The Psalms of the Little Office of the Blessed Virgin Mary
To read the commentary on today's Psalm, click on the following link: 👉 Psalm 109
Previous Psalms
👈 Taken from a book of hours, this is an image of King David, author of the Psalms, by Willem Vrelant (early 1460s), Bruges, Belgium.
Consecration to the Immaculate Heart of Mary
The following prayers follow the model for consecration written by St Louis-Marie Grignion de Montfort and are recited in preparation for the renewal of our family's consecration to Lord Jesus, Christ our King, through the Immaculate Heart of Mary on the Feast of the Annunciation.
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The Vladimirskaya Icon. >12th century.
I have for some time been closing my posts with a triple seal:
* the beautiful icon of the Holy Mother of God known to many as the Vladimirskaya Icon;
* the Sub tuum præsidium, said to be the oldest prayer to Our Lady; and
* a short prayer of consecration to the Immaculate heart of Mary.
Over the coming weeks, I shall include a short commentary on one or other of these prayers, (recalling that holy icons are traditionally said to be written like prayers rather than painted).
The Vladimirskaya Icon : Mary and the Incarnation
The icon shows the Most Holy Theotokos, our Queen and Mother, holding her Son, the God-Man - Incarnate from her flesh. According to St Bede (672-735), today's Psalm sings most fully and briefly of the Incarnation and Divinity of our Lord:
The Lord said to my Lord: Sit thou at my right hand: Until I make thy enemies thy footstool. [Ps. cix. 1]
Fr Taunton comments:
We are in the presence of the awful mystery of the Blessed Trinity. Let us fall down and worship. The words are not spoken to the Eternal Son in respect of His Godhead ; but as incarnate in time, and therefore inferior to the Father as touching His Manhood. The Psalmist calls Him my Lord, because He is flesh of our flesh, our Brother, our very own in right of His Mother. [Treatise on the Little Office of Our Lady. 1903]
In his treatise on True Devotion to Mary, St Louis-Marie de Montfort elaborates on the Incarnation and Mary's role:
When Mary has struck her roots in a soul, she produces there marvels of grace, which she alone can produce, because she alone is the fruitful Virgin, who never has had, and never will have, her equal in purity and in fruitfulness.Mary has produced, together with the Holy Ghost, the greatest thing which has been, or ever will be, which is a God-Man; and she will consequently produce the greatest things that there will be in the latter times. The formation and education of the great Saints, who shall come at the end of the world, are reserved for her. For it is only that singular and miraculous Virgin who can produce, in union with the Holy Ghost, singular and extraordinary things.When the Holy Ghost, her Spouse, has found Mary in a soul, He flies there. He enters there in His fulness; He communicates Himself to that soul abundantly, and to the full extent to which she makes room for her Spouse. Nay, one of the great reasons why the Holy Ghost does not now do startling wonders in our souls is because He does not find there a sufficiently great union with His faithful and indissoluble Spouse. I say indissoluble Spouse, because since that Substantial Love of the Father and the Son has espoused Mary, in order to produce Jesus Christ, the Head of the elect, and Jesus Christ in the elect, He has never repudiated her, inasmuch as she has always been fruitful and faithful.Mary has received from God a great domination over the souls of the elect; for she cannot make her residence in them, as God the Father ordered her to do, and form them in Jesus Christ, or Jesus Christ in them, and strike the roots of her virtues in their hearts, and be the indissoluble companion of the Holy Ghost in all His works of grace—she cannot, I say, do all these things unless she has a right and domination over their souls by a singular grace of the Most High, who, having given her power over His only and Natural Son, has given it also to her over His adopted children, not only as to their bodies, which would be but little matter, but also as to their souls.Mary is the Queen of heaven and earth by grace, as Jesus is the King of them by nature and by conquest. Now, as the kingdom of Jesus Christ consists principally in the heart and interior of a man—according to that word, “The kingdom of God is within you,”—in like manner the kingdom of our Blessed Lady is principally in the interior of a man, that is to say, his soul; and it is principally in souls that she is more glorified with her Son than in all visible creatures, and that we can call her, as the Saints do, the Queen of hearts.
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Prayer
Dearest Mary, Queen of Heaven and earth and Queen of hearts, we pray you will reign in the hearts of each one of us, so as to be forever our gentle Queen and Mother. Help us each day to follow your words at Cana, when you spoke of your Divine Son: Whatsoever he shall say to you, do ye.[John ii. 5]
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SUB tuum præsidium confugimus, Sancta Dei Genitrix. Nostras deprecationes ne despicias in necessitatibus, sed a periculis cunctis libera nos semper, Virgo gloriosa et benedicta. Amen.
WE fly to thy patronage, O holy Mother of God; despise not our petitions in our necessities, but deliver us from all dangers always Glorious and blessed Virgin. Amen.
Totus tuus ego sum
Et omnia mea tua sunt;
Tecum semper tutus sum:
Ad Jesum per Mariam.
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