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August 22, 2022“Let It Be Done Unto Me According To Your Will”
When each of us began our journey of life as children we could not have imagined life being exactly as it has been for us. There have probably been moments that felt even more wonderful than we could have imagined and other moments that may have caused suffering beyond what we would have thought possible. Life is learning and growing, hopefully surrounded by love. For the Blessed Mother, little Mary, she certainly could not have imagined what would eventually be the story of her life.
How do you picture Mary? For some she is the little girl who encountered Gabriel and 9 months later gave birth to Jesus. For some she is the same young mother and bride surrounded by St. Joseph in their home in Nazareth. For others Mary is the sorrowful mother who stood at the foot of the cross and watched her son, Jesus, take his last breath. No matter what your image of Mary is at this moment, each is true. The one image that almost no one thinks of first is the one the Church presents to us for reflection today; Mary who is now, at this very moment, Queen of Heaven & Earth.
St. Therese of Liseux, the Little Flower, wrote a beautiful autobiography, entitled “Story of a Soul.” In reflecting on Mary she wrote: “She is more Mother than Queen.” However, I would like us to take just a moment to reflect on moving this truth one step further. “If Mary is our spiritual mother, and we can approach her as our mother, than what does it mean to have a Mother who is also a Queen?” I have no experience of having a mother who is also a queen. In fact there is probably no one reading this who has literally had a mother who is a queen. I apologize if Prince Charles is reading this.
Our spiritual mother, Mary, the one who has adopted each of us in the Body of Christ, is the Queen of Heaven and Earth. That means we can approach her as our mother in prayer and speak boldly, because she is now, in the spiritual realm, an extremely powerful intercessor. When we approach our mother Mary, the Queen, we can do so knowing that she loves us and wants what is best for us. We can approach in prayer knowing that what we ask her will be brought intimately & tenderly to the heart of Jesus. Let us pray for each other in confidence, as St. Paul did in the first reading today from his Second Letter to the Thessalonians:
“We always pray for you, that our God may make you worthy of his callingand powerfully bring to fulfillment every good purposeand every effort of faith, that the name of our Lord Jesus may be glorified in you, and you in him, in accord with the grace of our God and Lord Jesus Christ.”
I will end with the traditional Marian prayer, the Memorare. This prayer is a beautiful example of how we can pray to our spiritual Queen Mother:
“Remember, O most gracious Virgin Mary, that never was it known that anyone who fled to thy protection, implored thy help, or sought thy intercession was left unaided. Inspired with this confidence, I fly to thee, O Virgin of virgins, my Mother; to thee do I come; before thee I stand, sinful and sorrowful. O Mother of the Word Incarnate, despise not my petitions, but in thy mercy hear and answer me. Amen.”
