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Litany of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Latin and English

This litany of the Blessed Virgin Mary (also called the Litany of Loreto) originated during the Middle Ages but in a form that was still in the process of development. It was definitely approved for public use by Sixtus V in 1587. Like the Rosary, it is primarily an act of praise and devotion to the Blessed Virgin. Its titles and invocations set before us Mary's exalted privileges, her holiness of life, her amiability and power, her motherly care for her children for whom she continually intercedes.

In the words of Pope Pius IX: "God enriched her so wonderfully from the treasury of His divinity, far beyond all angels and saints with the abundance of all heavenly gifts, that she . . .should show forth such fullness of innocence and holiness, than which a greater under God is unthinkable and which, beside God, no one can even conceive in thought."

Litany of the Blessed Virgin Mary

Kyrie eleison.
Kyrie eleison.
Christe eleison.
Christe eleison.
Kyrie eleison.
Kyrie eleison.

Christe, audi nos.
Christe, exaudi nos.

Pater de caelis Deus, miserere nobis.
Fili redemptor mundi Deus, miserere nobis.
Spiritus Sancte Deus, miserere nobis.
Sancta Trinitas unus Deus, miserere nobis.

Sancta Maria, ora pro nobis.
Sancta Dei Genitrix, ora pro nobis.
Sancta Virgo virginum, ora pro nobis.
Mater Christi, ora pro nobis.
Mater divinae gratiae, ora pro nobis.
Mater purissima, ora pro nobis.
Mater castissima, ora pro nobis.
Mater inviolata, ora pro nobis.
Mater intemerata, ora pro nobis.
Mater amabilis, ora pro nobis.
Mater admirabilis, ora pro nobis.
Mater boni consilii, ora pro nobis.
Mater Creatoris, ora pro nobis.
Mater Salvatoris, ora pro nobis.
Virgo prudentissima, ora pro nobis.
Virgo veneranda, ora pro nobis.
Virgo praedicanda, ora pro nobis.
Virgo potens, ora pro nobis.
Virgo clemens, ora pro nobis.
Virgo fidelis, ora pro nobis.
Speculum justitiae, ora pro nobis.
Sedes sapientiae, ora pro nobis.
Causa nostrae laetitiae, ora pro nobis.
Vas spirituale, ora pro nobis.
Vas honorabile, ora pro nobis.
Vas insigne devotionis, ora pro nobis.
Rosa mystica, ora pro nobis.
Turris Davidica, ora pro nobis.
Turris eburnea, ora pro nobis.
Domus aurea, ora pro nobis.
Faederis arca, ora pro nobis.
Janua caeli, ora pro nobis.
Stella matutina, ora pro nobis.
Salus infirmorum, ora pro nobis.
Refugium peccatorum, ora pro nobis.
Consolatrix afflictorum, ora pro nobis.
Auxilium Christianorum, ora pro nobis.
Regina angelorum, ora pro nobis.
Regina patriarcharum, ora pro nobis.
Regina prophetarum, ora pro nobis.
Regina apostolorum, ora pro nobis.
Regina martyrum, ora pro nobis.
Regina confessorum, ora pro nobis.
Regina virginum, ora pro nobis.
Regina sanctorum omnium, ora pro nobis.
Regina sine labe originali concepta, ora pro nobis.
Regina in caelo assumpta, ora pro nobis.
Regina sacratissimi Rosarii, ora pro nobis.
Regina pacis, ora pro nobis.

Agnus Dei, qui tollis peccata mundi: Parce nobis, Domine.
Agnus Dei, qui tollis peccata mundi: Exaudi nos, Domine.
Agnus Dei, qui tollis peccata mundi: Miserere nobis.

Ora pro nobis, sancta Dei Genitrix,
Ut digni efficiamur promissionibus Christi.

Oremus.

Omnipotens sempiterne Deus, qui gloriosae Virginis Matris Mariae corpus et animam, ut dignum Filii tui habitaculum effici mereretur, Spiritu Sancto cooperante, praeparasti: da, ut cujus commemoratione laetamur, ejus pia intercessione ab instantibus malis, et a morte perpetua liberemur. Per eundem Christum Dominum nostrum. Amen.

_________________________________________________
Lord have mercy on us.
Lord have mercy on us.
Christ have mercy on us.
Christ have mercy on us.
Lord have mercy on us.
Lord have mercy on us.

Christ, hear us.
Christ, graciously hear us.

God the Father of Heaven, have mercy on us.
God the Son, Redeemer of the world, have mercy on us.
God the Holy Ghost, have mercy on us.
Holy Trinity, one God, have mercy on us.

Holy Mary, pray for us
Holy Mother of God, pray for us
Holy Virgin of virgins, pray for us
Mother of Christ, pray for us
Mother of divine grace, pray for us
Mother most pure, pray for us
Mother most chaste, pray for us
Mother inviolate, pray for us
Mother undefiled, pray for us
Mother most amiable, pray for us
Mother most admirable, pray for us
Mother of good counsel, pray for us
Mother of our Creator, pray for us
Mother of our Redeemer, pray for us
Virgin most prudent, pray for us
Virgin most venerable, pray for us
Virgin most renowned, pray for us
Virgin most powerful, pray for us
Virgin most merciful, pray for us
Virgin most faithful, pray for us
Mirror of justice, pray for us
Seat of wisdom, pray for us
Cause of our joy, pray for us
Spritual vessel, pray for us
Vessel of honor, pray for us
Singular vessel of devotion, pray for us
Mystical rose, pray for us
Tower of David, pray for us
Tower of ivory, pray for us
House of gold, pray for us
Ark of the covenant, pray for us
Gate of Heaven, pray for us
Morning Star, pray for us
Health of the sick, pray for us
Refuge of sinners, pray for us
Comforter of the afflicted, pray for us
Help of Christians, pray for us
Queen of Angels, pray for us
Queen of Patriarchs, pray for us
Queen of Prophets, pray for us
Queen of Apostles, pray for us
Queen of Martyrs, pray for us
Queen of Confessors, pray for us
Queen of Virgins, pray for us
Queen of all Saints, pray for us
Queen conceived without original sin, pray for us
Queen assumed into Heaven, pray for us
Queen of the most holy Rosary, pray for us
Queen of peace, pray for us

Lamb of God, Who takes away the sins of the world: Spare us, O Lord.
Lamb of God, Who takes away the sins of the world: Graciously hear us, O Lord.
Lamb of God, Who takes away the sins of the world: Have mercy on us.

Pray for us, most holy Mother of God,
That we may be made worthy of the promises of Christ.

Let us pray.

Almighty and everlasting God, Who hast prepared the body and soul of the blessed Mary, Virgin and Mother, to be a fitting receptacle for Thy Son, grant that we who rejoice in her commemoration may, by her loving intercession, be delivered from present evils and everlasting death. Through Christ our Lord. Amen.

Litany of the Blessed Virgin Explained

[size 3} For a beautifully illustrated explanation of the titles of Our Lady used in the Litany, go to this link:

Our Lady's titles explained

Meditation on the Litany of the Blessed Virgin

Holy Mother of God
by Mgr Joseph Clifford Fenton

When he recites the Litany of Loreto, the devout Catholic addresses forty- nine distinct petitions to Our Lady. In all of these petitions, only one favor is asked of Her. We beg Her to pray for us. We seek the incalculable benefit of Her intercession in our behalf before the throne of God. And, in the light of God�s revealed truth, we know that Her prayer for us will be brought about by the force of our petitions, and that Her prayer will be instrumental in bringing us the graces we need.

But, even though the favour we seek from Our Lady is always the same, each of the petitions to Her in Her Litany of Loreto differs from all the rest in the way in which we call upon Her. In the first of these petitions we address Her by Her glorious name of Mary, and we hail Her as endowed with the most fundamental of Her prerogatives, that of holiness. And, in each of the other forty-eight petitions we direct to Her, we use the various titles that describe Her and Her unique position in the supernatural economy of the universe. The first of these titles, and the one upon which all the others depend, is Her designation as the true and holy Mother of God.

It is a matter of common knowledge that all the other prerogatives of Mary, in the actual order of God�s predestination, follow from the basic fact that She was chosen from all eternity to be the Mother of Jesus Christ, the Incarnate Word of the living God. It is by reason of the fact that Her Son is a divine Person that She has been endowed with those qualities which constitute Her truly the Mirror of Justice, the Seat of Wisdom, the Spiritual Vessel, the Help of Christians, and the Queen conceived without original sin. God gave Her these magnificent supernatural gifts because they were as it were called for by and co- natural to Her dignity as the Mother of God.

What is most vitally important about this most basic of all Mary�s titles, however, is the fact that it expresses in a uniquely clear and effective way the central truth of our Catholic faith about Our Lord Himself. When the third ecumenical council, the glorious Council of Ephesus, wished to set forth in the strongest possible way the divinely revealed truth which had been denied in the heresy of Nestorius, it chose to define as divinely revealed the truth that the Holy Virgin is actually the Mother of God. It was in this way that the Fathers of that great Council brought out the divinely revealed truth that Jesus Christ, the Son of Mary, is not merely a great and good man in whom the Word of God came to dwell in an especially fruitful and intimate way, but is really the Incarnate Word of the living God.

Incidentally, we are all indebted to Monsignor Igino Cecchetti for his brilliant article in the January, 1959, issue of The American Ecclesiastical Review, in which he presented evidence to show that, from at least about the year 250, Our Lady had been hailed as the Mother of God in the liturgical prayer of the Egyptian Church. He has thus pointed up the fact that, from the very earliest times, the Church militant of the New Testament has been accustomed to express its certain belief in Our Lord�s divinity through its willingness to designate His Mother as the Mother of God.

When, in the Litany of Loreto, we advert to Mary�s real and actual dignity as the Mother of God, we take cognizance of the fact that Our Lord Jesus Christ, the Incarnate Word of God, had a human body which was derived from and which had its origin in Mary�s own immaculate flesh. He was both God and Man. And, in all truth, Mary is His Mother just as really as any other woman is the mother of the children to whom She has given birth. The Person born of Mary is the Person who actually subsists in a divine as well as in a human nature.

The nearness to God which was Mary�s by the very fact that She is the Mother of the Incarnate Word is obviously something unique in all the world of creatures. No other being distinct from God is or can be as intimately joined to the Creator as this woman who gave birth to the Incarnate Word. It is a dignity ineffable above anything to which even the most perfect of the created pure spirits could be raised.

Now God�s gifts are perfect. God does all things well. The closeness to the living God which Mary possesses by the fact that She is the Mother of Christ carries with it the most perfect and intense life of grace and holiness that God has ever granted or ever will grant to any of His intellectual creatures. By reason of the fact that Mary is the Mother of God, Her supernatural life of sanctifying grace is the source of the most vital and complete enjoyment of the Beatific Vision and the most powerful love of charity for God among all the blessed who are or ever will be with God in Heaven.

In this clear light of the Beatific Vision, Our Lady sees, in Her contemplation of the Godhead, all of those for whom Her Divine Son died on the Cross. She knows all of their spiritual needs, and She realizes all of the dangers which may threaten them. And, more clearly than any other creature in all God�s universe, She is aware of the glorious end in which they are to achieve their own eternal happiness and God�s external glory.

The power of Her love for God makes Her desire the salvation of those for whom Her Divine Son suffered and died more intensely and powerfully than any other creature. And, because Her love for God, and Her desire for the accomplishment of God�s will, is stronger than that of any other creature, Her prayer to God has a unique force and efficacy. Thus She is preeminently qualified to act as our Advocate before the throne of the Triune God. And, in the last analysis, the Litany of Loreto, and all the other prayers in which the faithful beg Her, as the Mother of God, to pray for them, take cognizance of this truth.

It would seem that, in the Liturgy of the Roman Church, this teaching on the subject of prayer to Our Lady as the Mother of God is brought out with maximum clarity in the collect of the Mass for the Feast of the Annunciation. This is, of course, the feast of the Incarnation. It is the day on which the Church celebrates the moment in which Our Lady actually consented to become the Mother of God, and actually received this sublime dignity. And, in the Mass for that day, the Church offers this glorious prayer to God:

�O God, Who has willed that, through the announcement of the Angel, Thy Word should take flesh from the womb of the Blessed Virgin Mary, grant to us who beseech Thee, that we who truly believe that She is the Mother of God, may be aided by Her intercession with Thee.�

In the collect of the Mass for the Feast of the Assumption, we direct this petition to God Himself. In the Litany of Loreto we ask Our Lady for the favor of Her patronage and Her intercession before the throne of God. And in both instances we are acting in accordance with the will of God, Who directs us to seek the favor of Her help for the attainment of our own salvation and of His glory in us.

God wills that we should know and acknowledge the actual order of the supernatural universe. He wills that we should be aware of and manifest our awareness of the dignity He has given to the humblest of maidens, whom He has made His Mother. We come to the cognizance of the dignity He has given Her when we accept the teachings of the Catholic faith. And we express our acknowledgment of Her unique nearness to God, and Her singular power of intercession before His throne when we call upon Her aid in our struggle to do His will.

By the grace and the mercy of God, our prayers to Her, the Mother of God, will not go unanswered.

[Taken from the American Ecclesiastical Review , June, 1959]

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