My dear parishioners,
Peace! On the feast of Our Lady of the Rosary, 7 October, 2019, Pope Francis established the feast of Our Lady of Loreto, to be observed each year on the 10th of December. At the same time Pope Francis proclaimed a Lauretan Jubilee Holy Year to run from 8 December, 2019 through 10 December, 2020. There are fifty-one invocations in the Litany of Loreto. The following is a reflection on the fifty-second invocation: Queen of peace, pray for us.
There are thirteen various forms of Our Lady’s Queenship considered in the Litany of Loreto. Here we consider specifically what it means to say that Saint Mary, the Blessed Virgin Mother of God is the “Queen of peace.”
There are more than five hundred verses in Sacred Scripture which mention “peace: e.g.: “Blessed are the peacemakers” (Matthew 5:9); “Peace I leave with you; My peace I give you” (John 14:27); “live in peace and the God of love and peace will be with you” (2 Corinthians 13:11); “He came and preached peace to you who were far away and peace to those who were near” (Ephesians 2:17); “those who are peacemakers will plant seeds of peace and reap a harvest of righteousness” (James 3:18). The Hebrew word shalom and the Greek word eirene are translated as “peace.” A right relationship with God and neighbor is the origin of peace (cf. Leviticus 26:6; Numbers 6:26).
Saint Augustine of Hippo (+430) in his City of God (book XIX) teaches about peace being the tranquility of order (tranquilitas ordinis). There is a famous prayer sometimes attributed to Saint Francis of Assisi (+1226) which begs God’s help to be and instrument or channel of peace. Saint Thomas Aquinas, OP (+1274) clearly teaches that the sin of discord is contrary to peace (Summa Theologiae II-II, Q. 37). Pope Benedict XV (+1922) inserted this title of Our Lady into the Litany in 1917 during the terror of the First World War (1914-1918). Saint John XXIII (+1963) published his encyclical letter Pacem in Terris (11 April, 1963) as fighting was going in in Vietnam and Guinea-Bissau. Faced with the threat of nuclear annihilation afforded by the Cold War the Bishops of the United States published their pastoral letter in 1983 on The Challenge of Peace. The Basilica of Our Lady of Peace in Yamoussoukro, Ivory Coast, was completed in 1989. The Paths to Peace Foundation was established at the United Nations in 1991 to foster peacemaking activities beyond the strictly diplomatic. Pope Francis reminds us that “True shalom and true inner balance flow from the peace of Christ, which comes from His Cross.. The saints build peace…” (15 April, 2020). Do we pray for peace? What do we do to foster peace at home, at work, in town? If we allow Jesus Christ, the Prince of Peace (cf. Isaiah 9:6b), to reign over us, surely His Blessed Mother, Saint Mary the Queen of Peace, will cover us with her mantle.
Father John Arthur Orr