QUEEN OF THE FAMILY

Day 233: December 31

Queen of the Family (Litany of Loreto)



On Sunday, December 31, 1995, at the request of Pope St John Paul II, the Vatican added to the Litany of Loreto: "Queen of the Family, pray for us." The Sacred Congregation for Divine Worship chose this date to make the announcement because it was the feast of the Holy Family, which falls between Christmas and New Year's Day.

Pope St. John Paul II, on October 4, 1997, in Rio de Janeiro, invoked her in this way: “… Mary, Queen of the Family, Seat of Wisdom, Servant of the Lord, pray for us. Pray for us, pray for young people, pray for families"

Pope Benedict XVI also invoked it publicly on May 16, 2008 in Rome: "Mary, Queen of the family, like a bright star of hope, guide the journey of all families of humanity."

The oldest known formulary of litanies to Our Lady can be dated to the twelfth century and consists of 73 invocations. It contains uncommon eulogies such as flos virginitatis, forma sanctitatis ("flower of virginity", "model of holiness"), hymnus cælorum, luctus infernorum ("hymn of heaven", "mourning of hell"), in addition to the invocations already known to us.

From the mid-sixteenth century onwards, the litanies sung in the Sanctuary of the Holy House of Loreto are known. They were added to the recitation of the rosary by Pope Pius V after the victory of the Holy League at Lepanto.

Only popes have the power to introduce new invocations. Pius V himself was the first to introduce one, auxilium christianorum (Help of Christians), after the victory of Lepanto. In 1587 Pope Sixtus V approved 43 of them with a papal decree. In 1768 it was inserted by Clement XIII mater immaculata (Immaculate Mother), at the request of the King of Spain Charles III. But this Marian title was replaced in 1854, following the proclamation of the dogma of the Immaculate Conception, when Pius IX made the definition "regina sine labe originali concepta" (Queen conceived without sin) mandatory. Pope Leo XIII in 1883 added "regina sacratissimi Rosarii" (Queen of the most holy rosary), which he recommended for the month of October. In fact, it is during this month that the Catholic Church celebrates Our Lady of the Rosary, whose memory falls on October 7, the anniversary of the historic battle. In 1903 Leo XIII also introduced "mater boni consilii" (Mother of Good Counsel) as a tribute to the sanctuary of Genazzano, his hometown; "Regina pacis" (Queen of Peace) was added by Benedict XV during the First World War; "Regina in cælum assumpta" (Queen assumed into heaven) was decided by Pius XII in 1950. "Mater Ecclesiae" (Mother of the Church) was added by Pope St. Paul VI in 1965 at the conclusion of the Second Vatican Council. "Mater misericordiae" (Mother of Mercy) was added by John Paul II. "Regina familiæ" (Queen of the family) (in which the decadence of the Latin of the curia is noted, because the concept of "queen of the family" understood as an institution, or queen of all families, is rendered in Latin in the plural: "regina familiarum", while "regina familiae" means "of a certain family") was introduced by Pope St John Paul II in 1995.

The Litany of Loreto is not the only litany to the Virgin: alongside them we also find the litanies of the Dominicans, which have a less popular and more learned character. There is also the Litany to Our Lady of Lourdes. Other litanies found in liturgical books are:– the Litany of the Saints – the Litany to the Most Holy Name of Jesus – the Litany to the Sacred Heart of Jesus – the Litany to the Most Precious Blood of Jesus – the Litany to St. Joseph – the Litany of the Blessed Sacrament.

The Litany of Loreto was masterfully depicted in the eighteenth century by the German engravers Klauber who created 51 panels, each of which refers to a Marian invocation. It is very rare to find the series intact as the precious bound plates are still often dismembered and sold individually for pure profit as these are highly sought after for their engraving and inventive quality.


St Justin Russolillo Writes...

"In your great mind, in your grand heart, in your precious life, there is every Angel and Saint, O Mary, the world of the Church, the world of God! Be the city of my heart, the sphere of my mind, the Heaven of my life, O Mary!"

(Justin Russolillo, Spirit of Prayer, trans. Louis Caputo, Vocationist Fathers, Newark, 1996, p. 144)

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