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 forty-eighth invocation: Queen conceived without original sin, pray for us.
There are thirteen various forms of Our Lady’s Queenship considered in the Litany of Loreto. Here we consider specifically what it means to say that Saint Mary, the Blessed Virgin Mother of God is the “Queen conceived without original sin.” There are several facets to this title of Our Lady: her Queenship, her Immaculate Conception, and the doctrine of original sin.
Before Saint Mary would become the Mother of God, the Lord prepared a place for Himself. Blessed Pius IX (+1878) taught that Our Lady enjoyed a “singular grace and privilege” to be “preserved free from all stain of original sin” in his Apostolic Constitution Ineffabilis Deus (8 December, 1854). The Second Vatican Council (1962-1965) recognized both Our Lady’s Immaculate Conception and the doctrine of original sin from which she was preserved in LG, 55, 59.
The doctrine of original sin is found in Sacred Scripture: “there is no righteous man on Earth who does good and never sins” (Ecclesiastes 7:2); “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23); “Just as sin came into the world through one man, and death came through sin, so death spread to all because all have sinned (Romans 5:12); Genesis 3:1-24. Saint Augustine (+430; On the Grace of Christ, and on Original Sin), Saint Anselm (+1109; Cur Deus Homo, On the Virginal Conception and on Original Sin), and Saint Thomas Aquinas, OP (+1274; Summa Theologiae I-II Q. 81-83) all treat the doctrine of original sin in their writings. The Second Council of Orange (529) and the Council of Trent (1545-1563: Sessions V-VI); and Pius XII in Humani Generis 12 August, 1950) 2, 26, 37 all address the doctrine of original sin. Original sin is the privation of sanctifying grace in consequence of Adam’s sin. Original sin is transmitted with human nature by propagation, not by imitation. Among the sad consequences of original sin are: suffering, death, ignorance and a tendency to sin which is called concupiscence (cf. Catechism of the Catholic Church, 418-419).
For us who were both conceived and born in original sin, we have a remedy in Baptism and Penance both of which apply the grace of redemption won by the death and resurrection of Christ Jesus. When we are faithful to our Baptism and are well confessed we have all the grace we need to combat concupiscence, with Saint Mary as our Queen. She intercedes for us sinners here below, now and at the hour of our death.
Father John Arthur Orr