In the latest edition of CATHOLIC VOICE, an Irish publication that is right up to date on the crisis in the Church, they have an article on THE TWELVE STARS OF MARY.
'Catholic tradition teaches us that the woman is both representative of the Church and Mary, the mother of Christ.'
'But why a "crown of twelve stars?" --Twelve tribes, twelve apostles. Heaven has "twelve gates and in the gates twelve angles, and names written.. which are the twelve tribes" The wall of the city has twelve foundations, and in them twelve names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb."
'Throughout scripture and Church tradition, we also have many comparisons of our Lady and the great celestial bodies. "Morning star," "Star of the sea," "Rejoice, o star that that goes before the sun." St Thomas Aquinas writes: " as sailors are guided by a star to their heaven, so are Christians guided to Heaven by Mary." ...
'Looking at more recent times, the image engraved on the "miraculous Medal" featured the twelve stars.
'To understand the "crown of twelve stars" more then, we look to Holy Scripture which proclaims the crown as the glorious reward given justly for one's service in the Kingdom of God. St James: "for when he hath been proved, he shall receive the crown of life which God hath promised to them that love Him.'
There is more but I certainly got the message. The fact that the sun, moon and stars at the constellation of the 'woman' shall all come together as described in Apoc 12 on the 100th anniversary of Fatima, when Our Lady appeared "brighter than the sun" to the three children, followed by the miracle of the sun which followed, is a 'SIGN' that Mary and the Church are still watching over the world and that faithful Catholics can know heaven is still very much aware of what is going on in the world and wants to comfort them. Some of us wish for a happening like another Deluge, but heaven chose to give us a sign in the sky, just as Genesis said it would:
‘And God said: Let there be lights made in the firmament of heaven, to divide the day and the night, and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days and years. (Genesis !:14)