Tomorrow is the Feast of Our Lady, Queen and Mother and it is very fitting that we should celebrate it a week after the Feast of the Assumption.
The feast was instituted by Pope Pius XII in 1954. The faithful have long had recourse to Our Lady as Queen through such prayers as, 'Salve Regina', 'Regina Caeli' and 'Ave Regina Caelorum'.
Of course we also meditate on this feast in the Fifth Glorious Mystery of the Rosary.
Salve Regina
Hail holy Queen, Mother of mercy, our life, our sweetness, and our hope.
To thee do we cry, poor banished children of Eve.
To thee do we send up our sighs, mourning and weeping in this valley of tears.
Turn then, most gracious Advocate, thine eyes of mercy toward us.
And after this our exile show unto us the blessed fruit of thy womb, Jesus.
O clement, O loving, O sweet Virgin Mary. Amen.
V. Pray for us, O Holy Mother of God.
R. That we may be made worthy of the promises of Christ.
Let us pray,
Almighty, everlasting God, who by the cooperation of the Holy Spirit, didst prepare the body and soul of the glorious Virgin-Mother Mary to become a worthy dwelling for Thy Son; grant that we who rejoice in her commemoration may, by her loving intercession, be delivered from present evils and from the everlasting death. Amen.
From the Roman Breviary.
Our Lady, Queen and Mother,
Pray for us
13 comments:
Thank you Fr Miceal.
Please may we have some fitting
hymns aswell to Honour Our Lady
as she so deserves?
Marvellous!
No hymns Fr Miceal! I'm sure
we could have managed at least
one between us!!
Interesting that hymns are now sought for weekday Masses. Have we now become a singing congregation?
He who sings well, prays twice. St Augustine.
Here here Joseph! You took the
words out of my mouth! Were
you there this morning Flick?
Shame, you have a wonderful
singing voice!
Yes Joseph but is it really necessary to sing 'well' to pray twice - hopefully the intention behind the singing is enough! I like to think the angels sort out the slightly 'off' notes between this earthly place and heaven!! - those played or sung - otherwise there isn't any hope for any of us!
How much more uplifted we may
have felt upon leaving Church
with a Hymn to Our Lady echoing
around our head,(it works for
me!), i.e. "Hail Queen of Heaven the Ocean Star........
One line in particular stands
out, "Refuge in grief, star of
the sea, pray for the mourner
pray for me". After a bereaved
lady saying how comforting those
words were to her, I often think
of the comfort such Hymns can
bring and why they mean so much
to some people. After all isn't
that why they were written in
the first place?
It's not the X Factor! I like
to think Our Lady would smile
on us just for singing in Her
Honour!
Of course Augustine doesn't mean 'well' in the sense of muscial excellence. He means whole-hearted soul-given singing which transports the singer to the spiritual places of which we speak when we say 'Lift up your hearts'. It's not how well you sing - it's the intention/heart with which you do it! Sing, sing, sing!
Beautifully put, I agree. We
have some lovely hymns, they
were written from the heart
to comfort, inspire and give
hope, so let us sing from the
heart!!! Sing, sing sing....
Did you realise Fr Miceal when you posted the original blog how much interest and dialogue it would inspire? - such affection for Our Lady. In answer to the query, no I was away the end of last week - had I been at Mass on Friday I would have been delighted to accompany the singing of a hymn! I whole heartedly agree with the statement - 'let us sing from the heart' sing, sing, sing!
On a different note ...
All those latin words remind me of my old school which was called Regina Mundi.
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