Hi, everyone!
This week, in order to potentially get to know Our Lady in a more personal way, I recommend that you pray the "optional" Litany of Loreto for these next six days, if you are able to do so. However, as St. Francis de Sales so aptly pointed out in his book Introduction to the Devout Life, not everyone is called to approach prayer in the same way, so some of us may have the opportunity to pray these optional prayers, but others may not. (By the way, if you've never read this classic book, then I highly recommend that you do so, because it's written specifically for lay people like you and me.)
Anyway, the reason I recommend trying to pray the litanies more frequently during this devotion is that they are brimming and overflowing with rhetorical repetition, which simply means intentional repetition. Again, we may have to slow down on the spiritual freeway so that we don't try to race through the repetition. On the contrary, we should embrace it. So if we can slowly, deliberately, and meaningfully pray The Litany of Loreto every day this week, while gazing at the stunning beauty of Raffaello Sanzio's "The Sistine Madonna," it can potentially give us a deeper appreciation of just how wonderful Our Lady really is. We should never lose sight of the fact that Our Lady, the Queen of All Hearts, is the sweetest, the gentlest, and the most beautiful woman in the history of the world.
In order to find the prayers, as well as the links to magnificent sacred art, please do the following items:
1. Click the following link to go to my website:
http://www.josephpeteranthony.com/total-consecration
2. Scroll down a little farther and click the link entitled "Total Consecration: Day 21" (this will take you to the prayers and the sacred art)
3. Optional: If you would like to pray the Holy Rosary with classic sacred art, then please click on the following link:
http://www.josephpeteranthony.com/rose-let
God bless you, and may Our Lady, the Queen of All Hearts, sweetly shower God's graces upon you!
Joe
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