Hail Mary
1. After the Lord’s Prayer there is no more beautiful prayer than the
Hail Mary, which we should recite with particular devotion in the
decades of the Holy Rosary. At the beginning of the Rosary we can
imagine that we are witnesses of the Annunciation to Mary in her home at
Nazareth. An Angel descends from Heaven and bows before the Blessed
Virgin as she kneels absorbed in prayer.
“Hail, full of grace,” he says, “the Lord is with thee. Blessed art
thou among women.” (Luke 1:26-28) We should join with the Angel of God
in repeating these words fervently and devoutly.
The constant
repetition of this prayer is very pleasing to Mary, the Mother of God
and our Mother. When we greet her with the words of the Angel, we remind
her of the great mystery of the Incarnation, which was the beginning of
her lofty mission as co-redemptrix and the dawn of Christian
civilisation.
Even when we say these words over and over again,
they can never become monotonous. When a son is speaking to his mother,
every word possesses an unlimited warmth and meaning because it is the
expression of a boundless love. When we recite the decades of the
Rosary, we should think of the heavenly Mother who is watching over us
and listening to us, eager to console and assist us. She loves us with a
maternal love, but she requires us to love her also and to prove that
we are her children by imitating her virtues.
2. The Angel’s
greeting was later completed by the salvation of St. Elizabeth. As soon
as Elizabeth saw the Blessed Virgin coming to visit her, she cried out
in humble veneration: “Blessed art thou among women and blessed is the
fruit of thy womb!” (Luke 1:42)
In the first part of the Hail
Mary, then, we pay her in the words of the Gospel the highest tributes
ever accorded to any human creature, proclaiming her to be full of
grace, blessed among women, and Mother of the Redeemer. The second part,
which was later added by the Church, is a heartfelt supplication
addressed to Mary as the Mother of God and our Mother. “Holy Mary,
Mother of God, pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death.
Amen.” It would be hard to find a more touching plea. We ask our
heavenly Mother to intercede for us now because we have such great need
of her assistance in this vale of tears and temptations. May she be
always by our side to shelter us beneath her mantle.
3. We seek
her intercession, moreover, at the hour of death. Death must come, but
if we have prayed often to our heavenly Mother she will certainly be
with us in those final and decisive moments of our lives. If Mary is
there to help us, we may be sure that death will come as a consolation,
for it will be a peaceful journey towards everlasting happiness.
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