When I read about the variety of things Pope Pius V did in bringing Mary to a higher place of honor in the Roman Church, I’m often amazed that he wasn’t able, or perhaps, it was not yet time, for the apparent conclusions. Just consider this short list of changes he made:
- He added the second part of the Hail Mary. Yes, that came in the 16th century. “Holy Mary, Mother of God, Pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death. Amen” That didn’t exist in the general Hail Mary before the 16th century.
- He made the Litany of Loretto the “official” litany to Mary. It was because out of all the hundreds around, this litany used the title “Queen” more than any of the others. (We’re supposed to end the rosary with this litany).
You had several strange heresies afoot then, and those gave birth to a variety of Protestant branches. As Fr. Hardon notes, there is not an invocation of Mary anywhere in Protestant prayers. Consequently, Pius V was tuned in to the Queen to see her plan.
Fast-Forward 500 Years
Pius V was setting the stage of the Church to implore our Mother, who Jesus crowned from the Cross. If He is King, she is Queen. But it took 500 years for this to come in Papal definition. In 1954, Pius XII, in Ad Caeli Reginam givens this succinct explanation for the faithful:
“The Blessed Virgin has not only been given the highest degree of excellence and perfection after Christ but also shares in the power which her Son and our Redeemer exercises over the minds and wills of men. For if the Word of God through the Human Nature assumed by Him works miracles and gives grace; if He uses the Sacraments and uses His Saints as instruments for the salvation of souls, why should He not use His Blessed Mother’s office and activity to bring us to the fruits of the Redemption?“
I think it is easy to take what the Pope was saying for granted. But, people who read St. Kolbe or deMontfort have been confronted with this idea and accept it and think about it. How few is that, though? Our contemporaries don’t get it.
Consider What Pius XII was really telling you!
Explains Fr. Hardon:
“What is the Pope saying? Clearly, all the blessings of salvation, all the grace, all the benediction, all the light for the mind, all the strength for the will, all the supernatural life that we need to reach Heaven must come from God.
“But, says the Pope, the principal means, the principal instruments that God become Man uses to exercise His power – which I’ve underlined in my quotation – the principal instrument that Christ uses is His Mother.
“In other words, Our Lady is Queen because, hear it, She’s got power! I have to say this; She is no nominal monarch like the queen of England. She’s got authority. She has influence. She has rights, r-i-g-h-t-s.
“Mary, Our Mother, She is the Mother of the Queen – pardon me – She is the Mother and, therefore, the Queen of the Son of God who is the King of Heaven and earth.”
I don’t see people acting as if they have the Queen’s ear. Do you?
With all that power at our ready disposal… Surely you can see why the devil has gone after people to abandon the invocation of our Mother Mary.
More importantly, she is the principal means — why wouldn’t we run first to her? If you have a guy in Heaven, then why not be even more proud that your friends with the Queen?
This article, Act Like You Know the Queen: Fr. Hardon Explains The Queenship of Mary is a post from The Bellarmine Forum.
https://bellarmineforum.org/act-like-know-queen-fr-hardon-explains-queenship-mary/
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