Tomorrow, Aug. 22, we celebrate the feast of the Queenship of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Our Lady is not a queen who seeks to draw attention to herself; everything she does and is points to her Son and His heavenly Father. As Queen of our hearts, her greatest desire is that God Himself reign in our hearts.  Throughout her life on earth and her queenship now in heaven, she has sought not her own honor but only the glory of God.

Jesus Himself, as He walked upon the earth, did everything for the glory of the Father. At the Last Supper, as He was preparing to lay down His life, Jesus prayed to the Father, “I glorified You on earth by accomplishing the work that You gave me to do” (John 17: 4). Jesus is “the refulgence of [the Father’s] glory” (Hebrews 1: 3a); He Himself shines the glory of the Father to the world. In fact, Jesus Himself is the Father’s glory; His very Person, His very union with the Father and loving obedience to His will is what most perfectly brings glory to the Father.

As Christians, followers of Jesus Christ, we are also meant to radiate the Father’s glory in our lives. While we will participate in this glory fully in heaven, we begin to share in the glory of the life of the Blessed Trinity even now on earth. We bring glory to God the Father by doing His will, which will ultimately lead to His being more known and loved. But how often are our actions truly motivated by a desire for the Father’s glory, by a desire to know and love Him and to bring as many others as possible to know and love Him?

The word glory connotes beauty. Therefore, to radiate the Father’s glory by accomplishing His will in my daily life means to let His beauty shine through me. When people see me, do they encounter the beauty of God, who is beauty itself? Do I seek to live the Father’s will in my life — receiving His love, having purity of intention, cultivating virtue — to the extent that as I become more like God, His beauty radiates through me to others? Is the love of the Father so evident in me that He is able to use me to draw others to Himself? Am I like Our Lady, drawing attention not to myself but to the Lord?

At the Visitation, when her cousin Elizabeth praised her for her faith in God’s word, Mary immediately turned the praise over to God in her beautiful hymn, the Magnificat: “My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord; my spirit rejoices in God my savior” (Luke 1: 46-47). May we likewise always rejoice in the Lord and His love for us that our lives, too, might redound to the resplendent glory of our heavenly Father.

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Sr. Mary Martha Becnel is a member of the Ann Arbor-based Dominican Sisters of Mary, Mother of the Eucharist.