ACCIPE CORONAM

Christo confixus sum cruci:

vivo autem, iam non ego:

vivit vero in me Christus.

Gal 2,19-20

Veni, Sponsa Christi, accipe coronam,

quam tibi Dominus præparavit in æternum.

Ant. Profess.

Praised be Jesus Christ

Dear brothers in the Priesthood

and all the faithful in the Lord,

First of all, I address you, beloved daughter, Sister Maria Consolata of the Infant Jesus and Saint Joseph, whom the infinite divine condescension calls today to ratify at the altar – as a Daughter of the Regina Crucis – that spousal bond which neither time nor death shall ever be able to dissolve.

In today’s celebration of Sr. Maria Consolata’s Solemn Profession, we are not witnessing a mere act of devotion, nor a moving ceremony from a bygone era that has survived the tide of universal secularization. Rather, it is an ontological act, simultaneously awesome and glorious: the irrevocable surrender of your entire existence into the hands of the Divine Spouse, the unbloody yet real immolation of your freedom, your youth, and your heart, to be consumed as a sacrificial victim in the fire of Divine Charity.

In professing the perpetual vows of Poverty, Chastity, and Obedience according to the Rule approved by the Church throughout the ages, you do not renounce love; rather, you choose the one Love that does not disappoint, does not betray, and does not die. You choose to ascend Golgotha, for your Spouse is not a sovereign according to the flesh, adorned with the fleeting vanities of the present age, but rather the Rex tremendæ maiestatis whose throne is the hard wood of Calvary, whose scepter is the reed of mockery, and whose crown is a wreath of thorns dripping with the Most Divine Blood.

The doctrine of the Regina Crucis

Divine Providence, which guides the path of consecrated souls with both gentleness and strength, places before our eyes at this solemn hour the sublime figure of the Most Holy Virgin in her Divine Motherhood, that Motherhood which the Church celebrates with special solemnity on October 11th, on the feast instituted by Pius XI to mark the fifteenth centenary of the Council of Ephesus, and which we contemplate in a most special way under the august and mysterious title of Regina Crucis, Queen of the Cross.

On the same day – October 11, 1962 – the Second Vatican Council opened with the address Gaudet Mater Ecclesia: «Mother Church rejoices». Yet the Mother of God, at the foot of the Cross, did not rejoice; she suffered in compassion. It is from that school of sorrow, not from the illusions of Modernity, that the Church receives her fruitfulness.

The Holy Mother of God is Queen by virtue of her Divine Motherhood, yet she is also Queen in a most singular and cooperative sense because she shared, as no other creature did, in the intimate essence of the Triumph of Our Lord Jesus Christ. And where did Our Lord triumph? Not in the palaces of the Caesars, nor amidst the deceptive applause of the crowds, but upon the ignominy of the Cross: Regnavit a ligno Deus – God reigned from the wood. From the Cross, Our Lord proclaimed His Divine Kingship to the world, overthrowing the empire of Satan and redeeming the human race at the price of His Blood.

And who stood at the foot of that divine gibbet? Stabat Mater dolorosa iuxta crucem lacrimosa. The Virgin Mary was not there as an inert spectator or one overcome by grief; she stood (stabat), upright in her Immaculate majesty, clad in the royal mantle of the most perfect and heart-rending suffering. That sword foretold by the aged Simeon pierced her Immaculate soul. In that spiritual martyrdom, the Virgin Co-Redemptrix united her own compassion with the Sacrifice of her Son. She did not revoke her Fiat, but reiterated it amidst the darkness enveloping the earth, grasping the scepter of suffering alongside Christ and meriting, by the decree of the Most Holy Trinity, the title of Queen of the Cross.

Beneath her virginal feet, the Woman clothed with the sun in the Book of Revelation tramples the moon: the ancient symbol of mutability, of the transience of human affairs, and of earthly illusions. She is Queen because, through the Cross, she has conquered the world; Queen because, from the Cross, she gave birth, amidst the pangs of spiritual labor, to the Church and to each of the redeemed.

The religious vocation: Immolation and spousal union in blood

Keep your eyes fixed on Her, dear Sister Maria Consolata! Here is the model, the teacher, and the Mother of your vocation.

This apostate world, intoxicated by the idolatry of material well-being, the cult of the self, and proud rebellion against the Divine Law, deems your consecration an act of folly, a waste of life, a senseless sacrifice. And even within the bosom of the Church itself, among those who have traded the rigor of the Gospel and the primacy of the Cross for the allurements of the world, contemplative silence and austere penance are often mocked as outdated relics or condemned as a form of sterile disengagement. Dreadful Vatican documents, such as Vultum Dei Quærere or Cor Orans, undermine the sacrificial soul of the religious vocation at its very foundations in the name of an «infinite dignity» built upon the rejection of the Cross. Yet religious life, as the Church has always understood and handed it down, preserves its true models wherever the Rule, the habit, and the traditional liturgy have not been abandoned.

Do not let yourselves be seduced: the world considers you lost because it does not know your Spouse. The world does not understand that the value of a soul is measured by the degree of its conformation to the Crucifix. As you climb the steps of the altar today to pronounce your perpetual vows, you place yourselves next to Mary, Regina Crucis. You forever clothe yourselves in the habit of renouncing the things of the flesh, which you already wear and which announces to the world your spiritual death to the things of the earth, to live uniquely hidden with Christ in God (Col 3,3).

Your cell becomes the stronghold of true freedom; the choir, the vestibule of Paradise; your silence, the bulwark where the soul listens to the voice of the Eternal Priest, of the Divine Bridegroom. You are called to make your entire self a living offering of atonement. How many souls will be saved from the abyss of eternal perdition thanks to your solitary vigils, your fasts, and the hidden tears shed before the Tabernacle! What relief you will bring to the Pierced Heart of Jesus and to the Immaculate and Sorrowful Heart of Mary, outraged by the blasphemies, sacrileges, and betrayals of so many false shepherds who lead the flock toward apostasy!

And if the renunciation of motherhood in the order of nature derives directly from the total oblation of your life to your Divine Spouse, He nevertheless repays you by allowing you to exercise a spiritual motherhood towards those who are invested with the authority of Our Lord: in charity towards seminarians, priests and all those you will be called to assist in their daily needs.

Far from being a flight from battle, this free choice of yours constitutes a descent into the trenches, to the most advanced and decisive point of the eschatological combat against the infernal Dragon. Your prayers, raised in unison with the Church’s perpetual Eucharistic Sacrifice, are the lightning bolt that routs the enemy ranks and appeases the just wrath of God hanging over rebellious nations.

The inheritance of the Cross and the hope of glory

Do not let the fervor of this hour of grace deceive you. The hour of Gethsemane will come, as it does for every bride of the Crucified One; the dark night of the soul will come, along with the burden of human weakness, the aridity of the desert, misunderstanding, and perhaps the temptation to regret what you have left behind.

In those moments, lift your eyes to your Sovereign: to the Queen of the Cross. Remember that the Cross does not represent a bitter passage toward a glory foreign to it, but is already a foretaste of the Kingdom, the very substance of Christian kingship. Whoever does not reign with Christ by sharing His Cross will not reign with Him in the splendor of His Majesty.

Ask Our Lady to teach you to guard the silence of Golgotha, to grant you her regal fortitude, her immaculate purity, and her unwavering faith – a faith that did not falter even when the Apostles fled and the Sun of Justice seemed eclipsed forever. Allow your heart to be pierced by sorrow for the sins of the world, for only a pierced heart is capable of pouring out torrents of redeeming grace upon itself and upon the Church.

Beloved sister, today the faithful Church rejoices in your total offering. Receive with trembling joy the wedding ring, the seal of an eternal covenant with the King of kings. Receive the crown of thorns, which alone precedes the crown of immortal life.

Place yourselves under the mantle of the Most Holy Virgin, Regina Crucis and Mater Misericordiae. May she be the guardian of your hours of adoration, the sure refuge amidst the storms threatening the Barque of Peter, and the sweetest consolation at the end of your earthly pilgrimage; so that, having generously offered your daily sacrifice at the foot of Calvary, you may one day hear the voice of your Divine Spouse calling you to the eternal banquet of the Wedding Feast of the Lamb: Surge, propera, amica mea, columba mea, formosa mea, et veni: iam enim hiems transiit, imber abiit et recessit... Veni, coronaberis. And so may it be.