All booklets are published thanks to the generosity of the supporters of the Catholic Truth Society
INTRODUCTION
The Mother of the Redeemer has a precise place in the plan of salvation, for “when the time had fully come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons.” (Ga 4:4-6)
These words of the Apostle Paul celebrate together the love of the Father, the mission of the Son, the gift of the Spirit, the role of the woman from whom the Redeemer was born, and our own divine filiation. In the Incarnation, the Church encounters Christ and Mary indissolubly joined: he who is the Church’s Lord and Head and she who, uttering the first fiat of the New Covenant, prefigures the Church’s condition as spouse and mother.
Strengthened by the presence of Christ (Mt 28:20), the Church journeys through time towards the consummation of the ages and goes to meet the Lord who comes. But on this journey she proceeds along the path already trodden by the Virgin Mary, who “advanced in her pilgrimage of faith, and loyally persevered in her union with her Son unto the cross.”
(Adapted from Redemptoris Mater, “The Mother of the Redeemer,” 1, 2, Pope John Paul II, 1987)
STANDARD MARIAN PRAYERS
Hail Mary
The first line is the Salutation of the Archangel Gabriel to the Blessed Virgin Mary the future mother of Jesus. The second and third lines are the words of Elizabeth, her cousin; the addition of the word ‘Jesus’ is attributed to Pope Urban IV (1261-64), while the concluding petition reached its present form in 1514.
Ave María, gratia plena, Dóminus tecum; benedícta tu in muliéribus, et benedíctus fructus ventris tui, Iesus.
Sancta Maria, Mater Dei, ora pro nobis peccatoribus, nunc et in hora mortis nostræ. Amen.
Hail Mary, full of grace; the Lord is with thee: blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus.
Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death. Amen.
Morning Offering Prayer
This Morning Offering prayer is said by many Catholics throughout the world, each morning, to fulfil the request of Our Lady of Fatima for the sanctification of daily duties as a condition for the conversion of all people.
O My God, in union with the Immaculate Heart of Mary (here kiss your Brown Scapular), I offer Thee the Precious Blood of Jesus from all the altars throughout the world, joining with it the offering of my every thought, word and action of this day.
O My Jesus, I desire today to gain every indulgence and merit I can and I offer them, together with myself, to Mary Immaculate that she may best apply them to the interests of Thy most Sacred Heart. Precious Blood of Jesus, save us! Immaculate Heart of Mary, pray for us! Sacred Heart of Jesus, Have mercy on us!
Consecration to the Immaculate Heart of Mary
Virgin Mary, Mother of God and our Mother, to your Immaculate Heart we consecrate ourselves, in an act of total entrustment to the Lord. By you we will be led to Christ. By Him and with Him we will be led to the Father.
PRAYERS FROM THE MISSAL AND BREVIARY
The Holy Family of Jesus, Mary and Joseph
This feast commemorates the unity and love of Jesus, Mary his mother and Joseph, his foster father, as lived out in Bethlehem, Egypt, and Nazareth, and promotes the life they lived as the ideal of family life which all Christian families should seek to emulate. It is celebrated on the Sunday within the Octave of the Nativity of the Lord, or, if there is no Sunday on 30 December.
Collect from the Missal
O God, who were pleased to give us the shining example of the Holy Family, graciously grant that we may imitate them in practising the virtues of family life and in the bonds of charity, and so, in the joy of your house, delight one day in eternal rewards. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.
Concluding Prayer from the Liturgy of the Hours God our Father, in the Holy Family of Nazareth you have given us the true model of a Christian home. Grant that by following Jesus, Mary and Joseph in their love for each other and in the example of their family life we may come to your home of peace and joy.
1 January – Solemnity of Mary, the Holy Mother of God
This feast of the Blessed Virgin Mary, the Theotokos, or Mother of God, is held on the first day of the New Year, the Octave day of Christmas. It celebrates Mary’s motherhood of Jesus, and the term Theotokos or God-bearer was adopted by the First Council of Ephesus (431), in order to safeguard the Divinity and humanity of Christ.
Collect from the Missal
O God, who through the fruitful virginity of Blessed Mary bestowed on the human race the grace of eternal salvation, grant, we pray, that we may experience the intercession of her, through whom we were found worthy to receive the author of life, our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son.
THE ROSARY OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY
Introduction
The Rosary of the Virgin Mary, which gradually took shape in the second millennium under the guidance of the Spirit of God, is a prayer loved by countless Saints and encouraged by the Magisterium. Simple yet profound, it still remains a prayer of great significance, destined to bring forth a harvest of holiness, yet it blends easily into the spiritual journey of the Christian life.
The Rosary, though clearly Marian in character, is at heart a Christocentric prayer. In the sobriety of its elements, it has all the depth of the Gospel message in its entirety, of which it can be said to be a compendium. It is an echo of the prayer of Mary, her perennial Magnificat for the work of the redemptive Incarnation which began in her virginal womb.
With the Rosary, the Christian people sits in the school of Mary and is led to contemplate the beauty on the face of Christ and to experience the depths of his love. Through the Rosary the faithful receive abundant grace, as though from the very hands of the Mother of the Redeemer.
(Adapted from the Apostolic Letter, Rosarium Virginis Mariæ, “The Rosary of the Virgin Mary,” Pope John Paul II, 2002)
The Holy Rosary
“The Rosary is a gospel prayer. The orderly and gradual unfolding of the Rosary reflects the very way in which the Word of God, mercifully entering into human affairs, brought about redemption.” (Pope Paul VI, Marialis Cultus, 1974, n. 44)
The Holy Rosary is now, following the introduction of five new “luminous” mysteries by Pope John Paul II in 2002, composed of twenty “decades”, each comprising the Our Father, ten Hail Marys, and a Glory Be, recited in honour of some mystery in the life of Our Lord or his Blessed Mother. We pray to practise the virtue specially taught by that mystery, and the Holy Rosary is both meditation and supplication, since the prayers are said while the mind and heart dwell on particular incidents of the life and death of our Lord Jesus Christ and his mother, Mary.
The Mysteries of the Rosary
These incidents in the lives of Jesus and Mary are set out in twenty named “mysteries”. These are presented in four groups of five “mysteries” each, remembering many significant events from the Gospels and of our salvation story. (See list on pp. 43-44)
Thus there are five “Joyful Mysteries” marked by the joy radiating from the event of the Incarnation, recalling the infancy and hidden ministry of Jesus. There are five “Mysteries of Light” (or “Luminous Mysteries”), recalling
THE LITANY OF LORETO
The Litany of Loreto arose at the sanctuary of Loreto, which is situated near Ancona in Italy. It is believed that the house where the Blessed Virgin was born, and where the Angel Gabriel announced the Incarnation of the Word to her, is now situated there. According to pious tradition, the Holy House was transported by angels from the Holy Land to Italy in the late thirteenth century. Existing accounts of this event date from the late fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries. The account of the translation of the Holy House has been accepted as worthy of belief by numerous Popes, and it was visited by saints including Francis Xavier, Francis Borgia, Charles Borromeo, and Francis de Sales. The house now stands inside a Basilica which was built around it.
The Litany of Loreto follows the usual form for litanies, beginning with Kyrie Eleison, and then invocations of the persons of the Holy Trinity. The Blessed Virgin is then addressed as Mother, Virgin, and Queen, as well as with a variety of titles, expressing her qualities and power of intercession. Most of the titles given to Our Lady in the Litany find an echo in the works of the Fathers of the early Church. There were many litanies in use in the sixteenth century, but they were gradually superseded by the Litany of Loreto, following approval by Pope Sixtus V in 1587.
The Feast of Our Lady of Loreto is celebrated in certain dioceses on 10 December, and in 1920 Pope Benedict XV declared Our Lady of Loreto the patroness of airmen. Over time invocations have been added to the Litany, with the most recent being “Queen of the family,” at the instigation of Pope John Paul II, and both he and Pope Benedict XVI have visited the shrine during their pontificates.
Litaniæ Lauretanæ
Litany of Loreto Kyrie, eleison.
Christe, eleison. Kyrie, eleison. Christe, audi nos.
Christe, exaudi nos. Pater de cælis, Deus, miserere nobis.
Fili, Redemptor mundi, Deus,
Spiritus Sancte, Deus, Sancta Trinitas, unus Deus, Sancta Maria, ora pro nobis.
Sancta Dei Genetrix, Sancta Virgo virginum, Mater Christi, Mater Ecclesiae, Mater Misericordiae,
Lord, have mercy.
Christ, have mercy.
Lord, have mercy. Christ, hear us.
Christ, graciously hear us. God the Father of heaven, have mercy upon us.
God the Son, Redeemer of the world, God the Holy Spirit, Holy Trinity, one God, Holy Mary, pray for us.
Holy Mother of God, Holy Virgin of virgins, Mother of Christ, Mother of the Church Mother of Mercy,
PRAYERS FROM ENGLISH SOURCES
England as the Dowry of Mary
During the Medieval period, England was known as the Dowry of Mary because of the particularly strong devotion to Our Lady which existed in the country. The word Dowry carries the idea of a special endowment or gift. By the fourteenth century, Thomas Arundel (1353-1414), the Archbishop of Canterbury could say: “We the English being the servants of her special inheritance and her own dowry, as we are commonly called, ought to surpass others in the warmth of our praise and devotion (to the Blessed Virgin Mary).”
W alsingham – 1061
According to the text of the Pynson Ballad (c. 1485), the Shrine of Our Lady at Walsingham was established by Richeldis de Faverches in 1061. She had prayed to Our Lady and offered to undertake some special work in her honour. In answer, she was asked by the Blessed Virgin to build a replica at Walsingham of the Holy House in Nazareth where the Annunciation took place. The last verse of the Pynson Ballad is a prayer to Mary:
s t s imon s to C k
Flos Carmeli, Flower of Carmel
Flos Carmeli, (“Flower of Carmel”) is both a hymn and a prayer and is said to have been composed by St Simon Stock (c. 1165 – 1265). The Carmelite Order traces back its origins to a group of hermits who lived on Mt Carmel in the Holy Land in the twelfth century.
Flower of Carmel, Tall vine blossom laden; Splendour of heaven, Childbearing yet maiden. None equals thee.
Mother so tender, Who no man didst know, On Carmel’s children Thy favours bestow.
Star of the Sea.
Strong stem of Jesse, Who bore one bright flower, Be ever near us And guard us each hour, who serve thee here.
Per incerta prudens
consilium per adversa iuge solatium largiaris.
Mater dulcis Carmeli domina, plebem tuam reple lætitia qua bearis.
Paradisi clavis et ianua, fac nos duci quo, Mater, gloria coronaris. Amen. (Alleluia.)
Purest of lilies, That flowers among thorns, Bring help to the true heart That in weakness turns and trusts in thee.
Strongest of armour, We trust in thy might: Under thy mantle, Hard press’d in the fight, we call to thee.
Our way uncertain, Surrounded by foes, Unfailing counsel You give to those who turn to thee.
O gentle Mother
Who in Carmel reigns, Share with your servants That gladness you gained and now enjoy. Hail, Gate of Heaven, With glory now crowned, Bring us to safety
Where thy Son is found, true joy to see. Amen. (Alleluia.)
A fourteenth century English Benedictine monk, Thomas of Elmham, composed a Marian variation on the Te Deum, which is interesting because of the way it refers to England as Our Lady’s Dowry:
Te ergo quæsumus
Angligenis subveni quos pro Dote proprio defendisti … Salvum fac populum tuum, Domina, et a mortis peste Dotem tuam libera.
We therefore pray thee help the English people, whom thou hast defended as thine own Dowry … Save, Lady, thy people, and deliver thy Dowry from the curse of death.
Adam lay y-bounden
Adam lay y-bounden is an anonymous fifteenth century work which speaks of the Fall of Man, but also of the Redemption by Christ who was born of Mary.
Adam lay y-bounden, Bounden in a bond; Four thousand winter, Thought he not too long; And all was for an apple, An apple that he took. As clerkes finden written In their book.
Ne had the apple taken been, The apple taken been,
PRAYERS FROM APPROVED
MARIAN APPARITIONS
g uadalupe
Our Lady appeared to St Juan Diego at Tepeyac hill, near Mexico city, several times in 1531 and left the miraculous image of Guadalupe imprinted on his cloak.
Pope Saint Pius X’s Prayer to Our Lady of Guadalupe
Our Lady of Guadalupe, Mystical Rose, make intercession for the holy Church, protect the Sovereign Pontiff, help all those who invoke thee in their necessities, and since thou art the ever Virgin Mary and Mother of the true God, obtain for us from thy most holy Son the grace of keeping our faith, sweet hope in the midst of the bitterness of life, burning charity and the precious gift of final perseverance. Amen.
R ue du B a C
Our Lady appeared several times to St Catherine Labouré at the Rue du Bac convent in Paris, France, in 1830, asking her to have struck a medal dedicated to her Immaculate Conception.
Prayer on the Miraculous Medal
O Mary, conceived without sin, pray for us who have recourse to thee!
l ou R des
Our Lady appeared to St Bernadette Soubirous at Lourdes, France, in 1858, with a message of prayer and penance. She revealed the miraculous spring at the Grotto, which has been a source of healing for many.
Pope John Paul II –Prayer at the Lourdes Grotto in the Vatican Gardens
O blessed Virgin, Mother of God, Mother of Christ, Mother of the Church, look upon us mercifully at this hour. Faithful Virgin, pray for us.
Teach us to believe as you believed. Make our faith in God, in Christ, in the Church, always to be serene, courageous, strong, and generous. Mother worthy of love. Mother of faithful love, pray for us.
Teach us to love God and our brothers and sisters as you loved them: make our love for others to be always patient, kindly, and respectful.
Cause of our joy, pray for us.
Teach us to be able to grasp, in faith, the paradox of Christian joy,
OTHER MARIAN PRAYERS AND DEVOTIONS
Sub tuum præsidium – We Fly to Thy Protection
This is the Church’s oldest extant prayer to Our Lady, and has been found on a third century Greek papyrus
Sub tuum præsidium confugimus, Sancta Dei Genetrix, nostras deprecationes ne despicias in necessitatibus nostris, sed a periculis cunctis libera nos semper, Virgo gloriosa et benedicta. Amen.
We fly to thy protection, O holy Mother of God, despise not our petitions in our necessities, but deliver us always from all dangers, O glorious and blessed Virgin. Amen.
Sancta Maria, Succurre Miseris
This prayer was composed by Fulbert, an early eleventh century Bishop of Chartres in France. Chartres is one of the most beautiful of the medieval Cathedrals, and is said to hold the Sancta Camisa, a garment worn by the Blessed Virgin at Christ’s birth.
Sancta Maria, succurre miseris, iuva pusillanimes, refove flebiles, ora pro populo, interveni pro clero, intercede pro devoto femineo sexu: sentiant omnes tuum iuvamen, quiccumque celebrant tuam sanctam commemorationem.
Holy Mary, hasten to the aid of the afflicted, support the fainthearted, comfort the sorrowful, pray for your people, intercede on behalf of the clergy, intercede for devout women; may all who celebrate your holy memory come to know your assistance.
s aint F R an C is o F a ssisi (1181/82-1226)
Hail Lady, Holy Queen, Holy Mary Mother of God, who art the Virgin made Church and the One elect by the Most Holy Father of Heaven, whom He consecrated with His Most Holy beloved Son and with the Holy Spirit, the Paraclete; Thou in whom was and is all fullness of grace and every good.
Hail His Palace;
Hail His Tabernacle;
Hail His Home.
Hail His Vestment;
Hail His Handmaid;
Hail His Mother
MARIAN HYMNS
Ave Maris Stella – Hail Thou Star of Ocean
Ave Maris Stella is a popular liturgical hymn dating back to at least the 9th century. The English translation is by Edward Caswall, (1814-1878), a convert Anglican clergyman who became an Oratorian.
Ave maris stella, Dei Mater alma,
Atque semper Virgo, Felix cæli porta.
Sumens illud Ave
Gabrielis ore,
Funda nos in pace, Mutans Hevæ nomen.
Solve vincla reis, Profer lumen cæcis: Mala nostra pelle, Bona cuncta posce.
Monstra t(e) esse matrem:
Sumat per te preces, Qui pro nobis natus, Tulit esse tuus.
Virgo singularis, Inter omnes mitis,
Hail thou star of ocean
Portal of the sky
Ever virgin Mother
Of the Lord Most High
O! by Gabriel’s Ave
Uttered long ago, Eva’s name reversing, Established peace below
Break the captives’ fetters, Light on blindness pour, All our ills expelling, Every bliss implore
Show thyself a Mother, Offer Him our sighs, Who for us incarnate
Did not thee despise
Virgin of all virgins
To thy shelter take us,
MARY IN THE BIBLE
The following Biblical passages relate to Our Lady. Those from the Old Testament indicate that Mary can be seen as being prefigured, in the prophetic sense, as the mother of the Redeemer and Messiah, while those from the New Testament show how her life with Christ unfolded.
o ld t estament passages
Genesis 3:9-15 – the Protoevangelium – the Promise of the Redeemer
After the Fall of Adam and Eve, God punished the devil and promised that the offspring of the woman, Jesus, the New Adam, son of Mary, the New Eve, would crush the head of Satan. This is the Protoevangelium, the “first Gospel,” the promise of the Redeemer to come in the fullness of time.
Genesis 28:12-15 – Jacob’s Ladder as a type of Mary
Just as Jacob saw in a vision a ladder extending from earth to heaven, so is Mary the ladder by which Jesus descended to earth, taking on human nature, as well as being the way, as the Mediatrix of all graces, by which through her intercession we receive grace.
Exodus 3:1-4 – The Burning Bush as a type of Mary
Just as Moses saw the bush burning, but it was not consumed, so Mary’s virginity remained whole before, during and after Christ’s birth, as she became a mother in a miraculous way.
Exodus 40:20 – the Ark of the Covenant as a type of Mary
Just as the Ark contained the tablets of the Mosaic Law, so Mary bore the heir to this Law, Jesus Christ, and just as the Ark was covered inside and out with gold, so Mary, the new Ark of the Covenant, shone with the golden brilliance of a matchless purity.
Numbers 17 – Aaron’s rod as a type of Mary
Just as Aaron’s rod sprouted miraculously, giving forth buds, blossoms and fruit, so Mary brought forth Christ without loss of her virginity and free from pain, as the temple of the Holy Spirit.
Judges 6:36-40 – Gideon’s Fleece as a type of Mary
Just as Gideon’s fleece was wet while the ground was dry around it on the first morning, while it was dry and the ground wet the next day, so firstly the Son of God descended from heaven into her womb, and secondly, Mary was full of grace from her conception while the rest of humanity was affected by original sin.
