Mary, Our Life And Our Sweetness

[P3chrmd]

Someone I know has a problem with the Hail Holy Queen

because it calls Mary our life, our sweetness and our hope! And that only Jesus should be that to us!

I try to explain...but I do a lousy job! LOL help defend guys!!!

To me both Jesus and Mary are our Life and sweetness and hope! But we as catholic know what we mean by that...Mary are awsome mother whom we love...LEADS US to our salvation...her son...Christ Jesus! So we live our lives serving Jesus, with Mary holding our hand through the awsome journey!

[MorphRC]

I think better wording should be made not of before anyone creates a prayer, save all this trouble..perhaps..

[Cure of Ars]

It is using the language of love not the language of theology.


I can tell my wife in a poetic way that I adore her. That she is my life, sweetness and my hope. This would not make me a heretic because I am not speaking literally. It would just make me a romantic. Catholics have great love for Mary. We give her as much honor as any creature can deserve. Mary is truly blessed. She's our mother and we lover her.

[phatcatholic]

p3chrmd,

here is Aloysius' explanation, which i have quoted in the Mary entry:

[quote][b]Hail Holy Queen[/b] Hail- a greeting for one who you have greatly desired to speak to.  the angel spoke this way too [i]Luke 1:28[/i] when speaking to Mary.  Queen- in the davidic kingdom, the mother of the king was always seen as the queen.  the roll of this queen is seen in [i]1 Kings 2:17, 20; 1 Kings 2:18; 1 Kings 2:19; 1 Kings 15:13; 2 Chron. 22:10; Neh. 2:6[/i]    Holy- the ark of the covenant was considered holy because it housed the word of God at one point, so too did Mary house the WORD of God. in [i]2 Chron. 8:11[/i] it shows that even the places the ark has been to become holy just because the ark has been there, meaning the ark is holy.  also, the power of the most high overshadowed her [i]Luke 1:35[/i] she is filled with grace and the Lord is with her[i]Luke 1:28[/i]

[b]Mother of Mercy[/b] Jesus Christ is mercy.  Mary is Jesus' mother, the mother of the Lord [i]Luke 1:43[/i] so Mary is MERCY's mother.

<repeat to emphasize something>Mother of: mercy,[b]Our Life, our sweetness, and our hope[/b] you see, it's Mother of the following four things: Mercy, Our Life, Our Sweetness, and Our Hope.  and in a special way, too then, she herself is our life, sweetness, and hope, she's those things by ASSOSIATION.  because she raised mercy itself, we owe some gratitude to her for that very mercy.  because she raised Him who is Our Life, because she brought Him into the world, we owe gratitude to her and in some way she takes on that attribute simply by her mothering Him who is our life, etc etc with the other two.  Mary gave us hope by accepting Jesus Christ into her womb.  [i]Luke 1:38[/i] all of these things combined seem to indicate holiness.

[b]to thee do we cry[/b] the ppl in a Davidic kingdom see the mother of the king, the Gebirah or Queen Mother, as one who intercedes on their behalf [i]1 Kings 2:18[/i] 

[b]poor banished children of eve[/b] we were all born not into immortality in paradise, but because of eve's acceptence of the serpent and Adam's acceptance of his wife we were BANISHED from paradise. [i]Genesis 3:17[/i]

[b]to thee do we lift up our sighs[/b] again: the ppl in a Davidic kingdom see the mother of the king, the Gebirah or Queen Mother, as one who intercedes on their behalf [i]1 Kings 2:18[/i] 

[b]mourning and weeping in this valley of tears.[/b][i]psalms [/i]do this kinda stuff all the time, and [i]lamentations[/i], and yeah, most of the OT, mourning over sinfulness, and over exile (as we were exiled from the Garden of eden).  this is the whole point of prayer and fasting, it is a very good spiritual thing to mourn and weap over what offenses we cause to God.

[b]turn then, most gracious advocate[/b] again, the Davidic kingdom, the queen mother was always pleading to the king on behalf of her ppl. [i]1 Kings 2:18[/i]  i encourage you to read Scott Hahn's book, ironically enough, HAIL HOLY QUEEN

[b]thine eyes of mercy towards us[/b] this again has to do with the "Gebirah" again, the queen mother, so see again: [i]1 Kings 2:17, 20; 1 Kings 2:18; 1 Kings 2:19; 1 Kings 15:13; 2 Chron. 22:10; Neh. 2:6[/i]

[b]and after this our exile,[/b] we have been banished, exiled, out of paradise and God's presence[i]Genesis 3:17[/i], by the woman and her seed shall we fight the one who banished us [i]Genesis 3:16[/i] by Jesus, the seed of the woman, we have the power to again be sons of God [i] John 1:12[/i]  baptism saves us from our banishment [i]1 Peter 3:21[/i] through the resurection, thus we may one day again enter the presence of God, those who do the will of the Heavenly Father will one day enter the presence of God again, paradise, HEAVEN [i]Matthew 7:21[/i]

[b]show unto us the blessed fruit of they womb,[/b] the angel refers to Jesus as the blessed fruit of Mary's womb [i]Luke 1:28[/i] and Elizabeth filled with the Holy Spirit [i]Luke 1:41[/i] also refers to Him as such [i]Luke 1:42[/i]

[b]Jesus[/b] hehe, you cannot disagree with invoking His Holy Name in prayer

[b]Oh clement, oh loving, oh sweet Virgin Mary[/b] Virgin Mary- She pledged a life of virginity all her life, which was the only reason she was so shocked and didn't understand how she could bear a child without 'knowing man' [i]Luke 1:34[/i] it's not she hadn't yet known man, but she DOESN'T know man, that means past present and future.  clement-  loving- one who is filled with grace and most blessed of all women [i]Luke 1:28[/i] will be called blessed by every generation [i] Luke 1:48[/i] who heard the word of God and kept it as a model for all [i]Luke 11:28[/i] would of COURSE be loving, she is shown to be one of the greates of Jesus' disciples, she spent 30 years with Him hearing His message, so she must have gotten this message of love more than anyone.  clement and sweet- same verses, blessed and grace-filled would of course produce a very sweet woman who is good and merciful, she spent thirty years with the one who is source of all mercy, don't you think a lil of His goodness, His sweetness, His love, at least rubbed off?  she's in heaven, and those that stand before the Father are perfected [i]Matthew 5:48[/i]

[b]Pray for us oh holy mother of God[/b] pray for us- intercession of the mother of the king again [i]1 Kings 2:17, 20; 1 Kings 2:18; 1 Kings 2:19; 1 Kings 15:13; 2 Chron. 22:10; Neh. 2:6[/i]  holy- [i]2 Chron. 8:11[/i] [i]Luke 1:28[/i] [i]Luke 1:35[/i] mother of God- [i]Luke 1:43[/i]

[b]that we may be found worthy of the promises of Christ[/b] first that we are unworthy servants [i]Luke 17:10[/i] then that we can be made worthy through Christ "by His wounds we are healed"  [i]Isaiah 53:5[/i] He promised to heal us and to give us a light yoke [i]Matthew 11:30[/i] and He promised also that we would be persecuted [i]Matthew 24:9[/i] but that is a blessing [i]Matthew 5:12[/i] he gave the promise of eternal life [i]John 3:16[/i] if we do the will of His father [i]Matthew 5:48; Matthew 7:21[/i][/quote]

i hope this helps...........pax christi,
phatcatholic

Edited August 2, 2004 by phatcatholic

[StColette]

aaah thanks for posting that Phatcatholic, I was going to explain the " Our life, Our sweetness, Our Hope" the same way but I wanted to make sure it was correct.