Reflections on the Hail Mary

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Hi all,

I wrote a reflection on the meaning of the Hail Mary on my blog and would like to share with all of you and ask for your advise on the contents of what has been written.

I decided to do such a reflection because I realised that often times when I say the Hail Mary, I am merely repeating words and not saying a prayer. How can one pray sincerely without understanding what comes out of his mouth?

Also, I have many friends who are not Catholic and do believe that Catholic prayer to anyone but Jesus is idol worship, so it would make sense to see whether the ‘flagship’ prayer was idol worship or not.

Having written this reflection though, it feels like nothing but straw and I would appreciate if some of you could direct me to some texts that can give me a better understanding.

Thanks
Zach Isaiah
 
Hi again,

Reflecting on the Hail Mary pointed me to the realisation that there was a a greater common prayer the Lord’s Prayer.

I did a reflection also because I was doing the same thing with The Lord’s Prayer as I was with the Hail Mary. Hopefully this does not come across as ostentatious bumptiousness.

Regards
Zach Isaiah
 
In your blog you made this statement: “The Hail Mary cannot be said in isolation and apart from the major Christian prayer, The Lord’s Prayer/The Our Father.”

I understand where you are trying to say that the “Hail Mary” is in union with the Lord’s prayer, but this statement seems a little rigid for me. Have you read “the glories of Mary” or “secret of the Rosary”? Both these treatises cite many examples where a sinner has little devotion for God but for some reason kept some devotion for Mary by saying the “Hail Mary.” And because of that little devotion they had our Lady, she delivered them from eternal damnation and obtained for them a second chance from our Lord. These testimonies just show that our Lady is really gracious and loving. Whoever has even the least little bit of confidence and devotion to her will receive some help from her, even if they are the worst sinner in the world and are farthest away from the Lord.

It is so crucial to remember that our Lady is a real person in heaven, the real queen mother of the Most High King. When we say the “Hail Mary,” even if we say it with little understanding and affection, Mary hears it and blesses us according to her Motherly heart. The “Hail Mary” is another channel given by God for sinners to receive consolation and grace.

According to St. Louis De Montfort, saints who have gone to heaven revealed that they would give everything if they could go back to earth and say another “Hail Mary”, even a badly said one. I believe what He teaches. We will never know HOW MUCH GRACE one “Hail Mary” gains us from the most Gracious Queen of Heaven, until we see her face to face in heaven.
 
Hi poetry for Jesus,

Thanks for your comment. I agree with you that the impression that is given sounds very rigid. While I was writing the reflection I did not realise that I had done exactly what you said in your first paragraph, "where a sinner has little devotion for God but for some reason kept some devotion for Mary by saying the “Hail Mary.”

Here’s why. I am a convert to Catholicism. I was previously agnostic-pagan (in the sense that I believed equally that all religions were the same and that God was really the same one person). I’ve been in Sri Lanka, Tibetian, Mongolian and Chinese Buddhist Temples; my Chinese ancestral Taoist religion; the Indian Sri Sathya Sai movement; Methodist services which all students in our missionary school had to attend etc. Oh, and there was the small matter of hating Christians - who to me were pompous, proud, disrespectful and well un-christian.

When my grandmother passed away (she being the only Catholic in the family then, the whole family on the paternal side has since converted to Catholicism all seperately) the one prayer that I remember saying was the Hail Mary. And I recall saying it really loud especially when the coffin was pushed into the furnace. It was the one prayer that I knew from Christians and the one that I would say when I talked to God.

Even today when I am worried or am in trouble, and before I became Catholic, I would also turn to the Mother Mary for comfort.

Strange though, how I did not recall that when I was writing my reflections. Call me a romantic, maybe this is the humility of Mary in action, pointing her disciple in the direction of Jesus.

Regards
Zach Isaiah
 
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