Daily Reflection Memorial of the Queenship of the Blessed Virgin Mary

One of the spiritual questions I wrestled with as I became an adult  Catholic woman of faith was “What would be my devotion to Mary?”  Once considered a ‘Catholic thing’ while a Presbyterian, how could I, growing up feeling under-mothered by my own mother who struggled with depression, now claim Mary as my spiritual mother? With no May Crownings, or after-supper rosaries in my past, how would she ‘speak words of wisdom’ to me?  Could I say, “Let it be” and not deny my own sensibilities and yearnings as a contemporary woman?

One way forward was to celebrate and learn from the scaffolding of the Marian Feasts and Memorial Days sprinkled throughout the liturgical calendar. An important takeaway for me: The Church holds two truths in equal measure.  Mary, Mother of God.  Mary, Model Disciple. 

Today, eight days after we have celebrated Mary’s Assumption into Heaven, we claim for our teenage mother of Jesus her new and glorified titles: Mary, Queen of Heaven; Mary, Queen of the Universe. Our readings from Isaiah and Luke on this Memorial call us to celebrate Advent and Christmas in August — Mary as our Theotokos (God-bearer.) With reverence and devotion, we claim her as the New Eve, the New Ark of the Covenant. “Hail, space for the uncontained God.” (Greek hymn from the 6th Century) We mark the capstone fifth decade of the Glorious Mysteries of the Rosary – Mary,  “a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars.” (Rev. 12:1) Mary’s yes resounds through the ages – a yes worthy of our perpetual praise and adoration. 

Tomorrow, let me focus once again on the challenge of Mary as “the first and the most perfect of Christ’s disciples.” (Pope Paul VI) This is the Mary who took risks, who bore rejection, confronted the unjust, identified with the poor – the woman who models for us the perfection of faith, courage, compassion. Mary, full of grace, may we too be bearers of your Word and Spirit.

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“Holy Mary, my Queen, I recommend myself

to your blessed protection and special keeping,

and to the bosom of your mercy,

today and every day and at the hour of my death.

My soul and my body I recommend to you.

I entrust to you my hope and consolation,

my distress and my misery, my life and its termination.

Through your most holy intercession

and through your merits may all my actions

be directed according to your will and that of your Son.”

Amen.

-St. Aloysius Gonzaga, SJ