The feast of the Queenship of Mary was established in 1954 by Pope Pius XII. The original date for this feast was chosen as May 31st, but was later moved to the octave day of the feast of the Assumption, August 22nd. This memorial celebrates the same event that is highlighted by the fifth glorious mystery or the Rosary.
Once Mary was assumed into Heaven, body and soul, our Church’s tradition (the wisdom of holy men and women passed down through the centuries by the power of the Holy Spirit) tells us that Mary was then made the Queen of Heaven and Earth.
“Mary is the Queen of Heaven and earth by grace, as Jesus is the King of them by nature and by conquest.” St. Louis de Montfort
Mary is Queen because that is a gift that Jesus gave her because of her being “full of grace”. Jesus is king because he paid the price, he won the right to be King; as God, he is King by his nature.
Revelation 12:1 says, “A great sign appeared in the sky, a woman* clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars”. This is referring to Mary! Right before this, at the end of chapter 11, John talks about how he saw the Arc of the Covenant coming from the Temple, then he sees this image of Mary. There is no more talk of the Arc of the covenant, because MARY IS THE ARC OF THE NEW COVENANT.
Mary’s role as queen of heaven and earth is foreshadowed in the Old Testament tradition of Davidic kings making their mother queen. The queen is then appointed principal advocate for the people to her kingly son, interceding for their needs. 1 Kings 2:19”Then Bathsheba went to King Solomon to speak to him for Adonijah, and the king stood up to meet her and paid her homage. Then he sat down upon his throne, and a throne was provided for the king’s mother, who sat at his right. She said, “There is one small favor I would ask of you. Do not refuse me.” The king said to her, “Ask it, my mother, for I will not refuse you.” King Solomon made his mother queen, and her main role was to present the people’s intentions to the king. This foreshadows, or looks forward to, who Mary was going to be in salvation history.
As Queen and Mother of Jesus the King, Mary is our advocate, the advocate of ALL people who has her intercession. ”Advocate” means to speak on behalf of another. That is what Mary does for us as queen, to speak as our most powerful intercessor to Son.
Kings and queens are mostly concerned with temporal affairs and the state of their kingdom; Mary as Queen is most concerned with the state of our heart and soul and the state of the Kingdom of God here on earth, the Church.
Earlier, I said that Mary is queen by way of her grace. Last week I told you how Mary is “full of grace”; how she possesses the perfection of grace in her soul due to her Immaculate conception.
Part of Mary’s role as Advocate-Queen is to dispense grace. All grace comes THROUGH Mary. She has the ability to give grace to us; an ability given to her by the authority of her son from the beginning of her life. Mary asks her son for the grace we need, then she gives us the grace. 2 Corinthians 12:9 says, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." How true is this for Mary’s life! In the world’s eyes, she was “weak”, a young, 14 year old non married virgin. Yet God’s grace was enough for her to become the Mother of God. Mary knows God’s grace; Mary knows God’s help in an intimate way. She knows how SWEET His grace is.
It’s like she can say to us, “See, I know how much you need this grace I am giving you. This is the grace that helped ME along my earthly journey as I was often afraid, weak, suffering, alone. It is by this grace that I was able to stand amidst the storms of this life with my faith unwavering. Here is the grace you need from God to do the same…” The distinction is that she is not the source of grace, she is the giver of grace. Everything that she does for us is according to God’s will - that is what her whole earthly life was about, it is what her heavenly life is about.
We have journeyed with Mary know from the beginning of her son’s life. We’ve pondered with her what God was doing in her life. He began something great in her that minute she was “conceived without sin”. And as the Angel appeared to her announcing that she would bear a son, Mary begin to experience for herself God’s grace alive in her life. She pondered. Mary “kept all these things pondering them in her heart.” (Lk 2.19). Could she ever had known that she would be made the queen?!
We know Mary suffered an intense, spiritual and emotional martyrdom when her son was killed. We wondered if Mary wrestled with questions like, “Will this end? Can I make it through this?” But, yes, she did. She offered her son for the sake of our salvation; she persevered. And now she is given the crown of Queenship.
Mary was the perfect follower Christ. At all these moments of her life, she was always in union with what her Son wanted; she always said yes to God’s will. She served Christ with the most pure, humble heart. She followed Him every step of his life, taking on his mission as her own. She lived a constant mental life of prayer. She knew the Jewish scriptures intimately. Mary was the perfect disciple.
2 Timothy 4:8 says “Now there is in store for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day--and not only to me, but also to all who have longed for his appearing.” And again, James 1:12 says, “Blessed is the one who perseveres under trial because, having stood the test, that person will receive the crown of life that the Lord has promised to those who love him.” Do these remind you of Mary? Yes, Mary was given the “crown of life, the crown of righteousness” as a gift from Her Son for her steadfast faith.
Just as in her Assumption, we can find hope for our own resurrection, where we will be alive, body and soul, with Jesus face to face, so, by her Coronation, we can look forward to the day when the Father will crown US with the crown of sainthood.
Mary wishes to be queen of our hearts - that is where she desires to reign! Why? Because she wants to make us like herself, she wants to “grace us” with all that we need to “win the race” of this life, to reach heaven. Mary wants to say to us “when the Chief Shepherd appears, you will receive the crown of glory that will never fade away” (1 Peter 5:4) because she has cultivated in our souls her virtues and perseverance in faith. Mary will help insure that we get to heaven so that we may receive the inheritance that has been prepared for us; for we are the royal sons and daughters by way of our baptism, and this earth is not our final home!
How can we make Mary the queen of our heart? We make sure that we are truly devoted to her; not just devoted to her on the outside, and forget about her on the inside of our souls. We can commit ourselves to studying more about her. For me, personally, learning more about her has led me to have the desire to give more of myself to her. And it is a journey!
We can also formally Consecrate ourselves to Mary. We can pray the Rosary - this is a fantastic place to start to show true devotion to Mary!
When we receive the Eucharist, we can ask Mary to be present in our heart so that the King and Queen can reign together in our hearts.
One of the greatest Marian saints is St. Louis de Montfort, and he paved the way for what we know about being devoted to Mary, about being a child of Mary. He says:
“True devotion to Our Lady is holy; that is to say, it leads the soul to avoid sin and to imitate the virtues of the Blessed Virgin, particularly her Profound humility, Lively faith, Blind obedience, Continual prayer, Universal mortification, Divine purity, Ardent charity, Heroic patience, Angelic sweetness, and Divine wisdom. Devotion to Our Lady confirms the soul in good and does not let it easily abandon its spiritual exercises...One devoted to Our Lady does not love Mary just because of the favors she obtains for him, or because she is worthy of love. It is on this account that he loves and serves her as faithfully in his disgusts and dryness as in his sweetness and sensible favors. He loves her as much on Calvary as at the marriage of Cana.”
“One who is devoted to Mary will “esteem her and honor her above all the other saints, as the masterpiece of grace...meditate on her virtues...contemplate her gradeurs...make acts of love, of praise, of gratitude to her...to invoke her cordially...to offer ourselves to her and unite ourselves to her...to do all our actions with the view of pleasing her...to begin to continue to finish all our actions by her, in her, with her and for her in order that we may do them to Jesus, in Jesus, with Jesus and for Jesus, who is our last end.” St. Louis de Montfort
I will leave you with one final meditation from a Catholic Mom “blogger”, Sarah Reinhard: “Time and three babies have softened me and continue to work on me. So does my relationship with Mary. I’m glad for this, and it’s made me realize that yes, people can—and do—change. Thank God!
Now, mind you, I don’t hear Mary talking to me any more than I hear God in anything other than a thought that comes out of nowhere. The voices in my head are, sadly, all me. But over the years that I’ve been Catholic, I have been drawn, over and over, to Mary. I’ve read about her and have prayed quite a few Rosaries.
“As I feel myself growing closer to her, I find that Mary’s coronation makes more sense. Jesus loved his mom so much that he gave her a crown. In my house of princesses and sparkly accessories, this is almost intuitive. A crown is almost a permanent bouquet to some people, though I think Mary likes her flowers fresh as much as the next mom.
My children do many things to show their love for me, and bringing me treasures is one of the most popular. These treasures might be drawings, favorite toys, or freshly picked dandelions. As I smile at them and enjoy their delight in sharing with me, I have an image of Jesus presenting his mother with a glorious crown, and I can imagine her pleasure. I think she accepts our little offerings with equal delight: we each bring her what we can with where we are in life. Her job is to help us grow closer to her son, who can equip us to give her even greater honor.”
Do you desire to grow closer to Jesus, but find yourself struggling in this journey of life? Do you desire holiness, growing in virtue, so you may better serve Christ? Do you want ALL that Christ has planned for your life? TURN TO MARY. As our Queen, she will help us get to Him. She will help us run the race of becoming who we were meant to be. She will help us find the freedom and peace that comes from following her Son.
The Month of May is dedicated to Mary, and there is the tradition of the Crowning of Mary. Let US crown Mary as the Queen of our hearts; let us give her permission to be the mother of us!!
