During the Paschal season, the Church prescribes the use of the Regina Caeli prayer in place of the Angelus. While the Angelus emphasizes the Incarnation, this Marian antiphon emphasizes the Resurrection and the joy of Easter, especially as it relates to the Blessed Virgin Mary.
Central to the prayer, or hymn, is the consolation and joy of the Blessed Mother herself. After having suffered a great deal through the sorrows of her life in relation to her Son, and most especially at the hour of the crucifixion, we remind her in prayer of the joy of her Son’s Resurrection.
Regina cæli, lætare, alleluia: Quia quem meruisti portare, alleluia, Resurrexit, sicut dixit, alleluia, Ora pro nobis Deum, alleluia. Queen of Heaven, rejoice, alleluia: For He whom thou didst merit to bear, alleluia Has risen as He said, alleluia Pray for us to God, alleluia.*
In his encyclical, On Christian Joy, Pope St. Paul VI, presents the Blessed Virgin as the model of this Christian joy as it pertains to the Resurrection.
In the first rank is the Virgin Mary, full of grace, the Mother of the Savior…has grasped, better than all other creatures, that God accomplishes wonderful things: His name is holy, He shows His mercy, He raises up the humble, He is faithful to His promises. Not that the apparent course of her life in any way departs from the ordinary, but she meditates on the least signs of God, pondering them in her heart.
Not that she is in any way spared sufferings: she stands, the mother of sorrows, at the foot of the cross, associated in an eminent way with the sacrifice of the innocent Servant. But she is also open in an unlimited degree to the joy of the resurrection; and she is also taken up, body and soul, into the glory of heaven. The first of the redeemed, immaculate from the moment of her conception, the incomparable dwelling-place of the Spirit, the pure abode of the Redeemer of mankind, she is at the same time the beloved Daughter of God and, in Christ, the Mother of all.
She is the perfect model of the Church both on earth and in glory. What a marvelous echo the prophetic words about the new Jerusalem find in her wonderful existence as the Virgin of Israel: “I will greatly rejoice in the Lord, my soul shall exult in my God; for he has clothed me with the garment of salvation, he has covered me with the robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom decks himself with a garland and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels.” With Christ, she sums up in herself all joys; she lives the perfect joy promised to the Church: Mater plena sanctae laetitiae. And it is with good reason that her children on earth, turning to her who is the mother of hope and of grace, invoke her as the cause of their joy: Causa nostrae laetitiae.1
The Regina Caeli is repeatedly punctuated with alleluias which emphasize the joy of the season. And, it is as though, now that we are permitted to utter the word again after the season of Lent, we say it at every possible opportunity. While more traditional chant versions of the Regina Caeli are beautiful in their simplicity, the Baroque, Italian composer Antonio Lotti’s setting of the Regina Caeli wonderfully communicates the exuberance and triumph of Easter.
As we continue the celebration of Easter, today being the fourth day in the Octave, we are reminded that the joy of the Resurrection, and Christ’s victory over death, sin, despair, sadness, fear, and all of the sufferings of this life is a reason for such joy as cannot be contained in a single day, nor in a single alleluia, and that we can rejoice with the Blessed Mother in this great consolation.
*Note: The text of the prayer is a bit longer than the hymn and adds an additional prayer after the antiphon2
Gaudete in Domino - Pope Paul VI https://www.papalencyclicals.net/paul06/p6gaude.htm
Regina Caeli Prayer: https://www.ewtn.com/catholicism/devotions/regina-caeli-o-queen-of-heaven-375
I love how the "alleluia" just keeps breaking in, as if it can't be contained....
It's my favorite chant!