Apostrophizing the Virgin, Saints, and Angels
Thou, Mary, art the chosen one!
O hail this brightest day of days,
All ye good Christian people!
For Christ hath come upon our ways,
So ring it from the steeple.
Of maiden pure is He the Son;
Thou, Mary, art the chosen one,
Him in thy womb to carry.
Ever was there news so great?
God’s own Son from heav’n’s high state
Is born the Son of Mary.—Walther’s Hymnal #17:1
I still recall a certain seminary professor, now long since gone to his eternal rest, objecting to stanza 2 of “Ye Watchers and Ye Holy Ones” precisely because it apostrophized Mary; it addresses her. “O higher than the cherubim, More glorious than the seraphim, Lead their praises…” It is to be noted that this is not properly speaking an invocation of the Virgin. It makes no request of her; it instead exhorts her to lead the praises of the angels as they worship her Son.
The practice of addressing the saints and angels like this is quite ancient. You find it in the Psalter: “Praise him, all his angels; praise ye him, all his hosts.” (Psalm 148:2) You find it in the Apocrypha: “O ye spirits and souls of the righteous, bless ye the Lord: praise and exalt him above all for ever.” (Song of the Three Children, 64) And yes, you find it even in Walther’s Hymnal. Note the italicized bit above. Or the similar use in the same volume of #424: “Oh, how blest are ye whose toils are ended, Who thro’ death have unto God ascended! Ye have arisen From the cares which keep us still in prison.”
Such apostrophizing of the angels and saints is second nature to the people of God when they believe what God’s Word declares: “But ye are come unto mount Sion, and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of angels, to the general assembly and church of the firstborn, which are written in heaven, and to God the judge of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect, and to Jesus the mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling that speaketh better things than that of Abel.” (Heb. 12:22-24) Indeed, people loved by God, “seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses” (Heb. 12:1), acknowledging the Virgin, the angels and the saints in our praise of God simply betrays that we do indeed believe in and live within “the communion of saints.”
