Hail Mary… (No, not the pass play)

One of my favorite prayers of all time is the “Hail Mary”. It is one that every Catholic and ex-Catholic knows by heart as it is a unique and powerful prayer that is not easily forgotten… I have seen and heard Catholics say this prayer hundreds upon hundreds of times. But do we as Christians really know what this prayer means? Because I love this prayer so much, I’d like to share with you, dear reader, what this prayer means to me…

Here is the full prayer, and then I will take you through it line-by-line while explaining what I believe this prayer says to me every time I recite it…

Hail Mary Full of Grace…

The Lord is with thee…

Blessed art thou among women and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus…

Holy Mary, Mother of God…

Pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death…

Hail Mary Full of Grace…

The opening line of this prayer is taken from Gabriel’s announcement to Mary of the Incarnation (Luke 1:28). So we know that this greeting is meant for Our Holy Mother when she was visited by the angel Gabriel, but what do these words mean for us as follower’s of Christ? In Gabriel’s greeting to Mary, he uses these words, not only as a greeting, but to confirm something special about her that she already knows, but I can imagine, in her innocence, that she would be too humble to brag about… What is that “something special” you ask?

It is the same thing that I am confirming when I recite this line of the prayer… That Mary received grace in some complete way and remains completed in that grace. Without getting into the apologetics side of this, let me just briefly explain what I mean… If we believe that Jesus was perfect and without sin, in both the fullness of His Divinity AND His Humanity it would be only logical that as the “Mother of God”, Mary herself, is protected from the stain of original sin… People look at that as impossible, that Jesus could not have saved her from original sin because He had not died and resurrected by that point in time…

However, I say to you, is Jesus limited only to our timeline or our perception of time? I think not… For Christ, His sacrifice has happened, will happen and is happening now! So it is certainly within the realm of human reason that He was able to save His (and our) mother from sin so that He could be perfect in every way…

The Lord is with thee…

While this line is taken from Luke 1:28 as well, and it can certainly be applied, just like before, to the greeting of Gabriel to Mary, for me this line is so very powerful for us now… As we invoke the intercession of Mary, the “Mediatrix of all graces”, we cannot ask for her prayers without giving credit to God, that it is only because of our Lord that this communication is possible. It is He who gave us His mother (John 19:25-27) and thus all credit, honor and Glory must be given to Him at ALL times…

To add something else to the point I just made… God chose Mary by demanding, from this poor and innocent girl, the greatest and most important act of obedience that had ever been demanded of anyone! By saying “The Lord is with thee…” Gabriel is letting her know that she is not alone! Just as this line should serve as a reminder to all of us that WE are not alone in our service and sacrifices for God in our daily lives.

Blessed art thou among women and blessed is the fruit of thy womb Jesus…

Taken from Luke 1:42 and 1:48, this line is the repetition of Elizabeth’s greeting to Mary after the infant, John, leaped in her womb… “Most blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb” and Mary’s words “…behold, from now on will all ages call me blessed”. I absolutely love this line because it’s as if we take Elizabeth’s greeting and we make it our own. It also serves as a reminder for me to recognize and acknowledge what comes from God on my own life. Just as Mary, through her words here (as well as her actions), demonstrates her recognition of the fact that God has done something absolutely AMAZING by giving her this awesome gift! And we should all recognize and acknowledge the gifts that God has given to us in order to spread His Gospel message and fulfill His mission for us in our lives…

Here is my FAVORITE line of this prayer:

Holy Mary, Mother of God…

Do you know WHY I love this line so much?Well fine, I’ll tell you! I love this line because of exactly what it says! “…Mother of God…” Holy Cow! If that statement doesn’t blow my mind! You may think that I’m overreacting but I don’t think I am and here’s why. With this statement, we’re beholding one of the great mysteries (and paradoxes) of our faith. If God Himself IS “The Alpha and Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end.” (Revelation 22:13), then He has no point in time that He could have been “created”… However, Mary IS, in fact the Mother of God.

This is so incredible for us as followers of Christ for two reasons… It is a reminder that A) God loved us so much that He became like us, in all of our human form in order to lead us back to Himself, to teach us, to be an example for us of how we should live and how we should die… B) Mary is the perfect example of how WE should say “yes” to God in our own daily lives.

“The Virgin Mary, being obedient to his word, received from an angel the glad tidings that she would bear God” (Against Heresies, 5:19:1 [A.D. 189]). – St. Iraneus

Pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death…

This line does two things for me that I find really fascinating… First of all, in asking Our Mother to pray for us, we acknowledge ourselves to be poor sinners. I’m sure a lot of you out there can remember a time when you had done something bad and you knew you had to tell your mom about it but you didn’t want to… I know I never enjoyed it! But in the end I always went to my mom. I think almost everyone would agree that acknowledging, to an authority figure, that you’ve done something wrong, is extremely humbling…

The second thing this line of the prayer does for me is that it takes me back to the foot of the cross… When Mary is standing there looking up at Jesus, I can’t imagine that she wasn’t praying for Him the whole time! That is what I want for myself… I’m not necessarily saying that I want to suffer, but I do want to bear whatever cross it is that My Lord has in store for me… And as I bear that cross, even unto the point of my death (if that be God’s will), I want Our Holy Mother to pray for me as she looks upon me carrying my cross…

I will finish my thoughts with Mary’s last words in Sacred Scripture, a message for us all… From John 2:5, she says “…Do whatever he (meaning Jesus) tells you.”.

With that being said my dear reader, thank you for reading and, I leave you with a blessing from St. Padre Pio… “May the Mother of Jesus and our Mother, always smile on your spirit, obtaining for it, from her Most Holy Son, every heavenly blessing.”

In the name of The Father… Of The Son… And of The Holy Spirit…

Amen…

Until next time dear reader…

Your Humble Servant in Christ,

William