Coronation in Santa Maria in Trastevere
The Bride of Christ
Leva eius sub capite meo et dextera illius amplexabit me
Veni electa mea, ponam in te thronum meam
(Our Lady: His left hand should be under my head, and his right hand should embrace me)
(Our Lord: Come my chosen one, I shall place thee on my throne)
3 comments:
As I was telling you, it was rather interesting singing the text of the Song of Songs as antiphons of the Vespers of the Virgin Mary. I can still hum to myself the one that began, "Leva eius..." (it was in tone 4, I believe).
It's funny that the old liturgy had symbolism that I think we will never understand, and maybe it is even inappropriate to speculate about the depths of these mysteries. How is the Virgin Mother, Queen, and Spouse all at the same time?
"How is the Virgin Mother, Queen, and Spouse all at the same time?"
A guess, but in the same way that the woman could come entirely from Adam (through the work of God), and yet Adam could take her as his spouse. Of course, we have to move away from notions of marriage as carnal/sexual; the meaning of marriage is part of the revelation of Christ. Just as the meaning of motherhood is properly understood spiritually first. (Funny, I was just reading St. Anselm calling St. Paul in prayer his mother who had long nourished him.)
I just realized another answer to your question: the mother-son/spouse/queen pairs occur with the Babylonian Ishtar & her son/spouse Tammuz. (That's "queen of heaven" Ishtar in the Bible, of course.)
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