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Marian Devotions
Devotion to Mary is essentially a Christological exercise. The things we say about Mary reflect on her Divine Son, our Lord.
Mary always points us to Jesus. To venerate Mary, the Theotokos, is to recognize Jesus' being simultaneously true man and true God.
Our Seraphic Father Francis wrote this praise of Mary,
Hail Lady,
Holy Queen
Holy Mary, Mother of God,
Virgin made Church
Chosen by the most Holy Father of Heaven,
Consecrated by Him
with his most holy beloved Son
And the Holy Spirit, the Paraclete.
In you is every plentitude of grace
and
every good.
Hail, His palace.
Hail, His Tabernacle.
Hail, His Home.
Hail, His Robe.
Hail his Handmaid.
Hail, His Mother.
We are happy to be able to offer to you, these suggestions and instructions for devotions to Our Lady. St. Louis de Montfort wrote, "I do not believe that anyone can acquire intimate
union with our Lord and perfect fidelity to the Holy Spirit without a very close union with the most Blessed Virgin and an absolute dependence on her support." So, we pray that
you would acquire this intimate union with our Lord through Mary.
The Little Office of the Blessed Virgin Mary is a well loved short series of daily prayers that are used alongside the Daily Office.
These prayers have been used in the church for hundreds of years. There have been slightly different editions of the
Little Office promulgated from time to time. As you may find this devotion useful to you, we're linking to presentations of them at
various other websites.
So, if you'd like, click on the link to examine and use these. Each of them is a bit different. There may be something here that
touches your heart.
Little Office of the Blessed Virgin Mary, from Liturgies.net
Little Office of the Blessed Virgin Mary, from The Sacred Heart.com
Little Office of the Blessed Virgin Mary, from the Five Martyrs Region SFO
Marian prayers and Scriptures are found
here.
Litanies of our Lady abound in devotional practice. Litanies are responsive prayers that help us to meditate. Done
properly, they are very much like a rosary in that they become a joining of mental and vocal prayer. These are the ones we
find spiritually useful:
Litany of the Blessed Virgin
Litany of Our Lady of Good Counsel
Litany of Our Lady of the Seven Sorrows
The Dominican Rosary is the Marian devotion most known to people. Traditionally, a full rosary has consisted of 150
recitations of one Hail Mary for each Psalm of the Bible-- 150 in all-- originally a way for the unlettered
to join in the daily recitation of the Psalter, along with other prayers. The spoken prayers blend with, and support, meditation
on the events from the lives of Jesus and His mother.
The Dominican Rosary has traditionally broken up into three 5 decade groups of events or mysteries for meditation--the Joyful, the Sorrowful, and the
Glorious mysteries. Recently another 5 decades of mysteries have been added to this devotion, the Luminous Mysteries.
We are pleased to share with you instructions for
How to Pray the Dominican Rosary
The Franciscan Crown is a devotion much loved by Franciscans. Meditating on the seven joys of Our Lady's life,
we find great comfort and spiritual growth. We're delighted to share with you the story the origin
and a few of the many ways of praying the
Franciscan Crown Rosary
The Seven Sorrows Rosary is a devotion taught by the Sevants of Mary (the Servites), a mendicant religious order that
has its roots in the same era that saw the birth of the Franciscan movement.
This devotion a good and useful tool for meditation in penitential seasons, on Fridays, and at other times. So, we're pleased to make
this available to you.
The Seven Sorrows of Our Lady
Additionally, we recommend for your devotional reading the following books that are available on-line for free.
Our Lady Saint Mary by Father Barry, from Project Gutenberg
True Devotion to Mary by St. Louis Marie de Montfort, from EWTN
Psalter of the Blessed Virgin Mary by St. Bonaventure, from the Five Franciscan Martyrs Region SFO
Mirror of the Blessed Virgin Mary, often attributed to St. Bonaventure, but actually written by Conrad Holzinger of Saxony,
this copy comes in plain text from EWTN.
The same book, The Mirror of the BVM, in PDF format from StJamesCatholic.org
We may add further devotional aids here from time to time.
But there's enough already here to use for a lifetime.
May God richly bless you.
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