A Protestant at my school brought this up, and I didn’t have an answer. Why do we say HAIL Mary? That’s like bowing down to a god or something, isn’t it?
The word “Hail” is simply a greeting, similar to our more common greeting “Hello.” The reason we use this phrase is because it is the scriptural greeting of the Archangel Gabriel to Mary:
And he [Gabriel] came to her [Mary] and said, “Hail, O favored one, the Lord is with you!” (Luke 1:28).
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