Beautiful Queen of May

The Queenship of Mary

From the earliest centuries of the Catholic Church, Christians have addressed suppliant prayers and hymns of praise to the Blessed Virgin Mary, and the hope they have placed in the Mother of the Saviour has never been disappointed. They have looked upon Her as Queen of Angels, Queen of Patriarchs, Queen of Prophets, Queen of Apostles, Queen of Martyrs, Queen of Virgins. Because of Her eminence, She is indeed entitled to the highest honors that can be bestowed upon any creature. Saint Gregory Nazianzen called Her Mother of the King of the entire universe, and the Virgin Mother who brought forth the King of the entire world.

Our Lady is the first of creatures because she is the Mother of God. No one has had or can have a union with the Most Holy Trinity as close as hers. She is the Most Beloved Daughter of the Eternal Father, the Most Admirable Mother of the Eternal Word, and the Most Faithful Spouse of the Holy Ghost.

The queenship of Our Lady is supernatural in character because she is the first and highest of the creatures of God. She is not the first in the order of nature, for the Angels are more than she. An angel is a pure spirit and, therefore, more than a human creature. But she is the first creature in the order of grace. That is, she received incomparably more graces than the Angels. The graces the Angels received are subordinate to the graces Our Lady received.

His Holiness Pope Pius XII, in his Encyclical Letter of October 11, 1954, “On the Royal Dignity of the Blessed Virgin Mary and the Institution of Her Feast”, ordaining its celebration throughout the world every year on May 31st, reminds us of what Pope Pius IX had said of Mary: “Constituted by the Lord as Queen of Heaven and earth, and exalted above all the choirs of Angels and the ranks of the Saints in heaven, standing at the right hand of Her only-begotten Son, Our Lord Jesus Christ, She petitions most powerfully with Her maternal prayers, and obtains what She seeks.”

Pope Pius XII adds another ordinance: “We ask that on the feast day be renewed the consecration of the human race to the Immaculate Heart of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Upon this is founded a great hope that there may arise an era of happiness which will rejoice in the triumph of religion and Christian peace. Therefore let all approach, with greater confidence than ever before, to the throne of mercy and grace of our Queen and Mother, to beg help in difficulty, light in darkness and solace in trouble and sorrow.” In asking this, the Holy Father was responding to the request of the Virgin Herself at Fatima in 1917, that the world and each soul individually be consecrated to Her Immaculate Heart. She promised that it will be then that “a time of peace will be given to the world.” Do not Mary’s rights as Queen require respect? And will we deny to Her maternal Heart the love it merits, for twenty centuries of uninterrupted intercession on behalf of Her children?

Sources:  Lives of Saints, traditioninaction.org and Heavenly Friends: a Saint for each Day, by Rosalie Marie Levy (Saint Paul Editions: Boston, 1958)