Wednesday, December 27, 2006

Visiting Our Lady Around the House

A few weeks back the kids and I came up with a Marian litany to include (some of) the various pictures and statues of our Lady that we have in our home. It was intended to be for a procession with some special intentions and a song at each picture, though we've only done that full procession once so far. What we've ended up doing is adding each of these names of Mary to our night-time litany of patron saints. Kate has become so attached to this that if we say it instead of singing it, she starts crying (she is rather tired by the time we say nighttime prayers) and she's much happier if we walk around the house to greet Mary by re-visiting the Litany on the way up to bed. This is a good thing!

Here is our Litany. I had to fudge the names a little since the pictures don't all formally match up with a special title of Our Lady. I'm including the songs and intentions we wrote up for each picture even though we haven't done those very often. Most of these are pictures from the Internet (with links to their sources). I thought this might be an appropriate post for the feast of St. John since he took Our Lady into his care.

By the way, for anyone who might have questions about devotions to Mary and what Catholics believe in this regard, please see this page which answers a whole host of these and related questions.

Our Lady of the Annuciation

We pray that more people will say yes to God.

Song: Gabriel's Message







Our Lady of Fatima

We pray for devotion to Our Lady and for the repentance of sinners. We pray in reparation for offenses committed against the Immaculate Heart of Mary.

Song: Immaculate Mary (Fatima version)






Our Lady of Good Counsel

We pray for teachers and parents.

Song: Alma Redemptoris Mater







Our Lady Seat of Wisdom

We pray for students and all who need truth.

Song: Hail Holy Queen







Our Lady of Lourdes

We pray for devotion to the Immaculate Conception and for all who are sick or disabled.

Song: Immaculate Mary






Our Lady of Guadalupe

We pray for the unborn, for refugees and immigrants and for all who are oppresed or in danger.

Song: Santa Maria del Camino






Mother Thrice Admirable

We pray for faith in young people.

We don't have this picture hanging anywhere in our home yet. The girls really wanted to include her because of their involvement in the Schoenstatt movement through some local girls' groups. They also know some special songs associated with her that I don't know yet.




Our Lady of Perpetual Help

We pray for the suffering and the dying, for soldiers, for those in prison and any who find themselves in difficult circumstances.

Song: Hail Queen of Heaven, the Ocean Star

5 comments:

Dr. Thursday said...

Beautiful! and to bind your "domestic pilgrimage" to a litany - this is the liturgy of the domestic church. And since she was a housewife, and cooked, and cleaned, and cared for her husband and Child, there are even more "icons" to be found.

Cf. GKC: "that less-known but admirable poem in praise of domesticity, which perhaps the lady Suffragists will not like: 'In that day all the vessels in the houses shall be as the bowls before the altar, and on every pot in Jerusalem shall be written, Holiness unto the Lord.' [Zachariah 14:20-21]"

Suzanne Temple said...

This is such a beautiful idea, Alicia. We will have to design a "domestic pilgramage" of our own.

Alice Gunther said...

This truly is a beautiful idea!

Margaret in Minnesota said...

What a beautiful post, Alicia!

PS. And as a neat side note, I looked down at the word verification just now and saw that the first four letters were: MARY.

love2learnmom said...

Thanks for the commments all. Dr. Thursday - I love the name "domestic pilgrimage"!

Margaret, that is too cool about the word verification!