Among the many tributes to Her Majesty the Queen this weekend, the Roman Catholic Bishop of Shrewsbury has said Elizabeth has embraced her calling as monarch with “an unequivocal sense of Christian vocation.”
In a homily preached to mark Pentecost Sunday, Rt Rev Mark Davies noted that the Queen’s calling was apparent from the moment of her Coronation. During a mass at Shrewsbury Cathedral, the Bishop said her reign has since been marked by “whole-hearted” and “selfless” service.
Queen Elizabeth II has shown to the world how a Christian vocation can be lived fully in public life, the Bishop said during the service.
The Bishop said the Platinum Jubilee celebrations in honour of Her Majesty and the Feast of Pentecost together provided an occasion for Christians to reflect “on the sense of Christian vocation which has sustained the life and commitment of our longest-serving monarch” and upon their own vocations too.
Bishop Davies quoted the meditation of Cardinal St John Henry Newman, who in October 2019 became England’s newest saint, that God intends “some definite service” for every baptised person, and he invited Christians to “ask how we have responded with courage and constancy to our own call to serve and the mission which had been uniquely entrusted to us”.
All Christians, the Bishop reminded the congregation, shared the same vocation of selfless service which has been exemplified by the Queen during her reign. Bishop Davies said:
“The Queen makes no secret that it is her Christian faith which has enabled her to respond to the myriad demands of her life across seven decades. A life marked by a daily rhythm of prayer and Sunday worship that has been the continuous thread through all the changes and upheavals of her reign. Indeed, in the modern era it is impossible to imagine how such life-long service could be lived without such a sense of Christian calling. Today, we acknowledge that we have been blessed to live during the reign of the second Queen Elizabeth and to have always known such an example of Christian service at the heart of our national life.”