The Queenship of Mary

Today is the Marian feast of The Queenship of Mary. We crowned Our Lady and enjoyed a lovely meal together. The Queenship of Mary is a particularly beautiful feast day and one that is fairly new:

"Pius XII established this feast in 1954. But Mary’s queenship has roots in Scripture. At the Annunciation, Gabriel announced that Mary’s Son would receive the throne of David and rule forever. At the Visitation, Elizabeth calls Mary “mother of my Lord.” As in all the mysteries of Mary’s life, Mary is closely associated with Jesus: Her queenship is a share in Jesus’ kingship. We can also recall that in the Old Testament the mother of the king has great influence in court.

In the fourth century St. Ephrem called Mary “Lady” and “Queen” and Church fathers and doctors continued to use the title. Hymns of the eleventh to thirteenth centuries address Mary as queen: “Hail, Holy Queen,” “Hail, Queen of Heaven,” “Queen of Heaven.” The Dominican rosary and the Franciscan crown as well as numerous invocations in Mary’s litany celebrate her queenship.

The feast is a logical follow-up to the Assumption and is now celebrated on the octave day of that feast. In his encyclical To the Queen of Heaven, Pius XII points out that Mary deserves the title because she is Mother of God, because she is closely associated as the New Eve with Jesus’ redemptive work, because of her preeminent perfection and because of her intercessory power."

What I notice in particular in that quote is this, "At the Annunciation, Gabriel announced that Mary’s Son would receive the throne of David and rule forever." The throne of David and the Jewish Kings was not one with a married couple reigning as King and Queen, but it was the King's mother who was given the venerable title of Queen.

It was the mother of the King who would interceed on behalf of his subjects. Now if Jesus truly sits upon the throne of David as scripture tells us then Our Lady MUST be His Queen, the Queen who interceeds for us...

Here is our Crown for a Queen Cake from Catholic Cuisine. It was so visually delightful, such a splendid idea for this feast! Pop on over and download the template for the biscuit/cookie shape, it was all very easy to make. I used a white chocolate mud cake recipe for the cake.

I added a Fleur de Lys to the top of the cake as it is a Marian symbol that also represented royality.

We read from My Nameday: Come for Dessert the following beautiful meal prayer.

Father: Come, let us adore Mary's Son, alleluia.

All: O Virgin now our Queen, O'er all creation though dost tower,

And every form of loveliness, In rich abundance is thy dower.

Adorned with merits numberless, Give heed to us as now we sing,

And in thy gladness, pray, accept; The humble homage we would bring.

Father: From the encyclical of Pope Pius XII. From the monuments of Christian antiquity and prayers of the liturgy, in short, from all sides, we have gathered evidence affirming the pre-eminence of the Virgin Mother of God in her royal dignity. By our apostolic authority we have therefore decided to insitute a feast of Mary the Queen which is to be celebrated throughout the world each year on the thirty-first day of May.

All: Thanks be to God.

Before we cut the cake we sang the hymn, Hail, Holy Queen Enthroned Above, here is the lyrics.

Tonight we were also able to have Fr Pine with us for the first time in celebrating a feast! To see my posting of Fr Pine and his vestments, pop over to my recent thread with lots of photos.

Happy Feastday!