Vas Spirituale

During the month of May, I am publishing a series of posts based on notes made by John Henry Newman (1801-1890) for his May meditations on Mary in the Litany of Loreto. For the Latin and English texts of this Litany, please follow the link to Thesaurus Precum Latinarum.

Totus tuus ego sum et omnia mea tua sunt.

Tecum tutus semper sum.

Ad Jesum per Mariam

[  ] References in the text to numbered footnotes are not hyperlinked but may be found at the end of the relevant text.

Mary is the "Vas Spirituale," the Spiritual Vessel

To be spiritual is to live in the world of spirits—as St. Paul says, "Our conversation is in Heaven." [1] To be spiritually-minded is to see by faith all those good and holy beings who actually surround us, though we see them not with our bodily eyes; to see them by faith as vividly as we see the things of earth—the green country, the blue sky, and the brilliant sunshine. Hence it is that, when saintly souls are favoured with heavenly visions, these visions are but the extraordinary continuations and the crown, by a divine intuition, of objects which, by the ordinary operation of grace, are ever before their minds.

Quia fecit mihi...JJ Tissot

These visions consoled and strengthened the Blessed Virgin in all her sorrows. The Angels who were around her understood her, and she understood them, with a directness which is not to be expected in their intercourse with us who have inherited from Adam the taint of sin. Doubtless; but still let us never forget that as she in her sorrows was comforted by Angels, so it is our privilege in the many trials of life to be comforted, in our degree, by the same heavenly messengers of the Most High; nay, by Almighty God Himself, the third Person of the Holy Trinity, who has taken on Himself the office of being our Paraclete, or Present Help.

Let all those who are in trouble take this comfort to themselves, if they are trying to lead a spiritual life. If they call on God, He will answer them. Though they have no earthly friend, they have Him, who, as He felt for His Mother when He was on the Cross, now that He is in His glory feels for the lowest and feeblest of His people.


Quia fecit mihi magna qui potens est
ὅτι ἑποίησέν μοι μεγάλα ὁ δυνατόϛ


[1] [18] For many walk, of whom I have told you often (and now tell you weeping), that they are enemies of the cross of Christ;
Multi enim ambulant, quos saepe dicebam vobis ( nunc autem et flens dico) inimicos crucis Christi :
[19] Whose end is destruction; whose God is their belly; and whose glory is in their shame; who mind earthly things.
quorum finis interitus : quorum Deus venter est : et gloria in confusione ipsorum, qui terrena sapiunt.
[20] But our conversation is in heaven; from whence also we look for the Saviour, our Lord Jesus Christ,
Nostra autem conversatio in caelis est : unde etiam Salvatorem exspectamus Dominum nostrum Jesum Christum, [Philipp 3]

Totus tuus ego sum et omnia mea tua sunt.

Tecum tutus semper sum.

Ad Jesum per Mariam