Regina Caeli

V: Queen of heaven, rejoice, alleluia.
R: The Son you merited to bear, alleluia,

V: Has risen as He said, alleluia.
R: Pray to God for us, alleluia.

V: Rejoice and be glad, O Virgin Mary, alleluia.
R: For the Lord has truly risen, alleluia.

Let us pray.

God of life, You have given joy to the world
by the resurrection of Your Son, our Lord Jesus Christ.
Through the prayers of His mother, the Virgin Mary,
bring us to the happiness of eternal life.
We ask this through Christ our Lord.
Amen.

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Image: Christ Appearing to His Mother, by Juan de Flandes, commissioned by Queen Isabella to be a close copy of one by Netherlandish artist Rogier van der Weyden. Via Wikimedia Commons, public domain. Coronation of the Virgin, by Dieric Bouts, via Wikimedia Commons, public domain.

Notes

• About the prayer: The Regina Caeli prayer replaces The Angelus during the Easter season and is prayed, like The Angelus, at 6:00 am, 12:00 noon, and 6:00 pm. Read more about the Regina Caeli prayer at Knights of the Holy Eucharist. Scroll down that page for a link to download a PDF of the prayer. Or read about The Angelus and the Regina Caeli at The Angelus Prayer site.

• About the first image: While Christ appearing to His mother after the Resurrection is not recorded in Scripture, it is a pious tradition.
  • Read more about this painting at the Met.
  • Read an article in PDF format, about paintings of this scene: The Resurrected Christ Appearing to His Mother in Late Medieval Netherlandish Altarpieces.
  • Read more about the pious tradition.

• Why I chose this image for the prayer: I chose this image to emphasize that this prayer is about Christ as much as or more than it is about His Mother. What makes her the Queen is the fact that her Son is the King, the King of the Universe. And the prayer is about her cause for joy in that her Son has risen. Indeed, this is the cause of all our joy. He is the reason those faithful to Him will all rise again.

• About the second image: The second image is another Netherlandish artist, Dieric Bouts, showing the coronation of the Virgin, another event not explicitly recorded in Scripture, however we do see the Virgin depicted as Queen in the Apocalypse: “I saw a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon beneath her feet, and a crown of twelve stars on her head.” See Rev. 12:1. Emphasis added.

Christ has died, Christ has risen, Christ will come again.