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"I avow, with all the Church, that Mary, being but a mere
creature that has come from the hands of the Most High is, in
comparison with His infinite Majesty, less than an atom; or
rather, she is nothing at all, because He only is "He who
is," and thus by consequence that grand Lord, always
independent and sufficient to Himself, never had, and has not now,
any absolute need of the Holy Virgin for the accomplishment of His
will and for the manifestation of His glory.... Nevertheless ...
God having willed to commence and to complete His greatest works
by the most holy Virgin ... we may well think He will not change
His conduct in eternal ages.
(True Devotion to the Blessed Virgin by St. Louis de
Montfort) |
The Name of the
Cathedral: Mary Our Queen
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From the narthex
ceiling
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Our Cathedral is dedicated to the honor of Christ's Mother, a
noble fulfillment of Sacred Scripture. St. Luke's Gospel tells us
that the Virgin Mary was inspired to prophesy that all nations
will call her blessed. Already on this occasion, St. Elizabeth,
prompted by the Spirit of God Himself, had voiced the opening
verse of mankind's restless poem of praise to Mary: "And how
have I deserved that the Mother of my Lord should come to
me?"
Indeed, it was through Mary's deliberate consent that the Lord
Himself came to save us all. She was the only human being who was
present at both the birth and the death of the Savior, and at the
Pentecostal birth of His Church. Even since the infancy of Christ,
Mary has been linked to the redemption of the world, as we hear in
Simeon's prophetic words spoken to her in the Temple: "Your
own soul shall be pierced by a sword."
Through the ages, Christian thought has gained from the Bible
deep insights into the role of "the woman" in God's plan
of salvation. In the very opening chapters of Genesis, God said to
our Enemy: "I will put enmity between you and the woman,
and between your posterity and hers." At the marriage feast
of Cana, Christ addressed His Mother as "woman" and
works, at her asking, the first of His miracles. Dying, He again
calls her "woman" as He asks her to take one of His
disciples as her son.
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In the final book of the Bible, this same disciple, writing
symbolically of the destiny of the Church, declares that "a
great portent appeared in the sky: a woman clothed in the sun,
with the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve
stars.... She gave birth to a Son ... and her child was caught up
to God, to his throne....... So the dragon was enraged at the
woman, and he went off to make war on the rest of her children --
those who obey God's commands and adhere to the testimony of
Jesus."
Mary, "full of grace," is the perfect Christian.
Furthermore, her spiritual motherhood over Christians, typified by
her relationship with St. John, is a key part of God's blueprint
for making a loving family of us all, through Christ.
The name of Mary is historically associated with the discovery
of America as well as with the founding of Maryland. In the first
instance, "Holy Mary" (Santa Maria) was the title of the
flagship on which Columbus made his momentous voyage. In the
second, Lord Baltimore's colony was named after another queen
named Mary, the wife of England's King Charles I, in 1634. That
the colonists also had another Mary in mind is evident from the
name of their first settlement, St. Mary's City on St. Mary's
River, and from the earlier name of the Chesapeake Bay -- the Bay
of the Mother of God. Happily, Maryland Day falls on March 25th,
which is Lady Day, or the Feast of our Lady's Annunciation. On
that day, the first Mass was offered in the new colony.
Mary's dignity as the greatest of saints, as the new Eve, and
as the stewardess of Christ's blessings is an ancient and
persistent element in Christian tradition. In harmony with this
heritage are the wondrous claims made at Lourdes and at Fatima.
In 1954, the day after the Cathedral's groundbreaking ceremony,
His Holiness, Pope Pius XII, issued a world letter entitled Ad
Caeli Reginam stating that "We, by Our apostolic power,
decree and institute the feast of Mary as Queen to be celebrated
throughout the entire world every year on May 31."
Because Mary is of the royal house of David, because her Son is
indeed a king, because God has bestowed on her so supreme a
dignity, and has granted to her prayers such sure access to His
power, Mary truly merits the title of our Queen.
Baltimore's Basilica had been named after Our Lady's
Assumption, i.e., her immediate return, body and soul, to the
presence of God at the end of her life. The pope's decree honoring
Mary as our queen led to a final decision to name the new
cathedral after Our Lady's Heavenly Coronation as Queen. Happily,
the progress of construction allowed the laying of the cornerstone
to occur on the last day of May, 1955, the first celebration of
the newly instituted feast. - more
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