Growing in Relationship with Mary

As the Church celebrates the Queenship of Mary, Lindsey Mitzel considers how her understanding of the Blessed Mother has changed.

We’ve probably all experienced hearing about someone we haven’t met from someone that we know. They may say positive or negative things, but it invariably alters our perception of the person we have yet to meet. Similarly, when we describe someone, we can describe them in different ways — by their appearance, or by how we feel when we’re around them, for example.  

The different ways people portray Mary — in art or in writing — and the various ways people describe Mary’s influence on their life, have impacted my relationship with her for good, and maybe for not so good at times. I became Catholic when I was eighteen. At the time, I didn’t know much about who Tradition taught Mary was and wasn’t. The Rosary was new to me, and I didn’t have any relationship with Mary prior to entering RCIA.  

Over many years, my understanding of Mary and my relationship with her have grown considerably. I can now see ways in which those who perhaps haven’t met Mary personally can portray her, in contrast to those who speak with her and listen to her daily.  

Church teaching about the Blessed Mother 

The Church, in her wisdom, gives us feasts to celebrate who people are and what they have done. Last week we celebrated the feast of the Assumption of Mary. When Pope Pius XII infallibly declared the dogma of the Assumption of Mary into Heaven in 1954, he conveyed some aspects of who Mary is, stating, "The Immaculate Mother of God, the ever-virgin Mary, having completed the course of her earthly life, was assumed body and soul into heaven” (Munificentimus Deus) 

After declaring the dogma of the Assumption of Mary, the pope also proclaimed the Queenship of Mary. As we celebrate it today, the feast of the Queenship of Mary completes the octave of the celebration of the Assumption of Mary into Heaven. Pope Pius XII asserted in his encyclical, Ad Caeli Regniam (To the Queen of Heaven):

The Blessed Virgin Mary should be called Queen, not only because of her Divine Motherhood, but also because God has willed her to have an exceptional role in the work of our eternal salvation. (Ad Caeli Regniam) 

Accepting what the Church teaches about Mary 

Once I finally became Catholic, I tried to accept as truth what the Church taught regarding Mary. I hadn’t given much thought before to how radical it can be to declare Mary as “the Mother of God,” or that she is “Queen of Heaven and of earth.” How radical, even, to proclaim that God wills that she play a role in our salvation! If I accept, for example, that Mary is “Queen of Heaven,” then I accept that she plays a role in the direction the cosmos is oriented. I think the only thing more astounding than the titles Mary has been given is that, on earth, she never called herself any of them.  

In a world that feels chaotic and more out of control and temper-tantrummy than my toddler when she’s not given what she wants, it’s scary to rely on myself (or any other one person, for that matter). Pope Pius XII wrote far more eloquently,

We are instituting a feast so that all may recognize more clearly and venerate more devoutly the merciful and maternal sway of the Mother of God. We are convinced that this feast will help to preserve, strengthen and prolong that peace among nations which daily is almost destroyed by recurring crises. Is she not a rainbow in the clouds reaching towards God, the pledge of a covenant of peace? (Ad Caeli Regniam) 

I cannot get over the exquisite imagery of Mary as a rainbow reaching toward God. Since Noah, thousands of years ago, rainbows have been an explicit image of peace to a frightened world full of suffering. There are only a few things in life that we know for certain — that we are alive now, and that one day we will die. Everything in between can be like a storm surging at sea, yet not realizing who controls the wind and waves.  

Knowing Mary as Queen 

To know Mary as Queen and to be in relationship with her, is to know that I don’t need to be in control, and I don’t need to be afraid — she is the “Star of the Sea” — the one who leads all the wayward, tossed about, and sinking to her Son, who is the Prince of Peace, and the very Word spoken that created life.  

What came to be through him was life, and this life was the light of the human race; the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. (John 1:3b-5) 

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Copyright 2024 Lindsey Mitzel
Images: (center) copyright 2024 Lindsey Mitzel, all rights reserved; others Canva