Editorial: A Personal Relationship
Fr. Roger Charest, SMM
QUEEN OF ALL HEARTS statuary group at Montfort Retreat House, Drummondville, Canada
A Personal Relationship
In reading Father Theodore Koehler’s brief commentary on the new rite called,
“A New Ritual for an Ancient Practice,” one cannot but be impressed by the solid theological basis for this ancient yet always popular practice of devotion. In his “True Devotion to Mary,” written almost three hundred years ago, St. Louis Marie de Montfort lists among the many exterior practices of True Devotion to Mary, “crowning and adorning her statues”. (No. 116[9]).
Mary is Queen by Grace
As Father Koehler points out, the four theological reasons for Mary’s Queenship advanced in the Roman document, are sufficient for Mary to be “rightly regarded and invoked as Queen”. Perhaps no one has spelled it out so well as Pope Pius XII when, on May 13, 1946, in his radio address to the pilgrims at Fatima.
He said: “He, the Son of God, reflects on his heavenly Mother the glory, the majesty, and the dominion of his Kingship, for, having been associated to the King of Martyrs in the ineffable work of human Redemption as Mother and Cooperatrix, she remains forever associated to Him, with an almost unlimited power, in the dispensation of graces which flow from the Redemption. Jesus is King throughout all eternity by nature and by right of conquest; through Him, with Him and subordinated to Him, Mary is Queen by grace, by divine relationship, by
right of conquest and by singular election. And her kingdom is as vast as that of her Son and God, since nothing is excluded from her dominion.”
Referring to her Assumption into heaven, body and soul, the Fathers of Vatican II said that “she was exalted by the Lord as Queen of the Universe”. (Ch. 8, No. 59). In the book of daily meditations by Pope John Paul II, entitled, “A Year With Mary,” the Holy Father says; “After the example of her Divine Son, Mary is the ‘Queen’ not of this world, but of the Kingdom of God, which begins to grow here below as an ecclesial reality and is to be completed in the heavenly Jerusalem”. (p. 249).
The Kingdom of the Blessed Virgin is Principally in the Interior of Man
Almost three hundred years ago, St. Louis de Montfort had written; “Mary is the Queen of heaven and earth by grace as Jesus is king by nature and by conquest. But as the kingdom of Jesus Christ exists primarily in the heart or interior of man according to the words of the Gospel, ‘the Kingdom of God is within you’. So, the kingdom of the Blessed Virgin is principally in the interior of man, that is, in his soul”. And he concludes by saying; “It is principally in souls that she is glorified with her Son more than in any visible creatures. So, we may call her, as the saints do, the Queen of All Hearts”. (T.D. No. 38).
Zeroing in on the nature of this Queenship, Montfort writes that “Mary has received from God a far-reaching dominion over the souls of the elect”, (No. 37).
This dominion is not one of mere power, authority or tyranny. It is a dominion of love and service for God and for all God’s children. Yes, her Queenship is a Queenship of love and service.
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That is why when he explains the nature of the Total Consecration of oneself to Jesus Through Mary, he describes it as a holy slavery of love, based upon Mary’s motherly and queenly rights over us. Just as any mother has rights, God-given rights over her children, so Mary has rights over all of God’s children. That is why she can command, as she did as Cana of Galilee, when she said to the servants; “Do whatever He tells you.”
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Holy Slavery Of Love
That is why when he explains the nature of the Total Consecration of oneself to Jesus Through Mary, he describes it as a holy slavery of love, based upon Mary’s motherly and queenly rights over us. Just as any mother has rights, God-given rights over her children, so Mary has rights over all of God’s children. That is why she can command, as she did as Cana of Galilee, when she said to the servants: “Do whatever He tells you.”
And she’s been saying this ever since to all her spiritual children, servants, and staves of love! “Do what- ever Jesus, my Son, tells you! He is the Master, the King of Love, your Redeemer.”
So, when St. Louis de Montfort speaks of Mary’s Queenship, he is speaking of a Queenship of service and love, according to an age-old saying in the Church; “Servire regnare est,” to serve is to reign.
Mary’s queenly relationship to us, therefore, is a relationship of service, a personal relationship of love, the love of a Queen and Mother for all her children.
Crowning Our Lady as our Queen, therefore, is just a beautiful way of saying to her; “Dear Mother, you have rights over me, rights which allow you to direct all my steps to Jesus, your Divine Son. You are really my Queen and the Queen of all Hearts”.
