Spes Nostra

In the Salve Regina, the ancient hymn to the Blessed Virgin Mary, the faithful acclaim Mary as, “our life, our sweetness, and our hope.” These words, so familiar to Catholic ears, sound strange to many non-Catholic Christians. “Isn’t Jesus Christ our life, our sweetness, and our hope?” they ask. Assuredly, He is. But just as Mary Immaculate conceived and gave birth to the Author of Life, she continues to give birth to Him in men’s souls. 

According to the designs of Divine Providence, Mary leads us to Jesus, just as she led the young apostle John, after he had fled the Master, back to Christ hanging upon the Cross of Calvary.

The Mother witnessed her Son redeem the world by dying a horrific, ignoble death upon the Cross. This Mother of the Savior is also our Mother. She will not abandon us. Let us trust in her maternal intercession.

In our increasingly secularized world, despair is becoming more prevalent. It is despair that underlies the post-modern world’s culture of death. And it is no secret that the Church in our day is severely beaten by the waves of heresy, scandal, and neglect. We know too that in many nations Catholics suffer frightful persecutions.

More than ever, we who live in the third millenium need true hope, hope in God, hope in His Son, Our Lord Jesus Christ. In the Holy Virgin we find our hope, for she is the one—the Star of the Sea—who will guide us to her Son and to the shores of eternal life.

Our Lady of Hope, our hope (spes nostra), pray for us who have recourse to thee.