By Deacon Joseph M. Donadieu

The most memorable image from any ordination – whether for a deacon, a priest or even a bishop – is probably that of the men to be ordained lying prostrate on the floor while the cantor, choir and congregation chant the Litany of the Saints.

In a few days, on May 10 in St. Mary of the Assumption Cathedral, Trenton, a group of men will come before Bishop David M. O’Connell, C.M., to be ordained permanent deacons. This group of 13 men is the 37th class to be ordained permanent deacons for the Diocese of Trenton. After making their promise of respect and obedience to the Bishop and his successors, they will file out from the sanctuary to the center aisle and lay prostrate as the congregation prays for them.

Prostration is perhaps the most dramatic and profoundly expressive position of prayer and a manifestation of our humility before God and a signal gesture of our awareness of our personal limitations, our failures and our weaknesses.

The Litany of the Saints itself heightens our awareness of our unworthiness and is a plea for divine mercy and a prayer for intercession on our behalf by those saintly men and women who have gone before us and now live forever in the presence of the Beatific Vision.

Consisting of short invocations, first to God the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, then to the Virgin Mary, the angels, martyrs and saints, to which the congregation responds “Pray for us” (or, in Latin, “Ora pro nobis” or “Orate pro nobis” for an invocation to more than one saint, as in “St. Francis and St. Dominic”). It ends with a series of petitions to God to hear our prayers.

One of the oldest prayers in the Church still in use, it dates to St. Gregory the Great in 595, who introduced its use following a series of floods and the outbreak of disease. The Litany of the Saints is prayed at ordinations, during the Easter Vigil before the blessing of the water, at religious professions, the blessing of abbots and the dedications of churches and altars.

The Litany is chanted during conclaves for the election of a new pope and may be used in funerals, as it was during the funeral rites for Pope John Paul II, and quite appropriately for the canonization of saints, as it was during the recent canonization of St. John XXIII and St. John Paul II.

The Litany may also be used, quite appropriately, on All Saints Day and All Souls Day.

A much abbreviated form of the Litany of the Saints is used during the ritual for the Baptism of Infants, and the names of their patron saints may be inserted among the invocations.

“Pray for us… Pray for us…” The rhythmic chant of the Litany of the Saints is both beautiful and mesmerizing as it helps to lift to God the heart and minds of those who pray it. As one becomes immersed in flow of the prayer, with invocation and response, one is drawn from the here and now to the now and always. Joined as one, we pray for one another and ask all who have gone before us in faith, all the saints, all the holy men and women to pray for us.

Never alone, we come to understand that we are in the Communion of Saints, the vast assembly of the redeemed in heaven and on earth, united in the one Body of Christ, in faith and love, made one in an unbreakable bond through one Baptism and our blessed sharing in the One Bread and the One Cup of eternal life.

Christ hear us. Lord Jesus, hear our prayer.

Deacon Joseph Donadieu is assistant director in the diocesan Office of Clergy and Consecrated Life and a former editor of The Monitor.