Compiled in 1969, Mary: Mother of the Church is a reference work of quotations and excerpts from Popes, from Blessed Pius IX to Pius XII, about the Blessed Mother and her role in salvation history, particularly as "Mother of the Church." This title was formally given to her at the closing of the third session of the Second Vatican Council by Pope St. Paul VI, at the ardent request of Blessed Stefan Cardinal Wyszyński. By it, we are called to recognize that Mary is an integral part of our salvation; devotion to her is not external to the common life of the Church, but rather one of its most important components, after devotion to the Blessed Sacrament and Sacred Liturgy.

The work is handily split into sections related to various aspects of Mariology, including Mary as "Universal Mediatrix," "Co-Redemptrix," and other facets of her monumental, integral role, ever more appreciated by the Church and drawn more and more heavily into its very life. She is the all-holy, ever-virgin Mother of God; she is the Gate of Heaven, the Tower of Ivory, the House of Gold, the Ark of the New Covenant, the New Eve, the Queen of the Universe, the Ray of the Noetic Sun, the Unshakeable Fortress, the Unvanquished Champion, and the Mother of the Church. Let us humbly approach and beseech her intercession, for wherever God her Son is, she is also.

Fr. Francis Ripley was born in 1912 in England. He studied in the London Jesuit novitiate before determining that his vocation was as a diocesan priest. His books include The Diary of a Small Town Priest and This Is the Faith (the latter is available from TAN).