We beseech you, dearly beloved brethren, that, laying aside the weight of worldly thoughts, you would raise up your minds, and soar to heavenly things, and see, with the attentive eye of the heart, how Christ placed your own human nature, which He had assumed, in the highest heavens. The incomparable brightness on which we are invited to fix our astonished gaze, is Jesus our Lord. He exchanges the lowliness of this earthly dwelling for the glory of heaven. How quick must our sigh be, that it may see the land, whither we are to follow Him! Today our Saviour, after assuming our human nature, returned to the throne of the Godhead. Today, He offered to His Father that same human nature, which He had previously offered to the endurance of His Passion. He exalted in heaven the Humanity that He had humbled in limbo. He well deserved to see glory, Who had seen the tomb. He Who conferred on us His own death, that He might put ours to death, gave us the example of His Resurrection, that He might gladden us with the hope of life. Today, He returned to the Father, though He had not been here on earth without possessing all the power of the Father, Who is co-equal with Him. Today, He ascended into heaven, though He had not lost the adoration of the angels when He descended upon our earth. One with the Father in unity of substance, He so entered into heaven as the new Man, that He was not new to God. Let us, therefore, ask the Almighty Father, through the name of His Son, our Saviour, that He grant us admission into a spiritual life of grace, the gift of eternal happiness, an ascension into the mansion of bliss, an increase of Catholic faith, and the destruction of heretical disbelief. He, surely, will hear us, now that we praise Him Who went in search of us when we were lost. He will assist us that are now His people, Who abandoned us not when we were aliens. He will be with us now that we know Him, for He was not absent from us even when we knew Him not. He will not suffer us to be orphans now that we are devoted to Him, for He vouchsafed to make us His children when we were His enemies. He will grant us what we ask, for He has promised to send us the Holy Ghost. Amen.
AND, since this the end of the month of May, the month of Mary, I deem it fitting that we should end it with thoughts of this wonderful Mother of ours.
Saturday, May 31, 2014
THE QUEENSHIP of MARY
His Holiness Pope Pius XII, in his Encyclical Letter of October 11, 1954, "On the Royal Dignity of the Blessed Virgin Mary and the Institution of Her Feast", ordaining its celebration throughout the world every year on May 31st, reminds us of what Pope Pius IX had said of Mary: "Constituted by the Lord as Queen of Heaven and earth, and exalted above all the choirs of Angels and the ranks of the Saints in heaven, standing at the right hand of Her only-begotten Son, Our Lord Jesus Christ, She petitions most powerfully with Her maternal prayers, and obtains what She seeks."
Pope Pius XII adds another ordinance: "We ask that on the feast day be renewed the consecration of the human race to the Immaculate Heart of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Upon this is founded a great hope that there may arise an era of happiness which will rejoice in the triumph of religion and Christian peace. Therefore let all approach, with greater confidence than ever before, to the throne of mercy and grace of our Queen and Mother, to beg help in difficulty, light in darkness and solace in trouble and sorrow." In asking this, the Holy Father was responding to the request of the Virgin Herself at Fatima in 1917, that the world and each soul individually be consecrated to Her Immaculate Heart. She promised that it will be then that "a time of peace will be given to the world." Do not Mary's rights as Queen require respect? And will we deny to Her maternal Heart the love it merits, for twenty centuries of uninterrupted intercession on behalf of Her children?
Holy Queen of Heaven and earth, please pray for us.
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