Catholic Corner

Katie Stamps

This week we will be talking about two upcoming feast days, the Queenship of Mary on August 22nd and the feast of St. Bartholomew on August 24th. Since last week we celebrated the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, now it is time to celebrate her coronation and queenship.  The purpose of this feast, according to Pope Pius XII, is so that we may all recognize more clearly and 

venerate more devoutly the merciful and motherly sovereignty of she who bore God in her womb. On the day of her Assumption, Mary our Mother was solemnly crowned by Christ and received by the whole court of Heaven as Queen. Mary’s queenship is a share in Christ’s kingship. Mary is queen through Jesus and subordinate to Him. Mary shares in the struggle for souls, because God willed her to have an exceptional role in the work of salvation. There is a very rich Church history of art featuring depictions of Mary’s coronation, usually by the Holy Trinity, and you will often see statues of Mary wearing a crown. The crowning of Mary, Queen of Heaven and Earth, is also the fifth Glorious Mystery of the Rosary. One way to honor Mary is to consecrate your home to the Immaculate Heart of Mary. We are very blessed at SVdP to have a team who does this! If you are interested, email me at skastamps@yahoo.com, and I will give you their info! As we did last week to celebrate Mary’s assumption with a procession, we will do this again for her coronation at our house. Kids can hold the same statues, posters, and images of our Blessed Mother, and process around your home singing Ave Maria and Hail Holy Queen. A food option would be to borrow from our British friends and have a queen cake, which is a lemon flavored cake filled with currants or raisins! Tea and finger sandwiches could be served along with it, and fancy clothes would be a fun addition as well. How blessed are we that God gave us our Blessed Mother to help us along our way in our faith journeys. 

The second feast day occuring this week is the feast of Saint Bartholomew.  Now, I have to say, I did not know much about him before doing a little research, and I have found him to be very interesting!  St. Bartholomew was one of the twelve apostles, and he is mentioned in three of the Gospels and in the Book of Acts.  After the ascension of our Lord, Bartolomew preached the gospel in India and Armenia.  In Armenia is where he was martyred for the faith and skinned alive!  One thing you will find as we take this liturgical living journey is that the Church has quite a sense of humor in assigning patron saints to different professions.  So, it should come as no shock to you that St. Bartholomew is the patron saint of various professions that skin animals or us animal skins, such as trappers, tanners, book binders, and shoemakers.  We do not skin animals at our house, and I am guessing you don’t either, so another fun way to incorporate this feast day would be to have a “skinned” dinner.  Examples would be “skinning” apples by peeling some to make an apple pie or apple dumplings.  Peeling potatoes and carrots to accompany skinned chicken breasts would work, too.  Making it something your kids can do with you is the main goal here.  There is also a prayer to St. Bartholomew for courage.  Send in some pictures of your liturgical living, and we will pass them along to the office to post for everyone to see.  I hope you guys are having fun bringing our faith to life in your homes.  Blessings!!