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 thirty-seventh invocation: Refuge of sinners, pray for us.
What does it mean to say that Saint Mary, the Blessed Virgin Mother of God is the “Refuge of sinners”? The Sacred Scriptures relate that there were six “cities of refuge” (Kadesh, Shechem, Hebron, Golan, Ramoth-Gilead, Bezer, cf. Numbers 35:6-13; Joshua 20:2, 7; 21:13-38). The Hebrew word miqlat is translated as “refuge” in the sense of asylum while the Hebrew word manos is also translated as “refuge” as a retreat, fleeing, escape. There are more than thirty references to “refuge” including an identification of the Lord God as a strong shield, refuge and savior (cf. 2 Samuel 22:3). In Psalm 9:9 the Lord God is identified as a “refuge for the poor.” Psalm 31:3 and Jeremiah 16:19 identify the Lord God as our strength, our refuge. Indeed we fly to the Lord God for refuge, holding fast to the hope set before us (cf. Hebrews 6:18). We are all sinners (cf. Romans 3:9, 23).
It is thought that Saint Peter found refuge in the house of Saint Mary after he had been feed from the prison gates of Herod Agrippa by an angel in the night (cf. Acts 12:1-19; Easton’s Bible Dictionary). I was exposed to “refuge” at a very early age, via the J. N. Ding Darling National Wildlife Refuge on Sanibel Island, Florida and the Pu’uhonua o Honaunau National Historical Park, Hawaii’s “City of Refuge” which had been used from 1550-1810AD, some sixty-three years before St Damien of Molokai (+1889) began his apostolic labors in that state. The French author Victor Hugo (+1885) has Quasimodo in The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1831) invoke for Esmeralda refuge under the law of sanctuary in the cathedral. Bl. Anthony Baldinucci, S.J. (+1717) would foster devotion to Our Lady, Saint Mary Refuge of Sinners, during the missions he preached in central Italy. Saint John Henry Newman (+1890) includes Our Lady, Refuge of Sinners in his Litany of the Seven Dolours. The Knights of Columbus Marian Prayer Program beginning in 2018 has highlighted Our Lady as Help of Persecuted Christians, depicting many gathered beneath her mantle, seeking and receiving safety and refuge with her.
When we flee to Saint Mary as our refuge it is because she herself has found safe-harbor in Heaven now with her Son. As she protected Him for His first nine months of human existence and throughout His infancy and youth, we seek her protection and safety. The Daughter of Zion, Our Lady, is no less our refuge in this valley of tears.
Father John Arthur Orr