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-first invocation: Queen of families, 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 families.” Saint John Paul II added this title to Our Lady’s Litany in 1995, fifteen years after he added “Mother of the Church.” Saint Mary is not only the Queen of the Holy Family, but of the entire family of the Church, a family of families. Our Lady who is the Mother of God and wife of Saint Joseph knew the joys and struggles of family life. Saint Mary as Mother of the Holy Family knows the joy of childbirth (cf. Matthew 1:18-25) and the sorrow of exile (cf. Matthew 2:13). Our Lady shared the joy of the young couple at their wedding in Cana (cf. John 2:1-11). Saint Mary mourned at the death of her Son (cf. John 19:25).
As a little boy growing up and even still in the hallway between the bedrooms of my mother’s house there is an image of Our Lady who could very well be called our Queen of the family. How many families in and from Mexico will call Our Lady of Guadalupe the Queen of their family? How many families in and from Poland will call Our Lad of Czestochowa the Queen of their family? For nearly sixty years now the Church has highlighted the family home as a “domestic church” or sanctuary ensuring Our Lady’s central role for believers as both Mother and Queen in the spiritual realm as it was in Nazareth (cf. CCC 2204; FC, 21; LG, 11; AA, 11).
How can we honor Our Lady as the Queen of our family? Some families honor Our Lady as Queen by praying the Holy Rosary together. Others pray the Angelus in the morning, at noon, and in the evening. Some plant a garden in honor of Saint Mary’s Queenship over the family. Having an image of Our Lady in a place of honor in the family home is one way to manifest her reign Our Lady is even more the Queen of our families when we mirror the virtues she lived in this life by God’s grace. When our family homes are faith-filled, Mary is our Queen. When our relations with each other are humble and pure, Mary is our Queen. When we are generous in our service to neighbor, Mary is the Queen of our family.
Father John Arthur Orr