During the Easter season, the Regina Coeli replaces the Angelus as the Marian Prayer:
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.
From Asia News Italy:
Explaining the invocations Regina Caeli, Benedict added that “Mary kept in her the heart the ‘Good News’ of the resurrection, source and secret of the true joy and real peace that the Dead and Risen Christ conquered for us with the sacrifice on the Cross. Let us call on Mary, who accompanied us in the days of the Passion, to continue guiding our steps in this time of spiritual joy so that we may always grow in the knowledge and love of the Lord and become witnesses and apostles of His peace.”
In the festive atmosphere of Easter, the Pope also mentioned the “joy of an important anniversary. Five hundred years ago—April 18, 1506, to be exact—Pope Julius II laid the first stone of the new Basilica of St Peter, [a structure] that the entire world admires for the powerful harmony of its forms”.
“With admiration,” Benedict XVI mentioned, “the artists who contributed with their genius to building and decorating” the basilica, people like Michelangelo, Raffaello, and Bramante. He said he was grateful to popes like Julius II who devoted themselves to erecting the basilica on top of the tomb of St Peter. He also thanked the staff of the [Reverenda] Fabbrica di San Pietro, [the church agency] that maintains and safeguards such a masterpiece of art and faith.”
Finally, the Pontiff stressed that this anniversary should reawaken “in every catholic the desire to be like living stones (1 Pt: 2,5) to build the Holy Church in which the ‘light of Christ’ is brightly visible through charity that is lived and witnessed before the world.”
Following the prayer, Benedict XVI greeted in different languages the pilgrims who had gathered in the courtyard of the Apostolic Palace. When he came to greet them in Italian, a group of young people from Naples (Italy) began to sing a well-known Neapolitan song, Ohi vita, Ohi vita mia. Amused and cheerful, the Pope responded saying: “I see there is no lack of Easter joy” among you.
