After contemplating the mysteries of the life of Jesus and Our Lady with the Our Father and the Hail Mary, we end the Holy Rosary with the Litany of the Laurel and some petitions that vary according to regions, families or personal piety.
The origin of the litanies goes back to the first centuries of Christianity. They were short prayers, dialogued between the ministers of worship and the faithful people, and had a special character of invocation to divine mercy. They were recited during Mass and, more especially, in processions. At first they were addressed to the Lord, but very soon invocations to the Virgin and the saints also appeared. The first fruits of the Marian litanies are the loving eulogies of Christians to their Heavenly Mother and the expressions of admiration of the Holy Fathers, especially in the East.
Those that are currently recited in the Rosary began to be solemnly sung in the Sanctuary of Loreto (from which the name "Litany of Loreto" derives) around the year 1500, but they reflect a very ancient tradition. From there they spread to the whole Church.
Each title is an ejaculation full of love that we address to the Virgin and shows us an aspect of the richness of Mary's soul. These invocations are grouped according to the principal Marian truths: divine maternity, perpetual virginity, mediation, universal kingship, and exemplarity and way for all her children. These acclamations are expressed in the first invocations, and are developed below. Thus, when we invoke her as Sancta Dei Genitrix, we explicitly profess maternity; when we praise her as Virgo virginum, we recognize her perpetual virginity, which makes her Virgin among virgins; when we invoke her with the title Mater Christi, we profess her intimate and indissoluble union with Christ, true Mediator and true King, and we recognize her, therefore, as Queen and mediator....
The Virgin is Mother of God and our Mother, and this is the supreme title with which we honor her and the foundation of all others. Because she is the Mother of Christ, Mother of the Creator and of the Savior, she is the Mother of the Church, of divine grace, she is the Mother most pure and most chaste, intact, incorrupt, immaculate, worthy of being loved and admired.
In the litanies, various aspects of Mary's perpetual virginity are collected: she is the most prudent Virgin, worthy of veneration, worthy of praise, powerful, clement, faithful?
The Mother of God, Mediatrix in Christ11 between God and mankind, continually lavishes herself in our service. She is also presented to us under three very beautiful symbols and other aspects of her universal mediation: the Virgin Mary is the new Ark of the Covenant, the Gate of Heaven through which we reach God, the Morning Star that always allows us to orient ourselves at any moment of life, the Health of the sick, the Refuge of sinners (so many times we have had to have recourse to her!), the Consoler of the afflicted, the Help of Christians....
Mary is Queen of all creation, of heaven and earth, because she is the Mother of the King of the universe. The universality of this kingship begins with the angels and continues with the saints (those in Heaven and those on earth who seek holiness): Mary is Queen of the angels, of the patriarchs, of the prophets, of the apostles, of the martyrs, of those who confess the faith, of the virgins, of all the saints. He concludes with four titles of royalty: Queen conceived without sin, Queen assumed into Heaven, Queen of the Most Holy Rosary and Queen of Peace.
After invoking her as the perfect example of all the virtues, her children acclaim her with these symbols and figures of admirable exemplarity: Mirror of holiness, Throne of wisdom, Cause of our joy, Spiritual Vessel, Honorable Vessel, Insignificant Vessel of devotion, Mystical Rose, Tower of David, Tower of ivory and House of gold.
As we pause slowly at each of these titles, we can marvel at the spiritual richness, almost infinite, with which God has adorned it. It gives us immense joy to have such a Mother, and we tell her so many times throughout the day. Each of the invocations of the litanies can serve as an ejaculatory prayer in which we tell her how much we love her, how much we need her.
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