The Queenship of Our Lady was proclaimed as a liturgical feast by Pope Pus XII on 11 Oct. 1954. She has always been a Mother and Queen to the People redeemed by Her Son. Whenever the Church was in danger Mary like a brave and loving Queen came to the protection of her people. The Church had no hesitation on declaring that the wars She won against the moors, who wanted to make “Vatican a stable for their horses,” was through her power which the Christians obtained through the recitation of the Rosary.
Devotion to Our Blessed Mother is as old as the Church. The apostles afraid of the Jews, who killed Jesus, were hiding away in an upper room, praying and waiting for the Holy Spirit. Mother Mary was their inspiration and support. And truly Mary has proved to be a loving mother to every Child that called upon her. What a joy to know that there is a mother in heaven praying for us and waiting for us. Hundreds of titles have been given to Our Blessed Lady throughout the long history of the Church. But none is sweeter than the title of Mother, because she truly was the Mother of Jesus, and she was given to each one of us as Mother when Jesus entrusted her to the Apostle John saying, “Son behold your Mother”.
Jesus was so happy to have a Mother like her. Someone has expressed the sentiments of Jesus with regard to his Mother in these words
MY MOTHER
“My most beautiful creation”, says God Is my Mother.
I was in need of a mother, and I created her.
I made my mother before she gave me birth.
Now I am truly human like all other men,
Because I too have a mother,
A real mother of flesh and blood.
My mother’s name is Mary, says God.
Her soul is absolutely pure and full of grace,
My mother is beautiful, so beautiful that
On earth I was never tired of gazing on her,
Listening to her and admiring her.
Leaving the splendour of heaven,
In her I found what I had left behind
Although I know, says God, what it is
To be borne in hands of the angels,
Believe me, that is nothing compared
To be carried in the arms of a mother.
Some years back, priests, when they had to travel early in the morning would take their Breviary (Prayer of the Church) with them and say their prayers while travelling. Once a priest, while travelling by train, took out his prayer book to say his morning prayer. As he opened the book a picture of Our Lady fell from the book on to the floor of the train. A Muslim gentleman sitting opposite to him picked up the picture, looked at it for some time and then asked the priest, “Whose photo is this?”
The priest piously said, “It is my Mother’s photo”
The Muslim gentleman looked at the picture and the priest several times then exclaimed, “But you do not look like your Mother at all”.
Of course, the priest explained to the gentleman why he called Mary his Mother.
But the Muslim gentleman’s words have a lot of meaning. We piously call Mary, “My Mother” Because we love her and have devotion to her. Devotion means imitation. When we say we have devotion to Our Lady we say we are trying to imitate her in our life. Imitation ultimately make one imitating like one imitated. So, if we call ourselves children of Mary there must be visible in our life virtues that made God choose her to be his Mother. Virtues like, humility, patience, purity, obedience above all charity, love for God and our neighbours. It is not enough to call Mary “our Mother,” but we must become her worthy children by imitating her, then truly she will accept us as her children and we shall be assured of her lover and protection here on this earth and above the joy of being with her one day in heaven.
(Fr. Tom Karthik SDB)
Salesian Province of Dimapur (IND) 