Prayers · Common of Saints

Common of Virgins — Generic prayer to the Holy consecrated Virgins

The Church honours with proper liturgical cult the Holy Virgins — women who, drawn by the love of Christ, consecrated to him their virginity as an eschatological sign of the Kingdom of Heaven, in fulfilment of the Lord’s word: «There are eunuchs who have made themselves eunuchs for the kingdom of heaven» (Mt 19:12). Among them the Church venerates virgins of the era of persecutions (St Agnes, St Cecilia, St Agatha, St Lucy — commemorated in the Roman Canon), consecrated virgins (St Scholastica, St Clare of Assisi, St Teresa of Avila), modern virgin martyrs (St Maria Goretti, St Joan of Arc), lay virgins (St Gianna Beretta Molla). The Catechism of the Catholic Church nn. 922-924 teaches that the Order of Virgins is one of the most ancient forms of consecrated life, known from apostolic times, and was restored as a proper institute by Paul VI on 31 May 1970 (Ordo Consecrationis Virginum).

Lord Jesus Christ, Bridegroom of virgin souls, who chose for yourself, throughout the centuries, a multitude of generous virgins who, to love you without sharing, renounced marriage and motherhood according to the flesh, to be spiritual mothers of souls and an anticipated sign of the eternal nuptials of the Lamb with the Church: grant us to honour worthily the Holy Virgin (N.) celebrated today, and to follow her example, each according to his state.

To those consecrated in virginity, grant persevering joy; to the Christian adolescents and young women of our time, the courage of chastity amid the pressures of the world; to Christian spouses, the sense of the indissolubility of marriage as a participation in the love which unites Christ to the Church; and to all of us, the hope of arriving at the eternal contemplation of the Lamb standing upon Mount Sion, and with him a hundred and forty-four thousand who had his name and the name of his Father written on their foreheads (cf. Rev 14:1-4).

Through Christ our Lord.

Amen.

Our Father. Hail Mary. Glory be.

Source: Own composition in the form of a traditional collect, based on the structure of the Common of Virgins in the Roman Missal; doctrine on the Order of Virgins from the Catechism of the Catholic Church nn. 922-924; <em>Ordo Consecrationis Virginum</em> of Paul VI (31.05.1970); Scriptural citations Mt 19:12 and Rev 14:1-4 from the Douay-Rheims Bible

Ecclesiastical approval: Common of Virgins in the Roman Missal (3rd typical ed. 2002) and in the Liturgy of the Hours (Vol. IV, Common of Virgins); restoration of the <em>Ordo Consecrationis Virginum</em> by Paul VI by decree of the Sacred Congregation for Divine Worship of 31 May 1970; the Roman Canon of the Mass explicitly mentions seven virgin martyrs (St Felicity, Perpetua, Agatha, Lucy, Agnes, Cecilia, Anastasia)

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