Regina caeli, laetare

[Dawn Marie]

Latin

V. Regina caeli, laetare, alleluia.
R. Quia quem meruisti portare, alleluia.
V. Resurrexit, sicut dixit, alleluia.
R. Ora pro nobis Deum, alleluia.

V. Gaude et laetare, Virgo Maria, alleluia.
R. Quia surrexit Dominus vere, alleluia.

Oremus. Deus, qui per resurrectionem Filii tui, Domini nostri Iesu Christi, mundum laetificare dignatus es: praesta, quaesumus; ut per eius Genetricem Virginem Mariam, perpetuae capiamus gaudia vitae. Per eundem Christum Dominum nostrum. Amen.

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English

Queen of Heaven

V. Queen of Heaven, rejoice, alleluia.
R. For He whom you did merit to bear, alleluia.
V. Has risen, as he said, alleluia.
R. Pray for us to God, alleluia.
V. Rejoice and be glad, O Virgin Mary, alleluia.
R. For the Lord has truly risen, alleluia.

Let us pray. O God, who gave joy to the world through the resurrection of Thy Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, grant we beseech Thee, that through the intercession of the Virgin Mary, His Mother, we may obtain the joys of everlasting life. Through the same Christ our Lord. Amen.

[Flavia Talladen Schott]

V. Queen of Heaven, rejoice, alleluia.
R. For He whom you did merit to bear, alleluia.
V. Has risen, as he said, alleluia.
R. Pray for us to God, alleluia.
V. Rejoice and be glad, O Virgin Mary, alleluia.
R. For the Lord has truly risen, alleluia.

Let us pray.

O God, who gave joy to the world through the resurrection of Thy Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, grant we beseech Thee, that through the intercession of the Virgin Mary, His Mother, we may obtain the joys of everlasting life. Through the same Christ our Lord.

Amen.

[Dawn Marie]

OUR RISEN LORD APPEARS TO HIS MOTHER
by Dom Prosper Gueranger

The Night between Saturday and Sunday has well nigh run its course, and the day-dawn is appearing. The Mother of Sorrows is waiting, in courageous hope and patience, for the blissful moment of her Jesus' return. Magdalene and the other holy Women have spent the night in watching, and are preparing to start for the Sepulcher. In Limbo, the Soul of our Crucified Lord is about to give the glad word of departure to the myriads of the long-imprisoned holy Souls, who cluster round Him in adoring love. Death is still holding its silent sway over the Sepulcher, where rests the Body of Jesus. Since that day when it gained its first victim, Abel, it has swept off countless generations; but never had it held in his grasp a Prey so noble as this that now lies in the Tomb near Calvary. Never had the terrible sentence of God, pronounced against our First Parents, received such a fulfilment as this; but, never had Death received such a defeat as the one that is now in preparation. It is true, the power of God has, at times, brought back the dead to life; the son of the Widow of Naim, and Lazarus, were reclaimed from the bondage of this tyrant Death: but it regained its sway over them all. But its Victim of Calvary is to conquer Death forever, for this is He of Whom it is written in the Prophecy: “I, O Death, will be thy death!” (Osee, xiii. 14) Yet a few brief moments, and the battle will be begun, and Life shall vanquish Death.

As Divine Justice could not allow the Body that was united to the Word to see corruption, and there wait, like ours must, for the Archangel's word to rise and come to Judgment, so, neither, could it permit the dominion of Death to be long over such a Victim. This Jesus had said to the Jews: A wicked generation seeketh a sign; and a sign shall not be given it, but that of Jonas the Prophet. (Matt. 12:39) Three days in the Tomb, the afternoon and night of Friday, the whole of Saturday, and a few hours of the Sunday, oh! yes, these are enough: enough to satisfy Divine Justice; enough to certify the Death of the Crucified, and make his triumph glorious; enough to complete the Martyrdom of that most loving of Mothers, the Queen of Sorrows.

No man taketh away my life from Me: I lay it down of Myself: I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it up again. (John 10:18) Thus spoke our Redeemer to the Jews before His Passion: now is the hour for the fulfilment of His words, and Death shall feel their whole force. The Day of Light, Sunday, has begun, and its early dawn is struggling with the gloom. The soul of Jesus immediately darts from the prison of Limbo, followed by the whole multitude of the holy souls that are around Him. In the twinkling of an eye, it reaches and enters the Sepulcher, and reunites itself with that Body, which, three days before, it had quitted amidst an agony of suffering. The sacred Body returns to life, raises itself up, and throws aside the winding-sheet, the spices, and the bands. The bruises have disappeared, the Blood has been brought back to the veins; and from these Limbs that had been torn by the scourging, from this Head that had been mangled by the thorns, from these Hands and Feet that had been pierced with nails, there darts forth a dazzling light that fills the cave. The holy Angels had clustered round the Stable and adored the Babe of Bethlehem; they are now around the Sepulcher, adoring the Conqueror of Death. They take the shrouds, and, reverently folding them up, place them on the slab, whereon the Body had been laid by Joseph and Nicodemus.

But Jesus was not to tarry in the gloomy Sepulcher. Quicker than a ray of light through a crystal, He passes through the stone that closes the entrance of the cave. Pilate had ordered his seal to be put upon this stone, and a guard of soldiers is there to see that no one touches it. Untouched it is, and unmoved; and yet Jesus is free! Thus, as the Holy Fathers unanimously teach us, was it at his Birth; He appeared to the gaze of Mary, without having offered the slightest violence to Her maternal womb. The Birth and the Resurrection, the commencement and the end of Jesus' mission, are two Mysteries which bear on them the unity of resemblance: in the first, it is a Virgin Mother; in the last, it is a sealed Tomb giving forth its Captive God.

And whilst this Jesus, this Man-God, thus breaks the scepter of Death, the stillness of the night is undisturbed. His and our Victory has cost Him no effort. O Death! where is now thy kingdom? Sin had made us thy slaves; thy victory was complete: and now, lo! thou thyself art defeated! Jesus, Whom thou didst exultingly hold under thy law, has set Himself free; and we, after thou hast domineered over us for a time, we too shall be free from thy grasp. The Tomb thou makest for us, will become to us the source of a new life, for He that now conquers thee is the First-born among the dead (Apoc. 1:5); and today is the Pasch, the Passover, the deliverance, for Jesus and for us His Brethren. He has led the way; we shall follow; and the day will come, when thou, the enemy that destroyest all things, shalt thyself be destroyed by Immortality. (I Cor. 15:26) Thy defeat dates from this moment of Jesus' Resurrection, and, with the great Apostle, we say to thee: O Death! where is thy victory? O Death! where is thy sting? (Ibid. v. 55)

But the Sepulcher is not to remain shut: it must be thrown open, and testify to men, that He, whose lifeless Body lay there, is indeed Risen from the dead. As when our Jesus expired on the Cross, so now, immediately after His Resurrection, an earthquake shook the foundations of the world; but, this time, it was for joy. The Angel of the Lord descended from heaven, rolled back the stone, and sat upon it. And his countenance was as lightning, and his raiment as snow. And for fear of him, the Guards are struck with terror, and fall on the ground as dead men. God has mercy on them; they return to themselves, and quitting the dread Sepulcher, they hasten to the city and relate what they have seen.

Meanwhile, our Risen Jesus has been seen by no mortal eye; He has sped to His most Holy Mother. He is the Son of God; He is the vanquisher of Death; but He is, likewise, the Son of Mary. She stood near him to the last, uniting the sacrifice of her mother's heart with that He made upon the Cross: it is just, therefore, that she should be the first to partake of the joy of His Resurrection. The Gospel does not relate the apparition thus made by Jesus to his Mother, whereas all the others are fully described. It is not difficult to assign the reason. The other apparitions were intended as proofs of the Resurrection; this to Mary was dictated by the tender love borne to her by her Son. Both nature and grace required that His first visit should be to such a Mother, and Christian hearts dwell with delight on the meditation of the mystery. There was no need of its being mentioned in the Gospel; the Tradition of the Holy Fathers, beginning with St. Ambrose, bears sufficient testimony to it; and even had they been silent, our hearts would have told it to us. And why was it that our Savior rose from the Tomb so early on the Day He had fixed for His Resurrection? It was because His filial love was impatient to satisfy the vehement longings of his dearest and most afflicted Mother. Such is the teaching of many pious and learned writers; and who that knows aught of Jesus and Mary could refuse to accept it?

But who is there that would attempt to describe the joy of such a meeting? Those eyes, that had grown dim from wakefulness and tears, now flash with delight at beholding the brightness which tells her that Jesus is come. He calls her by her name, not with the tone of voice which pierced her soul when he addressed her from the Cross, but with an accent of joy and love, such as a Son would take when telling a Mother that He had triumphed. The Body, which, three days ago, she had seen covered with Blood and dead, is now radiant with life, beaming with the reflections of Divinity. He speaks to her words of tenderest affection, He embraces her, He kisses her. Who, we ask, would dare to describe this scene, which the devout Abbot Rupert says so inundated the soul of Mary with joy, that it made her forget all the sorrows she had endured.

Nor must we suppose that the Visit was a short one. In one of the revelations granted to the seraphic St. Teresa, our Lord told her, that when he appeared to His Blessed Mother immediately after His Resurrection, He found her so overwhelmed with grief that she would soon have died; that it was not until several moments had passed, that she was able to realize the immense joy of His presence; and that He remained a long time with her in order to console her. (Life of St. Teresa, written by herself: in the Additions. See page 402 in the 1870 translation by David Lewis.) Let us who love this Blessed Mother, and have seen her offer up her Son on Calvary for our sakes, let us affectionately rejoice in the happiness wherewith Jesus now repays her, and let us learn to compassionate her in her Dolors. This is the first manifestation of our Risen Jesus: it is a just reward for the unwavering Faith which has dwelt in Mary's soul during these three days, when all but she had lost it. But it is time for Him to show Himself to others, that so the glory of His Resurrection may be made known to the world. His first visit was to her that is the dearest to Him of all creatures, and well deserves the favor; now, in His goodness, He is about to console those devoted Women, whose grief is, perhaps, too human, but their love is firm, and neither death nor the tomb have shaken it.

[Flavia Talladen Schott]

V. Queen of Heaven, rejoice, alleluia.
R. For He whom you did merit to bear, alleluia.
V. Has risen, as he said, alleluia.
R. Pray for us to God, alleluia.
V. Rejoice and be glad, O Virgin Mary, alleluia.
R. For the Lord has truly risen, alleluia.

Let us pray.

O God, who gave joy to the world through the resurrection of Thy Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, grant we beseech Thee, that through the intercession of the Virgin Mary, His Mother, we may obtain the joys of everlasting life. Through the same Christ our Lord.

Amen.

[Dawn Marie]

†Amen†

[Flavia Talladen Schott]

Amen. 

[Charibel R Hilario]

Rejoice and be glad, O Virgin Mary, alleluia.

For the Lord has truly risen, alleluia.

[Dawn Marie]

Queen of Heaven, rejoice, alleluia.