May 17 – Spoken Over Us

          “O Lord and heavenly Father, the exalter of the humble and the strength of thy chosen, who by Anointing with Oil didst of old make and consecrate kings, priests and prophets, to teach and govern thy people Israel: Bless and sanctify thy chosen servant Elizabeth, who by our office and ministry is now to be anointed with this Oil and consecrated Queen . . .”

          A moment before, the Archbishop had invoked the sevenfold gifts of the Holy Spirit, and now, when he had prayed over the young Queen and before the people, Elizabeth rose from her knees and the voices of the choir rose, as from the top of a high mountain, as though filling the national valleys that remained following two World Wars and the death of two monarchs and the abdication of one, flooding the dry tributaries of despair and deprivation . . . in the eyes of the subjects to the British crown, at home and around the world, God had given a Queen, and He was about to anoint her to the most high calling of keeping and defending the Faith. 

          If Members of Parliament forget the people in their struggles for power and position, she would not.  If the whole world collapsed in a heap, Great Britain would still have a Queen whom God had given.  This, as best an outsider Abbess can relate, was the joy and hope and exaltation in the Realm and Commonwealth that day.

          We have never awakened to a Coronation Day; no one has ever spoken over us the words of majesty and consecration that Elizabeth heard that day.  No one has ever prayed for us quite the way the Archbishop prayed for the new Queen … but … the Word of the Lord is full, from start to finish with proclamations like this:

“I have put my words in your mouth and covered you with the shadow of my hand-- I who set the heavens in place, who laid the foundations of the earth, and who say to Zion, 'You are my people.'”  (Isaiah 51:16)