We conclude our series of prayers and meditations honoring the Blessed Virgin Mary under her various titles during this last week in the month of May.
Regina Apostolorum – Queen of Apostles
Today, May 31, 2025, is the Saturday within the Octave of the Ascension, and traditionally, is the day to honor Our Lady Queen of Apostles. The 31st of May is also the Feast of the Queenship of the Blessed Virgin Mary. How fitting that this day of the week dedicated to Our Lady, at the end of the month dedicated to Our Lady, should have even more reasons to celebrate her!
The following is the proper Collect from the Mass of Our Lady Queen of Apostles:
O God, Who gave the Holy Spirit to Thy Apostles, who prayed with one accord with Mary, the Mother of Jesus: grant us, that, under the protection of the same, Our Mother and Queen of Apostles, we may be able to serve Thy majesty faithfully and to spread the glory of Thy Name by word and example. Through the same Christ, Our Lord, Who liveth and reigneth forever and ever. Amen.
Consideration from The New Month of Mary
(Very Rev. P.R. Kenrick, 1841)
“And a great sign appeared in heaven. A woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars.” — (Apocalypse, xii., 1).
This is understood by some holy Fathers of the blessed Virgin. She is clothed with the sun, by her close relation to Christ, the sun of Justice; she has the moon under her feet, for she is the great channel of God’s mercy to man; and on her head is a crown of twelve stars, because those twelve great lights of the world, the Apostles, acknowledge her for their Queen, and encircle her head with a new wreath of glory. How these chosen disciples of Jesus Christ must have loved Mary — the mother of their dear Master! With what reverence they regarded her, who was the Mother of Him, whose power they had seen so frequently and so wonderfully displayed, and whose divine nature the Father Himself had revealed to them through Peter! Mary was the teacher of the Apostles; because they learned from her many of the circumstances, which preceded and followed the birth of Christ, which they could not otherwise have known, except by express revelation. She is especially mentioned to have been united with them in prayer and retirement, after our Lord’s Ascension, when they chose the Apostle Mathias, and when the Holy Ghost descended upon them. We may be assured that as the Divine Spirit communicates Himself in proportion to the dispositions of those whom He visits, Mary received graces on this occasion, which made her the admiration of the apostolic college, by the increased zeal and constancy she manifested. With such an example before them, need we wonder that the Apostles cooperated so faithfully with the graces they then received; and that they went forth to announce the glad tidings of salvation, without being intimidated by the dangers to which they thus exposed themselves. If, now, they are bright and shining stars in heaven, they owe much of their success to the influence of Mary’s example, and to the efficacy of her prayers.
Considerations from The Illustrated Litany of Loretto
(Rev. Fr. T.C. Pope, 1878)
CONSIDERATION II
The Apostles are called by Christ, Lux mundi, the Light of the world; but Mary is worthy of a more glorious name, and may, in a restricted sense, be called Sol mundi — the Sun of the world; and why? Because, for all those who devoutly supplicate her, she obtains the light of grace, and she irradiates with the beams of her mercy all those who are enveloped in the darkness of adversity. The cloud by day and the pillar of fire by night, which guided the Israelites on their journey through the desert to the land of promise, may be regarded as types of Mary, who by day and by night guides us on our journey, through the desert of this world, to our heavenly country.
CONSIDERATION III
Indeed, all the Apostles joyfully yield their willing submission to Mary as their Queen, and proclaim her praises; but especially John, to whom she was appointed a mother, and Peter, for whom, after having denied Christ thrice, she obtained grace and pardon. Matthew, in these few words, De qua natus est Jesus, qui vocatur Christus — of whom was born Jesus, who is called the Christ, proclaims Mary’s highest praise. At her burial Thomas delivered an admirable discourse, extolling Mary’s praises. Bartholomew recited every day a hundred times, and again he recited every night one hundred times, the Angelical Salutation. James the Elder, even during the life-time of Mary, erected in Spain a chapel in her honour. But why adduce so many instances? All the Apostles at all times, employed every effort in their power to manifest the honour in which they held Mary.
PRAYER (from The New Month of Mary)
O Mary! the Apostles left all things for the promotion of God’s glory; the confessors laboured unceasingly for the same glorious object. Thou hast surpassed the Apostles by the perfection of thy sacrifice, and by the fervour of thy zeal; thou dost excel the confessors, by the intrepidity with which thou didst confess Christ, when abandoned by all, and expiring on the cross. O sacred Virgin! obtain for me a portion of the apostolic spirit, a zeal for my own salvation, and the salvation of my brethren. Make me endeavour, by all means in my power, to extend the kingdom of thy divine Son, and offer incessantly my prayer for the conversion of all who are yet sitting in darkness and in the shadow of death, or who are estranged from the one fold of the one Shepherd, thy divine Son. Make me ever ready to confess Jesus Christ both by word and work, that thus, through thy powerful intercession, … I may be acknowledged by Him, before His Heavenly Father. Amen.
QUEEN OF APOSTLES,
PRAY FOR US!
Regina pacis – Queen of Peace
This hopeful and consoling title was added to the Litany of Loreto following a May 5, 1917 pastoral letter by Pope Benedict XV, pleading for an end to World War I. He wrote:
“Our earnestly pleading voice, invoking the end of the vast conflict, the suicide of civilized Europe, was then and has remained ever since unheard. … To Mary, then, who is the Mother of Mercy and omnipotent by grace, let loving and devout appeal go up from every corner of the earth – from noble temples and tiniest chapels, from royal palaces and mansions of the rich as from the poorest hut – from blood-drenched plains and seas. Let it bear to Her the anguished cry of mothers and wives, the wailing of innocent little ones, the sighs of every generous heart: that Her most tender and benign solicitude may be moved and the peace we ask for be obtained for our agitated world.”
As noted in the May 13 post on the Marian title “Queen of the Most Holy Rosary”, this action of the Pope seems to have been a prelude to the six apparitions of the Blessed Virgin Mary to three shepherd children in an area near Fatima, Portugal, the first of which occurred just 8 days after the pastoral letter. Over the course of these consecutive monthly visits of Our Lady in 1917, she let it be known that world peace would come only through the Triumph of her Immaculate Heart:
“Shortly before Jacinta died, she said to Lucia: ‘I have only a short time left before I go to heaven, but you must remain here below to make the world know that Our Lord wishes devotion to the Immaculate Heart of Mary established in the world . . . Tell everybody that God gives graces through the Immaculate Heart of Mary. Tell them to ask these graces from her, and that the Heart of Jesus wishes to be venerated together with the Immaculate Heart of His Mother. Ask them to plead for PEACE from the Immaculate Heart of Mary, for the Lord has confided the PEACE of the world to her.’” (Mary’s Fatima Message, Father Lawrence G. Lovasik, S.V.D., Sacred Heart Mission Seminary, Girard, PA, 1951.)
Here is an indulgenced prayer to Our Lady Queen of Peace:
Most holy Virgin, Mother of God and our most loving Mother, by thy divine maternity thou didst merit to share in thy divine Son’s prerogative of universal kinship; we, thy most humble servants and devoted children, feel ourselves comforted by the thought that, as it pleased the Redeemer of mankind to have Himself announced by the Prophets and by the Angels at Bethlehem under the glorious title of King of Peace, so too it must be pleasing and acceptable to thee to hear thyself saluted and honored by us under the title of Queen of Peace, a title so dear to thy motherly heart; it is an invocation poured forth with great fervor from our hearts. May thy powerful intercession ward off from thy people all hatred and discord, and direct their hearts in the ways of peace and brotherhood, which Jesus Christ came to teach and enforce among men for the prosperity and safety of all, and in which paths holy Church does not cease to guide our steps. Vouchsafe, O glorious Queen, to regard with kindly eyes and to crown with success the paternal solicitude, wherewith the Sovereign Pontiff, the Vicar on earth of thy divine Son, continually seeks to call together and unite the nations about the only center of saving Faith; grant that to us also in filial submission to our common Father, it may be given to correspond wholeheartedly with his salutary designs. Enlighten the rulers of our country as to those same designs; quicken and maintain peace and concord in our families, peace in our hearts and Christian charity throughout all the world. Amen. (S. P. Ap. July 5, 1927 and July 12, 1932)
QUEEN OF PEACE,
PRAY FOR US!
Regina in caelum assumpta – Queen assumed into Heaven
“How glorious was the Triumph of Mary when she ascended to Heaven. How exalted was the Throne to which she was elevated.”
(St. Alphonsus de Liguori, As Glórias de Maria)
This most excellent title of the Blessed Virgin Mary has certain similarities to the one that immediately precedes it in the Litany of Loreto: “Regina sine labe originali concepta – Queen conceived without original sin;” in that the devotion to Our Lady under this title started long before the Church proclaimed the related dogma. The Assumption of holy Mary has been believed and taught by the Church since the time of the Apostles, who were witnesses of her empty tomb. The title Regina in caelum assumpta was added to the Litany of Loreto in 1951 by Pope Pius XII.
In the apostolic constitution Munificentissimus Deus, promulgated by Pope Pius XII on the first of November, 1950, he defined the infallible doctrine that Mary, the holy Mother of God, was assumed body and soul into heaven. It does not make any statement as to if or how the Blessed Virgin died. Tradition holds that Our Lady did indeed die – to conform, as closely as possible to the life of her Divine Son – but without pain or degradation of her virginal body. St. Alphonsus wrote two theological discourses on the Assumption of Mary, the first concerning Mary’s death, and the second, regarding the entry of Mary into heaven. Both writings can be found in St. Alphonsus’ ascetical work As Glórias de Maria.
In the pre-1955 calendar, the Feast of the Assumption is a Double of the First Class with Vigil and a Common Octave. Here is the proper Collect from the Mass Signum magnum:
Almighty everlasting God, Who hast taken body and soul into heaven the Immaculate Virgin Mary, Mother of Thy Son: grant, we beseech Thee, that by steadfastly keeping heaven as our goal we may be counted worthy to join her in glory. Through the same Jesus Christ, our Lord, Who livest and reignest, world without end. Amen.
Note that some of the pre-1955 missals still in use today were published before 1950, and the Mass found in these missals for the Feast of the Assumption, August 15, is Gaudeamus omnes.
The following is a prayer from St. Alphonsus’ Prayer-Book, by Rev. Father St. Omer (1888):
O most sweet Lady and our Mother, thou hast already left the earth and reached thy kingdom, where, as queen, thou art enthroned above all the choirs of angels, as the Church sings: “She is exalted above the choirs of angels in the celestial kingdom.” We well know that we sinners are not worthy to possess thee in this valley of darkness; but we also know that thou, in thy greatness, hast never forgotten us miserable creatures, and that, though exalted to so great glory, thou hast never lost compassion for us poor children of Adam; nay, even that it is increased in thee. From the high throne, then, to which thou art exalted, turn, O Mary, thy compassionate eyes upon us, and pity us. Remember, also, that in leaving this world thou didst promise not to forget us. Look at us and succor us. See in the midst of what tempests and dangers we shall constantly be until the end of our lives. By the merits of thy happy death, obtain us holy perseverance in the divine friendship, that we may finally quit this life in God’s grace; and thus we also shall one day come to kiss thy feet in paradise, and unite with the blessed spirits in praising thee and singing thy glories as thou deservest. Amen.
QUEEN ASSUMED INTO HEAVEN,
PRAY FOR US!
Regina sine labe originali concepta – Queen conceived without original sin
“How befitting it was that each of the Three Divine Persons should preserve Mary from Original Sin” (St. Alphonsus de Liguori, As Glórias de Maria)
This beautiful title regarding a singular privilege bestowed on the Blessed Virgin Mary has been in use for centuries, even though it was not added to the Litany of Loreto until much later. According to Dom Gueranger in O Ano Litúrgico, Our Lord revealed to His Apostles the truth that the “fulness of grace was in Mary from the very first instant of her existence. She is the future Mother of God, and she was ever holy, ever pure, ever Immaculate.” And this was “believed by each generation of the Christian people with an ever increasing explicitness…” Long before the proclamation of the dogma of the Immaculate Conception in 1854 by Pope Pius IX, the Church celebrated the Conception of Mary on December 8. Also, before the dogma was promulgated the Blessed Virgin appeared to St. Catherine Labouré, in 1830, and commanded the creation of the “Miraculous Medal”, containing the inscription “O Mary conceived without sin, pray for us who have recourse to thee.” In 1839, Pope Gregory allowed some dioceses to add to the Litany of Loreto the title “Regina sine labe originali concepta,” which was then extended to the universal Church following the 1854 Papal Bull Ineffabilis Deus.
The Immaculate Conception, since 1854 an infallible article of Faith, was previously the subject of much study and debate, impossible to outline here. O Ano Litúrgico goes into some detail about the historical development of the dogma, and St. Alphonsus published a discourse on the theological proofs of the Immaculate Conception, a portion of which can be read here. The Feast of the Immaculate Conception, in the pre-1955 calendar, is a Double of the First Class with Vigil and a Common Octave. It is a Holy Day of Obligation in the universal Church. Here is the proper Collect:
O God, Who by the Immaculate Conception of the Virgin didst prepare a worthy dwelling place for thy divine Son; grant, we beseech thee, that, as by the foreseen merits of the death of this thy Son, thou didst preserve her from every stain of sin, we also may, through her intercession, be cleansed from our sins and united with thee. Through the same Jesus Christ, Who livest and reignest, world without end. Amen.
The following is a prayer attributed to Fr. Juniper Serra in honor of the Immaculate Conception:
O purest Queen of heaven and earth, most perfect work of the Holy Trinity, since from all eternity the Father chose you for His daughter, the Son selected you to be His Mother, and the Holy Ghost selected you as His spouse, there could not be the slightest imperfection, not even the smallest shadow of original sin on your soul. As the first fruit of the redemption, your soul was free, beautiful and pure from the initial moment of your conception. Receive, O Mother, in virtue of this singular mystery, my short but prayerful offering or, to put it another way, the humble utterance of your lowly servant. I would like to offer you all the gold of the Indies and all the riches of the entire world. But what greater treasure could there be than a soul redeemed by the Precious Blood of your most Holy Son? Listen to this prayer, uttered by one of little virtue, for together with it I append the most fervent affections which the most gifted among your servants have offered you. In return, all I want is that for today, all the days of my life and at the moment of my death, I might have the grace of choosing you as mother, advocate and patroness. I ask that you take me under the mantle of your protection and, after gazing at me with your merciful eyes, you free me from human miseries, so that my soul may be happy with you in heaven. Amen.
QUEEN CONCEIVED WITHOUT ORIGINAL SIN,
PRAY FOR US!
Mater de Perpetuo Succursu – Mother of Perpetual Help
“She seems to say to all those who suffer: ‘Have confidence in me; I have suffered and I know how to sympathize with you. I am the Mother of Perpetual Help.’”
(Manual of the Archconfraternity of Our Lady of Perpetual Help and St. Alphonsus)
We present, today, some words about another miraculous image: that of the icon of Holy Mary and the child Jesus that goes by a title given by Our Lady herself: The Blessed Virgin Mary of Perpetual Help. The interesting history of the icon dates back to the 1400’s, when it was brought from Crete to Rome, and having passed through several hands, the Blessed Virgin commanded that the image be displayed for public veneration, and she even selected the church where it should be enshrined. The church was dedicated to St. Matthew and was served by the Augustinian Fathers. During revolutions in 1798, the church was destroyed but the image had been previously removed and hidden by the Augustinians. It wasn’t until another church was built on the same site, this time under the care of the Redemptorist Fathers, that Pope Pius IX entrusted the holy icon to their care in December, 1865. On April 26, 1866, the Redemptorists solemnly placed the miraculous picture over the high altar in the Church of St. Alphonsus, for public veneration from that day forward. In June 1867, the picture was publicly crowned, in recognition of being a miraculous image.
In 1876, Pope Pius IX established a Double of the Second Class Feast to commemorate Our Lady of Perpetual Help and the miracles wrought through the icon. Her feast is traditionally celebrated on June 27, and the Redemptorists were given the privilege of adding the title of Mater de Perpetuo Succursu/Mother of Perpetual Help to the Litany of Loreto.
Proper Collect for the Feast of Our Lady of Perpetual Help:
Almighty and merciful God, Who hast given us a picture of Thy most blessed Mother to venerate under the special title of Perpetual Succor, mercifully grant us to be so fortified, among all the vicissitudes of the wayfaring life, by the protection of the same immaculate, ever virgin Mary, that we may deserve to attain the rewards of Thine everlasting redemption, Who livest and reignest, world without end. Amen.
The following is a prayer from the Manual of the Confraternity of Our Lady of Perpetual Help and Saint Alphonsus (1926):
O Holy Virgin Mary, who, in order to inspire us with boundless confidence, hast been pleased to take the name of Mother of Perpetual Help, I implore thee to come to my aid always and everywhere; in my temptations; after my falls; in my difficulties; in all the miseries of life, and above all, at the hour of my death. Give me, loving Mother, the desire, nay more, the habit always to have recourse to thee for I feel assured that if I invoke thee with fidelity thou wilt be faithful to come to my assistance. Obtain for me, then, this grace of graces, the grace to pray to thee without ceasing, and with child-like confidence, that by virtue of this faithful prayer I may ensure thy Perpetual Help and final perseverance. Bless me, O loving and ever-helpful Mother, and pray for me now and at the hour of my death. Amen.
MOTHER OF PERPETUAL HELP,
PRAY FOR US!
Mater Boni Consilii – Mother of Good Counsel
“She receives Truth from her holy Son – the Word – and then relays that counsel…”
The Feast of Our Lady of Good Counsel is celebrated on April 26, commemorating the miraculous arrival of a fresco to an Augustinian Church in Gennazzano, Italy, on the Feast of St. Mark, April 25, 1467. The fresco, depicting the Blessed Virgin with the Baby Jesus, is enshrined suspended in front of but not attached to a wall. The church immediately became a pilgrimage site, and many miracles are attributed to those who pray to Our Lady under this title before the blessed image and even at a distance.
Proper Collect for the Feast of Our Lady of Good Counsel:
O God, who hast given the Mother of Thy beloved Son to be likewise unto us a mother, and hast made famous this her beauteous picture, by causing it miraculously to appear in our midst: grant unto us, we beseech thee, never to depart from her counsels and, by this means ordering our lives after thine own heart, one day happily to reach our heavenly fatherland.
Many popes and saints were devoted to Our Lady of Good Counsel, and in 1903 Pope Leo XIII added the title Mater Boni Consilii to the Litany of Loreto. St. Alphonsus de Liguori had a particular love for the Blessed Virgin in this miraculous image, as described by Msgr. George Dillon in his book Our Lady of Good Counsel:
“Amongst the religious who have been animated with special devotion to the Virgin Mother of Good Counsel, St. Alphonsus Liguori holds the chief place. His love for her was as tender as it was lifelong. No portrait of any other saint is so well-known as that of St. Alphonsus, and it will be remembered that he is often represented with a copy of the miraculous picture of Our Lady of Good Counsel near him. When he was about to die, the daughters of St. Francis de Sales, of whom he had long been the director, begged him to give them some remembrance of him. Then the Saint taking his cherished picture, his dearest and most valued possession, sent it to them with the pathetic message: “I leave you my heart.” The same touching devotion to Our Lady of Good Counsel is shown by the Fathers of the Redemptorist Order founded by St. Alphonsus.”
The following is a prayer written by St. Francis de Sales:
Mary, Virgin Immaculate and my Mother, who art the Mother of Good Counsel and Mother all-powerful, take me under your guidance, because ignorant and blind as I am, I am scarcely able to discern the truly good from that which is evil, on account of the seductions of the devil, my own passions and the false maxims of the world, which draw me from the ways of grace to the paths of perdition. Unless you direct me with the light of your heavenly wisdom I shall not certainly be able to escape eternal misfortune. You, who had the privilege of being on earth the counselor of the Apostles in the establishment of the Church, assist me also by your wise counsels to the end, that I may faithfully discharge all the duties I owe my God and my neighbor. I firmly promise to follow always your counsels, and in my doubts to have recourse to you with confidence. I also promise to cherish a tender devotion to you, as Mother of Good Counsel, so that being guided by your assistance I hope, after the grace of a good life and a happy death, I may be permitted to share in the incomparable glory with which God has crowned you, by praising, blessing and rendering thanks to you for all eternity. Amen.
And this prayer is from Pope Pius XII:
O Holy Virgin, to whose feet we are led by our anxious uncertainty in our search for and attainment of what is true and good, invoking you by the sweet title of Mother of Good Counsel, we beseech you to come to our assistance, when, along the road of this life, the darkness of error and of evil conspires towards our ruin by leading our minds and our hearts astray.
O Seat of Wisdom and Star of the Sea, enlighten the doubtful and the erring, that they be not seduced by the false appearances of good; render them steadfast in the face of the hostile and corrupting influences of passion and of sin.
O Mother of Good Counsel, obtain for us from your Divine Son a great love of virtue, and, in the hour of uncertainty and trial, the strength to embrace the way that leads to our salvation. If your hand sustains us, we shall walk unharmed along the path indicated to us by the life and words of Jesus, our Redeemer; and having followed freely and securely, even in the midst of this world’s strife, the Sun of Truth and Justice under your maternal Star, we shall come to the enjoyment of full and eternal peace with you in the haven of salvation. Amen.
MOTHER OF GOOD COUNSEL,
PRAY FOR US!
