Many non-Catholics object to our use of the title “queen of heaven” in reference to the Blessed Virgin Mary. They do so because in the Old Testament, a false goddess – apparently Ishtar, the Assyro-Babylonian fertility goddess – was called the “queen of heaven” (see Jeremiah 7:18, 44:17-19, and 44:25). Using the title when speaking of Mary, they reason, means that Catholics worship Mary as a pagan goddess. Obviously, this would be a wrong thing to do.

But take heart! The good news is that Catholics neither (a) consider Mary to be a goddess nor (b) worship her.

Catholics think that it is appropriate to call Mary the “queen of heaven” for two reasons:

• Her son is the King, making her the queen mother. More than just an honorary role, the queen mother was an office in the Davidic kingdom. As one Protestant encyclopedia explains, “The gebhirah, or queen mother, occupied a position of high social and political importance; she took rank almost with the king.”
• The Bible depicts her as “wearing a crown of twelve stars” in heaven (Revelation 12:1), which is appropriate given her role as the queen mother of Christ the King.

But does the title’s pagan usage make it inappropriate to apply in a Christian context? By all means no! Just because the title was applied to a false queen of heaven in the Old Testament does not mean that the title cannot be used for the true queen of heaven.

There is strong Biblical precedent for this in the title “king of kings”. In the Old Testament, two rulers who were no friend of God’s people were called “king of kings”:

• Nebuchadrezzar, king of Babylon – Daniel 2:37 and Ezekiel 26:7.
• Artaxerxes, king of Persia – Ezra 7:12

In spite of the pagan use of “king of kings”, we appropriately apply the title to Jesus Christ, our ultimate and true King of Kings, in 1 Timothy 6:15, Revelation 17:14 and Revelation 19:16.

So we see from Scripture that it is certainly appropriate to call the Blessed Virgin Mary “Queen of Heaven.”

Just found some good Catholic humor online: Theology 911 Final Exam. My favorite question:

St. Thomas Aquinas and St. Augustine of Hippo decide to rob a bank. The note to the teller is 1,200 pages long, not counting footnotes, complete with a promise of damnation if the teller does not accept immediate Baptism. In the middle of the heist, they engage in an extended debate as to whether or not the money really exists. Are they committing a mortal or a venial sin?

I ran across this inspiring quote today and thought I’d share it:

“The Lord has turned all our sunsets into sunrise, and through the cross brought death to life.” – St. Clement of Alexandria (from his work Exhortation to the Heathen)

“Come and see.”

These words of invitation were spoken to Nathanael by his brother Philip after his initial encounter with Jesus (John 1:46). It is also an invitation to us all. Who is this Jesus? “Come and see.”

Perhaps you are not a believer. Jesus invites you to begin a journey with him. His message is simple. The problems facing our world and you as an individual are rooted in sin – a disunity with God our Creator. Jesus came into the world with a mission: to save sinners (1 Timothy 1:15). He lived a perfect life, suffered and died for us (Romans 5:8), and rose again for our justification (Romans 4:25). You and all of us are invited to repent and be baptized (Acts 2:38). Start this journey of forgiveness and new life. If you aren’t sure, give it a try: simply “come and see” who this Jesus is and what his Church is all about.

Maybe you are already a Christian, but not a Catholic. “Come and see” are words to encounter Christ at a deeper level by full communion with the one Church he established (Matthew 16:18). Maybe you are Catholic but haven’t been to church in a long time. The Lord is patiently waiting for your return. And like the father in the story of the prodigal son (Luke 15:11-32), he would welcome you not with anger but with loving, open arms. “Come and see!”

You could be a regular churchgoing Catholic, attending mass each and every Sunday. But maybe you aren’t taking full advantage of the sacramental life of the church. “Come and see” can be an invitation to a closer walk with Christ. Beyond our Sunday obligation and receiving communion, pray frequently, attend mass during the week (not just on Sunday), study the Bible, and participate in what the Apostle Paul called the “ministry of reconciliation” (2 Corinthians 5:18): the sacrament of confession. Many feel anxiety about confessing their sins to a priest. But while a good examination of conscience is never comfortable, it can be comforting. After all, confession is a sacrament of healing (see the Catechism of the Catholic Church, paragraph 1421). Take advantage of it on a regular basis and you will experience great comfort and a closer relationship with the Lord. “Come and see!”

I just saw on Twitter that a free e-book is now available from Ascension Press to combat lies and inaccuracies in Angels & Demons:

Angels & Demons is a thinly-veiled, but brutal attack on the Catholic Faith that will again shake the faith of potentially millions of people who know little about Catholic teaching and Catholic and Western history. It is full of half-truths, historical inaccuracies, and outright lies.

Answering Angels & Demons, by Mark Shea is an electronic book provided for free to help you answer the errors contained in the book and movie. Please feel free to download this resources and share it with your friends, family and neighbors.

Just go to http://answeringangelsanddemons.com/ to get it (PDF, 23 pages).

Several Catholic colleges and universities are doing it right when it comes to selecting commencement speakers. The Cardinal Newman Society issued a news release listing a number of Catholic educational institutions that are choosing to honor individuals dedicated to promoting a Culture of Life:

“We are blessed in this country by the presence of many honorable leaders who promote the defense of innocent life in the public square,” said Patrick J. Reilly, President of The Cardinal Newman Society (CNS). “Notre Dame could learn a valuable lesson from Catholic colleges that place principle before prestige when deciding whom to honor at commencement.”

Read all about it: ‘Newman Guide’ Catholic Colleges Honoring Pro-Life Commencement Speakers

Some have recently asked if the University of Notre Dame is having an identity crisis. But this is nothing new. After all, here we have a college that shares a name with a French cathedral, uses an Irish leprechaun as a mascot, and has a dude named Raghib Ismail among its noteworthy former athletes. Sounds like they’ve had an identity crisis for quite a few years.

This is one of those questions I never thought to ask. But apparently it was a big enough issue in the late 19th Century to address in the 1873 Boston Catechism (p 64)…no joke:

Q: Should we abstain from spitting after having received communion?
A: Yes; we should endeavor to refrain from it for the space of a quarter of an hour, out of respect for the sacrament.

Everybody got that? No spitting for 15 minutes after communion.

Tom McFeely of the National Catholic Register blogged about supermodel Kathy Ireland’s changed view from pro-choice to pro-life. Citing a recent interview on Mike Huckabee’s television show, McFeely quotes Ireland as saying:

From the moment of conception a new life comes into being, the DNA, the genetic blueprint is there, the sex is determined, the blood type is determined, the unique set of fingerprints is there. …

The bottom line is, I really believe if the unborn is not a human being, have as many abortions as you want, whenever you want, no justification is necessary. If on the other hand, the unborn is a human being, no justification is adequate unless another human life is at risk, that being the mother’s. …We need to put this in the hands of science. Even if you don’t share our faith, an atheist can know it’s wrong to take an innocent human life.

Ireland’s switch from pro-abortion to pro-life may have been prompted from the medical insight she got from her physician husband.

It appears that Miss USA runner-up Carrie Prejean isn’t alone in her stance for life in the modeling world.