Devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary

Adapted from "A Marian Coronation Celebration for Parishes" by M. Jean Fisk

Leader: Dear Blessed Virgin Mary, you are our queen! The most Blessed Trinity has confidently placed the welfare of the Church into your powerful and gentle motherly hands. You will lead the pilgrim people of God home to His infinite loving heart. Giving you this crown is a symbolic way to entrust to you once more, the full responsibility of this task.

All: The crown symbolizes all the dignity and beauty that God Himself has bestowed on you. It shows your right to act as a queen and leader, as a mother and educator in and for the kingdom of God on earth.

Leader: We wish to crown you because of our personal helplessness in facing the deep distress of our times. We struggle to find God and we search his inscrutable ways. We struggle with the lack of faith and all it entails. Please fold your hands in prayer on our behalf. Tell your divine Son as you once did in Cana of Galilee, “Lord, they have no wine.” Ask the Lord again and again to work miracles of peace, unity and prosperity for the poor and suffering.

All: Mary, we wish to crown you to acknowledge our gratitude to you for your part in the coming of Jesus Christ and therefore, in the redemption of the world. We trust that in the future you will take the destiny of our world and our nation into your powerful and loving hands. We beg you to hear the cries of the unborn, the elderly and the sorrowing.

Leader: Take our flowers for your crown. Let them represent our wish to wind you a wreath of joy and thanksgiving for the future. Let us work with you, our sister in faith, to make the coming years Christ-centered ages in which our people will do what He tells us. Grant peace and joy to our hearts, to our families, and to our parish. Lead our nation down the paths of justice, and assist each of us to be worthy to wear the crown of our calling that the Lord has prepared for us at the end of our journey.

All: Mary, you are the joy of those in heaven, the help of those on earth, the consolation of those still burdened by their sins. Accept our May blossoms; accept each flower as a symbol of praise and thanksgiving! Thank you for your cooperation in the plan that changed the destiny of the world. Teach us, dear Mary, that we, too, may follow your example and be able to make heaven our home.

With praise and all thanksgiving we pray. Amen.