Litany of Loreto – Holy Mary

The first invocation to Our Lady in the Litany of Loreto is ‘Holy Mary’ and it is perhaps the most general of the invocations – all the other invocations present some specific aspect of her holiness. The Litany of Loreto is a way of contemplating Mary’s holiness.

Holiness is something to which we are all called; it is the ultimate reason for our existence, that we come to be like God and see Him face to face. It can be hard to keep our focus on this ultimate end – it is hard enough in religious life, never mind in a secular world which is often indifferent or hostile to the idea of holiness. It is easy to get caught up in a mindset in which holiness loses its appeal – perhaps the holy life is something we can put off until old age, or worse still, perhaps a holy life would make us dull, cold, and unadventurous.

But in Mary, holiness regains its appeal. Of all the saints, she is most easily recognisable as holy and in her, holiness is most easily seen to be beautiful. In all the difficult situations in which Mary found herself, she never used them as an excuse to put off her call to holiness, but in every thing she did, she took the opportunity to live out this calling. We see her unfailing yes to God at the annunciation, her selfless generosity in visiting her cousin Elizabeth, her desire for celebration at the wedding feast at Cana, and most importantly her loving intimacy with Christ her son, all through his life but particularly in sharing his passion and death. The holiness of Mary flows into the whole of humanity so that by contemplating her holiness we ourselves become holy.