Mary, Queen of Heaven

The memorial of Our Lady, Mother and Queen is not particularly old in the churches calendar. Todays memorial concludes the feast begun seven days ago of the assumption and both of these were added to the calendar following the declaration of the doctrine by pope Pius XII in November 1950 - there will be parishioners with us still who remember it.

But the belief in the assumption, body and soul, of Mary, and of her queenship of heaven, were held by the church for generations before, and was built on firm foundations. First of all - most catholics, from both Roman and Eastern traditions, already believed in it. The whole church had been asked the question in 1946, and over 98% of the responses were in favour. The faith of our catholic church is not founded only on the scriptures, we also depend upon the tradition of divine revelation. This was informed by the witness of the people - who had already dedicated many churches to the assumption. The assumption was already witnessed to in the churches liturgies. And the  church fathers including Thomas Aquinas and John of Damascus (8th Century) talk of her Assumption in their writings.

Todays memorial is of Mary as Mother and Queen.

As mother, she interceded for those who were running out of wine at the wedding feast of Cana. This model of her interceding for us, continues in our prayers today. Mary models trust in Jesus, as without his apparent consent, she tells the servants to begin to act in anticipation of the miracle. Jesus does as his mother asks - and performs the miracle that brings blessings on the day.

When we talk of Mary as queen, we express the universal character of her spiritual motherhood of the church. She is our kings' mother, so therefore she is our queen mother. It is entirely natural therefore that she is queen of all heaven, as figured in our eastern window which shows this.