I have a theological problem with "Salve Regina"

[PacoG]

Context is everything My friend … “Hail holy Queen,MOTHER OFmercy, our life, our sweetness, and our hope”…

She Is reffered to as the mother of mercy, life, sweetness , and hope, which is non other than our Lord Jesus Christ … Hope this helps

Exactly. I read in another post on another CAF board that this is where Latin sentence construction is inconsistent with English grammatical construction (and this is something we better get used to with the literal translation of the missal that will come into play next Advent).

In Latin, the preposition applies to all the words that follow it. To put it mathematically, it would be [mother of (of mercy, our life, our sweetness, and our hope)]. Thus it’s: mother of mercy, mother of life, mother of our sweetness and mother of our hope.

But in English, we have the tendency to read “Mother of Mercy” as an interrupter. So it looks like this “Hail Holy Queen–Mother of Mercy–our life, our sweetness and our hope.”

 

[MarkThompson]

Exactly. I read in another post on another CAF board that this is where Latin sentence construction is inconsistent with English grammatical construction (and this is something we better get used to with the literal translation of the missal that will come into play next Advent).

In Latin, the preposition applies to all the words that follow it. To put it mathematically, it would be [mother of (of mercy, our life, our sweetness, and our hope)]. Thus it’s: mother of mercy, mother of life, mother of our sweetness and mother of our hope.

But in English, we have the tendency to read “Mother of Mercy” as an interrupter. So it looks like this “Hail Holy Queen–Mother of Mercy–our life, our sweetness and our hope.”

Negative; you can tell from the endings of the words that this is not the case. See here. It’s {(mother of mercy), life, sweetness, hope}.

 

[cjforJesus]

Pray for us,O holy Mother of God,that we may be made worthy of the promises of Christ.

This prayer often brings tears to my eyes as Mary is the one holding back the hand of God’s justice with her prayers and suplications for humanity.

 

[puzzleannie]

I’ve just learned it myself, and it is giving my conscience big problems. How can I call the Blessed Virgin “our life” and “our hope”?

you don’t, you call her the Mother of mercy and mother of Our life, our sweetness and our hope which she is, just as the prayer states. Do you deny that?

 

[UnworthyApostle]

“Mother of our life, mother of our sweetness and mother of our hope.”

I use this line when I pray the Salve Regina, perhaps due to my Protestant background, and I do not see what is wrong by using that way. I know the grammar and wording are not the original, but can’t one alter it for personal prayer with God?

 

[puzzleannie]

“Mother of our life, mother of our sweetness and mother of our hope.”

I use this line when I pray the Salve Regina, perhaps due to my Protestant background, and I do not see what is wrong by using that way. I know the grammar and wording are not the original, but can’t one alter it for personal prayer with God?

it is the original grammer of the English, the commas after mercy and hope make your understanding the sense of the phrase.

If my husband said “I love you Annie, mother of Lulu, our pride and joy, and I call on you . . .” would you assume that I our daughter Lucile, whose nickname is Lulu, is not our pride and joy, but that the phrase refers only to Annie?