The Hail Mary or Angelical salutation is a traditional Catholic prayer addressing Mary, the mother of Jesus. The prayer is based on two biblical passages featured in the Gospel of Luke: the Angel Gabriel's visit to Mary and Mary's subsequent visit to Elisabeth, the mother of John the Baptist. It is also called the Angelical Salutation, as the prayer is based on the Archangel Gabriel's words to Mary. The Hail Mary is a prayer of praise for and of petition to Mary, regarded as the Theotokos. Since the 16th century, the version of the prayer used in the Catholic Church closes with an appeal for her intercession. The prayer takes different forms in various traditions and has often been set to music.
In the teaching of the Catholic Church, an indulgence is "a way to reduce the amount of punishment one has to undergo for (forgiven) sins". The Catechism of the Catholic Church describes an indulgence as "a remission before God of the temporal punishment due to sins whose guilt has already been forgiven, which the faithful Christian who is duly disposed gains under certain prescribed conditions…"
"Tantum ergo" is the incipit of the last two verses of Pange lingua, a Medieval Latin hymn composed by St Thomas Aquinas circa A.D. 1264. The "Genitori genitoque" and "Procedenti ab utroque" portions are adapted from Adam of Saint Victor's sequence for Pentecost. The hymn's Latin incipit literally translates to "Therefore so great".
"Regina caeli" is a musical antiphon addressed to the Blessed Virgin Mary that is used in the liturgy of the Roman Rite of the Catholic Church during the Easter season, from Easter Sunday until Pentecost. During this season, it is the Marian antiphon that ends Compline and it takes the place of the traditional thrice-daily Angelus prayer.
The Litany of the Saints is a formal prayer of the Roman Catholic Church as well as the Old Catholic Church, Lutheran congregations of Evangelical Catholic churchmanship, Anglican congregations of Anglo-Catholic churchmanship, and Western Rite Orthodox communities. It is a prayer to the Triune God, which also includes invocations for the intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary, the Angels and all the martyrs and saints upon whom Christianity was founded, and those recognised as saints through the subsequent history of the church. Following the invocation of the saints, the Litany concludes with a series of supplications to God to hear the prayers of the worshippers. It is most prominently sung during the Easter Vigil, All Saints' Day, and in the liturgy for conferring Holy Orders, the Consecration of a Virgin and reception of the perpetual vows of a religious or a diocesane hermit.
The Penitential Psalms or Psalms of Confession, so named in Cassiodorus's commentary of the 6th century AD, are the Psalms 6, 31, 37, 50, 101, 129, and 142.
Beneath Thy Protection is an ancient Christian hymn and prayer. It is one of the oldest known Marian prayers and among the most ancient preserved hymns to the Blessed Virgin Mary that is still in use. Papyrus 470, containing a substantial portion of the prayer, was dated initially to the 3rd or 4th century; however later scholars proposed much later datings, even as far as the 9th century. The dating of the Papyrus remains uncertain. The hymn is well attested among the believers of the Catholic Church, the Eastern Orthodox Church and Oriental Orthodoxy.
O magnum mysterium is a responsorial chant from the Matins of Christmas.
"O Salutaris Hostia" is a section of one of the Eucharistic hymns written by Thomas Aquinas for the Feast of Corpus Christi. He wrote it for the Hour of Lauds in the Divine Office. It is actually the last two stanzas of the hymn Verbum supernum prodiens, and is used for the Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament. The other two hymns written by Aquinas for the Feast contain the famous sections Panis angelicus and Tantum ergo.
A sequence is a chant or hymn sung or recited during the liturgical celebration of the Eucharist for many Christian denominations, before the proclamation of the Gospel. By the time of the Council of Trent (1543–1563) there were sequences for many feasts in the Church's year.
Totus tuus is a Latin greeting which was routinely used to sign off letters written in Latin, meaning "all yours", often abbreviated as "t.t.". In recent history Totus tuus was used by Pope John Paul II as his personal motto to express his personal Consecration to Mary based on the spiritual approach of Louis de Montfort and the Mariology in his works. The pontiff explained the meaning further in his 1994 book Crossing the Threshold of Hope where he defines it as not only an expression of piety but also of devotion that is deeply rooted in the Mystery of the Blessed Trinity.
"Rorate caeli" or "Rorate coeli" are the opening words of Isaiah 45:8 in the Vulgate. The text appears at several points in the Christian liturgy of the Western Church during Advent.
Sacrum is the neuter form of the Latin adjective sacer, meaning "holy" or "sacred". It is a large, triangular bone at the base of the spine and at the upper and back part of the pelvic cavity.
Indulgentarium Doctrina is an apostolic constitution about indulgences issued by Pope Paul VI on 1 January 1967. It responds to suggestions made at the Second Vatican Council, it substantially revised the practical application of the traditional doctrine relating to indulgences. The title is taken from the opening words of the original Latin text.
Frank La Rocca is an American classical music composer.
Peter Andrew Kwasniewski is an American traditionalist Catholic writer and composer.
O sacrum convivium! is a short offertory motet for four-part mixed chorus by French composer Olivier Messiaen, setting "O sacrum convivium". It was composed and published in 1937.
Locus iste, is a sacred motet composed by Paul Mealor in 2011. The text is the Latin gradual Locus iste for the annual celebration of a church's dedication. Mealor set it for four unaccompanied voices, at times divided, for the 500th anniversary of the King's College Chapel in Aberdeen in 2009.
