The good
news was communicated on Saturday, June 20, 2020—the Memorial of the Immaculate
Heart of the Blessed Virgin Mary: Pope Francis approved three titles for Our
Lady to be added to the Litany of Loreto, which is also known as the Litany of
the Blessed Virgin Mary.
What had
the Roman Pontiff done? Like some of his Predecessors, the Holy Father made an
insertion in the Litany, in this case a trio of invocations referring to the
Mother of God that he holds to be especially significant to, and necessary for,
the contemporary disciples of Jesus Christ.
In her June
20, 2020 article entitled, “Pope Francis adds tree titles to the Catholic litany
of the Blessed Virgin Mary,” Hannah Brockhaus of the Catholic News Agency
wrote: “In a June 20 letter to the presidents of bishops’ conferences,
Cardinal Robert Sarah, prefect of the Congregation for the Divine Liturgy and
the Discipline of the Sacraments, said the invocations ‘Mater misericordiae,’
‘Mater spei,’ and ‘Solacium migrantium’ should be inserted in the Marian
litany.”
Miss Brockhaus continued: “In his letter,
Cardinal Sarah noted where each invocation should be added, using the Latin
formulations. ‘Mater misericordiae,’ which means, ‘Mother of mercy,’ should be
placed after ‘Mater Ecclesiae.’
“’Mater spei,’ which means ‘Mother of hope,’
should follow ‘Mater divinae gratiae,’ and ‘Solacium migrantium,’ which means
‘Comfort of migrants,’ should follow ‘Refugium peccatorum.’”
Cardinal
Sarah offered an insight into the love for Our Lady and the ongoing confidence
in her intercession that Christians profess. “The titles and invocations which Christian piety has
reserved for the Virgin Mary over the course of the centuries, as the
privileged and sure way to an encounter with Christ, are innumerable. Even in
this present moment which is marked by feelings of uncertainty and trepidation,
devout recourse to her, which is full of affection and trust, is deeply felt by
the People of God.”
Mater
Misericordiae/Mother of Mercy
The word mercy
is often on the lips of the sincere friends of Jesus. How can we stand before
the Almighty unless we are immersed in His mercy? No one of us can possibly
think himself worthy of the Lord and His abundant, fail proof grace. God’s Mercy
showered upon us is indispensable if we are to enter Paradise. We must beg Our
Lord for that precious mercy.
Our Lady is the Mother of Mercy. The Son of
God—the Second Person of the Most Blessed Trinity—became flesh in her virginal
womb. He “Who knew no sin” (2 Corinthians 5:21) inhabited the undefiled body of
her who never experienced sin. Mary willingly indicates the way to her Divine
Son. She exhorted the servants at the Wedding Feast of Cana—and, by extension,
each of us—to obey Him (see Saint John 2:5).
In The Mother of the Savior and
Our Interior Life (Saint Louis: B.
Herder Book Company, 1948), Father Reginald Garrigou-Lagrange, O.P.
(1877-1964), addressed the subject of Our Lady as the Mother of Mercy.
“The title of Mother of Mercy is one of Mary’s greatest. Mercy is not the same
thing as mere emotional pity. Mercy is in the will, pity is but a good
inclination of the sensibility. Pity, which does not exist in God Who is a pure
spirit, leads us to suffer in unison with our neighbor as if we felt his
suffering in ourselves. It is a good inclination but usually a timid one, being
accompanied by fear of harm to ourselves and often helpless to render effective
aid.” (Page 258)
Our Lady, like Jesus, offers to us a
pattern for our efforts to be merciful. In fact, the Son and the Mother are the
template for our attempts to pardon others. “She teaches us, though, that if
mercy is not justice it is not opposed to it as injustice is, but unites itself
to it and goes beyond it: most of all in pardoning, for to pardon is to go
beyond what is demanded by justice in forgiving an offense.” (Page 259)
Jesus
is Mercy Incarnate. Moreover, Mary presents her Son to us. We are overwhelmed
by the merciful gift that is Christ. And once we have enjoyed the treasure, the
“pearl of great price” (Saint Matthew 13:46) that is Jesus, we are to share Him
with our brothers and sisters far and wide.
Father Garrigou-Lagrange explained
that Our Mother of Mercy “reminds us too that God often gives us His mercy more
than we need, more than He is obliged in justice to Himself to give; that He
gives us more than we merit—the grace of Holy Communion, for example, which is
not merited.” (Page 260)
Mater
Spei/Mother of Hope
One of the earliest lessons of a child is that life
can be difficult. Obstacles exist and cannot be denied. Mary’s example demonstrates
to us that with the Lord’s strength, challenges can be overcome.
The Mother of Jesus gives hope and solace to
her wayfaring children. To contemplate Mary, who is in Heaven in both body and
soul, is to see the faultless image and the beginning of the Church as the
Church desires, hopes and truly will be. The influence on earth of Our Lady,
who is a sign of hope and comfort to the People of God as they progress along
the way to Everlasting Life, will continue until the Second Coming of her
Divine Son.
The dogma of the Assumption inspires hope in
the disciples of the Savior. We are able to know the joys of unending life in
Paradise. If we strive for the fidelity that marked the earthly days of the
Virgin, then we also will one day partake both in soul and body of the Beatific
Vision that she now possesses. Where Jesus and Mary are now, we hope to follow.
The long anticipation of Israel rested with
Mary. The Chosen People had spent centuries preparing their hearts for the Messiah.
During her Advent of nine months, Our Lady shouldered the hopes of Zion.
Saint
Peter exhorted his listeners: “(B)ut
in your hearts reverence Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to make a defense
to anyone who calls you to account for the hope that is in you, yet do it with
gentleness and reverence.” (1 Saint Peter 3:15)
Solacium
Migrantium/Comfort of Migrants
From the first days of his Pontificate, Pope
Francis, in harmony with the Church’s pastors of old, has recognized the
dignity of those who suffer. In that category are migrants.
A migrant is one who moves from one location
to another, often to look for employment or a better living situation. Given
the largescale wars and persecutions in various parts of the world, the number
of migrants is many, even out of control in some areas.
As Our Lady comforts the afflicted, so she
comforts migrants, who are also afflicted in a most particular way. Migrants
can and do encounter desolation, hostility and outright prejudice.
In his Urbi
et Orbi message of Christmas Day during 2019, Pope Francis concluded his
address thus: “May Emmanuel bring light to all the suffering members of our
human family. May He soften our often stony and self-centered hearts, and make
them channels of His love. May He bring His smile, through our poor faces, to
all the children of the world: to those who are abandoned and those who suffer
violence. Through our frail hands, may He clothe those who have nothing to
wear, give bread to the hungry and heal the sick. Through our friendship, such
as it is, may He draw close to the elderly and the lonely, to migrants and the
marginalized. On this joyful Christmas Day, may He bring his tenderness to all
and brighten the darkness of this world.”
As always, the Litany of Loreto provides a
fitting prayer in which to honor Mary and from which we may spring to new
heights of holiness. Our Lady, who is rightly venerated via these new epithets
in her Litany as well as those used before, will do her part in leading us to
more authentic conformity to her Son, Jesus Christ.
Now, we must do ours.
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