EXCLUSIVE | ‘To serve is to reign’: How Mary’s Queenship leads the faithful to Christ

The Blessed Virgin Mary’s Coronation as Queen of Heaven invites the faithful to imitate her humility and offers women a model of holiness, the rector of the only Church-approved Marian apparition site in the U.S told Zeale News.

Father Tony Stephens, rector of the National Shrine of Our Lady of Champion in Wisconsin and a priest of the Fathers of Mercy, reflected in an Aug. 14 interview with Zeale News on what Mary’s Coronation reveals about her relationship with Christ, her spiritual motherhood in the Church, and the call to holiness she models for the faithful. The reflection comes as the Church celebrates the Feast of the Queenship of the Blessed Virgin Mary Aug. 22. 

“Because of our baptism into the Body of Christ, we are blessed to have Our Lady become our mother,” Father Stephens said. “In a spiritual sense and on the level of grace, we have a deeper relationship with Our Lady than we do even with our biological mothers.”

Father Stephens traced that maternal relationship to Mary’s identity as the mother of Jesus Christ, whose place in the royal line of David gives meaning to her title as Queen Mother.

“With Jesus being from King David’s royal line, he is the ‘anointed one,’” he said. “It is certainly appropriate that his mother, Mary of Nazareth, have the title ‘queen mother’ or ‘Great Lady.’”

Mary’s role as Queen Mother, Father Stephens said, offers women a model for understanding and living their own call to holiness.

“Our Lady’s Coronation calls women to understand the high calling they have received as the adopted daughters of God,” he said. “As the saying goes, ‘To serve is to reign,’ so there is a great importance in understanding and living out one’s vocational calling.”

Father Stephens pointed to the wedding feast at Cana as an example of how Mary lived that royal calling, placing her maternal influence at the service of Christ and others.

“She was a guest and a mother who wanted the wedding celebration to go well,” he said. “She didn’t demand attention, but she carried herself with such humility that the servants listened to her when she instructed them, ‘Do whatever he tells you.’”

That same maternal service can be lived through the different ways women foster life and place their gifts at the service of others.

“A woman can give life to others both biologically and spiritually,” Father Stephens said. “Some women are called to be mothers to raise up a family. Other women are consecrated religious, who as brides of Christ serve him and the Church in the consecrated life. Still others may be single, but they can nurture life through their generosity to the parish and the broader community.”

Father Stephens also encouraged Catholics to embrace Mary as their spiritual mother through prayer, allowing her to lead them into a closer relationship with the Lord.

“[The faithful] can honor Our Lady’s Queenship by praying the Rosary, especially the Glorious Mysteries,” Father Stephens said. “The Rosary has been called ‘the scenic route through the Gospels.’ So there’s no better way to get to know Jesus than by meditating on the Gospels.”