Looking for a way to pass the time while standing in line at your polling place?
Here’s something beautiful. From Elizabeth Scalia at Word on Fire:
It is well known that on December 12, 1999, Pope St. John Paul II proclaimed Our Lady of Guadalupe to be Patroness of the Americas. Less well known is the fact that our Lord’s holy mother Mary, under the title of the Immaculate Conception, had been recognized as Patroness of the United States since 1846. Under a variety of titles, she is the sole patroness of all fifty states, with the exception of Colorado (which names St. Francis of Assisi as co-patron).
As millions of Americans head to their polling places and cast their votes on this Election Day 2020—a year so fraught with division, fear, illness, and troubled communications—we offer this litany to Mary. We invite you to pray with us, in the hope that our decisions are guided by wisdom and truth, and that the intercessory prayers of the Mother of God—who brings our needs to Christ as she brought the needs of the newlyweds to him at Cana—may soothe our hopes, protect our processes, and help to speed the purposes of God which, St. Philip Neri reminds us, always work toward our good.
May the prayers and good intentions of Christians the world over, joined to the intercessory prayers of the Theotokos, the God-bearer, whose fiat began the whole pageant of our salvation, this day deliver unto us God’s peace, beyond all understanding. And may that peace last throughout the coming year.
A sampling of what follows:
Our Lady of the Gulf, Patroness of the State of Alabama, pray for us.
Our Lady of the Kodiak and the Islands, Patroness of Alaska, pray for us.
Our Lady of the Highways, Patroness of Arizona, pray for us.
Our Lady of the Holy Souls, Patroness of Arkansas, pray for us.
Our Lady of the Refuge and of the Wayside, Patroness of California, pray for us.
Immaculate Mary, Patroness of Colorado, pray for us.
Notre Dame of Easton, Patroness of Connecticut, pray for us.
Our Lady of Mercy, Patroness of Delaware, pray for us.
Our Lady of La Leche, Patroness of Florida, pray for us.
Immaculate Heart of Mary, Patroness of Georgia, pray for us.
Our Lady, Queen of Peace and Star of the Sea, Patroness of Hawaii, pray for us.
Our Lady of Limerick, Patroness of Idaho, pray for us.
Our Lady of the Universe, Patroness of Illinois, pray for us.
Our Lady of Providence, Patroness of Indiana, pray for us.
Mary of Nazareth, Patroness of Iowa, pray for us.
Mary, Queen of Angels, Patroness of Kansas, pray for us.
Mary, Mother of God, Patroness of Kentucky, pray for us.
Our Lady of Prompt Succor, Patroness of Louisiana, pray for us.
Our Lady of Peace, Patroness of Maine, pray for us.
Our Lady of the Assumption, Patroness of Maryland, pray for us.
Do go to the link and pray all of it, and take to heart these closing words:
O Mary…Pray for us today, as we perform a civic duty with our best intentions, and help us to confront the outcome with the faith, humility, and perfect trust you modeled for us at the Annunciation and throughout your life.
In the name of Christ Jesus, we pray: Lord, have mercy upon us, and give us peace.
Amen.
