The Collection of Masses of the Blessed Virgin Mary, published by the Congregation of Divine Worship in 1986, and revised in 2012 after the publication of the Third edition of the Roman Missal, is a set of forty-six Masses intended for use at Marian shrines and for communities who wish to celebrate the Memorial of the Blessed Virgin on Saturday. Published in two volumes, a Missal (Sacramentary) and a Lectionary, its status as an official liturgical book confers an authority both on the individual Masses as well as the principles contained in the General Introduction.
The forty-six Masses are arranged according to the divisions of the liturgical year: Advent (three), Christmas (six), Lent (five), Easter (four), and Ordinary Time (twenty-eight). The Advent season celebrates “the two comings of the Lord: the first in lowliness when… the Lord took flesh of the Virgin Mary… and the second in glory, when… the Lord will come to judge the living and dead and to lead the just… where Mary has preceded them in glory.” During Lent, Mary is “the model of the disciple who faithfully listens to the word of God and follows the footsteps of Christ to Calvary….” (Since the suppression in 1960 of the feast of Seven Sorrows of Our Lady in Passion Week, many requested a liturgical commemoration sometime during Lent of the one “associated to the sacrifice of her Son with a maternal heart.”) In the Easter triduum, she is the “new woman” who stands by the tree of life… as the companion of Christ and as the spiritual mother into whose maternal care the Lord entrusts all his followers.” In the Easter season, she is “devoted to prayer with the apostles in trusting expectation of the gift of the Holy Spirit.” The many formularies for the Ordinary Time have one object: “the work God has accomplished in Mary in relation to Christ and the Church.”
The forty-six formularies in the Collection of Masses of the Blessed Virgin Mary come from different periods and sources. Some represent a particular moment in the history of Marian devotion or a mystery or title of particular significance to a diocese or religious order. By making these texts available to all, the Collection presents new possibilities for devotion to Mary with the liturgy. We can hope that the many new images, titles, and contexts in which the Virgin Mary appears will also influence popular devotions and shared prayer, poetry, texts for new hymns, and art.
- Discover more about this resource here: https://www.rmhealey.com/ebooks/collection-of-masses-of-the-blessed-virgin-mary/
- The Lectionary (vol 2) is not currently available in an electronic version. The references to the readings are available here.
