The Queenship of Mary

Last week, we celebrated the feast day of the Queenship of Mary on August 22. It followed the Assumption of Mary by a week. The girls made these footprint/handprint Mary pictures as an arts and crafts activity. I saw the idea here at Catholic Icing and thought it would be great for this feast day and had been saving the idea. After stamping their foot and handprints, the girls used markers to draw in the details once the paint was dry. Then they used some stick-on sequins to decorate their work further.

Here's Cecilia working on hers.

For those who might be curious as to why Catholics consider Mary to be "Queen," here's a basic explanation: it is not because we worship her as we worship Christ the King, but rather because in the time of King David, the queen was always the king's mother. Giving Mary the title of "Queen" shows our respect for her important role in bringing Christ into the world as his mother.

We made a queen's crown cake the day before the feast day. Daddy was going out of town the next morning, so we wanted him to have at least one piece of the cake that night before he left! I made some cut-out cookies and then the girls decorated them with some Trader Joe's gummies as jewels... these would make the sides of the crown.

Here it is, all assembled! I made a basic chocolate cake and covered it with a buttery white frosting... mmm. Then I attached each cookie to surround the cake to form the crown.

In addition to these activities, this month we have been learning the hymn Hail Holy Queen Enthroned Above. We also prayed the fifth Glorious Mystery at our family evening prayer time, which is the Coronation of Mary.

The cake was enjoyed by all!