So, in other words, it can be translated to
"Hail! Holy Queen, Mother of Mercy, Mother of our life (which is Jesus), Mother of our sweetness (which is Jesus) and Mother of our hope (which is Jesus). "???
Actually, no. In Latin, the words are “Mater misericordiae, vita, dulcedo, et spes nostra.” The word “misericordia” is in the genitive case, making it “
of mercy.” But “Mater,” “vita,” “dulcedo,” and “spes” are all in the nominative case, meaning they are all in the form of names, or words referring to Mary herself. It must be parsed “{Mother of mercy}, {life}, {sweetness}, and {our hope}” (although the word “our” may apply only to “hope” or to all four terms). Trust me, in Latin there is no question; it cannot be read “mother of life, mother of sweetness,” etc.
As the old Catholic Encyclopedia remarks (1912), Luther “objected especially to the words “Queen of mercy, our life, our sweetness, our hope”; but the language of devotion is not that of dogma.” I agree. In part, I think it is because (many, but not all) Catholics feel ourselves a part of the Communion of Saints, and feel so close to the saints themselves, that we do not find this sort of language strange. Think for a minute about a man who gets down on his knee before his girlfriend and says, “Darling, I completely adore you! You are my whole world and everything I need to be happy, will you marry me?” Ought she to answer, “You heretic, get off your knees – you are giving to a mere creature the worship that is due only to God!”
I don’t think so. The language of devotion is by its nature effusive and sometimes over-the-top, but that doesn’t mean you mistake it for a dogmatic declaration. We don’t see it as an either/or scenario, where praise can only be given to Jesus
or to someone else so you’ve always got to watch your tongue for fear of tripping up and saying something too nice about somebody.
