Today we salute Mary, the Mother of God and our mother as well, under the beautiful title Queen of heaven and earth
Reflections on the readings for the Memorial of the Queenship of the Blessed Virgin Mary (August 15, 2022): 2 Thes 1:1-5,11-12; PS 96:1-2,2-3,4-5; MT 23:13-22
MISSIO offers “Preaching Mission,” as a homily help, providing connections to mission from the readings of Sundays, Feast Days and Holy Days.
Accepting and honoring the Blessed Virgin Mary as Queen is dependent on her relationship with Jesus the Son of God and her Son through the power of the Holy Spirit.
This day revering the Blessed Virgin Mary as our Queen demonstrates the love God bears for this precious daughter who bore Jesus Christ, the Second Person of the Holy Trinity. Moreover, it reminds us just how greatly valued each and every human being is to Him. The feast itself was established by Pope Pius XII in 1954, just four years after he had proclaimed the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin as a dogma of the Church. Mary had been called Queen by the faithful from as early as the 4th century, and the title became common in the following centuries. By the 16th century, the Queenship of Mary, like the Assumption, became officially accepted as one of the Glorious Mysteries of the Rosary. Traditionally, it has also been a popular subject in art since the middle ages. While today’s readings do not specifically mention Mary, we learn that in glorifying God, we discover His abiding love for all His people as well as for Mary in a unique way. We also recognize our own human response to God’s mercy and goodness. “Sing to the Lord a new song; sing to the Lord, all you lands. Sing to the Lord; bless His name. … For great is the Lord and highly to be praised; awesome is He, beyond all gods. For all the gods of the nations are things of nought, but the Lord made the heavens” (Psalm 96:1-2,4-5).
Accepting and honoring the Blessed Virgin Mary as Queen is dependent on her relationship with Jesus the Son of God and her Son through the power of the Holy Spirit. As our Lord was dying on the cross, gave her into the care of St. John and gave him, in turn, to her. This was also a beautiful gift to us, all His beloved people. And, in granting us the gift of calling Mary our Mother, He also allows us to revere her and to seek her aid as our Queen. Any and every day of the year, let us turn to Mary as both our mother and our queen for guidance in living as true disciples of her Son and our Savior. One lovely prayer we can say is the anthem that the Church commonly uses during Eastertide, the Regina Coeli: “Queen of heaven, rejoice, alleluia, the Son you merited to bear, alleluia, has risen as He said, alleluia, pray for us to God, alleluia. Rejoice and be glad, O Virgin Mary, alleluia. For the Lord has truly risen, alleluia.”
