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 eighth invocation: Mother inviolate, pray for us.
What does it mean to say that the Blessed Virgin, Saint Mary, is Mother inviolate? Our friends at the Oxford University Dictionary remind us that “inviolate” is a formal adjective which relates to that which “has been, or must be, respected and cannot be attacked or destroyed.” While our friends at the Cambridge Dictionary point out how “inviolate” refers to that which must not be “harmed or damaged” giving “sacrosanct” as a synonym. Merriam Webster simply states that “inviolate” means “not violated or profaned, especially pure.”
Saint Ambrose (+397) reminds us that “every soul free from sin and inviolate in its purity can receive the Word of God” (cited from the Little Office of the Blessed Virgin Mary). Saint Mary’s soul was and has remained without sin. Saint Augustine (+430) in his treatise Of Holy Virginity mentions the inviolate “virginal chastity” safeguarded by Mother Church. Our Lady, the Blessed Virgin Mary is a type of the Church. Saint Pius X (+1914) calls Our Lady “Destroyer of all heresies” in his Encyclical Letter Pascendi Dominici Gregis, 58. As Destroyer of all heresies Mary is not able to be destroyed, even when attacked. Venerable Pope Pius XII (+1958) in his Apostolic Constitution Munificentissimus Deus (1 November, 1950) uses the attribute integerrima translated “inviolate” or “most perfect” in reference to Mary’s divine maternity (MD, 40).
There have been those who would attack Our Lady, the Blessed Virgin Mary, and her prerogatives. The idolatrous errors of the Pachamama (fertility goddess of the indigenous people of the Andes) in our day are said to have been preceded by Ebionism, Helvidianism, Valentinianism, Collyridianism, and Nestorianism with their various forms of Christological errors.
Saint Mary, the Blessed Virgin, was not violated by Original Sin. She was not violated by personal sin. She was not violated by anyone, even as she saw her Son violated by the Roman scourge and nail, cross and spear, although spiritually her heart was pierced as prophesied by Simeon (Luke 2:35) as she beheld the Crucified. We who are fallen, who have not been preserved inviolate seek her intercession that we might not be destroyed, harmed or damaged beyond repair. As God’s grace makes Our Lady holy, so too may we be made holy by God’s grace. Through Mary’s intercession, God’s grace can preserve us from the attacks of sin and Satan. We fly to Mary’s protection as children seek comfort from their mothers. Mary is our mother in the order of grace: ecce mater tua(John 19:27).
Father John Arthur Orr