Some years ago, Bishop Latino gave us priests a book for Christmas entitled Behold Your Mother: Priests Speak about Mary, edited by Stephen Rossetti. This book talks about the special relationship that we priests have with Mary. It really touched my heart to read these reflections by different priests about how they see Mary in their lives and in their priesthood. We have a lot of different days in the Church in which we honor Mary. I enjoy being able to honor Mary in a special way through our Church’s liturgical celebrations. Mary is the mother of Jesus, the King of Kings, so it is appropriate that we would celebrate the Queenship of Mary as Queen of Heaven and Earth one week after we celebrated her Assumption. Pope Pius XII, who also established the Dogma of the Assumption of Mary in 1950, established the feast of the Queenship of Mary in 1954. Like most doctrines and dogma declared about Mary, the faithful for centuries had believed this before it was officially declared so by the Church.
Our psalm today declares: “The Lord speak of peace to his people.” We see Jesus as the Prince of Peace. As well, one of the titles assigned to Mary is the Queen of Peace. In our Catholic faith, we see Mary bring us closer to the values of God’s kingdom, the values of peace, reconciliation, and justice. Mary indeed does all she can through her motherly love for us to guide us to the light of Christ and to help us grow ever closer to her Son.
On Sunday August 20, we celebrated the memorial of St Bernard of Clairvaux, Abbot and Doctor of the Church. He lived in the 11th and 12th centuries and was one of the most influential figures in the Church in the Middle Ages. Bernard had a great devotion to Mary; his spiritual writings on Mary still have a profound resonance in our modern world. I will close my homily with some of his thoughts: “Whoever you are that perceive yourself during this mortal existence to be rather drifting in treacherous waters, at the mercy of the winds and the waves, (rather) than walking on firm ground, turn not away your eyes from the splendor of this guiding star, unless thou wish to be submerged by the storm. Look at the star, call upon Mary. With her as guide, you shall not go astray, while invoking her, you shall never lose heart if she walks before you, you shall not grow weary; if she shows you favor, you shall reach the goal.” Let us unite our prayers with the prayers of Mary, the Queen of Peace.
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