Day 128: Queen of Angels
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I'm Father Mark Mary with Franciscan Friars of the Renewal, and this is the Rosary in the Year podcast, where through prayer and meditation, the rosary brings us deeper into relationship with Jesus and Mary and becomes a source of grace for the whole world. The Rosary in the Year is brought to you by Ascension. This is day 128. To download the prayer plan for Rosary in the Year, visit ascensionpress.com forward slash rosary.

Rosary in a Year or text R-I-Y to 33777. You'll get an outline of how we're going to pray each month and it's a great way to track your progress. The best place to listen to the podcast is in the Ascension app. There are special features built just for this podcast and also recordings of the full rosary with myself and other friars. On behalf of myself and the whole team here at Ascension, we wanted to take this opportunity to thank everyone who's helped support this podcast financially. Your support is so appreciated and helps us to reach as many people as possible.

And if you haven't already, please consider supporting us at ascensionpress.com forward slash support. Today we will be meditating upon and praying with the fifth glorious mystery, the coronation of Mary as Queen of Heaven and Earth with help from a writing by St. John Henry Newman and his work, Mary is the Regina Angelorum, the Queen of Angels. Now our reading. This great title, Regina Angelorum or Queen of Angels,

may be fitly connected with the maternity of Mary, that is, with the coming upon her of the Holy Ghost at Nazareth, after the angel Gabriel's annunciation to her, and with the consequent birth of our Lord at Bethlehem. She, as the mother of our Lord, comes nearer to him than any angel, nearer even than the seraphim who surrounded him and cried continually, Holy, Holy, Holy. The two archangels who have a special office in the gospel are St. Michael and St. Gabriel,

And they both of them are associated in the history of the incarnation with Mary. Saint Gabriel when the Holy Ghost came down upon her and Saint Michael when the divine child was born. For Saint John saw in vision a great sign in heaven, meaning by heaven the church or kingdom of God, a woman clothed with the sun and with the moon under her feet and on her head a crown of twelve stars. And when she was about to be delivered of her child there appeared a great red dragon, that is, the evil spirit, ready to devour her son.

when he should be born. The son was preserved by his own divine power, but next the evil spirits persecuted her. Saint Michael, however, and his angels came to the rescue and prevailed against him. There was a great battle, says the sacred writer. Michael and his angels fought with the dragon, and the dragon fought. And his angels and that great dragon was cast out, the old serpent who was called the devil. Now was then the blessed mother of God has hosts of angels who do her service, and she is their queen."

The end of the reading. Thanks be to God. In our reading today, St. John Henry Newman, he makes an initial, I think really important connection that, well, maybe it should have been obvious to me, it was helpful for him to make explicit. He connects Mary and her title as Queen of Heaven to her motherhood. He writes, this great title, Regina Angelorum, or Queen of Angels, may be fitly connected with the maternity of Mary.

And I love this, right? Because mothers, they're sweet and they're compassionate and they're caring. But also when it comes to their children, they are warriors, right? The whole mama bear thing is very, very real. I'll share a little story and it's,

It's an embarrassing story, but it's a story in which I learned and it's connected here. I was a young friar and I was going to be going with a group, a youth group to World Youth Day and some teens were coming and some young adults and then also like some parents. And we were going to be going to World Youth Day down in Brazil. And in one of our preliminary meetings, we're having a conversation and I made some comment, which I now know was an ignorant comment that

to the parents saying something along the lines of, "Hey, you know, just so you know, like if there's anything that makes you feel uncomfortable or unsafe, like don't hesitate to let me know." As if there would be some hesitation to bring to this young little punk friar some concern about their kids, right? And one of the moms responded like quite immediately and maybe somewhat sternly, authoritatively we could say. She said, "If I feel like my daughter's not safe, I'm just gonna take her and we're gonna leave immediately."

And I was quickly, I was very, very quickly put in my place. Like in short, like the mom said, hey, like when it comes to my children, I'm in charge here implicitly and not you, a little friar boy, but rightly so, right? Because this mom, she knows her children and she loves her children and she's going to fight for her children in a way that I just couldn't. And what this mom communicated to me was first and foremost, like I'm going to take responsibility for protecting and for fighting for my children.

We can apply this to Mary, right? Mary is a mother and our mother is the queen of the angels. These angels, they include Gabriel and Michael and the heavenly hosts. And as queen, Mary is not just like a figurehead. It's not just something honorific. She is the general of an angelic army and her aim is

is fighting for us and protecting us from all harm and all attacks of Satan. And this is confirmed by the end of our reading today, right? Now as then the blessed mother of God has hosts of angels who do her service and she is their queen.

Like our mother, our queen, she is, again, this general of an angelic army. And what is her aim? Her aim is to protect us from all harm and all attacks of Satan. So today we reflect on Mary, queen of the angels. Today we reflect on Mary, our mother, general of the angelic army. And as mother, we know we can come to her with confidence. We know we'll find in her compassion and gentleness and a beautiful motherly tender reception of us.

Also, though, as mother and as queen of the angels, we also know that if we are ever in need, if we are ever being tempted, if we are ever being led to discouragement, we can turn to her and cry out with full confidence. And she will send on our behalf multitudes of angels to fight for us and to protect us. With Mary, queen of the angels, we are safe.

We're safe to be ourselves. We're safe to be on a journey. We're safe to be a work in progress. We're safe because of her queenly, motherly protection. So as we pray today, let us ponder, reflect upon, like really receive deeply this truth of Mary, queen of the angels. In particular, I'd really like us to ask for this grace now to be resigned, to turn to her quickly, promptly, and confidently in our time of need, a moment of weakness or of temptation.

In those moments, let us turn to her and cry to her with confidence and beg her to send the hosts of angels to protect us, to protect us especially from temptation and discouragement. And now with Mary, Queen of the Angels, let us pray. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.

Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. Amen. Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee. Blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus. Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death. Amen. Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee.

Blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus. Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death. Amen. Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee. Blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus. Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death. Amen.

Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee. Blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus. Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death. Amen. Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee. Blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus. Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death. Amen.

Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee. Blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus. Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death. Amen. Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee. Blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus. Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death. Amen.

Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee. Blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus. Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death. Amen. Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee. Blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus. Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death. Amen.

Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee. Blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus. Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death. Amen. Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit, as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. In the name of the Father, and of the Son,

and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. All right. Thanks so much for joining me and praying with me today. I look forward to continuing this journey with you again tomorrow. All right. Poco a poco, friends. God bless you all. Thank you for listening to this episode of the Rosary in a Year. If you've been enjoying this journey with me, I encourage you to check out my new book, Eight Promises of God, Discovering Hope Through the Beatitudes. We all want to know, like, what can I expect my life to look like when I'm following Jesus? How do I know I'm doing it right?

Our brothers and sisters, I believe that the answer to these questions is found in the Beatitudes. In this book, we'll learn from the example of the truly blessed ones, our Lord and our Lady, and how they practiced and lived the Beatitudes. And all this is going to bear fruit with the deepening of our trust in God's promises in any and all circumstances. You can get your copy today at ascensionpress.com forward slash promises.