August 22: Celebrating the Coronation of the Blessed Virgin Mary as Queen of Heaven & Earth!
August is very much a “Marian” month, like that of May, with
feastdays of Our Lady scattered throughout. The 22nd is one of those days
celebrating Mary’s heavenly presence seven days after the Assumption on the
15th. Add in: August 5th
Saint Mary Major Basilica & Our Lady of the Snows; Our Lady of Knock,
Ireland on the 21st; Our Lady of the Goldenheart of Beauraing,
Belgium on 8/22; and Our Lady of Czestochowa, the Black Madonna of Poland on
August 26th, along with the two Franciscan celebrations of Our Lady
of the Angels of the Little Portion (Portiuncula) on 8/2 and The Seven Joys of
Mary (Franciscan Crown) on August 27th. You see why it is a very
significant “Marian” month. The traditional devotion of the month is to the
Immaculate Heart of Mary.
Two of the California Missions are named after the Blessed
Virgin Mary: La Soledad/Our Mother of Sorrows and La
Purisima/the Immaculate Conception, which is a theological concept very
much championed and promoted by Franciscan theologians. And so I include within
this blog an essay about Padre Serra and his Marian devotion from the California Missions Pictorial booklet. (Just click on the image to enlarge it for reading.) Mary’s presence
can be found at each of the CA missions, whether as Mother & Child Madonna
or under the titles of Our Lady of Refuge or Our Lady of Loreto or Our Lady of
Guadalupe (the three most popular).
Marian devotion of the Franciscan missionaries echoes that
of St. Francis of Assisi, as is evidenced by the Mother Church of the Orders
being Our Lady of the Angels of the Little Portion. In his Second Life of
St. Francis, 198, Thomas of Celano describes the love of St. Francis for
the Mother of Jesus as “inexpressible,” for “it was she who made the Lord of
majesty our brother.” Francis composed this “Salutation to Our Lady:”
Mary, holy Mother of God:
You are the virgin made church
and the one chosen by the most holy Father in heaven.
God has consecrated you with the most holy beloved Son
and with the Holy Spirit the Paraclete.
Hail, His
Palace!
Hail, His
Tabernacle!
Hail, His
Home!
Hail, His
Robe!
Hail, His
Handmaid!
Hail, His
Mother!
And hail
all you holy virtues
which through the grace and light of
the Holy Spirit
are poured into the hearts of the
faithful
so that from their faithless state
you may make them [and us] faithful
to God.
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