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A Homily for the Memorial of the Queenship of the Blessed Virgin Mary
Thursday, August 22, 2024
Prince of Peace Catholic Church – 8:00 Mass
Isaiah 9:1-6; Psalm 113:1-2, 3-4, 5-6, 7-8; Luke 1:26-38
Audio
Today we celebrate the Feast of the Queenship of the Blessed Virgin Mary. This celebration takes place one week following Mary’s assumption into heaven, commemorating her coronation as the Queen of all Creation.
The Church provides opportunities throughout the year on special feast days for the faithful to receive a plenary indulgence on that day. Today is one of those days.
I wanted to take a few minutes to provide a quick refresher on the usual conditions necessary for receiving an indulgence, as well as the specific condition to receive today’s indulgence.
First of all, just what is an indulgence? The Church teaches that our sins are forgiven in the Sacrament of Confession…we all know that. However, you might not know that every sin forgiven still requires reparation for the damage done by the sin. For most of us, this will be accomplished in purgatory. While we don’t know exactly how purgatory works, we do know that it is where we are purified so as to be ready to enter into God’s holy presence. When we go to purgatory we are definitely on our way to heaven, but we’re not quite there yet.
When we gain a plenary indulgence, we fully satisfy the reparation required for the damage done by our sins. In other words, if we were to die after receiving this indulgence, we’d go straight to heaven. There is also another type of indulgence offered by the Church called a PARTIAL indulgence. This indulgence satisfies some of the reparations due for our sins, but not all of them.
Today we have an opportunity to receive a PLENARY INDULGENCE, providing COMPLETE remission of the temporal punishment due for our forgiven sins.
To receive a plenary indulgence at any time, there are some usual conditions that must be satisfied:
- That we be in a State of Grace
- That we go to confession within about 20 days before or after the day the indulgence is available.
- That we receive Holy Communion on the day the indulgence is offered.
- That we pray for the Holy Father
- And that we have complete detachment from all sin. In other words, we are not clinging to a particular sin, including venial sins. We can make an act of the will and ask God to release us from anything that we might not be ready to let go of. This might be a grudge we are holding or some other sin that we just don’t want to give up.
Finally, the specific condition to receive the plenary indulgence offered today is that we pray the rosary in a church, with a family, in an oratory or religious community. For many of you here today, you have already fulfilled this condition by praying the Rosary before Mass. If you weren’t able to pray it before Mass, Christine and I will be staying after Mass and we’ll pray the Rosary following the Divine Mercy. Anyone is welcome to join us.
Finally, a plenary indulgence can also be assigned to a deceased loved one if you want to gift someone with this beautiful grace provided by the Church. As I understand it, if you were to do so, that soul would be immediately released from Purgatory and fly straight to heaven.
If you want to learn more about indulgences, I have a post on my website where I publish all of my homilies. I’ll put a link to it in today’s homily. My website is deaconscott.com. Mary, Queen of all Creation, pray for us.