Not long ago here at the National Shrine of Our Lady of Champion, I was talking to a layman before Mass who expressed a different opinion over prayers for peace. He said, “Why are we praying for peace when we should be praying for victory?”
I offered an explanation centered around Christ’s title “Prince of Peace” and the beatitude which begins, “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called children of God.” But it bothered me, as I continued to think about it through Mass: What is the relationship between victory and peace?
In the natural, worldly realm, we do pray for peace. Nations are mixed bags of good and evil, and often it is difficult to pray for one to be victorious over the other. Because of this, peace is what we often pray for.
But in the supernatural realm, there is no peace between good and evil. Peace is only achieved through the victory of good.
It struck me at the time of my conversation that the Blessed Mother, like Christ, has many titles, including both Our Lady of Victory and Queen of Peace. Is there a way that these titles can be unified? And does that resolution also involve her title as Our Lady of Champion?
St. Augustine, in his treatise The City of God, defines peace as “the tranquility of order.” We often think of peace as an agreement to non-aggressive behavior, but the term “truce” fits that definition better than peace. This is something achievable in worldly terms, and often what we hope for between nations.
But even in worldly terms, true peace is not just the absence of war, but the restoration of a just order. Our prayer is that nations might be able to end conflicts with both sides being able to justly care for the welfare of their citizens.
And in the ultimate, spiritual combat between the forces of God and the World, the Flesh, and the Devil, there can be no truce. Our spiritual enemy is an implacable foe with which we cannot bargain or ask for a ceasefire. Nor should we want one. The spiritual battle is fought for victory, and it is here that we can most fittingly pray to Our Lady of Victory for help.
The most famous use of this title of Mary comes from the victory of Christian forces over the Ottoman navy in the Battle of Lepanto in 1571. Victory was attributed to Christians all over Europe praying the Rosary for Victory. The Feast of Our Lady of Victory was ascribed to October 7, the day of the battle. Two years later, the commemoration was renamed the Feast of Our Lady of the Rosary. Since then, Christians mired in spiritual warfare have turned to the Rosary as one of the most powerful weapons against the enemies of our souls.
The victories achieved by the praying of the Rosary bring about peace of soul whenever sin and temptation are repulsed and the faithful soul triumphs. The Blessed Virgin Mary, by her intercession, obtains the graces of victory and restores peace at the same moment. She is truly both Our Lady of Victory and Queen of Peace.
And I think here we can insert a special promotion of Our Lady of Champion. By an odd twist, this is the only Marian apparition title I know of that has a double meaning in English.
Because of sports, we often think of a champion as someone who wins, who achieves victory.
But an older definition of champion would be “someone who fights for another.” Whenever we pick up the Rosary in time of temptation, we are asking the Blessed Mother not only to pray for us, but also to fight spiritually on our behalf (which is kind of the same thing). She is, in that moment, our champion.
So let us ask our Blessed Mother for aid this month using these three titles which we celebrate this first week in October: Our Lady of Victory, Our Lady of the Rosary, and Our Lady of Champion. When we find ourselves victorious in the spiritual combat, and rest in peace of soul, let’s thank her as Queen of Peace. And let’s ask, too, that the whole world might come to experience true peace as well through the victory of Christ over sin and death. Then, we might all come to Jesus, with the Queen of Saints, as the saints He calls us to be in Heaven.
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Fr. Nathanael Mudd is Chaplain at the National Shrine of Our Lady of Champion. This year, the Shrine celebrated the 5th anniversary of the Confraternity of the Most Holy Rosary, which recently surpassed 20,000 members united in prayer and devotion to Our Lady. They encourage people to join at championshrine.org/confraternity.
Image: Unsplash
