Tomorrow is The Queenship of the Blessed Virgin Mary (Memorial) attend the Mass without fail. 22 August. Thursday. The Queenship of the Blessed Virgin Mary (Memorial) A Feast proclaimed by Pius XII Eight days ago, we celebrated the Feast of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary. Today, we have another Marian Feast, the Queenship of Mary, proclaimed by Pope Pius XII in 1954 in his Encyclical Ad Caeli Reginam. He made this proclamation in view of the fact that throughout history, both in time of peace and of war, the Catholic faithful have made prayers of petition and veneration to the Queen of Heaven. Following the tremendous destruction during World War II and since the threat of a similar catastrophe filled the faithful with great anguish, the pope invited the faithful to turn to Mary as Heavenly Queen, praying for her protection. Among the reasons given by Pope Pius XII for this feast are: o “From early times Christians have believed that she of whom was born the Son of the Most High received privileges of grace above all other beings created by God. He ‘will reign in the house of Jacob forever,’ [Lk. 1:32] ‘the Prince of Peace,’ [Is. 9:6] the ‘King of Kings and Lord of Lords.’ [Rev. 19:16] And when Christians reflected upon the intimate connection that obtains between a mother and a son, they readily acknowledged the supreme royal dignity of the Mother of God.” (Ad Caeli Reginam; 8) o “The early writers of the Church called Mary ‘the Mother of the King’ and ‘the Mother of the Lord,’ basing this on the words of the archangel Gabriel, who foretold that the Son of Mary would reign forever, [Lk. 1:32-3] and on the words of Elizabeth who greeted her with reverence and called her ‘the Mother of my Lord.’ [Lk. 1:43] Thereby they clearly signified that she derived a certain eminence and exalted station from the royal dignity of her Son.” (Ad Caeli Reginam; 9) o According to ancient tradition and the sacred liturgy the main principle on which the royal dignity of Mary rests is without doubt her Divine Motherhood. In Holy Writ, concerning the Son whom Mary will conceive, we read this sentence: ‘He shall be called the Son of the most High, and the Lord God shall give unto him the throne of David his father, and he shall reign in the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end,’ [Lk. 1:32-3] and in addition Mary is called ‘Mother of the Lord’; [Lk. 1:43] from this it is easily concluded that she is a Queen, since she bore a son who, at the very moment of His conception, because of the hypostatic union of the human nature with the Word, was also as man King and Lord of all things. So with complete justice St John Damascene could write: ‘When she became Mother of the Creator, she truly became Queen of every creature.’ [S. Ioannes Damascenus, De fide orthodoxa, 1. IV, c. 14; PL XCIV, 1158 s. B.] Likewise, it can be said that the heavenly voice of the Archangel Gabriel was the first to proclaim Mary’s royal office.” (Ad Caeli Reginam; 34)
Posted on: Wed, 21 Aug 2013 09:48:28 +0000
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