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 vale 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! Pray for us, O holy Mother of God, that we may be made worthy of the promises of Christ. Amen.
1. our life – Jesus says that He is the way, the truth, and the life, so how can Mary also be our life? Mary can be called our life because she is the mother of Jesus Christ. She willingly said yes to giving Him His human life, which in turn gave us our chance at eternal life. Scholars often call Mary the Coredemptrix, for she actively cooperated with Jesus Christ in obtaining our redemption, both through her assent to become the Mother of God and by continuing to say yes throughout Jesus' ministry and even at the foot of the cross.
2. our sweetness – Mary is perfectly sweet. She loves us dearly, and when life is bitter and difficult, we can turn to her to receive the beauty and sweetness of her motherly love and compassion. Her presence and that of her Son can make the worst situations at least tolerable and often even sweet when we trust in the divine plan as Mary always does.
3. our hope – Mary always intercedes for us. She always brings our prayers before her divine Son, augmented by her own perfect prayers. She always wants what is best for us, and the highest expression of that desire is Mary's longing for our eternal salvation. Mary wants all of us with her in Heaven forever, and she will do everything she can to get us there. We can place our hope in her motherly intercession, knowing that in doing so, we are also expressing our hope in Jesus Christ, for our Lord and His mother always work toward the same goal: our intimacy with God that will bring us to Heaven forever.
4. To thee do we cry – We cry out to Mary with our needs and desires, for she is our Advocate, who hears our cries and presents all of those needs and desires to her Son. This doesn't mean, of course, that we cannot and should not pray directly to Jesus. We can, we should, and we do. But when we allow Mary to join her prayers to ours, she automatically strengthens our prayers. Jesus once said, “Again, truly I tell you, if two if you agree on earth about anything you ask, it will be done for you by My Father in Heaven” (Matthew 18, RSV). How much more effective our prayers will be if we join them to those of Mary, who sits at her Son's side in Heaven!
5. poor banished children of Eve – When Eve fell for the serpent's temptation and took the fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, she created a legacy of banishment and sin for all of her children. With Adam, Eve was forced into exile from the Garden of Eden. Humanity lost the paradise it once enjoyed and continues to live in banishment in a broken world until the end of time when Jesus will usher in a new Heaven and a new earth.
6. to thee do we send up our sighs, mourning, and weeping in this vale of tears – Everyone has reason to sigh, mourn, and weep in this world, for we are still plagued by the consequences of our first parents' sin. We are frail and broken, prone to sin and suffering in this imperfect world. But our Mother is always ready to listen to our heartaches and comfort us in our sorrows.
We'll continue our reflection on the Hail, Holy Queen in the next post, but now let's pray once again:
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 vale 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! Pray for us, O holy Mother of God, that we may be made worthy of the promises of Christ. Amen.
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