Pope adds feast of Our Lady of Loreto to Roman Calendar
The Solemn Proclamation of the Lauretan Jubilee "Maria Regina et Janua Coeli" took place during Mass at the Basilica of the Holy House on Friday, in the Italian city of Loreto.
Afterwards, a decree of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments was proclaimed which inscribed the celebration of the Blessed Virgin Mary of Loreto into the General Roman Calendar.
The decree notes that the Shrine of the Holy House of Loreto, venerated by generations of pilgrims and honoured by numerous Popes, “recalls the mystery of the Incarnation, leading all those who visit it to consider ‘the fullness of time’, when God sent his Son, born of a woman, as well as to meditate both on the words of the Angel announcing the Good News and on the words of the Virgin in response to the divine call”.
The Congregation has also published the liturgical texts for the memorial.
(Story updated at 4:46 PM)
Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments
Prot. N. 404/19
DECREE
on the celebration of the Blessed Virgin Mary of Loreto
to be inscribed in the General Roman Calendar
Since the Middle Ages veneration for the Holy House of Loreto has been the origin of that particular shrine which still today is visited by many faithful pilgrims in order to nourish their faith in the Word of God made flesh for us.
This shrine recalls the mystery of the Incarnation, leading all those who visit it to consider “the fullness of time”, when God sent his Son, born of a woman, as well as to meditate both on the words of the Angel announcing the Good News and on the words of the Virgin in response to the divine call. Overshadowed by the Spirit, the humble handmaid of the Lord so became the dwelling-place of divinity, the purist image of the holy Church.
Closely bound to the Apostolic See this shrine, praised by Popes and known throughout the world, has, over the years and no less than Nazareth in the Holy Land, been able to illustrate powerfully the evangelical virtues of the Holy Family.
In the Holy House, before the image of the Mother of the Redeemer and of the Church, Saints and Blesseds have responded to their vocation, the sick have invoked consolation in suffering, the people of God have begun to praise and plead with Mary using the Litany of Loreto, which is known throughout the world. In a particular way all those who travel via aircraft have found in her their heavenly patron.
In light of this, Pope Francis has decreed, by his own authority, that the optional memorial of the Blessed Virgin Mary of Loreto should be inscribed in the Roman Calendar on 10 December, the day on which the feast falls in Loreto, and celebrated every year. This celebration will help all people, especially families, youth and religious to imitate the virtues of that perfect disciple of the Gospel, the Virgin Mother, who, in conceiving the Head of the Church also accepted us as her own.
Therefore the new memorial must appear in all Calendars and Liturgical Books for the celebration of Mass and the Liturgy of the Hours; the relative texts are attached to this decree and their translations, approved by the Episcopal Conferences, will be published after confirmation by this Dicastery.
Anything to the contrary nothwithstanding.
From the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, 7 October 2019, the memorial of the Blessed Virgin Mary of the Rosary.
Robert Cardinal Sarah
Prefect
+ Arthur Roche
Archbishop Secretary
DECRETUM
de celebratione
Beatae Mariae Virginis de Loreto
in Calendario Romano Generali inscribenda
Lauretanæ Almæ Domus veneratio inde a Medio Ævo origo fuit illius peculiaris sanctuarii, quo temporibus etiam hodiernis peregrinantes christifideles multi frequentant ad propriam fidei vitam alendam in Dei Verbum pro nobis caro factum.
Sanctuarium vero illud mysterium Incarnationis revocat inducens omnes visitantes ad plenitudinem temporis considerandam, cum misit Deus Filium suum, factum ex muliere, necnon ad meditanda et verba Angeli Evangelium nuntiantis et verba Virginis divinæ vocationi respondentis. A Spiritu Sancto obumbrata, humilis ancilla Domini divinitatis domus effecta est, imago purissima sanctæ Ecclesiæ.
supradictum sanctuarium, intime Sedi Apostolicæ conexum, a Summis Pontificibus laudatum et in omnes gentes vulgatum, in decursu temporum præclare valuit, haud minus quam Nazareth in Terra Sancta, ad virtutes evangelicæ Sanctæ Familiæ collustrandas.
In illa Alma Domo, ante effigiem Redemptoris et Ecclesiæ Matris, nonnulli Sancti ac Beati propriae vocationi responsum dederunt, infirmi in angustiis consolationem invocaverunt, Dei populus Beatam Mariam laudare et supplicare incepit Litaniis illis lauretanis quæ per orbem terrarum diffusæ sunt. Itinerantes aereo navigio præsertim cælestem patronam in ea invenerunt.
His omnibus perpensis, auctoritate sua Summus Pontifex Franciscus decrevit ut memoriam ad libitum Beatæ Mariæ Virginis de Loreto in Calendarium Romanum inscribendam esse die 10 decembris, die etenim quo Laureti festum agitur, et quotannis celebrandam. hæc celebratio omnes, præcipue familias, iuvenes et religiosos, adiuvabit ad virtutes imitandas perfectae Evangelii discipulae, Virginis Matris quæ concipiens Caput Ecclesiæ etiam nos in sua accepit.
Nova igitur memoria cunctis Calendariis Librisque liturgicis pro Missæ et Liturgiæ Horarum celebratione erit inserenda; textus liturgici adhibendi hoc decreto adnexi, cura Cœtuum Episcoporum vertendi, approbandi et post huius Dicasterii confirmationem edendi sunt.
Contrariis quibuslibet minime obstantibus.
Ex ædibus Congregationis de Cultu Divino et Disciplina Sacramentorum, die 7 mensis Octobris 2019, in memoria Beatæ Mariæ Virginis a Rosario.
Robertus Card. Sarah
Praefectus
+ Arturus Roche
Archiepiscopus a Secretis
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