Lunch with Regina Caeli

When I first came roaring back into the Catholic faith, I grabbed at everything I could remember from my Catholic-school childhood, and the Angelus was one of those things. We were supposed to stop on the playground and say it to ourselves when the noon bell rang, or we said it in the lunchroom before we went out for recess. Like most kids, I wasn't enchanted with anything that took me away from Pom Pom Pompadour or Four Square. But I'm trying to be faithful to the Church's daily routine of thanksgiving and petition again.

During the Easter season, until Pentecost, we replace the noon Angelus with a prayer to the "Queen of Heaven," Regina Caeli:

Regina coeli, laetare, alleluia: Quia quem meruisti portare, alleluia. Resurrexit sicut dixit, alleluia. Ora pro nobis Deum, alleluia.
V. Gaude et laetare, Virgo Maria, Alleluia,
R. Quia surrexit Dominus vere, alleluia.
Oremus: Deus qui per resurrectionem Filii tui, Domini nostri Iesu Christi, mundum laetificare dignatus es: praesta, quaesumus, ut per eius Genetricem Virginem Mariam, perpetuae capiamus gaudia vitae. Per eundem Christum Dominum nostrum.
R. Amen.

In English:

Queen of Heaven rejoice, alleluia: For He whom you merited to bear, alleluia, Has risen as He said, alleluia. Pray for us to God, alleluia.
V. Rejoice and be glad, O Virgin Mary, alleluia.
R. Because the Lord is truly risen, alleluia.
Let us pray: O God, who by the Resurrection of Thy Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, granted joy to the whole world: grant we beseech Thee, that through the intercession of the Virgin Mary, His Mother, we may lay hold of the joys of eternal life. Through the same Christ our Lord.
R. Amen.

Like all good prayer, it creates a pause between our earthly activities. I face my yogurt and sandwich with a different, calmer attitude. Thanks, Mary!