I have been meditating on the “Hail Holy Queen,” and I have something to share that I hope will be of some help to you to read, as I hope it is a help to me to write.
I saw Fr. Robert Barron struggle to defend God against the atheists who insist that the God of the Bible is evil. He was trying to convince them that God alone can find the best way for men, and sometimes He must allow children to get bone cancer. He did not convince the audience.
But the teaching of original sin and of this special prayer to Mary are clear. Fr. Barron could have simply said, “All suffering is the result of original sin. We must all suffer through this life with hope in the life to come. Our pitiful claims against God are unreasonable because they stem from an abject ignorance of original sin and the holiness of God, Who needs no one and Who is beholden to no one but His own decrees, and Who has spoken His Holy Word. There is a place for everyone who hates Him, and the proud shall always find that place, but the meek shall inherit the earth, and the fear of God shall be the wisdom that leads all to the light of salvation.”
So we who are in our fallen state and who are helpless therein but for the grace and mercy of God, pray to our mother, bequeathed to us from the cross, Mary, ever virgin, Mary immaculate and faithful, Mary Queen of Heaven.
“Hail Holy Queen, mother of Mercy, Our Life, Our Sweetness, and Our Hope. To thee do we cry, poor banished children of Eve. To thee do we send up our sighs, mourning and weeping in the vale of tears. Turn then most gracious advocate, thine eyes of mercy toward us, and after this our exile, show unto us the blessed fruit of thy womb, Jesus. O clement, o loving, o sweet virgin Mary. Pray for us o holy Mother of God, that we may be made worthy of the promises of Christ.”
I wonder how many people today apprehend the definitive theology behind this prayer, even those as great as Fr. Robert Barron? It seems the days of apprehending the holiness of God and the sinfulness of man are gone. We are a nation of little Pharaohs and Caesars, and the Church leaders are not speaking of the holiness of God and the danger of going to hell. Even the perpetual suffering in this life cannot stir the fear of God in the hearts of men. Instead we strive for temporary pleasures and comforts as if each ephemeral pleasure is worth exchanging for the eternal joy that is the triumph of the Holy Spirit. There is no justice among men, but only dominance and submission of one over another. There is no one among us to right the unseen wrongs or to protect the weak from the strong, but always someone to declare himself master over another, even over God.
These words (“mourning and weeping in this vale of tears”) are at once an acceptance of a harsh reality and a consolation because we know that it is not a psychological wound that we suffer, but a fact of life in the fallen world. It is not our attitude and our ineptitude, but our very constitution to fall when offered the freedom of life in the communion with God, to wonder what might be greater, to always be unsatisfied, no matter what God gives to us from His very being, even the promised Holy Spirit.
Jesus is the Way, the Truth, and the Life, but few, truly very few want to pick up their crosses daily and follow Him. Most people truly and deeply despise the cross. They want nothing to do with it. Blessed are we who walk in a somber procession to venerate the wood of the cross, and woe to those who reject it.
If you have ever prayed this prayer to Our Blessed Mother, you surely know in your heart that after this our exile, the Queen of Heaven will, indeed, show unto you the blessed fruit of her womb. This is our hope, our reason for being. Let us persevere together and help each other along the way, and Mary, the New Eve, mother of the living, who loves her children will faithfully pray for us “that we may be made worthy of the promises of Christ.” And we shall receive the promised rewards gained for us by our ever-living Savior Jesus Christ. He will receive our cross. He will take it from us with the joy of heaven and bestow unfathomable rewards to those who persevere in humility of spirit. He will receive us into His kingdom, in which no man shall violate the heart and hopes of another, a kingdom in which the lowly are exalted and put in the positions of highest honor, a kingdom of peace and justice and wonder and beauty and everlasting life. Amen. Amen, The Lord God is just and good and holy and worthy of our praise. He exalts the lowly and brings down the princes of this world. He is faithful and kind. Blessed be the name of the Lord Jesus Our Savior.
striveforinnocence 
mourning and weeping in this vale of tears
I have been meditating on the “Hail Holy Queen,” and I have something to share that I hope will be of some help to you to read, as I hope it is a help to me to write.
I saw Fr. Robert Barron struggle to defend God against the atheists who insist that the God of the Bible is evil. He was trying to convince them that God alone can find the best way for men, and sometimes He must allow children to get bone cancer. He did not convince the audience.
But the teaching of original sin and of this special prayer to Mary are clear. Fr. Barron could have simply said, “All suffering is the result of original sin. We must all suffer through this life with hope in the life to come. Our pitiful claims against God are unreasonable because they stem from an abject ignorance of original sin and the holiness of God, Who needs no one and Who is beholden to no one but His own decrees, and Who has spoken His Holy Word. There is a place for everyone who hates Him, and the proud shall always find that place, but the meek shall inherit the earth, and the fear of God shall be the wisdom that leads all to the light of salvation.”
So we who are in our fallen state and who are helpless therein but for the grace and mercy of God, pray to our mother, bequeathed to us from the cross, Mary, ever virgin, Mary immaculate and faithful, Mary Queen of Heaven.
“Hail Holy Queen, mother of Mercy, Our Life, Our Sweetness, and Our Hope. To thee do we cry, poor banished children of Eve. To thee do we send up our sighs, mourning and weeping in the vale of tears. Turn then most gracious advocate, thine eyes of mercy toward us, and after this our exile, show unto us the blessed fruit of thy womb, Jesus. O clement, o loving, o sweet virgin Mary. Pray for us o holy Mother of God, that we may be made worthy of the promises of Christ.”
I wonder how many people today apprehend the definitive theology behind this prayer, even those as great as Fr. Robert Barron? It seems the days of apprehending the holiness of God and the sinfulness of man are gone. We are a nation of little Pharaohs and Caesars, and the Church leaders are not speaking of the holiness of God and the danger of going to hell. Even the perpetual suffering in this life cannot stir the fear of God in the hearts of men. Instead we strive for temporary pleasures and comforts as if each ephemeral pleasure is worth exchanging for the eternal joy that is the triumph of the Holy Spirit. There is no justice among men, but only dominance and submission of one over another. There is no one among us to right the unseen wrongs or to protect the weak from the strong, but always someone to declare himself master over another, even over God.
These words (“mourning and weeping in this vale of tears”) are at once an acceptance of a harsh reality and a consolation because we know that it is not a psychological wound that we suffer, but a fact of life in the fallen world. It is not our attitude and our ineptitude, but our very constitution to fall when offered the freedom of life in the communion with God, to wonder what might be greater, to always be unsatisfied, no matter what God gives to us from His very being, even the promised Holy Spirit.
Jesus is the Way, the Truth, and the Life, but few, truly very few want to pick up their crosses daily and follow Him. Most people truly and deeply despise the cross. They want nothing to do with it. Blessed are we who walk in a somber procession to venerate the wood of the cross, and woe to those who reject it.
If you have ever prayed this prayer to Our Blessed Mother, you surely know in your heart that after this our exile, the Queen of Heaven will, indeed, show unto you the blessed fruit of her womb. This is our hope, our reason for being. Let us persevere together and help each other along the way, and Mary, the New Eve, mother of the living, who loves her children will faithfully pray for us “that we may be made worthy of the promises of Christ.” And we shall receive the promised rewards gained for us by our ever-living Savior Jesus Christ. He will receive our cross. He will take it from us with the joy of heaven and bestow unfathomable rewards to those who persevere in humility of spirit. He will receive us into His kingdom, in which no man shall violate the heart and hopes of another, a kingdom in which the lowly are exalted and put in the positions of highest honor, a kingdom of peace and justice and wonder and beauty and everlasting life. Amen. Amen, The Lord God is just and good and holy and worthy of our praise. He exalts the lowly and brings down the princes of this world. He is faithful and kind. Blessed be the name of the Lord Jesus Our Savior.
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Catholic, engineer, ...