Denver Newsroom, Jun 1, 2022 / 13:00 pm

As the United Kingdom prepares to celebrate Queen Elizabeth II’s Platinum Jubilee, marking 70 years as monarch, the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales has released prayers for the occasion.

“We pray for Elizabeth, our Queen; may she continue to know the steadfast love of God and serve her people faithfully,” reads the model intention published by the bishops’ conference.

The bishops’ conference said that at all Sunday Masses this coming weekend, June 4-5, each parish in England and Wales should pray “for Her Majesty the Queen to mark her Platinum Jubilee.” Each parish should include an intention in the Prayer of the Faithful and at the end of the Mass recite the “Prayer for the Queen.”

Queen Elizabeth II acceded to the throne on Feb. 6, 1952 at the age of 25, after the death of her father, King George VI. She is the first British monarch to hold her throne for 70 years. Queen Victoria, Elizabeth II’s great-great-grandmother, ruled for 63 years and seven months.

The Platinum Jubilee has led to many celebratory events and a four-day holiday weekend beginning Thursday.

“Parishes may also wish to sing the chant ‘Domine, salvum fac’ and/or the National Anthem,” the bishops’ instruction says. The Latin chant in English reads “O Lord, save Elizabeth, our Queen and hear us on the day we call upon you.” The National Anthem of the United Kingdom is “God Save the Queen.”

The “Prayer for the Queen,” to be said following the Prayer After Communion, reads: “Almighty God, we pray, that your servant Elizabeth, our Queen, who, by your providence has received the governance of this realm, may continue to grow in every virtue, that, imbued with your heavenly grace, she may be preserved from all that is harmful and evil and, being blessed with your favor may, with the royal family, come at last into your presence, through Christ, who is the way, the truth and the life and who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, for ever and ever. Amen.”

The queen is head of the Church of England, a Protestant body which broke from the Catholic Church in the 16th century. Any potential successors to the British throne who become Catholic give up their rights to become monarch. Until a 2013 Act of Parliament took effect in 2015, any potential successors who married a Catholic were barred from acceding to the throne.

About eight percent of the population in England and Wales is Catholic.