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-five invocations in the Litany of Loreto. The following is a reflection on the fifty-third invocation: Mother of Mercy, pray for us.
Pope Francis (b. 1936) has added three new invocations to the Litany in 2020: Mater Misericordiae, Mater Spei, Solacium migrantium. Saint John Paul II (+2005) added “Mother of the Church” in 1980 and “Queen of Families” in 1995. Bl Pius IX (+1878) added “Queen conceived without original sin” in 1854. Leo XIII (+1903) added “Queen of the most holy Rosary” in 1883. Benedict XV (+1922) added “Queen of peace” in 1917. Pius XII (+1958) added “Queen assumed into Heaven in 1950.
There are more than four hundred verses of Sacred Scripture having to do with “mercy.” For example, Psalms 40, 51, 57, 86, 103, 119, 123, 136, 145 beg and proclaim God’s mercy. The Hebrew word chanan and the Greek word eleeo are both translated as mercy. Mercy is an essential quality of God and Our Lady is the Mother of God, hence the Mother of Mercy. Jesus Christ, born of Saint Mary in the fullness of time in Bethlehem boldly calls us all to “Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful” (Luke 6:36). The Lord is merciful and we are made in His image, as is Our Lady. She is our Mother in the order of grace and she too is merciful, calling us to be merciful no less.
Saint Maria Faustina Kowalska (+1938) is called an “Apostle of Divine Mercy” and her diary Divine Mercy in my soul has helped many to God’s Mercy. Our Lady, Mother of Mercy always encouraged St Faustina to pray (cf. Diary, 11, 25, 325, 330).
Saint John Paul II published an encyclical on the mercy of God (Dives in Misericordia, 30 November, 1980) which identifies Our Lady as the Mother of Mercy who stood at the foot of the Cross (DM, 10). When Pope Francis called a Holy Year of Mercy (8 December, 2015- 20 November, 2016) in his Bull of Indiction, Misericordiae Vultus (11 April, 20015) he invokes Our Lady as Mother of Mercy, of the Crucified and Risen One, of the Son of God (MV, 24). The ancient Salve Regina sung after Compline or Night Prayer and after the Holy Rosary includes an invocation of Saint Mary as “Mother of Mercy.” The invocation “Mother of Mercy” is to appear in the Litany after “Mother of the Church” and before “Mother of Divine Grace.” In sacred art, images of Our Lady, Mother of Mercy, often depict Saint Mary with the faithful gathered beneath her mantle (e.g. Francisco de Zurbaran +1664; Fabrizio Diomedi b. 1976).
Father John Arthur Orr