Eastern form: Hail Mary

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Zekariya

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Hail! Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee, O Virgin Theotokos: Blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, for thou hast borne the Saviour of our souls.
 
It is truly meet to bless thee, O Theotokos, who art ever blessed and all-blamelesss, and the mother of our God. More honorable than the Cherubim, and more glorious beyond compare than the Seraphim, thou who without stain barest God the Word, and art truly Theotokos: we magnify thee.
 
I am just wondering, is the Eastern Catholic version of the Hail Mary different than this one which seems to be an Eastern Orthodox version?
 
I am just wondering, is the Eastern Catholic version of the Hail Mary different than this one which seems to be an Eastern Orthodox version?
I am not too familiar with things Eastern, but this is the version said in the Eastern Catholic Church I attended a few weeks ago.
 
Prof. Edward Sri was on EWTN explaining the Annunciation. He said that when the Archangel Gabriel appeared to Mary he was addressing her with a heavenly title:

“Hail, Full of Grace, the Lord is with you.”
 
It is truly meet to bless thee, O Theotokos, who art ever blessed and all-blamelesss, and the mother of our God. More honorable than the Cherubim, and more glorious beyond compare than the Seraphim, thou who without stain barest God the Word, and art truly Theotokos: we magnify thee.
that’s solid and theologically rich. …very nice prayer.
 
It is truly meet to bless thee, O Theotokos, who art ever blessed and all-blamelesss, and the mother of our God. More honorable than the Cherubim, and more glorious beyond compare than the Seraphim, thou who without stain barest God the Word, and art truly Theotokos: we magnify thee.
I remember hearing a few months back on Ancient Faith Radio that the use of the word “stain” is theologically incorrect as well as linguistically. It should say “without corruption” meaning all the corruption of the female body that comes with giving birth, etc.

I still love to hear it sung though. 🙂

In Christ,
Andrew
 
Virgin Theotokos, Hail, Mary, full of grace: the Lord is with You. Blessed are You among women and blessed is the fruit of Your womb, for You have borne the Savior of our souls!
 
I remember hearing a few months back on Ancient Faith Radio that the use of the word “stain” is theologically incorrect as well as linguistically. It should say “without corruption” meaning all the corruption of the female body that comes with giving birth, etc.

I still love to hear it sung though. 🙂

In Christ,
Andrew
If you know which AFR podcast that was on I’d be interested in hearing it. They have a lot of great teaching there.

In my EC parish for the “It is Truly Meet” we sing "who without corruption gave birth to God the Word, the very Theotokos, we magnify you. "
 
Dear Friends,

The “Hail Mary” used in the Ukrainian Greek-Catholic (and also the Old Rite) Church is like this:

Theotokos Virgin, rejoice Mary full of grace, the Lord is with you. Blessed are you among women and blessed is the Fruit of your womb, for you have given birth to Christ the Saviour, the Redeemer of our souls.

The Hail Mary in the Eastern Catholic tradition meshes Scripture with Tradition and begins with the affirmation of the first Council, declaring Mary to be the “Theotokos Virgin.”

The ending is slightly longer in the Ukrainian version and it is, for some reason, the same as in the Old Rite usage.

The Ethiopians have a different Hail Mary altogether and the Syriac tradition refers to “Jesus Christ” in their Hail Mary ending.

What is in common is the practice of repeating the Hail Mary 50, 100, 150 or more times on beads in all traditions of the East.

In the West, Catholic saints would repeat the Hail Mary 1,000 times on Marian festivals, imitating King Solomon who once offered 1,000 sacrifices to God.

There have also been some Orthodox saints for whom the Hail Mary was their “Jesus Prayer” that is, instead of the ceaseless repetition of the Jesus Prayer, they ceaselessly repeated the Hail Mary (which they also said was a form of the Jesus Prayer).

Alex
 
It is truly meet to bless thee, O Theotokos, who art ever blessed and all-blamelesss, and the mother of our God. More honorable than the Cherubim, and more glorious beyond compare than the Seraphim, thou who without stain barest God the Word, and art truly Theotokos: we magnify thee.
The second part of this beautiful prayer “Mor Honourable” etc. was part of the Byzantine tradition, but the first part was added later.

A monk saw a person writing on a stone tablet in church and recognized this to be an angel since he was writing with his finger.

The words he wrote were “It is truly meet to bless thee . . .” and he asked that the Church add this to the prayer “More Honourable” which it did.

However, the second part is still used without the first, especially at the end of services in the Byzantine East.

This prayer is second only to the Hail Mary in terms of its popularity and usage.

Alex
 
I remember hearing a few months back on Ancient Faith Radio that the use of the word “stain” is theologically incorrect as well as linguistically. It should say “without corruption” meaning all the corruption of the female body that comes with giving birth, etc.

I still love to hear it sung though. 🙂

In Christ,
Andrew
That’s how we say it in the Antiochian Archdiocese. 😛
 
In one Eastern Catholic monastery (Ukrainian Catholic, in California) the Hail Mary may be prayed in private devotions, and it goes like this:
“Rejoice, Virgin Mary, Full of Grace: the Lord is with you! Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb: for you have born our Savior, Christ–the Redeemer of our souls!” (or would it be “borne”?)
Perhaps it’s resembles the many slight variations in text wording, translation, and music among parishes, even within the same eparchy (diocese)–there might well be lots of variations in the Hail Mary–I don’t know, but wouldn’t be the least bit surprized! 🙂
 
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