Like a gentle rain to soften every heart

Readers of Vultus Christi may want to pray the following  very ancient litany  of the Blessed Virgin Mary on the feast of her glorious Assumption into heaven or on August 17th, the feast of Our Lady of Knock.  This particular litany is a fine example of the forms of prayer peculiar to the early Irish Church, and a strong proof of the veneration in which our forefathers held the Holy Mother of God. Dating from at least the middle of the 8th century, the litany consists of sixty invocations.  The prayer at the conclusion of the litany is a consecration of Ireland to the Immaculate Heart of the Mother of God.

O GREAT MARY,
pray for Ireland.

Mary, greatest of Marys,
pray for Ireland.

Most great of women,
pray for Ireland.

Queen of the angels,
pray for Ireland.

Mistress of the heavens,
pray for Ireland.

Woman full and replete with the grace of the Holy Spirit,
pray for Ireland.

Blessed and most blessed,
pray for Ireland.

Mother of eternal glory,
pray for Ireland.

Mother of the heavenly and earthly Church,
pray for Ireland.

Mother of love and indulgence,
pray for Ireland.

Mother of the golden light,
pray for Ireland.

Honor of the sky,
pray for Ireland.

Harbinger of peace.
pray for Ireland.

Gate of heaven,
pray for Ireland.

Golden altar,
pray for Ireland.

Couch of love and mercy,
pray for Ireland.

Temple of the Divinity,
pray for Ireland.

Beauty of virgins,
pray for Ireland.

Mistress of the tribes,
pray for Ireland.

Fountain of the gardens,
pray for Ireland.

Cleansing of sins,
pray for Ireland.

Washing of souls,
pray for Ireland.

Mother of orphans,
pray for Ireland.

Breast of the infants,
pray for Ireland.

Refuge of the wretched,
pray for Ireland.

Star of the sea,
pray for Ireland.

Handmaid of God,
pray for Ireland.

Mother of Christ,
pray for Ireland.

Abode of the Godhead,
pray for Ireland.

Graceful as the dove,
pray for Ireland.

Serene like the moon,
pray for Ireland.

Resplendent like the sun,
pray for Ireland.

Undoing of Eve’s disgrace,
pray for Ireland.

Regeneration of life,
pray for Ireland.

Perfection of women,
pray for Ireland.

Chief of the virgins,
pray for Ireland.

Garden enclosed,
pray for Ireland.

Fountain sealed,
pray for Ireland.

Mother of God,
pray for Ireland.

Perpetual Virgin,
pray for Ireland.

Holy Virgin,
pray for Ireland.

Prudent Virgin,
pray for Ireland.

Serene Virgin,
pray for Ireland.

Chaste Virgin,
pray for Ireland.

Temple of the Living God,
pray for Ireland.

Throne of the Eternal King,
pray for Ireland.

Sanctuary of the Holy Spirit,
pray for Ireland.

Virgin of the root of Jesse,
pray for Ireland.

Cedar of Mount Lebanon,
pray for Ireland.

Cypress of Mount Sion,
pray for Ireland.

Crimson rose in the land of Jacob,
pray for Ireland.

Fruitful like the olive,
pray for Ireland.

Blooming like the palm,
pray for Ireland.

Glorious Son-bearer,
pray for Ireland.

Light of Nazareth,
pray for Ireland.

Glory of Jerusalem,
pray for Ireland.

Beauty of the world,
pray for Ireland.

Noblest born of the Christian people,
pray for Ireland.

Queen of life,
pray for Ireland.

Ladder of Heaven,
pray for Ireland.

V. Hear the petition of the poor.
R. Spurn not the wounds and the groans of the miserable.

V. Let our devotion and our sighs be carried through thee to the presence of the Creator,
R. For we are not ourselves worthy of being heard because of our evil deserts.

V. O powerful Mistress of heaven and earth,
R. Wipe out our trespasses and our sins.

V. Destroy our wickedness and depravity.
R. Raise the fallen, the debilitated, and the fettered.

V. Loose the condemned.
R. Repair through thyself the transgressions of our immorality and our vices.

V. Bestow upon us through thyself the blossoms and ornaments of good actions and virtues.
R. Appease for us the Judge by thy prayers and thy supplications.

V. Allow us not, for mercy’s sake, to be carried off from thee among the spoils of our enemies.
V. Allow not our souls to be condemned,but take us to thyself for ever under thy protection.

We, moreover, beseech and pray thee, holy Mary, to accept today the total and irrevocable consecration of Ireland to thy maternal and immaculate Heart.  Let the power of thy intercession envelop this island on all sides; let thy protecting mantle cover it from east to west and from north to south.  Open thou thy grace–dispensing hands over Ireland: let mercy fall upon us like a gentle rain to soften every heart hardened against thy Son and against His bride, the Church.  By thy all-powerful supplication obtain for Ireland the sanctification of our bishops and priests, a new flowering of consecrated life, and the opening of every home to the healing love of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, the blessed fruit of thy womb.

O thou who, in the mystery of thy glorious Assumption, comest forth as the morning rising, fair as the moon, bright as the sun, terrible as an army set in battle array, deliver Ireland from the pernicious encroachments of the culture of death, from the deceptions of materialism, and from all of Satan’s temptations and empty promises.

Immaculate Queen of Ireland, who at Knock didst deign to manifest thy unfailing intercession in a mysterious silence, visit us again in these dark days of a great hunger not for bread, but for the Word of God, and draw all who dwell in this island to the altars of the Lamb who was slain, there to be nourished with the living Bread come down from heaven, in the brightness of the one true faith that confesses, now as always, the glory of the Most Holy Trinity, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, one God, forever and ever.  Amen.