immolating Herself, in perfect conformity of will with Him. While during Christ’s Offering in Gethsemane, the Virgin Mary was physically remote, keeping everything in Her Immaculate Heart, She draws closer to Christ at the beginning of the Passion: the new Eve and the new Adam meet once again on the way to Calvary, and the Mother’s gaze meets that of the Son. Dearest Father, a liturgist would no doubt protest, but I like to see in the “holy candle”, which is lit at this moment of the Mass, the presence of the Virgin Mary throughout the Passion: I see first in this flame the gaze of the Mother on the Son carrying the cross (fourth of the Seven Sorrows); then, during the consecration, the presence of the Virgin Mary standing at the foot of the Cross (Stabat Mater, Fifth Sorrow). And this gaze of the Virgin Mary never grows dim: the candle remains lit until the end of the Canon, just as the Virgin Mary remains present until the end. And the faithful who fix their gaze on this flame penetrate more deeply into the mystery of Christ’s Passion and Death, for they enter into it through the gaze of the Mother, sympathizing with the unspeakable sorrow of Her Compassion; and they unite themselves more intimately with the Sacrifice of the Redeemer, for they unite themselves to it through the sacrifice of the Mother Coredemptrix. Ad Jesum per Mariam.
Regarding the Consecration, dearest Father, I dare not write anything, for any words would have the effect of diminishing the sacredness of the moment. You yourself, who perform it with fear and trembling every day, once said to me: “What happens at that moment on the altar, the Father alone knows.” As for us, the faithful, we remain kneeling, eyes closed, before the mystery. At the sound of the bell, we raise our eyes to adore Christ, whom the consecration has made truly present in Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity. We bow our heads, seized by the mystery. When the bell rings again, we raise our eyes once more to adore the Precious Blood. All is there. The very meaning of all things. One sole Holy Mass gives meaning to all of creation, material and spiritual, and to the entire order of Grace and Glory. We bow our heads again and surrender ourselves to the mystery. Thank you.
The Sacrifice has been accomplished. Jesus Christ has redeemed us. Through the merits of justice of His Passion and Death, He has acquired for us all the graces of our salvation. And the Virgin, through the merits of fittingness of Her Compassion, has also acquired for us, with Her Son and under Him, all the graces of our salvation; She has “co-redeemed” us. And now, the Virgin also dies, spiritually, while He dies truly. Felices sensus beatae Mariae Virginis qui sine morte meruerunt martyrii palmam sub cruce Domini. This is the Sixth Sorrow, “all has been accomplished” for Her too, the divine Maternity finds its form.
But the Virgin still has a mission, as Mother of the Church, which She gave birth to at the foot of the Cross: sole flame lit in the night of the faith of the whole Church, after Christ’s burial, She alone carries all the Faith and Hope of the Church. At Mass, we are at the moment of the Pater Noster, which the Virgin Mary prays for us during the Seventh Sorrow.
The priest gathers the species: this is the Resurrection. Here, the priest acts once again as a priest, and, as a man, he humbles himself once more before receiving the Body and Blood of Christ. Here, the Virgin Mary is the merciful Mother of the priest and the mediatrix of forgiveness. Then the priest distributes Communion, and there the universal Mediatrix of all graces intercedes for us, always unworthy of receiving the Body of Christ, while She Herself prepares our hearts so that we may receive Communion in an act oflove and perfect union – O Mother of compassion and mercy, Most Holy Virgin Mary, I, a miserable and unworthy sinner, turn to You with all my heart. You who are merciful and who assisted your beloved Son hanging on the Cross, deign in your goodness to assist me, a poor sinner, as well as all the faithful who receive the Most Holy Body of your Son. Strengthened by your grace, we will be able to receive Him worthily and fruitfully. Through the same Jesus Christ Our Lord. Amen.
Dearest Father, the link between Coredemption and the Holy Mass seems strikingly evident to me. I am well aware that so long as Coredemption has not been solemnly defined, we cannot speak of those who reject it as having lost the faith. However, denying the Virgin Mary this privilege, and the one that flows from it, that of universal mediation, seems to me to go in the same direction as the reform of the liturgy: the rejection of the Coredemption logically participates in a more general rejection of the Cross, of the sacerdotal spirit, and of the sacrificial meaning of the Mass.According to me, one cannot at once defend the ancient rite of the Holy Mass and at the same time bow down to this attack on the Coredemption. The ancient rite and the Coredemption are linked, just as the Incarnation-Redemption and the Divine Maternity-Coredemption are linked: God, by a single eternal decree, decided on the four mysteries, and to reject the Coredemption is as if the Virgin Mary did not fulfill what God had predestined for Her from all eternity. And this refusal goes hand in hand with the reduction-confusion concerning the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, the Holy Eucharist, and the meaning of the priesthood as well.
This is why, a few days ago, with a holy friend, we went on pilgrimage to Pagani, before the tomb of St. Alphonsus Maria de Liguori, to make reparation for the offenses committed against Our Lady, by loving Her through Her devoted saint. We renewed our consecration to the Virgin Mary ‒ body, heart, and soul ‒ in order to love more, through Her, the pierced Heart of Jesus, ever present in our tabernacles. We prayed for all the priests of the world: may the Holy Spirit infuse you with the gifts of counsel and fortitudenecessary, to a heroic degree, to defend the Truth, the Faith. Defending true devotion to the Virgin Mary will surely keep you firm and holy in the sacerdotal spirit. We asked the Blessed Virgin to give us, too, a little of Her spirit of oblation, so that we may offer with Her what we can for you priests, and in particular for the Roman Pontiff, the first priest of the visible Church; and finally, we asked Her, in this interminable crisis of our Holy Mother Church, never to let us lose hope against all hope, in silent supplication of Love before the tabernacles, so abandoned, like Jesus in the tomb, to the Seventh Sorrow.
May God bless you and keep you always, dearest Father.
Regina confessorum, ora pro nobis
Regina martyrum, ora pro nobis
