Rooted in Sacred Scripture and professed in prayers and hymns, the Catholic Church considers the Blessed Virgin Mary to be the Queen of Heaven and Earth.
The Old Testament kings made their mothers the queen, instead of their wives. The angel Gabriel announced that Jesus would reign on the throne of David forever and Elizabeth addressed Mary as the mother of the Lord.
King Solomon’s mother even had a throne at his right hand and wore a crown. The mother of our Savior should be honored at least that much.
She is highly honored in a special way, more than any other saint, but although she is our queen, Mary is never the subject of our worship or adoration.
Mary’s coronation as Queen of Heaven and Earth is meditated on as the Fifth Glorious Mystery of the Rosary.
Pope Pius XII proclaimed the Queenship of Mary and established a feast in 1954, although the Catholic Church has acknowledged Mary’s queenship as a share of her Son’s kingship since its earliest days.
The Church celebrates the Queenship of the Blessed Virgin Mary each year on August 22, on the Octave of her Assumption into Heaven.
Mary is Queen of Heaven and Earth:
A unique role in salvation history:
A great sign appeared in the sky, a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars.
Revelation 12: 1
A woman in Heaven wearing a crown of twelve stars:
The queen mother in the midst of a great battle:
The child is Jesus and the woman is Mary:
“Finally the Immaculate Virgin, preserved free from all stain of original sin, when the course of her earthly life was finished, was taken up body and soul into heavenly glory, and exalted by the Lord as Queen over all things, so that she might be the more fully conformed to her Son, the Lord of lords and conqueror of sin and death.” The Assumption of the Blessed Virgin is a singular participation in her Son’s Resurrection and an anticipation of the resurrection of other Christians.
Catechism of the Catholic Church 966
The queen is the mother of the king:
Mary, full of grace, also exerts a fullness of royal power:
The mother of Jesus must play a role:
Implications of Mary’s role as Queen:
Mary is Queen because she is uniquely conformed to her Son, both on the earthly journey and in heavenly glory. Ephrem the Syrian, Syria’s great saint, said of Mary’s queenship that it derives from her motherhood: she is Mother of the Lord, of the King of kings and she points Jesus out to us as our life, our salvation and our hope. In his Apostolic Exhortation Marialis Cultus the Servant of God Paul VI recalled: “In the Virgin Mary everything is relative to Christ and dependent upon him. It was with a view to Christ that God the Father, from all eternity, chose her to be the all-holy Mother and adorned her with gifts of the Spirit granted to no one else”
Pope Benedict XVI, General Audience, 22 August 2012
Exercising her queenship through obedience to God:
The Truth, Goodness, and Beauty of the Catholic Church
The Bishop of Rome is part of the true Church:
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