From Father Carey’s message this week . . .

Last Monday, we celebrated our patronal feast, the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary. This Monday, we will celebrate the Queenship of our Blessed Mother. So often, usually in May, we place a simple crown on the Statue of Mary. We do so to remind us that Christ has crowned his mother with grace and honor for all time. This feast, on the octave of her Assumption into heaven, we celebrate Mary as Queen of Heaven and Earth.

In the Chapter 2, verse 20 of the first book of Kings, King Solomon said to his mother, Bathsheba seated on a throne at his right, “Make your request, Mother, for I will not refuse you.”

When the Angel Gabriel appeared to Mary and told her she was to bear a son, Gabriel told Mary that her child would “Be called Son of the Most High” and that he “would be given the Throne of David his Father and his reign would have no end.”

If Solomon, David’s son, placed his mother on a Throne at his right and promised her that he would deny her nothing, how much more honor would the Son of the Most High grant to his mother, the Blessed Virgin Mary.

Solomon, as great King as he was, was a King of earth. His reign had a beginning and an end. But as Gabriel told Mary the reign of her Son would have no end. He is to reign forever and his
mother, at his right side, forever intercedes for us.

But it is not her own Glory that Mary seeks. As we celebrate her coronation as Queen of Heaven and Earth, we remember the only title Mary ever claimed is the one she used when the Angel
Gabriel first appeared to her. She said “I am the maid-servant of the Lord” and she continues to serve as she leads us to her son.

These great feasts, the Assumption and the Queenship of our Blessed Mother, are given to us a sign of hope and model of faith. If we are willing to follow the example of Mary who was always ready to say “Yes” to God we too may one day reign in heaven with the Queen of heaven and earth who calls us her children.