Mary, The Perfect Queen
Fr. Victor Devy, SMM
M ARY, the Queen of the Universe, cannot be compared to any Queen in history.
The greatest of earthly Queens has only exterior power. But for Mary, things are different. If her Queenship gave her only exterior power and authority, her royal dignity would be incomplete. But it is not. Her power and authority extend to the very heart of man. She is the Queen of All Hearts. Her Divine Son is King of All Hearts – King and Center of All Hearts, as the Litany of the Sacred Heart puts it. He has to be, for the Kingdom of God is especially interior. ”The Kingdom of God is within you.” (Luke XVII, 21) . Mary’s royal domain is as vast as that of her Son and God because nothing is excluded from her dominion. She is Queen of the Kingdom of God which is within us. She is Queen of All Hearts.
OUR SPIRITUAL MOTHER
This title is implied in her title of Spiritual Mother of men. Many Saints have given her similar titles. St. Louis De Montfort chose to call her Queen of All Hearts. This choice was a necessary conclusion to his teaching on the maternal role of Mary in the sanctification of men. He was not looking for a sentimental title nor one which would be convenient for oratorical style. He knew that she had received a special mission from God for the sanctification of men. She would accomplish that mission as their Spiritual Mother. Now she could not do so without a royal power of dominion over the heart of man. Necessarily, therefore, she is Queen of All Hearts. Her royalty must know no limits for she is queen of the entire world.
Mary’s modern Apostle does not seek to limit Mary’s Queenship. He tells us that she is Queen of the interior of man. By this he does not mean that she is Queen of All Hearts only. Rather he points out that she is Queen of the entire world, interior as well as exterior.
”Mary is Queen of Heaven and Earth by grace, as Jesus is the King of them by nature and by conquest. Now as the Kingdom of God consists principally in the heart or the interior of man – according to the words, ’The Kingdom of God is within you’ – in like manner the Kingdom of our Blessed Lady is principally in the interior of man; that is to say, his soul. And it is principally in souls that she is more glorified with her Son than in all visible creatures, and so we call her, as the saints do, Queen of All Hearts.” (T.D. 38).
POWER OF LOVE
The power of the greatest sovereigns has come to an abrupt halt before the heart of a child. Youthful martyrs refused to submit to the will of a Nero. But Mary is the Perfect Queen and Sovereign. Her power extends to the heart of man. Nothing on this earth is excluded from her royal domain.
Many rulers in history have used their power in a cold authoritarian way. But not Mary. Her Royalty is one of love and goodness. It subdues hearts to bring them to the knowledge and practice of the sweetness found in the service of God. ”For My yoke is sweet and my burden light.” (Matt. II 30).
Under her maternal regency we enjoy the freedom of the children of God. Freedom from sin. Freedom to love God and to serve Him. We are in incomparably greater security than we could possibly be under our own direction. It is in Mary that we find Jesus. In Mary we find all grace of the way and the truth, for she is our Mother, the Queen of All Hearts, the Perfect Queen.
NOT ONLY A POWER OF ATTRACTION
Her Divine Son, as King, draws all hearts to Him by His meekness and charity. We are naturally drawn to Mary our Queen and Mother. She is our Mother Most Amiable. We are all attracted to goodness. But Christ the King has also a direct power over our hearts by His grace. As St. Paul puts it, ”For it is God who worketh in you, both to will and to accomplish, according to His good will.” (Phil. II, 13) . As Queen of All Hearts, mediatrix of all graces, and spiritual mother of men Mary has a direct power over our hearts. She exercises her Queenship over the interior of man.
The old adage of being able to lead a horse to water but not make him drink can be applied to us mortals. We are proud of the fact that our neighbor cannot force us to do anything we do not want to do. But we also say that when a woman has a man’s heart in her hand he will do anything. He does so because her goodness attracts and draws him. He is willing to do what she wants. A wife can be queen of the home. She may draw and attract a man so that he does what she wants him to do. But she cannot move his heart by grace. Mary, on the other hand, is mediatrix of all graces. By her queenly maternal mediation she brings us to will and accomplish things in accordance with the good will of God.
OUR CO-OPERATION NECESSARY
Her royal power does not free us of our obligation to co-operate with the grace of God. Mary is Queen of All Hearts and there are no exceptions to be found among the sons of men. She is the refuge of sinners. Her royal power is used to convert both sinners and pagans who have never known the faith. But even they must co-operate with grace. St. Paul warns us in these words, ”We entreat you not to offer God’s grace an ineffectual welcome” ( II COf. VI, 1) .
If we do our part, Mary, as Queen of All Hearts, will show us the wonders that can be accomplished by her role as our spiritual mother. In the words of Pius XII, ”Her queenship is essentially maternal” (Radio Mess- age to Fatima—1946).
For those who are united to her with their whole soul and their whole heart, Mary uses all the resources of her power and goodness. That is why St. Louis de Montfort made himself completely dependent upon her. That is why he teaches us to consecrate ourselves to her and to live out consecration. We will profit from her maternal care in the measure that we place our soul and all that depends upon it, in her hands as her complete possession. Then Mary will reign completely in our hearts in order to establish the reign of her Divine Son. ”It was through the most holy Virgin Mary that Jesus Christ came into the world, and it is also through her that He has to reign in the world”. (T.D. 1).
REIGN OF JESUS THROUGH MARY
It is no longer difficult to understand the cry that leapt from Montfort’s heart. ”then will the happy time come when the Divine Mary will be established Mistress and Queen of All Hearts, in order that she may subject them fully to the empire of her great and holy Jesus ? When will souls breathe Mary as the body breathes air? When that time comes wonderful things will happen in these lowly places where the Holy Ghost, finding His dear Spouse, as it were, reproduced in souls, shall come in with abundance, and particularly with the gift of wisdom, to work miracles of grace.
My dear brother, when will that happy time, that age of Mary, come, when many souls, chosen and procured from the Most High by Mary shall lose themselves in the abyss of her interior, shall become living copies of Mary, to love and glorify Jesus ? That time will not come until men shall know and practice this devotion which I am teaching. That Thy reign may come, let the reign of Mary come”. (T.D. 217).
Live in Total Dependence on Mary
Pius XII, on the day he canonized St. Louis de Montfort, told us that the new Saint excelled in a solid and profound theology, that he knew how to adapt himself to the language of the simplest people. Montfort has taught us to place ourselves and to live in total dependence on Mary. That will make us perfect children of God and Mary. ”Be ye perfect as your Heavenly Father is perfect.” (Mat. V 48).
Under her maternal regency we enjoy the freedom of the children of God. Freedom from sin. Freedom to love God and to serve Him. We are in incomparably greater security than we could possibly be under our own direction. It is in Mary that we find Jesus. In Mary we find all grace of the way and the truth, for she is our Mother, the Queen of All Hearts, the Perfect Queen.
Link to: Novena Prayer to Mary, Queen of All Hearts
