In Advent, I looked at the Alma Redemptoris Mater and the importance of singing Marian Hymns. There are four hymns that mark the whole human experience, and these hymns are sung at the end of Compline each night. In these hymns, we find a theology committed to the memory of music.

Tonight, we begin the Ave Regina Caelorum. This hymn was integrated into the Divine Office by Pope Clement VI in the fourteenth century and is sung from February 3 until the Easter Vigil.

In this hymn, we recognize Mary as Queen of Heaven and the angels. It is sublime to think of the countless ranks of spiritual beings having a human creature as their Queen. Yet, at that first Christmas, they saw the power of God as he became man through her. Mary gives the Word his flesh. Her blood flows through his veins, thus making her the root of the Word. For such a tremendous vocation as the lowliest handmaid of the Lord, she is declared blessed among all women and given the title of Queen of Heaven and of Angels.

Pope Saint John Paul II referenced this hymn in his homily in the Holy Land during the Jubilee Year 2000. He spoke of how Mary’s fiat is her entry point into the life of the Blessed Trinity and is the fulfillment of Abraham’s hospitality to the three guests (Genesis 18:1-15). He said:

That mysterious encounter foreshadows the Annunciation, when Mary is powerfully drawn into communion with the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. Through the fiat that Mary uttered in Nazareth, the Incarnation became the wondrous fulfilment of Abraham’s encounter with God. So, following in the footsteps of Abraham, we have come to Nazareth to sing the praises of the woman “through whom the light rose over the earth” (Hymn Ave Regina Caelorum).

God calls us to imitate Mary. As we begin this new hymn each evening, call on Mary and ask her to give you her heart. If we have her heart, we can love Jesus and live in the Trinity.

The Blessed Virgin Mary is the portal between this life and the next. Also given the title “Tota Pulcra,” The Totally Beautiful One. We hope that on that final voyage between earth and heaven, we will see her in her radiant beauty, and her prayers will carry us to adore her Son, Jesus, for all eternity.