Greetings,

We celebrate the Queenship of Mary normally on August 22nd. However, this year the feast falls on a Sunday. Last week we celebrated the Assumption of our Blessed Mother which actually trumped the Sunday liturgy. This gives us two beautiful opportunities during the month of August to show our love and devotion for Our Lady.
Pope Pius XII established the feast of Our Lady’s Queenship in 1954. This feast day is rooted in sacred scripture. If we can remember that at the Annunciation, Gabriel announced that Mary’s Son would receive the throne of David and rule forever. At the Visitation, Elizabeth calls Mary “mother of my Lord.” As in all of the mysteries of Mary’s life, Mary is closely associated with Jesus. Her queenship is a share in Jesus’ kingship. We can also recall that in the Old Testament the mother of the king has great influence in court.
In the fourth century, Saint Ephrem called Mary “Lady” and “Queen” and Church Fathers and Doctors continued to use the titles. Hymns of the eleventh to thirteenth centuries address Mary as queen: “Hail, Holy Queen,” “Hail Queen of Heaven,” “Queen of Heaven.” The Dominican Rosary and the Franciscan crown as well as numerous invocations in Mary’s litany celebrate her Queenship.
This feast is a logical follow up to the Assumption and is celebrated on the octave day of that feast. In his encyclical To the Queen of Heaven, Pius XII points out that Mary deserves the title because she is Mother of God, because she is closely associated as the New Eve with Jesus’ redemptive work, because of her preeminent perfection and because of her intercessory prayer.
St. Therese of Lisieux, the little flower, tells us that Our Blessed Mother is more Mother than Queen. Our Lady is here for us if we would only ask her to help us. She, like a good mother, will protect and guide us and wants us all to experience that beautiful love from God that all of heaven is already in the presence of. Let us always turn to Our Blessed Mother knowing that she will always lead us to her Son Jesus.
Peace, Fr. Tom

Greetings,

There is an invisible reality that exists all around us all of the time. As Christians, we have always believed that by the coming of our Lord as a human being in the person of Jesus Christ, by his life, death and resurrection that the final victory has been won for us. That in the person of Jesus Christ death was defeated by the power of the cross. That by an authentic repentance, a truthful sorrow for our sins, we gain eternal life. The war is over and the victory has been won. However, many battles in the heart continue to be waged. We believe that as Christians, that there is a heaven and a hell. Angels and saints work on our behalf helping us along in this life to ultimately work out our salvation here and now. They work tirelessly for us to join them someday at the end of our life here in this world. God has allowed them to be part of our conversion process, helping us to turn away from evil and sin that we might experience the peace and joy that comes from being in relationship, friendship with Him. We are called to live in the happiness of knowing that we are loved unconditionally by a God that wants to guide us unto His paths and protect us from the many distractions and pitfalls that can come our way every day. Our lives in this world are only temporary. Our true home is in heaven with the angels, our brothers and sisters, the saints who have gone before us, and the elect, our family members who have gone on ahead of us.
And yet, we must not ever forget too, that there is a force out there that has at its core a malice, a meanness that desires us to be miserable and wants our demise. We call this reality the demonic.
It has always been a consistent teaching of Christianity that fallen angels do exist and that those human beings that have chosen, through their own free will, the absence of God, work for the eternal torment of us all.
The battle rages all around us. Are we aware of this reality? The remedy, the answer to everything seems always to be the same: Prayer, Prayer, Prayer! Certainly, Jesus gives us the gospel message of prayer, fasting, and almsgiving as the blue print to eternal life. I would say that the more we spend time in authentic prayer from the heart, the more blessings and graces God will pour down on us, and through us to our families, friends, neighbors, and even the stranger, the poor and needy.
I believe that there is coming a time when we all will need to stand up and be counted in revealing our Christian values and convictions. But in order to have a powerful impact in the battle that rages, we must know what the battle consists of. Again, in our hearts, are we kind and gentle, are we compassionate and forgiving? Do we understand when to hold others accountable with tough love? Do we fall into being mean and unforgiving? The true battles that are being waged right now are the ones that begin and are fought in the depths of our hearts and must be overcome by the grace of God. It is prayer which allows us to develop that trust and confidence in our growing friendship with our Creator and His Beloved Son. Let me say this again because it cannot be over emphasized… it is through our consistent and authentic prayer lives daily that will ultimately defeat the forces of evil in our world. God has infinite power and glory. But we must learn to be humble and patient, learning to have trust and confidence that He knows what He is doing. There is no comparison between the powers that exists in the cohorts of heaven with that of the pitiful band of the fallen. I wonder if evil and sin, the devil, isn’t given too much credit. I have heard of the comparison between the two of that of the Empire State Building and a tiny little ant crawling at its foundation.
There is a battle going on and souls are at stake. How generous are we willing to be in helping each other to gain eternal life? There is nothing more important in life than our relationship with our God and our learning how to tap into its transforming power. Let us live this reality truly… knowing that our choices have eternal consequences not only for us but even for our families, friends, neighbors and all of humanity.

Peace, Fr. Tom Balluff
Pastor