Praying the Regina Coeli with Art: This Week's Image

How fitting it is for the first day of the Month of May, a month characterized by devotion to Mary and to floral abundance, to feature this modern coronation (by Father Marko Rupnik, SJ) from the shrine of Our Lady of the Flowers in Bra, Italy. This Marian shrine is particularly dear to the Daughters of St Paul. (It is a place I have visited several times, but before Father Rupnik put his artistic hand to it.) It was at this shrine that Mama Alberione consecrated her frail baby James to the Blessed Virgin Mary in 1884. His lifelong devotion to Mary and her rosary began in the humble original shrine, still covered in ex votos, including one from the Alberione family, commemorating the rescue of a child who was about to be trampled by an ox cart.

The new shrine of the
Madonna of the Flowers.
Image © Centro Aletti

The coronation is a detail from the great bronze doors added to the "new" shrine begun in 1933, interrupted by a World War, and finally consecrated in 1978. The Rupnik mosaics and bronze door were added to the new shrine in 2017, giving it a glorious presentation.  The older shrine (built in 1628) is still frequented by the locals, but its origins date to the Middle Ages. In the middle of December a pregnant woman named Egidia Mathis found herself trapped beneath a plum tree by two mercenary soldiers. She called to Mary for help. The plum tree burst into flower as the Virgin suddenly appeared, causing the men to run the other way. (The poor Egidia went into labor almost immediately!)

Since that time, the plum tree (or perhaps all the trees in the tiny orchard) flowers every December, even to this day (though now behind a tall fence, safe from relic hunters). There are some details about the plum tree that I only recall vaguely...it has been studied like crazy, but it is just a botanically normal plum tree in a very unusual situation. Cuttings from it act like regular plum trees and do not blossom twice a year. 

 

From Easter to Pentecost, pray the Regina Coeli (in place of the Angelus) three times a day: morning, noon and evening.

Queen of Heaven, rejoice, Alleluia!
R. For he whom you deserved to bear, Alleluia!
Has risen as he said, Alleluia!
R. Pray for us to God, Alleluia! 

Rejoice and be glad, O Virgin Mary, Alleluia!
For the Lord has truly risen, Alleluia!

Let us pray:
O God, who gave joy to the world through the resurrection of your Son, our Lord Jesus Christ,
grant, we beseech thee, that through the intercession of his Mother, the Virgin Mary,
we may obtain the joys of everlasting life.
Through the same Christ our Lord. Amen.

Pray it in Latin!

Regina cæli, lætare, alleluia:

R. Quia quem meruisti portare, alleluia,

Resurrexit, sicut dixit, alleluia,

R. Ora pro nobis Deum, alleluia.

Gaude et lætare, Virgo Maria, alleluia.

R. Quia surrexit Dominus vere, alleluia.

Oremus. Deus, qui per resurrectionem Filii tui, Domini nostri Iesu Christi,
mundum lætificare dignatus es:
præsta, quæsumus, ut per eius Genitricem Virginem Mariam,
perpetuæ capiamus gaudia vitæ.
Per eundem Christum Dominum nostrum. R. Amen.