From the desk of the Tar Heel disciple:
December 12, 2025 (#59)
Three Marian Feasts in a Single Week!
This year, 2025, the second week of Advent sees the liturgical celebration of three Marian feasts: The solemnity of the Immaculate Conception (Monday, December 8), The optional memorial of Our Lady of Loreto (Wednesday, December 10), and the feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe (Friday, December 12). In addition, the optional memorial of Saint Juan Diego, who received the visitation from Our Lady of Guadalupe in 1531, is observed on Tuesday, December 9. With due intensity, the church invites us to turn to the Mother of God in the holy season of Advent.
A previous blog in this series reflected briefly on the patronal feast of the United States, Our Lady of the Immaculate Conception. Its importance was again highlighted in the city of Rome by the customary visit on the feast day of the Holy Father to the famous statue of our Blessed Mother located at the Spanish Steps. In this country, the significance of the feast is declared by its having been made a holy day of obligation for the Catholic faithful.
The liturgical observance of Our Lady of Loreto was only recently (2019) added to the General Roman Calendar by Pope Francis. This feast is most popularly associated with the “Holy House” enshrined within a basilica located in Loreto, Italy. This sacred structure is believed to be the house in which the Blessed Virgin Mary was raised and in which she received the message of the Archangel Gabriel, announcing the Incarnation of Christ. It has been a place of popular devotion since the last years of the 13th century. The story of its legendary transport by angels from Nazareth to Loreto has given birth in modern times to the Blessed Mother, under this title, being assigned as the patroness of aviators. However, there is significant historical evidence that the stones of this structure were brought to its current site by crusaders returning from the Holy Land. Whichever be the case, as Pope St. John Paul II indicated, “The Holy House of Loreto is not only a ‘relic,’ but rather a precious and true ‘icon’…[of] the Incarnation of the Word.”
In addition to the shrine, this title is also well known in relation to the “Litany of Loreto,” with its rich Biblical and devotional imagery, in circulation as early as the mid-sixteenth century. Pope Francis, in 2020, also added three invocations to this historic litany: “Mother of Mercy,” “Mother of Divine Grace,” and “Solace of Migrants.”
Finally, the Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe has grown in popularity in this country in recent times, especially in communities of Mexican descent and among those dedicated to the pro-life movement. The latter is explained by the fact that Mary is portrayed in this famous image as being with child, that is, the Christ child!
For more on the Litany of Loreto:
https://inhisname.com/products/mother-most-powerful-reflections-on-the-litany-of-loreto-16982
For devotional materials related to St. Juan Diego:
https://inhisname.com/search?q=juan+diego&_pos=1&_psq=Juan+Diego&_ss=e&_v=1.0
For written and devotional materials related to Our Lady of Guadalupe:
https://inhisname.com/search?q=guadalupe&_pos=1&_psq=guadalup&_ss=e&_v=1.0
