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In 2012, Pope Benedict XVI went to Loreto to mark the anniversary of Pope John XXIII entrusting the Second Vatican Council to Our Lady of Loreto fifty years earlier. He also wanted to entrust the upcoming Year of Faith to her. Recently Pope Francis added the Memorial of Our Lady of Loreto to the Roman Calendar, as well as adding three new titles to the Litany of Loreto: Mother of Mercy, Mother of Hope, and Solace of Migrants. The Holy Father has also extended the special Lauretan Jubilee, begun on 8th December 2019, until December of this year.

Why is Loreto so important? If you have ever been to that most special place, you will know why. It contains the tiny house where the Annunciation is said to have taken place. Leaving aside the historical origins of the little house itself, and how it got from Nazareth to the east coast of Italy, the focus of prayer in that shrine has always been on this crucial point in salvation history, when a human woman freely said yes to God’s plan: not just for herself, but for the whole of humanity. As Pope Benedict put it in his homily on 4th October 2012: “The will of Mary coincides with the will of the Son in the Father’s unique project of love and, in her, heaven and earth are united, God the Creator is united to his creature. God becomes man, and Mary becomes a ‘living house’ for the Lord.”

I have always loved this image, of making room for or “hosting” Christ. It is after all at the heart of our faith, the one thing that really matters. Come Lord Jesus, there is room in my heart for thee. Hospitality, inviting others to share our table, to take refuge in our home, to take up our time: this is the surest way of communicating Christ. Which is why our faith must be Marian, in order to be rooted in reality, incarnated in action, as hers was.