Defend "Hail, Holy Queen"

[Rhubarb]

Simple logic is all you need. The premises should be uncontroversial. The argument is valid, so, anyone who believes the truth of 1-3 is obliged to believe in the truth of the conclusion.

1. Jesus is a king.
2. Mary is Jesus’ mother.
3. The mother of a king is a queen.

---

C. Mary is a queen.

 

[mVitus]

I have a linguistic question about the Salve Regina…

I’ve been trying to research the original Latin intent of the first few lines as well as the punctuation. I think there may be another way to interpret the “our life, our sweetness, and our hope” portion of the prayer. What if the “mother of…” portion of “mother of mercy” were applied to all the elements in the series? So, today we read it as “Mother of mercy, our life, our sweetness, and our hope.” Or, put another way, Mary is the Mother of mercy, Mary is our life, Mary is our sweetness, Mary is our hope. However, this could also be read as “Mother of mercy, mother of our life, mother of our sweetness, mother of our hope.” If we were talking about any other mother, we might say for example: She is the mother of John, James, Peter, and Andrew. This implies that she is the mother of EACH of them and not that she is the “mother of John” and simultaneously, “she is Andrew.” Of course that would be absurd to imply that “she is Andrew,” but that’s kinda’ what we do linguistically when we read the “Hail Holy Queen” as she IS “our life, our sweetness, and our hope.”

I feel like Protestant objections to this “overly-praising” language could be more easily defended this way. If we were to say that “our mercy, our life, our sweetness, and our hope” all point to Christ and that Mary is the Mother of Christ–well, whom can argue with that?

Pardon me if this is not an original thought, but I haven’t been able to find any exegesis that approaches the interpretation this way. I’m curious to hear thoughts on this! God Bless.

That’s a neat way of thinking about it.

@OP, I was reading through the CA Q&A and found this: catholic.com/qa/in-the-prayer-hail-holy-queen-we-call-mary-our-life-our-sweetness-and-our-hope-is-this-proper

 

[reggieM]

I have a linguistic question about the Salve Regina…

I’ve been trying to research the original Latin intent of the first few lines as well as the punctuation. I think there may be another way to interpret the “our life, our sweetness, and our hope” portion of the prayer. What if the “mother of…” portion of “mother of mercy” were applied to all the elements in the series? So, today we read it as “Mother of mercy, our life, our sweetness, and our hope.” Or, put another way, Mary is the Mother of mercy, Mary is our life, Mary is our sweetness, Mary is our hope. However, this could also be read as “Mother of mercy, mother of our life, mother of our sweetness, mother of our hope.” If we were talking about any other mother, we might say for example: She is the mother of John, James, Peter, and Andrew. This implies that she is the mother of EACH of them and not that she is the “mother of John” and simultaneously, “she is Andrew.” Of course that would be absurd to imply that “she is Andrew,” but that’s kinda’ what we do linguistically when we read the “Hail Holy Queen” as she IS “our life, our sweetness, and our hope.”

I feel like Protestant objections to this “overly-praising” language could be more easily defended this way. If we were to say that “our mercy, our life, our sweetness, and our hope” all point to Christ and that Mary is the Mother of Christ–well, whom can argue with that?

Pardon me if this is not an original thought, but I haven’t been able to find any exegesis that approaches the interpretation this way. I’m curious to hear thoughts on this! God Bless.

Yes, I heard this before and it does work.
“Mother of mercy, mother of our life … etc”.

At the same time, we can call someone “our life” as a phrase of love.
“You, my spouse, are my life”.
There’s nothing wrong with that. Yes, some people (too many) idolize someone. Saying “you are my life” may mean “you are the highest and only love I ever want”. That’s a sin because it worships the creature.

But saying “you are my life” can mean, “you brought so much joy into my life” – and yes, Mary does that! Or, “your willingness follow God brought Jesus to us - you gave us hope in Him”.

People who parse these words and judge the prayer harshly do not know the language of love very well.

If we can’t love Jesus’ mother at all simply because we’re so afraid of the sin of idolatry, then something is seriously wrong because we cannot cut off our human, good, blessed love for things that God has given us. That is an act of ingratitude and it stunts human growth in the spiritual life.

Sadly, that is what Protestantism has done - cutting off much good and actually causing fear (and sometimes, almost hatred) of the beautiful mother of God, beloved of Jesus, herself.

 

[apwheelock]

That’s a neat way of thinking about it.

Thank you. I also thought it was potentially “neat,” and then the next thing I thought was “there’s no way in Hades I’m the first person to think this!”

Yes, I heard this before and it does work.
“Mother of mercy, mother of our life … etc”.

Any idea where you heard it? I’m sure if it’s been approached this way before, then someone way smarter than me has done the digging to ensure that it stands up to scrutiny. I’d love to check that out…

I actually agree that judging the words (which do such an inadequate job of expressing the emotions behind them) is folly, but sometimes we have to start there with our Protestant brethren–especially the ones who’ve been indoctrinated to look for idolatry under every Catholic stone. God bless!

 

[reggieM]

It was a rare case where a friend (who was actually struggling with this prayer himself) came back with that interpretation. I have never seen it written anywhere though.

 

[friardchips]

I have a linguistic question about the Salve Regina…

I’ve been trying to research the original Latin intent of the first few lines as well as the punctuation. I think there may be another way to interpret the “our life, our sweetness, and our hope” portion of the prayer. What if the “mother of…” portion of “mother of mercy” were applied to all the elements in the series? So, today we read it as “Mother of mercy, our life, our sweetness, and our hope.” Or, put another way, Mary is the Mother of mercy, Mary is our life, Mary is our sweetness, Mary is our hope. However, this could also be read as “Mother of mercy, mother of our life, mother of our sweetness, mother of our hope.” If we were talking about any other mother, we might say for example: She is the mother of John, James, Peter, and Andrew. This implies that she is the mother of EACH of them and not that she is the “mother of John” and simultaneously, “she is Andrew.” Of course that would be absurd to imply that “she is Andrew,” but that’s kinda’ what we do linguistically when we read the “Hail Holy Queen” as she IS “our life, our sweetness, and our hope.”

I feel like Protestant objections to this “overly-praising” language could be more easily defended this way. If we were to say that “our mercy, our life, our sweetness, and our hope” all point to Christ and that Mary is the Mother of Christ–well, whom can argue with that?

Pardon me if this is not an original thought, but I haven’t been able to find any exegesis that approaches the interpretation this way. I’m curious to hear thoughts on this! God Bless.

While Jesus is our life, our sweetness and our hope, and while you are correct in that Mary is Mother of our life and Mother our sweetness and Mother of our hope, Mary is also our life, and our sweetness and our hope:

Our Life, because Our Lady comes out to get greet us, and offers us life, in her Son, and she is also full of grace, and imparts graces to us, which come from God. Although the Church was initially instituted, spiritually, in the Mind of God, Mary is the beginning and Mother of the Church, and so when she gave birth to Jesus, Mary gave birth to our new selves (in the power of the forthcoming Resurrection).

Our sweetness, because she loves us with her sweet Divine Motherhood, gifted to her, by God. Mary makes our tainted offerings pleasing to her Son, as her radiance cannot be refused by He who made her Daughter, Spouse and Mother of God, in relation to the Three Persons of the Holy Trinity. She is our sweetness because she never gives up on us as a loving and devoted Mother and this relentless love that a Mother has for her children, is so powerful in its sweetness that it will always captivate our hearts and make us return to Jesus.

Our hope, because Our Lady protects us from the Devil and communicates her love and graces to us that we can keep going back to the Sacraments.

Our Lady “magnifies the Lord”. Therefore, we can say the Salve Regina in the way it is written, as well it being understood in the alternative ways of understanding the prayer, which are also correct.

 

[Cathoholic]

Rhubarb:

Re: Defend “Hail, Holy Queen”

QUOTE:
Simple logic is all you need. The premises should be uncontroversial. The argument is valid, so, anyone who believes the truth of 1-3 is obliged to believe in the truth of the conclusion.

1. Jesus is a king.
2. Mary is Jesus’ mother.
3. The mother of a king is a queen.

---

C. Mary is a queen.

Excellent post Rhubarb.

God bless.

Cathoholic

 

[Darryl_B]

An online friend of mine believes that the “Hail, Holy Queen” prayer praises Mary a little too much. So far, I haven’t found any sources to help me out and I haven’t thought of a defense. Anyone out there with anything that’ll help?

My online friend, I would ask your online friend, Tell me all about your mother.

Would they fail to sing the praises of their earthly mother? And would they fail to tell her so in fear that they might be praising her a little too much?