12 September - The Most Holy Name of Mary

Italic text from The Saint Andrew Daily Missal.
Illustrations from Wikipedia - the free encyclopaedia,
unless otherwise stated.

Greater-Double.
White Vestments.

Our Lady of Ushaw,

Ushaw College, County Durham, England

Author: Zephyrinus

Photo: April 2010.

The Virgin in Prayer.

Giovanni Battista Salvi "Il Sassoferrato", 

Jungfrun i bön (1640-1650). 

National Gallery, London. 

(Wikimedia Commons)

Just, as a few days after Christmas, we celebrate the Holy Name of Jesus, so, after the Nativity of Mary, we glorify her Holy Name. Eight days after the birth of The Virgin, according to the custom of the Jews, her holy parents, inspired by God, say Saint Jerome and Saint Antoninus, gave her the name of Mary.

Wherefore, during the Octave of the Nativity, the Liturgy gives a Feast in honour of this Holy Name.

Spain, with the approval of Rome, in 1513, was the first to celebrate it, and, in 1683, it was extended to the whole Church by Pope Innocent XI, to thank Mary for the victory  which John Sobieski, King of Poland, had just gained against the Turks, who besieged Vienna and threatened the West.

"The Name of The Virgin", says the Gospel, "was Mary." The Hebrew name of Mary, in Latin, Domina, means Lady, or sovereign; for the authority of her son, Lord of the world, makes her a sovereign from her birth, in fact as well as in name. Whence, as we call Jesus "Our Lord", we say of Mary that she is "Our Lady". 

To pronounce her name, is to proclaim her power.

Let us offer the Holy Sacrifice to God to honour The Most Holy Name of Mary and to obtain by her intercession her continued protection (Postcommunion).