Major Catholic Feast Days, like Christmas and Easter are accompanied by octaves -- eight days of intense celebration of the feast. There used to be a lot more octaves in the Church, but some vestiges of those old octaves still remain. One of those is the Queenship of Mary falling on the octave day after the Assumption. It makes sense, right? After we celebrate Mary being Assumed into Heaven, we celebrate her coronation as Queen of Heaven and Earth, just like we commemorate these glorious events together when we pray the rosary.
Like a good mother, our Heavenly Mother nourishes, comforts, and teaches her children. With school already underway (in Worland) or about to be underway (in Thermopolis), let us turn to Our Lady, our Heavenly Queen, that she might teach us how to follow her Son more closely and that she might intercede for all the mothers and teachers and mothers-who-are-teachers in our community. May she guide them with heavenly love and wisdom.
"Hail, Holy Queen, Mother of Mercy, our life, our sweetness and our hope! To thee do we cry, poor banished children of Eve. To thee do we send up our sighs, mourning and weeping in this valley of tears. Turn, then, O most gracious Advocate, thine eyes of mercy toward us, and after this, our exile, show unto us the blessed fruit of thy womb, Jesus. O clement, O loving, O sweet Virgin Mary. Pray for us, O holy Mother of God, that we may be made worthy of the promises of Christ. Amen!"
Major Catholic Feast Days, like Christmas and Easter are accompanied by octaves -- eight days of intense celebration of the feast. There used to be a lot more octaves in the Church, but some vestiges of those old octaves still remain. One of those is the Queenship of Mary falling on the octave day after the Assumption. It makes sense, right? After we celebrate Mary being Assumed into Heaven, we celebrate her coronation as Queen of Heaven and Earth, just like we commemorate these glorious events together when we pray the rosary.