My dear parishioners,
Peace! On the feast of Our Lady of the Rosary, 7 October, 2019, Pope Francis established the feast of Our Lady of Loreto, to be observed each year on the 10th of December. At the same time Pope Francis proclaimed a Lauretan Jubilee Holy Year to run from 8 December, 2019 through 10 December, 2020. There are fifty-one invocations in the Litany of Loreto. The following is a reflection on the sixth invocation: Mother most pure, pray for us.
The Litany of Loreto invokes Our Lady, Saint Mary, as the Mother most pure. What does this invocation mean? Sacred Scripture repeatedly mentions pure/purity (44 citations). The Hebrew tahor and the Greek katharosare translated “pure” in physical, chemical, ceremonial and moral sense. The various verses give us some insight as to just how Saint Mary, Our Lady, is Mother most pure. “To the pure you show yourself pure, but to the devious you show yourself shrewd” (2 Samuel 22:27; Psalm 18:26). While so many of the passages of the Sacred Text refer primarily to the Lord God, Our Lady is, like us, made in the image of God no less. If the blood of Christ can make us pure, how much more her, from whom He received His very lifeblood (cf. 1 John 1:7)? “Your eyes are too pure to look on evil, and you cannot tolerate wrongdoing” (Habakkuk 1:13). The pure eyes of Our Lady beheld her Son on the Cross of Calvary and beheld the wickedness of the pagan Romans, as did the Eternal Father in Heaven (cf. John 19:25-27). “Wisdom is more active than all active things; and reaches everywhere, by reason of her purity” (Wisdom 7:24). The pure intercessory power of Our Lady’s prayer similarly extends from Heaven to Earth. When the Lord Jesus taught the Beatitudes, including “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God” (Matthew 5:8), He knew of the purity of His Sacred Heart and her Immaculate Heart. Saints Paul and Timothy taught about “love coming from a pure heart, a clear conscience, and sincere faith” (cf. 1 Timothy 1:5). Our Lady, the Blessed Virgin, lived the same no less. Saint Paul may have had Mary in mind when writing to Titus (1:15) “To the pure, all things are pure”? Surely Saint James knew of Mary’s purity and undefiled nature before he wrote his letter (1:27). Saint John, to whom Our Lady was entrusted in a special way, would have known of Mary’s hope and purity (cf. 1 John 3:3).
Saint Thomas Aquinas, OP (+1274) addresses purity in relation to the virtue of chastity (Summa TheologiaeII-II Q. 151, A. 4), citing Saint Augustine (+430) to the effect that “purity belongs properly to chastity.” Saint Mary, is our most pure mother in her desires, her deeds, her doctrine, her body, and her soul, by the grace of God and her cooperation. May we allow ourselves to be purified by the blood of Jesus!
Father John Arthur Orr