Hail, Holy Queen Enthroned Above

In 1954, just shy of four years since he had declared the Dogma of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Pope Pius XII proclaimed the Queenship of the Blessed Virgin Mary. At my talk tonight at the Spiritual Life Center discussing Tradition in the Apologia series, I'm going to highlight his proclamation of Mary's Queenship, Ad Caeli Reginam to demonstrate how Pope Pius XII appealed to the Tradition of the Church through the interpretation of certain Scriptural passages, the teaching of the Fathers, the liturgy and devotion, and even art. I'll include some of those artistic representations, including Raphael's painting, which depicts both the Dormition/Assumption and the Coronation of the Blessed Virgin Mary:

Like Raphael's painting of the Transfiguration of Jesus, the painting depicts two scenes, one at the top, one at the bottom--Jesus crowns Mary in the top half while the Apostles look up from her tomb, which is filled with flowers. Notice that they're not looking around them, but up!

My presentation is tonight from 7:00 to 8:30 p.m.; $10.00 at the door!