Mary, Our Queen

The Memorial of the Queenship of Mary falls on the 8th day of an unofficial "octave" of the Assumption.  As with the Glorious Mysteries of the Rosary, we follow the Assumption of our Blessed Mother with her Coronation as Queen of Heaven and Earth.  As Marists, this is a particularly dear position of Mary, our Good Mother: not only do we honor her as Mother of God, but also as Mother of Christ the King, hence the title, Queen. As always, she does not seek recognition for herself, but uses her title to point to the Kingship of her Son and the role he should play as the center of her lives, as he was of hers.In her message at Medjugorje on July 25, 1988 Mary called us to "a complete surrender to God.  Everything you do, everything you possess, give over to God so that he can take complete control in your life, as King of all you possesses"  St. Ignatius of Loyola, centuries earlier, gave us a prayer called  "The Suscipe": Take, Lord, receive all I have and possesses.  You have given all to me, now I return it. Give me only your love and your grace, that's enough for me. Mary's total surrender came at the Annunciation and again at the foot of the cross, where she gave over her most precision "possession", her Son, to the Father.  May our prayers and our lives reflect such total abandonment and surrender to the plan of God, which is always better than ours.
Bro. Rene