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The Catholic Church celebrates each year the feast of the Queenship of Mary on August 22. Previously this feast was celebrated on May 31, established by Pope Pius XII.
Pius XII also instituted the feast of the Immaculate Heart of Mary in 1944, originally assigning it to August 22.
However, after the revision of the General Calendar, Pope Paul VI decided to switch the feasts of the Immaculate Heart and the Queenship of Mary. The feast of the Immaculate Heart of Mary was joined to the feast of the Sacred Heart of Jesus (celebrated on the Saturday following the feast of the Sacred Heart, typically in June) and the Queenship of Mary was moved to August 22.
What’s interesting is how this switching of feast days is actually quite appropriate and in line with Pius XII’s own writings and actions.
Consecration to the Immaculate Heart
Pius XII wrote in his encyclical Ad Caeli Reginam (On the Queenship of Mary) that he desired to renew theconsecration of the world to Mary’s Immaculate Heart, on the feast of the Queenship of Mary!
Since we are convinced, after long and serious reflection, that great good will accrue to the Church if this solidly established truth shines forth more clearly to all, like a luminous lamp raised aloft, by Our Apostolic authority We decree and establish the feast of Mary’s Queenship, which is to be celebrated every year in the whole world on the 31st of May. We likewise ordain that on the same day the consecration of the human race to the Immaculate Heart of the Blessed Virgin Mary be renewed, cherishing the hope that through such consecration a new era may begin, joyous in Christian peace and in the triumph of religion.
He saw a close connection between Mary’s queenship and her heart, the heart of a mother.
“With a heart that is truly a mother’s,” to quote again Our Predecessor of immortal memory, Pius IX, “does she approach the problem of our salvation, and is solicitous for the whole human race; made Queen of heaven and earth by the Lord, exalted above all choirs of angels and saints, and standing at the right hand of her only Son, Jesus Christ our Lord, she intercedes powerfully for us with a mother’s prayers, obtains what she seeks, and cannot be refused.”
Above all, Pius XII believed that we should all go to Mary, the Queen of our Hearts, and beg for her assistance.
Let all, therefore, try to approach with greater trust the throne of grace and mercy of our Queen and Mother, and beg for strength in adversity, light in darkness, consolation in sorrow; above all let them strive to free themselves from the slavery of sin and offer an unceasing homage, filled with filial loyalty, to their Queenly Mother.
Even though the feasts were switched by a different pope, it providentially reflects a deeper spiritual truth and how the two concepts are intimately connected.
And today we celebrate...