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The Hail Mary
	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. Amen.

 

Ave Maria, gratia plena; Dominus tecum; benedicta tu in mulieribus, et benedictus fructus ventris tui, Jesus. Sancta Maria, Mater Dei, ora pro nobis peccatoribus, nunc et in hora mortis nostrae. Amen [St. Gregory's Hymnal, 1941, #200a-c, &c.]

 

The Hail Mary   The Hail Mary consists of two parts. The first is drawn from Scripture, at two different places. The second is a traditional petition added later as the Ave had become popular. From Scripture in Luke 1:28, the archangel Gabriel comes to Mary saying, "Hail, Mary, thou art highly favored, full of grace, the Lord is with thee!" Thus is the question, to which God knew what her answer would be. God then being Incarnate by the power of The Holy Spirit, and after the shepherds, after the Magi have left their gifts, Mary then learns her cousin, Elizabeth, is pregnant. And upon visiting her, Elizabeth, and as her infant (to become Our Lord's prophet, John the Baptist) leaps in her womb, says upon hearing Mary's voice, "Blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb." [Luke 1:42] The petition which follows is that to Mary, now living as Queen of Heaven, somehow made aware of our petitions wherever we may be, and by the authority and tradition of The Church that Jesus insisted upon such honour and petition to Our Blessed Mother, we pray to her to help us now in our temptations, our anxieties, our temporal setbacks perhaps but certainly to avoid further spiritual setbacks, and to help us at the hour of our death to satisfy God's Justice and find our way to Purgatory or Heaven, that we may continue to find favor with her Son.

 

Hail, Mary!   The angel's salutation is not merely friendly, not merely formal, but exhalted, because Mary would be exhalted by her assent - as God knew she would agree. It is also in recognition of her unique status in world history, reserved by God in time, at a set time and place; special not just for being preserved free from Original Sin, but special just for being there, this one woman of all people; in God's time.

 

Full of grace!   Taken to indicate more than simply being the chosen Virgin of Jewish prophecy, who would bear the Messiah expected to announce Himself on the Passover. This is taken to mean Mary was pure, and preserved so and free from the effect of Original Sin, by God's miraculous gift of the Immaculate Conception. Some prefer the phrase, "highly favored," literally as an exclusive substitute for, full of grace, because they fear idolatory for saying Mary is full of grace; but they also believe Mary was neither pure nor free from the effects of Original Sin. If highly favored, then it is not enough that she was chosen, but that she had been chosen beforehand, by God before even the universe itself existed. With that planning, that foreknowledge, The Church holds that she was free from the effects of Original Sin, that God knew she would approve of the Incarnation and throw herself entirely to Our Lord and His Will as a mere handmaid to be told what to do. She was free from the taint she merited, as we all do and suffer from, so that no taint could be claimed against Our Lord and Master, so that no diabolical mouthpiece could hurl slander at the God-Man, an utter stranger to sin.

 

The Lord is with thee.   And referring, now, not just to the Immaculate Conception, not merely to her dedicating her life to chastity and the things of God, but to the promise to the Jewish people; Mary standing in for all of them. It's the fulfillment of prophecy. The Lord is now with the chosen people of Israel, as God knows Mary will agree.

 

Blessed art thou among women   Elizabeth, by the Holy Spirit, calls her blessed among all women, set apart and special by virtue of her humility before God. She was blessed for being the Mother of the promised Messiah, which was something hoped for by many Jewish girls. She would be blessed for having been so, for being the Mother of God; and if not blessed by those who use worldly standards, then blessed by those in this world who cleave to something better.

 

and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus.   As noted above, this is also said by cousin, Elizabeth, pregnant with Our Lord's Baptist and prophet, John, as Mary comes by not just to visit, but to offer Elizabeth her services as chambermaid and assistant. Elizabeth is moved to utter this affirmation; the word, Jesus, being added later to the Hail Mary. And this continues, as well, the affirmation of how blessed is Mary for this.

 

Holy Mary,   This begins the second part of the Hail Mary, and is a traditional petition to the Queen of Heaven, Mary as she is, now, in her resurrected body.

 

Mother of God,   It's a problematic title for some, who want to avoid any suggestion that Our Lord somehow came into existence, without existing before. But Our Lord's body, Mysteriously Incarnate in Mary, did come into existence where it had not existed, before. Our Lord, as well as the Third Person of the Holy Trinity, The Holy Spirit, always existed, before time and the universe itself. Yet, as well, Mary is the Mother of God, unless one cares to argue Christ was not both God and Man.

 

pray for us sinners,   As Mediatrix of graces, we ask Our Blessed Mother, the very Queen of Heaven, to pray for us to imitate her Son, to love her Son, and to rely on him.

 

now, and at the hour of our death.   Now, of course, as we pray and beseech her prayers and graces given her by Our Lord. But we also beseech Our Blessed Mother to aid us in the hour of our death, to make a perfect act of contrition, to recall all those things we did not confess when we should have, to do whatever we can, at the last, to get as right as we can with God; allowing for Purgatory to take us the rest of the way there (and assuming someone remains, in this life, to say a prayer for us).

 

Amen.   It's true. So let it be written, as it were. A certainty. So be it! when we agree with someone saying it.