Our Lady of Loreto

On October 7, 2019, Pope Francis ordered the inscription of Our Lady of Loreto into the General Roman Calendar. She is celebrated each year as an Optional Memorial on December 10.

The Holy See released the proper liturgical texts in Latin, and on May 29, 2023, the Dicastery for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments confirmed the English translation of those texts. (An approval and confirmation process is still required for a Spanish translation.)

The proper texts in English for the liturgical celebration of Our Lady of Loreto are provided here:

Roman Missal

The Collect prayer for the new celebration is identical to one already found in the Roman Missal, in the Common of the Blessed Virgin Mary for Advent. If Our Lady of Loreto is celebrated, the rest of the formulary – Prayer over the Offerings, Preface, Prayer after Communion, and Entrance and Communion Antiphons – can be drawn from the same Mass formulary as the Collect. White vestments are worn.

From the Common of the Blessed Virgin Mary: II. In Advent.

Collect

O God, who, fulfilling the promise made to our Fathers,
chose the Blessed Virgin Mary
to become the Mother of the Savior,
grant that we may follow her example,
for her humility was pleasing to you
and her obedience profitable to us.
Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,
who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
God, for ever and ever.

Lectionary for Mass

Aside from the usual Mass readings of the day, any Lectionary readings from the Common of the Blessed Virgin Mary may be used for Our Lady of Loreto. The following readings are also recommended by the Holy See (with citations from nos. 707-712 of the Lectionary for Mass):

689B – Our Lady of Loreto

First Reading – Isaiah 7:10-14; 8:10 (no. 707-7)
The virgin shall conceive and bear a son.

Responsorial Psalm – Luke 1:46-47, 48-49, 50-51, 52-53, 54-55 (no. 709-5)
R. The Almighty has done great things for me, and holy is his Name.
or:
R. O Blessed Virgin Mary, you carried the Son of the eternal Father.

Gospel Acclamation – See Luke 1:28 (no. 711-1)
Hail, Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with you;
blessed are you among women.

Gospel – Luke 1:26-38 (no. 712-4)
Behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son.

Liturgy of the Hours

From the Common of the Blessed Virgin Mary, except the following:

Biography

A record dating from 1465 states that during the night between December 9 and 10, 1294 the Holy House was discovered on the very hill where it still stands. The Holy House is the origin of the Marian devotion found at the shrine of Loreto, a reminder of the mystery of the Incarnation and of the Gospel example of the Holy Family of Nazareth. Many Popes have bestowed their apostolic attention on the shrine of the Virgin of Loreto, whom Benedict XV proclaimed the patron of those traveling by air. Indeed, the Litany of Loreto has spread throughout the entire Church.

Office of Readings

Second Reading
From the Letter of Pope Saint John Paul II, on the occasion of the 700th anniversary of the Holy House of Loreto
(Letter to Bishop Pasquale Macchi, August 15, 1993: Insegnamenti di Giovanni Paolo II, XVI/2, 526-537)

Mary, the corporal and spiritual locus of the Incarnation

The Holy House of Loreto is not only a "relic," but rather a precious and true "icon." It is an icon not of truths imperceptible to the senses, but of a singular event and mystery; that is, the Incarnation of the Word.

Indeed, the Incarnation, which is recalled within these sacred walls, at once regains its own authentic biblical sense; for it does not concern merely a doctrine that pertains to the unity of divinity with humanity, but rather an event that took place in an exact moment of time and in a definite place, as the words of the Apostle wonderfully reveal: "When the fullness of time had come, God sent his Son, born of a woman."

Mary is that woman. She is, so to speak, at the same time the corporal and spiritual locus in which the Incarnation took place. But even the House in which she lived is a concrete evocation of this reality.

Recalling the hidden life of Nazareth evokes certain concrete experiences relevant to the life of every man and woman. Specifically, it renews the sense of the holiness of the family, showing immediately an entire world of virtues that are much threatened today; that is, faithfulness, respect for life, the education of children, the practice of prayer, all of which Christian families may be able to rediscover within the walls of this Holy House, the first and best domestic church in history.

At the same time this Holy House recalls the greatness of the vocation to the consecrated life and to virginity for the sake of the Kingdom of God, which had a glorious beginning in the person of Mary, Virgin and Mother.

Now, to the countless young people who make pilgrimages to the House of the Mother, we wish to repeat these words that we said to them once before: "Go to Mary, walk with Mary… Let her 'fiat' resound in your heart." May young people, according to the teachings of the House of Nazareth, renew their commitment as Catholic laity to restore Christ in hearts, families, culture and society.

The justifiable effort of our age to recognize the place that befits women in the Church and in society finds here an appropriate opportunity for deeper reflection. Because "God sent his Son, born of a woman," in Mary all women have thus been raised to such dignity that one cannot imagine anything greater.

No theoretical consideration, moreover, will be able to exalt the dignity of human labor more than to know that the Son of God himself worked in Nazareth and let himself be called the son of a carpenter.

Finally, how can we not make mention of the "option for the poor," which the Church made in the Council and even more clearly confirmed afterwards? The austere and humble walls of the Holy House remind us that this option was instituted by God himself in Mary, who, as we read in the conciliar text, "found her place among the Lord’s humble and poor who expect and receive salvation faithfully from him."

As to poverty and suffering, the sick have always had a special place in the history of the shrine, for they were the first pilgrims to the Holy House and the first to spread its renown among the nations. Where else could they be better welcomed than in the House of her whom we invoke in the Litany of Loreto as "health of the sick" and "comforter of the afflicted"?

"May this Shrine of Loreto," as Pope John XXIII said, "always be a window open to the whole world, re-echoing those mysterious voices that announce the sanctification of individual souls, families and peoples."

Responsory

Truly blessed are you among women,
for God has made his dwelling within you.
— You will consecrate many peoples to the Lord.

You bore in your womb him whom the heavens could not contain.
— You will consecrate many peoples to the Lord.

Prayer

O God, who, fulfilling the promise made to our Fathers,
chose the Blessed Virgin Mary
to become the Mother of the Savior,
grant that we may follow her example,
for her humility was pleasing to you
and her obedience profitable to us.
Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,
who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
God, for ever and ever.

The English translation of Liturgical Texts for Our Lady of Loreto © 2021 International Commission on English in the Liturgy Corporation (ICEL); excerpt from the English translation of The Roman Missal © 2010 ICEL. All rights reserved.