Sermon about the Litany of the Blessed Virgin Mary

Introduction:

The month of May is the month of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Why? Because there are more feasts of the Mother of God than in any other month. It is a custom for the Society of St Pius X, in May, to recite every day the Litany of the Blessed Virgin Mary, called Litany of Loreto.

I will speak about the origin of this litany and about two of its invocations: Mirror of Justice and Vessel of Honor, so that we may appreciate them more and pray them more fruitfully.

1.      Origin of the Litany of Loreto

On each of the three days preceding the feast of the Ascension, the Church has a Mass followed by a procession outside, during which we sing the Litany of the Saints and beseech God to protect and bless our land, our fields and our harvests. These three days are called “Rogation Days”, from the Latin “rogare” “to beseech”. The word “Litany” has exactly the same meaning: it comes from the Greek “Litaneia” which means “Supplication”. A litany is a succession of supplications addressed to Our Lord Jesus, to the Blessed Virgin Mary, to St Joseph, to the Saints, based on the enumeration of Titles summarizing their greatness, glories and power. These titles are not from nowhere, but they are extracted from Holy Scriptures, theology, liturgy and popular devotion. So, whoever takes the time to reflect on the meaning of these titles, finds actually in the Litany a solid spiritual nourishment and a matter for meditation.

We call the Litany of the Blessed Virgin Mary, the Litany of Loreto. Why? We don’t know who composed the Litany, but we know from History that this prayer started in a place called Loreto, Italy, and from there spread all over the world. Loreto is a famous place because this is where is now the house of the Blessed Virgin Mary, her house which was in Nazareth, in which happened the Annunciation and the Incarnation of the Son of God. After the Pentecost, that house in Nazareth became a sanctuary for Catholics. The empress St Helen built a church over it and for centuries it was a place of pilgrimage. But after the Muslims took over the control of Holy Land and just a few days before the Crusaders were forced to leave their last stronghold at St John of Acre, in the night between the 09th and 10th May 1291, the Angels carried the house of the Blessed Virgin Mary out of Holy Land and transported it into the province of Dalmatia, where it stayed for 4 years and half. Then on December 10th 1294, the Angels moved again the house across the sea, to the province of Ancona in Italy in the property of a pious lady named Laureta. People started then calling the House: “the House of Laureta”. 10 months later, again the house was moved by the Angels into the place where it is now. A church was built and a new city named “Loreto” grew next to it. The story of these three transportations may sound unreal and like a fairy tale. But the Pope of that time, Clement VII, conducted a meticulous enquiry about it and the story was proved to be true, and was confirmed moreover by the many miracles which the Blessed Virgin Mary performed at Loreto.

Let us consider now the meaning of two Titles given to the Blessed Virgin Mary,

2.      “Mirror of Justice”

We call the Blessed Virgin Mary “Mirror of Justice”. The main property of a mirror is to reflect the image of what is in front of it. Justice is to give to God what due to Him and to men what belongs to them, according to Our Lord Jesus’ recommendation: “Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s; and to God, the things that are God’s” (Mt 22;21). But more widely in Holy Scripture, “justice” means “holiness”: St Joseph and the old man Simeon are described as “just men” in the Gospel. Also, “Justice” refers to Our Lord Jesus Himself whom the Prophet Malachy calls the “Sun of Justice” (Malac 4;2) because He fulfilled all justice offering to God a perfect satisfaction for our sins, and giving us the proper discernment between evil and good. So, when we call the blessed Virgin Mary “Mirror of Justice”, we mean that the virtue of justice, the holiness and the perfections of Our Lord Jesus are reflected in her soul as perfectly as someone’s face in a mirror. Are applied to the Blessed Virgin these words of the Book of Proverbs: “With me are riches and glory, glorious riches and justice” (Pr 8;18).

The reason for which God has created us is to divinize us, not in any manner, but to be conformed to Our Lord Jesus. St Paul told the Corinthians: “We, beholding the glory of the Lord with open face, are transformed into the same image from glory to glory, as by the Spirit of the Lord” (2 Cor 3;18). God could realize His plan perfectly in the soul of the Blessed Virgin Mary: the Original Sin never disfigured it, and then during her life on earth She never committed the slightest venial sin, not even the slightest imperfection. God’s grace could grow constantly and at exponential speed since each degree of grace received increases our capacity to receive more. The soul of the Blessed Virgin Mary is like a mirror reflecting the image of Our Lord Jesus, shining of the glory of Christ the Sun of Justice.

So, under this invocation “Mirror of Justice”, we refer to the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin, the fact that She has been conceived without Original Sin, and we refer to her impeccability, the fact that She never committed the slightest sin or imperfection. To the invocation Mirror of Justice we associate the Annunciation: when Our Lady told God through the Angel Gabriel “Be it done to me according to thy will”, She corresponded perfectly to God’s will: Her will was reflecting exactly God’s will, like a mirror. And this is what makes Our Lady be so beautiful.

In Italy, at Firenze, there is the basilica of the Annunciation, of the Servites Order dedicated to the Blessed Virgin Mary. In 1252, the Servites asked an artist, named Bartolomeo to paint the Annunciation at the moment when the Blessed Virgin tells the Archangel Gabriel: “Behold the handmaid of the Lord”. The artist started piously his work, but when he reached the time to paint the face of Our Lady, he felt very embarrassed: how to give Her face its true expression at that very solemn moment on which She was becoming the Mother of God? Bartolomeo fell suddenly in a deep sleep. When he woke up, he saw that a mysterious hand had painted the face of the Virgin. Hearing this, people came from all around to see the miracle and marvelled at the beauty of Our Lady’s face. Even the famous Michelangelo later admitted that this face was a Divine work, not a human one. This image attracted many people and Our Lady bestowed so many graces on the faithful that they nicknamed the picture “Our Lady, Mother of Graces”.

3.      Vessel of Honor

In the Litany, we call also Our Lady “Vessel of Honor”. Honor is the recognition of somebody’s excellence. A vessel is a container, which we fill up and from which we pour out. What gives a vessel its importance or value is its use, the value of its content: so, we speak of a vessel of honour to mean a vessel made for containing precious things, of a vessel of dishonour to mean a vessel made for containing dirty things.

We call Our Lady a Vessel of Honor because She conceived and carried in Her womb the most honourable being possible: God made man, Our Lord Jesus. The dignity of her Son is the foundation of her own greatness. In order to be the worthy mother of God, She was adorned with all supernatural gifts at a degree surpassing all the Saints and Angels: sanctifying grace, charisms and actual graces. As St Bernard said, Our Lady’s dignity reaches the borders of the Divinity: She is most venerable, worthy of honor. The Church attributes to Mary these words of the Ecclesiasticus: “In me is all grace of the way and of the truth and of knowledge, and of holy hope” (Eccli 24;25).

So, the invocation Vessel of Honor refers to Our Lady as the Mother of God, but also to Her as the Mediatrix of all graces. She is the Vessel from which all graces are given to men. To this invocation “Vessel of Honor” we associate the Visitation, when Mary being pregnant with Our Lord Jesus, visited St Elizabeth and brought graces to her family: St Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Ghost and received a special revelation of the mystery of Incarnation, St John the Baptist was purified from original sin in the womb of his mother and St Zachary was given the gift of prophecy. Our Lady still continues this role of giving Christ and his graces to everybody, and that is why the Church puts these words of the Ecclesiasticus on her lips: “Come over to me, all ye that desire me, and be filled with my fruits” (Eccli 24;26).

Our Blessed Mother is most worthy of all honor because she is the Mother of God, because she is full of grace and is the dispenser of all graces. Woe to those who tempt to dishonor Her! One day in 1793, during the French Revolution, in the town of Neuville, a group of people full of hatred against the Catholic religion entered the church and with a satanic zeal destroyed the statues and anything sacred inside. There was above the altar a beautiful statue of Our Lady of the Assumption. These criminals brought a ladder and one of them climbed it carrying an axe in order to break and pull down the statue. When he was at the top of the ladder, hanging on the trumpet of an angel at the feet of the statue with one hand, and with the other hand brandishing his axe in order to hit down the statue, while his miserable companions were already rejoicing at seeing Our Lady down in pieces, all the sudden the trumpet of the Angel broke and the man losing his balance fell down on the altar beneath and broke his backbone. He died three days later in terrible sufferings and in despair. As to the statue, it is still at its place in the church. Woe to those who dishonor the Mother of God!

Conclusion:

To conclude: let us look often every day at Our Lady Mirror of Justice so that we learn to reproduce Christ’s image in our own soul; let us venerate Our Lady Vessel of Honor by our daily, sincere and loving devotions so that we may receive from Her all the graces we need.