Sunday, March 29, 2009

Hail Holy Queen

I just finished reading Hail Holy Queen by Scott Hahn. Since most of the books I read are about Jesus and his Apostles, or the Biblical Evangelists, I wanted to make sure I gave the Virgin Mary her due.

I certainly don't want to ruin the book in case you want to read it, but I do want to highlight two learnings.

Hahn spends part of the book defending Mary's place in our Faith to naysayers.

The first question he answers is one of the most popular - "how can we prove the Assumption, especially since it wasn't made popular until centuries after Mary's death"?

Hahn gives a few answers, but the one that stood out to me was that there are no relics of her bones. Given her status as Christ's mother, her bones would have certainly been kept and her burial place marked and frequented. Back in those days, and the ones to follow, Crusaders would have gone after those bones as a "trophy" to bring back to their lands. And yet, there is no record of that anywhere.

The second question he answers is "how do we know Mary was sinless"?

His answer is so obvious that I'm upset I did not come up with it myself. Hahn asks - if you were God, and you had to create your own mother, would you make her (a) full of sin, or (b) sinless? I thought that was just brilliant. Instead of looking for written evidence, his response is simple and irrefutable.

Hail Holy Queen isn't the easiest book to read, but I enjoyed spending the time with it and reflecting on our Blessed Mother.

God Bless.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

This sounds like such an interesting book. There has been a lot written about our Blessed Mother. To me there can be no doubt. The second part of your post has always answered the question for me. Thank you for sharing your thoughts. I hope you have a beautiful and blessed day.

Anne said...

I have seen Scott Haun on EWTN. And sometimes I do have a hard time following him. He can be very theological. I just like simple words. Nothing fancy. I don't want to feel like I have to be a theologian to be able to follow what he is saying.
As for the book, unfortunatly that is why I have never picked up one of his books. But maybe I will one day.
Haun did answer those two questions really well though like you pointed out. Those two questions have been asked for millions of years and will continue to to the end of time in my belief.
I do love to read spiritaul books to. It feeds me spiritaully and it makes me feel closer to the Lord and always gives me a better understanding of the Catholic church. Have a nice day.