This study presents images of the Virgin Mary as found in the hymns of the Catholic Church—from the patristic to the post-Vatican II period. And it also deals with the role and function of the hymn within the Catholic liturgy. Hymns differ from the texts from Scripture in the liturgy. Hymns are poetic compositions with metre and rhyme, composed of strophes; hymns reflect the culture in which they originated. The congregational strophic hymn can be an impressive example of full and active participation, and the hymn’s character and message has sustained the faith of generations for centuries. But, as will be shown, the hymn did not have a secure place within the Catholic liturgy (Ruff 2007: 563).
The Byzantine Church has an abundant hymnology within its liturgy, of which a good portion is related to the Virgin Mary. In the West, by way of contrast, the hymn, with the exception of the medieval sequence, was not a part of the Catholic liturgy. In the Middle Ages, the sequence became a popular participative hymn, especially in Germanic-speaking lands. The Council of Trent reduced the number of sequences. After Trent, the vernacular hymn flourished in Catholic popular devotions, but not within the liturgy. At the Second Vatican Council (Vatican II), the hymn was not eliminated, but questions arose concerning its relation to the central feature of the liturgy. Vatican II presented a profile of the Virgin related to liturgy, Scripture, and the Church which we hope will influence hymns in the future.
Hymns in the liturgy originated in the Church of the East with Gregory of Nazianzus, Clement of Alexandria, and the poetry of Ephrem the Syrian (Fellerer 1961: 25–6). In the West, St Ambrose of Milan (339–391) is considered the ‘founder of Christian hymnody’ (Szövérffy and Hallerton 2003: 7.241–50). St Augustine of Hippo (354–430) recalls his own experience of the singing in Ambrose’s cathedral of Milan: ‘How many tears I shed at the pleasant sound of hymns and canticles sung by the impassioned voices of your church. Their voices poured into my ears and dissolved truth in my heart, and a feeling of devotion welled up from it; my tears flowed, and I was happy with them’ (Confessions 9.6).1 Another account speaks of Ambrose encouraging the people to sing—‘with one voice’—the hymn Veni Redemptor (Celestine I, Sermon against the Nestorians).2
Ambrose abandoned the style of classical Latin poetry (based on the length of the vowel) in favour of a rhythmic metre with a regular succession of accented and unaccented syllables, a four line pattern in iambic dimetre producing an alternating and popular rhythm. This pattern of four lines in several strophes continued for centuries and came to be known as hymni ambrosiani (Britt 1955: xx). Hymns were found in the monastic office of Celestine and also in the Rule of St Benedict. Hymns were in the liturgies of Milan, Gaul, Spain, and Ireland, but ‘as late as the eleventh century, hymns were not part of the liturgy of the Church in Rome’ (Gelineau 1964: 69; Klausner 1979: 83).
In the early Latin hymns of the West, references to the Virgin Mary are found in the hymns related to the birth of Christ. In these hymns, now designated for the Advent and Christmas season, references to the Virgin Mary were integrated into body of the hymn. The opening strophe spoke of the mystery of the Incarnation, and a succeeding strophe may refer to the Virgin Mary.
The influential Advent hymn ascribed to Ambrose was the Veni Redemptor Gentium. The virgin birth announced the wonder of the Incarnation: ‘Such a birth befits the coming of God.’ In the patristic period, a way of designating the spousal character of the Incarnation was the psalm verse: ‘God has set a tent for his sun; it comes forth like a bridegroom from his chamber (thalamus), and like a giant, he wonderfully runs his course’ (Ps. 19.6). It is within the Virgin Mary that the union of the human and the divine occurred.
O come, Redeemer of the Earth, and manifest thy virgin birth.
Let every age in wonder fall: such birth befits the God of all …
The Virgin womb that burden gained, with virgin honour all unstained;
The banners there of virtue glow; God in His temple dwells below.
Forth from His chamber goeth he, that royal home of purity,
A giant in two-fold substance one, rejoicing now His course to run.
(vv. 1,3,4)3
A hymn for the Christmas season was A Solis Ortus Cardine by Caelius Sedulius (c. 450). The first strophes referring to the birth of Christ are part of a larger acrostic hymn. God’s grace entered the Virgin Mary making her the temple of the Holy Spirit. The world’s creator, by whom all is sustained, lies in a manger and receives nourishment from Mary.
From the lands that see the sun arise, to earth’s remotest boundaries,
The Virgin-born today we sing, the Son of Mary, Christ the King …
In that chaste parent’s holy womb, celestial grace hath found its home:
And she, as earthly bride unknown, yet call that Offspring blest her own …
The manger and the straw he bore, the cradle did he not abhor;
A little milk his infant fare who feedeth even each fowl of air.
(vv. 1,3,6)4
Venantius Fortunatus (c. 609), originally from northern Italy, combined the classical with the medieval style; he is ‘not the last of the Roman poets but the first of the medieval poets’. His Quem terra pontus aethera referred to Christ as ‘the long desired of the nations’ who comes to dwell in the Virgin Mary.
The God whom earth, and sea and sky adore, and laud, and magnify,
Whose might they own, whose praise they tell, in Mary’s womb deigned to dwell.
O Mother blest! The chosen shrine wherein the Architect divine,
Whose hand contains the earth and sky, vouchsafed in hidden guise to lie.
Blest in the message Gabriel brought; blest in the work the spirit wrought;
Most blest, to bring to human birth the long desired of all the earth.
How blest that Mother in whose shrine the great artificer Divine,
Whose hand contains the earth and sky, vouchsafed, as in an ark to lie.
(vv. 1,2,3,4, ICEL)
These Latin hymns ‘had high poetic value, never surpassed in the history of Western hymnography’ (Szövérffy and Hallerton 2003: 243). Later, they became part of the Breviary, a collection of psalms, readings, and hymns for those not participating in the monastic office. In the nineteenth century, many of these hymns were translated by the Oxford Tractarians, notably John Mason Neale.
From the sixth to the ninth centuries, Marian sermons and hymns from the Eastern Churches influenced the West. Of Coptic origin from the late third or early fourth century was Sub Tuum Praesidium, regarded as the earliest Marian prayer: ‘Under your mercy, we take refuge, O Theotokos, do not deny our requests, but from peril, deliver us, you alone holy and blessed’. Addressing the Virgin as the God-Bearer (Theotokos) anticipated the title from the Council of Ephesus, 431. Through her compassion, the Virgin Mary assists those in peril (O’Carroll 1982: 336–7; Graef and Thompson 2009: 173).
Another influential text from the East was the Akathist, composed after the Council of Ephesus 431. It is a beautiful and profound Marian hymn, a synthesis of Scripture and theology, with extraordinary literary qualities (Cunningham 2015 82–4; see McGuckin (II.7) in this volume). Each line begins with ‘Rejoice’ (the Angel’s greeting to Mary at the Annunciation, Luke 1:28); the strophes conclude with ‘Rejoice, O unwedded bride’. The Akathist was translated into Latin in about 800 ad, bringing to the West a number of Scriptural and theological titles. It also contributed to developing a new structure of Marian hymns known as Grussenhymnen, that is, those beginning with a greeting to the Virgin Mary, such as Gaude, Ave, Salve, Vale (Meersseman 1958: 1.86–98; Graef and Thompson 2009: 477).
The Ave Maris Stella, a Latin hymn from the ninth century, begins with a greeting. It consists of seven strophes with four lines, in rhyming syllables with a strong rhythmic character. It was a most popular hymn, paraphrased in hymns down to the present. The name Eve, the first mother, is transformed into Ave, the greeting of Gabriel at the Annunciation. Reference is also made to Mary’s intercession: may her infant hear our prayers through her prayer.
Hail, O Star of the ocean, God’s own Mother blest,
Ever sinless Virgin, Gate of heavenly rest.
Taking that sweet Ave which from Gabriel came,
Peace confirm within us, changing Eve’s name.
Keep our life all spotless, make our way secure;
Break the captive’s fetters; light on blindness pour;
All our ills expelling, every bliss implore.
Show thyself a mother. May the Word divine,
Born for us thine Infant, hear our prayers through thine.
Virgin all excelling, mildest of the mild,
Freed from guilt, preserve us eek and undefiled
Keep our life all spotless, make our way secure,
Till we find in Jesus joy for evermore.
(Traditional; adapted)
The eleventh and twelfth centuries witnessed the ‘the golden age’ of Marian devotion in the West. Benedictine and Carthusian monasteries, and later the Dominicans and Franciscans, promoted Marian devotion. The ‘Hail Mary’ and the great Marian antiphons (Salve Regina, Regina Caeli, Ave Regina Caelorum, Alma Redemptoris Mater) are from this period. Beginning with a greeting, the antiphons speak of the divine maternity and the virginity of Mary, and they request the Virgin Mary’s intercession. The most influential of the antiphons, the Salve Regina, ‘expresses to perfection the medieval attitude toward Mary … complete confidence in her, the mother of mercy, to whom the exiled sons of Eve recommend themselves and whose life, sweetness and hope she is’ (Graef and Thompson 2009: 180). The melody of Salve Regina is one ‘great tenderness’, with a slight rhythmic metre and matching vowels. It became a popular evening song (simply known as the Salve), a prayer especially significant for those at sea (Sloyan 1955: 73–87):
Hail, holy Queen, Mother of Mercy,
Our life, our sweetness and our hope.
To thee do we cry,
Poor banished children of Eve;
To thee do we send up our sighs,
Mourning and weeping in this valley of tears.
Turn then, most gracious advocate,
Thine eyes of mercy toward us;
And after this our exile,
Show unto us the blessed fruit of thy womb, Jesus.
O clement, O loving,
O sweet Virgin Mary.5
Another Marian antiphon was Alma Redemptoris Mater attributed to Herman Contractus (1013–1054). To nature’s astonishment (natura mirante), Mary gave birth to the Creator:
Loving mother of the Redeemer, Gate of heaven, Star of the sea,
Assist your people who have fallen yet strive to rise again,
To the wonderment of nature you bore your Creator,
Yet remained a virgin after as before,
You who received Gabriel’s joyful greeting,
Have pity on us poor sinners.
(Traditional translation)
Franciscan spirituality portrayed the joys and sorrows of the Virgin Mary, as presented in the Gospel. At the birth of Christ, Mary was at the manger. At Calvary, Mary stands at the foot of the cross, joined to Christ’s offering. The sequence Stabat Mater, ascribed to Jacopone da Tod, commemorated Mary at the cross, and it was there that the prophecy of Simeon to the Virgin Mary (Luke 2:35) was fulfilled:
At the Cross her station keeping,
Stood the mournful Mother weeping
Close to Jesus to the last.
Through her heart, His sorrow sharing, all His bitter anguish bearing, now at length the sword has passed.
(vv. 1,2)6
In the ninth century, a practice developed in German-speaking lands which would influence hymnody. Words or phrases (tropas) were inserted into the text of the liturgy. For example, to Kyrie eleison would be added Orbis factor: ‘Lord, Creator of the World, have mercy on us’. The Alleluia (before the Gospel) was a melismatic chant (without words) which invited development. The inserted words became a strophic hymn known as the sequence. With the coming of polyphony, the chant melody could serve as the cantus firmus surrounded by other voices.
By the fifteenth century, the sequence was a popular feature of the liturgy, one for each Sunday of the year. Among the authors of the sequences were Bernard of Clairvaux, Peter Abelard, Albert the Great, Bonaventure, and Thomas Aquinas. There were over two hundred sequences devoted to the Virgin Mary (Kehrein 1969: 141–242). Notable was the Ave Praeclara Maris Stella, with over a dozen strophes in short dimeter lines (characteristic of the sequence) in honour of the Virgin Mary’s Assumption (Martin 1954: 407–11). These Latin sequences were translated into German and contributed to the hymn singing tradition of Northern Europe; after the Reformation, they were retained in Catholic hymnals.
In the latter part of the Middle Ages, there was an enormous quantity of hymns, a mare magnum of texts coming from different sources and showing much similarity, but also in different styles (e.g. rhythmic, acrostic with the first letter of the strophe spelling a Marian title). The fifty-five volumes of the Analecta Hymnica Medii Aevi (1886–1922) by Guido Maria Dreves and Clemens Blume contain over 27,000 hymns. There were over 15,000 hymns in honour of the Virgin Mary; one estimate is that some 4,000 were original (O’Carroll 1982: 175–6).
Neither the Virgin Mary nor hymns or Gregorian chant were formally considered at the Council of Trent (1545–63). Earlier, attempts had been made to reform abuses in church music, such as the insertion of texts and the unintelligible pronunciation of the words; some thought that polyphony contributed to making the text difficult to understand.
At its last session (1563), the Council stated that it wished ‘to banish all things that are lascivious or impure … so that the house of God may be seen to be and may be truly called a house of prayer’. Two years after the Council, two cardinals were asked to make specific recommendations concerning polyphony. With the singers of the papal choir, they assembled to judge whether the words of a polyphonic text could be understood. After hearing Giovanni Palestrina’s Missa Papae Marcelli, they were so impressed that they recommended that the composition become a model for the liturgy (Schaefer 2008: 86). Their recommendation would determine the course of Catholic Church music for the next four centuries. In 1904, Pius X stated that Gregorian chant is the ‘supreme model of the sacred music and that classical polyphony, especially that of the Roman school, should be found side by side with Gregorian chant’. The laity were encouraged to participate by singing ‘the chants of the Mass’ (Schaefer 2008: 116).
The Missale Romanum of 1570, to be used all over the Catholic world, was entirely in Latin, and sequences were eliminated, except for those of Easter, Pentecost, Corpus Christi, and the Dies Irae for funeral Masses. It made no reference to hymns. However, the 1576 Breviarium Romanum, containing the Divine Office, usually recited by parish priests, did contain the hymns from the earlier period.
In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, there was a renewal of hymnody in England, not in the Anglican Church, but among the Independents and Congregationalists, represented by Richard Olney, Isaac Watts (the ‘Father’ of English hymnody), and also by John and Charles Wesley, founders of Methodism. An indication of the Counter Reformation’s total exclusion of the Virgin Mary from these communities was that, in the thousands of hymns they produced, reference to the Virgin Mary or any saint has yet to be found.
Associated with the nineteenth-century Oxford Movement in England was the Oratory of St Philip, an English Catholic religious community founded by John Henry Newman (named a Cardinal of the Catholic Church in 1879). The talented Frederick Faber, a convert to Catholicism, was a member of the Oratory. Faber had great influence on all hymnody, Protestant and Catholic, and especially on popular Marian hymnody. The hymns of Faber did not reflect the reserve characteristic of Anglo-Catholicism; rather they were influenced by the warmer Catholic and Romantic cultures of France and Italy.
O Mother, I could weep for mirth
Joy fills my heart so fast;
My soul today is heav’n on earth
Oh! Could the transport last …
(Faber 1860: 161)
Faber wrote what would be known as the ‘Lourdes Hymn’, with the last line of each verse ending with ‘Sweet Star of the Sea’:
Purest of Creatures, Sweet Mother, sweet Maid;
The One spotless womb wherein Jesus was laid.
Dark night hath come down on us, Mother, and we
Look out for thy shining, sweet star of the sea.
(Faber 1860: 156)
Also, among Faber’s hymns was ‘Faith of our Fathers’; its original third verse was ‘Mary’s prayers shall win our country back to thee’ (Faber 1860: 314).
Similar sentiments were in the hymns written by Edmund Vaughan, a Redemptorist priest who translated the hymns by St Alphonsus de Liguori (founder of the Redemptorists). Dal tu celeste trono presented a warm image of Mary within a sombre world.
Look down O Mother Mary!
From thy bright throne above;
Cast down upon thy children
One only glance of love.
And if a heart so tender with pity flows not o’er,
Then turn away, O Mother, and look on us no more!
(Westminster Hymnal 181)
Another hymn of St Alphonsus, translated by Vaughan, was Sei pura, sei pia:
O Mother blest, whom God bestows
On sinners and on just,
What joy, what hope thou givest those
Who in thy mercy trust.
(Westminster Hymnal 112)
Hymns from the nineteenth century were gathered into the Westminster Hymnal (1912), which had a great influence on English-speaking Catholics. Its purpose, as stated in the preface was to ‘contribute … to the devotion and decorum of extra-liturgical worship and popular services’, that is, these hymns were not to be sung at Mass, but rather at evening devotions, May processions, and Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament. Faber and Vaughan were the principal contributors of Marian hymns to the Westminster Hymnal. It contained over thirty Marian hymns; ten were translations from the Breviary and, of the remaining twenty, ten were written by Faber. Also in the Westminster Hymnal was Ronald Knox’s translation of the Ave Maris Stella, and his hymn from Dante Alighieri:
Maiden, yet a Mother, Daughter of thy son,
High beyond all other—Lowlier is none.
Thou are the consummation planned by God’s decree
When our lost creation nobler rose in thee!
(Westminster Hymnal 114)
And Francis Thompson’s:
O Lady Mary, thy bright crown
Is no mere crown of majesty;
For with the reflex of his own
Resplendent throne Christ circled thee.
(Westminster Hymnal 107)
In the United States, the Roman Hymnal (1884) was a response to the Archbishop of New York’s ‘most earnest desire that our people sing together’. It had five settings of the Ave maris stella and also contained what would become the most well-known Marian hymn among American Catholics (found in over forty-four hymnals): ‘Hail, Holy Queen enthroned above’, a paraphrase of the Salve Regina, to which was added a triumphal refrain:
Triumph, all ye Cherubim, Sing with us ye Seraphim
Heav’n and earth resound the hymn: Salve, Salve, Salve Regina.
(Roman Hymnal 69)
In 1955, Pius XII issued the only papal encyclical devoted to church music, Musicae Sacrae Disciplina. He recognized popular religious songs as an aid to liturgical participation, and he counselled that ‘they should be in full conformity with the doctrine of the Catholic faith … and should possess religious dignity and decorum’. He also referred to the possibility of singing vernacular hymns at the missa lecta, but not at High Mass (MSD 105, 194).
The renewal of Marian hymnody first came from individuals associated with the liturgical movement. The Pius X Hymnal contained an original composition, ‘Mary the Dawn’, patterned after the Christus vincit of the Ambrosian liturgy. The structure of the melody included a statement and a response:
Mary the Dawn, Christ the Perfect Day;
Mary the Gate, Christ the Heav’nly Way;
The hymn concludes:
Mary the Mother, Christ the Mother’s Son.
Both ever blest while ages run. Amen.
(Thompson 1994: 132–3)
Among the first hymnals to provide vernacular hymns for the parts of the Mass was the 1955 People’s Hymnal, edited by Omer Westendorf. It presented Marian devotion in a broader dimension, and, something extraordinary for the period, it contained a hymn from Reginald Herber (1738–1826), an Anglican bishop with Anglo-Catholic sympathies:
Virgin born, we bow before Thee
Blessed was the womb that bore thee …
Blessed was the parent’s eye
That watched Thy slumb’ring infancy …
And blessed they, forever blest,
Who love Thee most and serve Thee best.
(Herber 1955)
Other contributors included Michael Gannon’s paraphrase of the Ave maris stella, with a noteworthy line referring to Mary’s universal motherhood: ‘Mother of all races, Queen of Heaven’s graces, Maria’. Another hymn by Gannon was ‘O Mary of all women, you are the Chosen One’, anticipating Vatican II’s reference to Mary’s unique holiness (LG 56).
O Mary, you embody all God taught to our race,
For you are first and foremost in fullness of His grace.
The 1964 People’s Mass Book contained ‘Sing of Mary’, a hymn from the Episcopalian Hymnal (1940) by Roland Ford Palmer, editor of the Canadian Book of Common Prayer. The hymn contains a succinct statement on the Incarnation (‘Word made flesh, our very brother, takes our nature by his birth’) and a Trinitarian doxology with a Marian dimension:
Glory be to God the Father,
Glory be to God the Son,
Glory be to God the Spirit,
Glory to the Three in One.
From the heart of blessed Mary,
From all saints the song ascends,
And the Church the strain reechoes
Unto earth’s remotest ends.
(People’s Mass Book R10 v5, 226)8
Vatican II spoke of the ‘full, conscious, and active participation of the people in the celebration of the liturgy’ (SC 14). It also referred to ‘the musical tradition of the universal church [as] a treasure of inestimable value, greater than that of any other art’ (SC112). Composers were encouraged to cultivate sacred music and increase its store of treasures (SC 115).
After the Council, the 1967 Instruction Musicam Sacram outlined various levels of participation at Mass, beginning with the acclamations, then the Ordinary of the Mass (Kyrie, Gloria, Creed, Sanctus, Agnus Dei) and finally the Mass ‘Propers’ (Introit, Responsorial, Offertory, and Communion). Gregorian chant and polyphony, suited to the Roman liturgy, were given pride of place, and the music was considered ‘more holy in proportion as it is more closely connected with the liturgical action, whether it adds delight to prayer, fosters unity of minds, or confers greater solemnity upon the sacred rites … religious singing by the faithful to be intelligently fostered, so that the voice of the faithful may be heard’ (MS 112, 115).
The directives in the successive editions of the Roman Missal indicated that the Propers (Entrance, Responsorial, and Communion antiphons) were preferably to be sung by a cantor (a new office), choir, and congregation. As a last possibility, ‘a hymn, psalm, or other song of praise’ was permitted. This distinction led some to hold that, since the antiphons and psalms of the Propers were related to the central action of the liturgy, they were the preferable texts for the various parts of the Mass to the exclusion of the hymn (this question is well discussed in Ruff 2005: 19–25).
In the years immediately after Vatican II, a vacuum of vernacular liturgical music had to be filled. Documents from the American bishops spoke of the evaluation of texts from liturgical, pastoral, and musical viewpoints. New styles of music appeared. The eclipse of the hymnal gave rise to endless provisional compositions and also to the elimination of traditional Marian hymns, a factor contributing to the ‘Marian silence’ in the decade after Vatican II (Graef and Thompson 2009: 415–17). For young people, the prevailing style on college campuses was the ‘Folk Mass’, with at times a cabaret atmosphere. Obviously, the new style did not please all: see Why Catholics Can’t Sing: The Culture of Catholicism and the Triumph of Bad Taste (Day 1990).
By the 1990s, voices were raised in criticism of the experimentation in church music which had occurred during the previous quarter century. If ‘the treasury of sacred music is to be preserved and fostered with great care,’ more attention and support must be given to developing an ‘authentic musical tradition,’ one which would be ‘participative and related to culture’ (Swain 1987: 421–2). Liturgical and musical education among the seminarians and clergy was needed, along with the support and encouragement of professional musicians. Part of this movement toward an ‘authentic musical tradition’ had to include a repertoire of congregational hymns which would survive more than a generation (Swain 1989: 188). Similar sentiments were expressed in the 1995 Snowbird Statement, composed by a group of seventeen musicians and liturgists from English-speaking countries. Along with an affirmation of chant and polyphony, there was strong recommendation for the development of hymnody:
We call for a positive approach to hymnody in the Roman liturgy and the development of criteria for the appropriate use of hymnody in all liturgical rites. The tradition of hymnody stretches back to congregational office hymns of the early church; includes sequences of the medieval eucharistic liturgy which in effect were strophic hymns; and extends through vernacular medieval community hymn singing which was already well developed before the Reformation. The use of hymnody, already a feature of preconciliar eucharistic and devotional services, has continued to grow since Vatican Council II and deserves today stronger encouragement.
Strophic hymnody, a well-established part of the religious culture of the English-speaking world, may rightly be seen as an authentic expression of liturgical inculturation. Hymnody is also ecumenically important as a musical between various Christian traditions. (Snowbird Statement, Part 3)
Liturgiam Authenticam (2001) was the first document from a Vatican congregation to speak favourably about and to recommend hymns in the liturgy: ‘Sung texts and liturgical hymns have particular importance and efficacy … they express in an authentic way the message of the liturgy while fostering a sense of common faith and communion in charity … they should be relatively fixed to avoid confusion’, and episcopal conferences were to compile a ‘directory of texts’ (LA 108). However, the Roman Missal (2011) continued to indicate preference for antiphons and psalms, with no reference to liturgical hymns (sections 48, 61).
In the nineteenth and early twentieth century, popular Marian hymns in the vernacular flourished outside of the liturgy; the image of Mary in those hymns was mother, intercessor, model of purity. A more formal and theological image of the Virgin Mary was present in the doctrines defined by the Church: the Divine Motherhood (Theotokos), the Virginity of Mary, the Immaculate Conception, and the Assumption. To commemorate the centenary of the proclamation of the dogma of the Immaculate Conception, Pius XII designated 1954 as a Marian Year, and in Fulgens Corona (1953), he referred to the Immaculate Conception and the Assumption as ‘two singular privileges, bestowed upon the Virgin Mother of God’. He instituted the feast of the Queenship of the Virgin Mary, popularly viewed as the ‘crowning’ of Mary alongside Christ the King.
Vatican II’s image of Mary was quite different: simply stated, it presented an image of Mary related to a much larger liturgical, Scriptural, ecclesial, and theological context. Vatican II’s first document spoke of the Virgin Mary as united by an ‘inseparable bond’ to the mystery of Christ celebrated in the annual liturgical cycle: the Virgin Mary was ‘the most excellent fruit of redemption … the faultless image and the model of that which the Church wishes to be’ (SC 103). The title of the Council’s document on Mary was The Blessed Virgin in the Mystery of Christ and the Church (LG chapter 8, 52–69).
The Council’s image of Mary was drawn from the New and Old Testament as well as from the sacred tradition and the history of salvation. In particular, the books of the Old Testament, as they are read in the Church, were to be understood ‘in the light of a further and full revelation, bringing the figure of the Woman, Mother of the Redeemer in a gradually clearer light’ (LG 55). Mary was prefigured as the Promised Woman of Genesis (Gen. 3:15), as the Daughter of Zion, as identified with the Poor of Israel awaiting the redeemer: ‘Having entered deeply in the history of salvation, Mary, in a way, united in her person and re-echoes the most important doctrines of the faith’ (LG 66). And, as Paul VI promulgated Lumen Gentium, he spoke of the Virgin Mary’s relation to God’s people:
Although adorned by God with the riches of admirable prerogatives, to make her a worthy Mother of the Word Incarnate, she is nevertheless very close to us. Daughter of Adam, like ourselves, and therefore our sister through ties of nature, she is, however, the creature who was preserved from original sin in view of the merits of the Saviour, and who possesses besides the privileges obtained the personal virtue of a total and exemplary faith, thus deserving the evangelical praise, beata quae credidisti (Blessed art thou who believed). In her earthly life, she realized the perfect image of the disciple of Christ, reflected every virtue, and incarnated the evangelical beatitudes proclaimed by Christ. (Paul VI 1964)
In Marialis Cultus, his 1974 letter on Marian devotion, Paul VI affirmed that the liturgy is a celebration of the mystery of Christ, that all Christian worship takes its origin from and its complete expression in Christ and leads through Christ in the Holy Spirit to the Father. The mystery of Christ includes many dimensions—the Church, the Scripture, the Communion of Saints. Within this one mystery of Christ, Marian devotion occupies a ‘singular place’, reflecting the place which Mary holds in God’s redemptive plan. ‘In the Virgin Mary, everything is related to Christ’ (MC 25). She is the ‘exemplar of the Church in divine worship’, the ‘model of the spiritual attitudes with which the Church celebrates and lives the divine mysteries’ (MC 16, 21). Mary is worthy of imitation because she was the first and the most perfect of Christ’s disciples (MC 35).
This relational character of Marian devotion to the mystery of Christ and the Church was further developed in The Virgin Mary in Intellectual and Spiritual Formation, the 1988 Letter from the Vatican Congregation for Catholic Education, containing references to Vatican II and the writings of Paul VI and John Paul II. In the mystery of the liturgy, reference to the Virgin Mary can serve to complement the liturgical text:
In Mary in fact “everything is relative to Christ” (MC 25). In consequence, “only in the mystery of Christ is her mystery fully made clear” (RM 4,19). The more the Church deepens her appreciation of the mystery of Christ, the more it understands the singular dignity of the Mother of the Lord and her role in the history of salvation. But, in a certain measure, the contrary is also true: the Church, through Mary, that “exceptional witness to the mystery of Christ,” (RM 27) has deepened its understanding of the mystery of the kenosis of the “Son of God” (Lk 3:38; cf. Phil 2:5–8) who became in Mary “Son of Adam”, (Lk 3:38) and has recognized more clearly the historical roots of the “Son of David,” (cf. Lk 1:32), his place among the Hebrew people, his membership in the “poor of Yahweh” (VM 19).
The Collection of Masses of the Blessed Virgin Mary (1986) was a significant liturgical document relating the Virgin Mary to the liturgy celebrated not only in Advent and Christmas but throughout the liturgical year: it was set of forty-six Votive Masses for possible use on Saturday of the Virgin Mary and for Masses at Marian shrines. Its Lectionary (readings from Scripture) contained twenty readings from the Old Testament, twenty-nine psalms, selections from the four Gospels, as well as readings from the Acts of the Apostles, the Pauline letters, and the Book of Revelation. The ‘primary criterion’ for this arrangement was to illustrate the bonds which unite Mary to the mystery of Christ, celebrated in the seasons of liturgical year (Advent, Christmas, Lent, Easter, Ordinary Time). The Collection did not wish to create Marian feasts separate from the seasons of the liturgical year but rather to underline the Marian dimension of the liturgical seasons.
Many prayer texts in the Collection come from ancient sources; the forty-six Eucharist Prefaces were for the most part newly composed or revised for the Collection (in beautiful patristic Latin). Each Votive Mass in the Collection has an introduction explaining the Scriptural readings and the tradition related to the Mass. A few examples: the Advent season includes references to Mary as Daughter of Israel, as the new Ark of the Covenant, as the virgin who bore Emmanuel (Isaiah 7, 14), as a member of the Poor of Israel awaiting the redeemer, as the woman of the Magnificat. The Christmas season views Mary as Mother of God and of the Saviour, as exemplar of the Church. The Lenten season presents Mary as disciple, as associate of Christ at the cross. Ordinary Time presents Mary as servant of the Lord; as image, mother, and model of the Church; as pillar of faith, help of Christians, Queen of Peace.
Marian devotion is not independent or apart from the mystery of Christ; rather it is part of Christian worship. Needed are occasional references to the Virgin Mary in the hymns of the liturgy, especially those related to the feasts and the different seasons of the liturgical year. Similar to early Latin hymns, the hymn may be devoted to the mystery of Christ, the Church, the Eucharist, with a reference to Mary as participant, model, exemplar. Of the different moments in the liturgy, the Offertory and the Communion offer appropriate moments for such commemorations (Harmon 1997). The hope is that the image of the Virgin Mary related to the mystery of Christ, to the Church, to Scripture, and to Tradition will become part of Catholic devotional and liturgical culture.
Here are recognized the contribution which dedicated women (members of religious congregations) have made to the renewal of Marian hymns. The first is a hymn from the Benedictine Nuns of Stanbrook Abbey, one of several hymns they contributed to the hymns of the Liturgy of the Hours (1975):
Mary, crowned with living light, Temple of the Lord.
Place of peace and holiness, Shelter of the Word.
Mystery of sinless life in our fallen race,
Free from shadow you reflect plenitude of grace.
Virgin-mother of our God, lift us when we fall, Who were named upon the Cross Mother of us all. Father, Son and Holy Ghost, Heaven sings your praise; Mary magnifies your name, Through eternal days.
(Christian Prayer 176)9
Delores Dufner, OSB, from the Benedictine Monastery, St Joseph, Minnesota, presents the Virgin Mary as model of faith:
Mary, first among believers
Trusting in the angel’s word,
You consented and, conceiving,
Brought to birth the Son of God.
Mother now of all believers,
Give our fragile faith increase;
May we, trusting in God’s promise,
Doubts and useless fears release.
Mary, first among the blessed,
Robed in heaven’s beauty bright,
You rejoice with saints and angels
In your Son’s resplendent light.
Mother now of all the blessed,
Make your pilgrim people strong;
Keep us faithful till we join you,
Praising God in endless song.
Mary Frances Fleischaker, OP (Adrian Dominican Sisters), speaks of the Virgin Mary as recipient of God’s promises, disciple, woman of the Gospel, and model of prayer:
Mary, woman of the promise;
Vessel of your people’s dreams:
Through your open, willing spirit
Waters of God’s goodness streamed.
Mary, song of holy wisdom,
Sung before the world began,
Faithful to the Word within, you
Carried out God’s wondrous plan.
Mary, morning star of Justice;
Mirror of the radiant light,
In the shadows of life’s journey,
Be a beacon for our sight.
Mary, model of compassion,
Wounded by your offspring’s pain,
When our hearts are torn by sorrow,
Teach us how to love again.
Mary, woman of the Gospel,
Humble home for treasured seed
Help us to be true disciples
Bearing fruit in word and deed.