22 August
21st Sunday in Ordinary Time
13th Sunday after Pentecost

22 August
The Queenship of the Blessed Virgin Mary

Since 1944 the 22nd of August was observed as the Feast of the Immaculate Heart of Mary. Although this devotion is very ancient, it did not become a part of the official liturgical practice of the Universal Church until it was instituted by Ven. Pope Pius XII when he consecrated the world to the Immaculate Heart. On the 11th of October 1954, the same pope established the Feast of the Queenship of Mary, which in the revised General Roman Calendar of 1969 was moved to August 22, the Octave Day of the Feast of the Assumption. In the Ordinary Form the Feast of the Immaculate Heart was transferred to the day after the Solemnity of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus.

Dom Prosper Guéranger comments: “As Mother of God, and at the same time His firstborn, Mary had a right and title over His goods; as Bride, she ought to share His crown. “The glorious Virgin,” says St. Bernardine of Siena, “has as many subjects as the Blessed Trinity has. Every creature, whatever be its rank in creation, spiritual as the angels, rational as man, material as the heavenly bodies or the elements, heaven and earth, the reprobate and the blessed, all that springs from the power of God, is subject to the Virgin. For He who is the Son of God and of the Blessed Virgin, wishing (so to say) to make His Mother’s principality in some sort equal to His Father’s, became (God as He is) the servant of Mary. If then, it be true to say that everyone, even the Virgin, obeys God, we may also convert the proposition and affirm that everyone, even God, obeys the Virgin.” The empire of Eternal Wisdom comprises, so the Holy Spirit tells us, the heavens, the earth, and the abyss: the same, then, is the appanage of Mary on this her coronation day. Like the divine Wisdom to whom she gave Flesh, she may glory in God. He whose magnificence she once chanted, today exalts her humility. She who is blessed above all others has become the honor of her people, the admiration of the saints, the glory of the armies of the Most High. Together with her Spouse, let her, in her beauty, march to victory; let her triumph over the hearts of the mighty and the lowly. The giving of the world’s scepter into her hands is no mere honor void of reality: from this day forward she commands and fights, protects the Church, defends its head, upholds the ranks of the sacred militia, raises up saints, directs apostles, enlightens doctors, exterminates heresy, crushes hell.

Our Lady, Queen of Heaven, pray for us!

Rev. Christopher J. Pollard