Ave Regina caelorum

Many thanks for all your prayers. We had about thirty people attend the last Extraordinary Form Mass for the Chair of St Peter: although down on the attendance at the first one, it was still very encouraging to see such a good mix of young and old.

Between Candlemas and Easter traditionally the Ave Regina caelorum is said or sung as the Marian Anthem:

Ave Regina caelorum! Ave Domina Angelorum! Salve radix, salve porta, ex qua mundo lux est orta. Gaude Virgo, gloriosa, super omnes speciosa. Vale, o valde decora, et pro nobis Christum exora.

Ave Regina caelorum! Ave Domina Angelorum! : our song begins with wonder - wonder and joy in addressing the Blessed Virgin Mary - Hail, Queen of Heaven. Hail, Lady of the Angels... These greetings address Mary, visualizing the glory into which she was assumed after her earthly life had run its course.

Next, her pivotal role in salvation history is emphasised: Salve radix, salve porta - Hail, the root, hail, the gateway! It is through Mary’s humble acceptance of God’s will that he could take our flesh in her womb and be born as man. And so it continues: ...ex qua mundo lux est orta... - from whom comes forth the Light into the world.

What possible response could there be to such a great privilege - to be the Theotokos, the God-Bearer? Gaude Virgo, gloriosa, super omnes speciosa - Rejoice, O Glorious Virgin, splendid above all else! Joy! Mary’s joy - and our joy at the wonder of this!

With one so glorious, so splendid, already seated as Queen among the Saints in heaven, it is then natural to turn to her for her powerful intercession: Vale, o valde decora - Do thou prevail, O thou who art of great virtue - et pro nobis Christum exora - and intercede for us with Christ.

This beautiful Anthem exults in Mary’s reversal of our fallen condition: it begins with two “Ave”s - Hail - but Ave is Eva - Eve - backwards - Mary is the New Eve, the one who reversed the disobedience of the First Eve. Mary is the one who will make possible the fulfilment of the Proto-evangelium of Genesis 3:15, when God addresses the Serpent: “I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed; he shall crush your head, and you shall bruise his heel.” By her obedience to God’s will, God could take flesh, and come among us as man, Jesus Christ - true God and true man - who would crush the ancient Serpent’s head. The First Eve (and the entire human race) fell through disobedience at the foot of a tree; through the New Eve’s obedience, he who would lift us up again could come into this world and destroy death, through dying himself on a Tree.

Mary is thus seen as the root of and the gateway by which our salvation has been made possible - by her gentle, obedient, “Behold the handmaid of the Lord: be it done to me according to thy word” [Lk.1:38]. Because of her importance in God’s plan of salvation this Anthem turns to her with such wonder, such honour, and, playing twice more with the word, Eva, with Vale and valde - prevail and great - recognises that the New Eve’s influence and position in heaven in praying for us is surely greatly effective.

This beautiful Anthem to Our Lady is ideal for Lent with its subtle references to her role in letting God’s salvation come into our fallen world and the recognition of our continual need of help: a help we know that will be all the more forthcoming thanks to her prayers to Christ our Saviour.