“Salute Mary who hath laboured much among you.” Romans 16:6.
The salutation of Mary was given by heaven. God sent the Archangel Gabriel to announce to Mary that God had chosen her to be the Mother of His only-begotten Son. When he came in, he saluted her: “Hail, full of grace. The Lord is with thee. Blessed art thou among women.” St. Luke 1:28. The angel, instructed by God, salutes her as being ‘full of grace,’ which indicates no sin is to be found in her, despite the blasphemies of protestants. It also indicates that there was no woman to be compared to her. “Blessed art thou among women,” the angel says. Yet I have heard heretics say she was no more than any common woman, adulterating the word of God, 2 Cor. 2:17; 4:2. A man once said, “If God had chosen your mother to be the mother of His Son, wouldn’t you expect people to honor her in a special way?” The Hail Mary is a heavenly prayer, which God used, according to St. Louis de Montfort, to win the heart of Mary. St. Mechtilde, who loved Our Lady very much, was one day striving to compose a beautiful prayer in her honor. Our Lady appeared to her, with the golden letters on her breast of: “Hail Mary, full of grace.” She said to her, “Desist, dear child, from your labor, for no prayer you could possibly compose would give me the joy and delight of the Hail Mary.”
The Hail Mary consists of three parts. The first part as we have just seen, was given by an angel. The second part is also from God, given by St. Elizabeth immediately after she is filled with the Holy Ghost. Scripture says she was filled with the Holy Ghost, and then she spoke these words to our Blessed Mother: “Blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb.” St. Luke 1:41-42. She did not say the name of Jesus because Jesus was not born and named yet, yet she knew He was in Mary’s womb by divine enlightenment because she acknowledged that the Lord was in Mary’s womb. “And whence is this to me that the mother of my Lord should come to me,” verse 43. It is also noteworthy that Elizabeth was not filled with the Holy Ghost until Holy Mary greeted her. “And it came to pass, that when Elizabeth heard the salutation of Mary, the infant leaped in her womb. And Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Ghost,’ verse 41.
Notice that Elizabeth did not consider herself worthy to receive a visit from this divine Mother, not saying Mary was divine but she is called that because the child in her womb was divine. Yet heretics have not a good word to say about her. If only heretics were as good at avoiding sin as they are at avoiding Mary, the Virgin Mother of God. So we get the second part of the Hail Mary from St. Elizabeth, “Blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb.” And the Church later added the holy Name of Jesus, with the concluding and third part: Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners now, and at the hour of our death. Amen.
“From henceforth, all generations shall call me blessed.”
St. Luke 1:48.
Let us now consider the prophecy Mary made of herself immediately after, referring all to the greatness of God and the great things He had done to her. “For behold, from henceforth, all generations shall call me blessed, because He that is mighty, hath done great things to me,” verse 48. “From henceforth,” she said, meaning there will be no end to Christians calling her blessed, in this life, but also in the next. In every Hail Mary we pray, we are part of that prophecy, “Blessed art thou among women.” Now here I ask protestants to pay attention the next time they hear the Hail Mary or the rosary. All they hear is “Hail Mary, Hail Mary.” But listen closely, every Hail Mary we also bless Jesus, “Blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus.” Every Hail Mary we bless God. Isn’t that a good thing? And why don’t we bless Jesus first and Mary second? Because the Holy Ghost inspired Elizabeth to bless the mother first and then the child. St. Louis de Montfort explains: “The Church, along with the Holy Ghost, blesses Mary first and Jesus second. This is not to say Mary is higher than God or even equal to God. This would be intolerable heresy. But in order to bless Jesus more perfectly, we begin by blessing His mother.”
Millions of Catholics often say the Hail Mary. It is a powerful prayer when said properly, but some repeat it hastily not even thinking of the words they are saying. These following words may help some say it more thoughtfully. They can give God’s Mother great joy and obtain for themselves many graces which she wishes to give them. One Hail Mary well said fills the heart of Our Lady with delight and obtains for us indescribably great graces. To prove this, next time you lose something, say a Hail Mary slowly and respectfully and see what happens. One Hail Mary well said gives us more graces than a thousand thoughtlessly said. There is a story of a lady who used to say her rosary in a rush, and it was made known to her that an angel would put a pearl in a glass for each one well said. At the end of her rosary, there was only one pearl in the glass. St. Louis de Montfort in THE SECRET OF THE ROSARY teaches us how to pray it well. I recommend the reading of this book to all men of good will, and to the clergy. The clergy should be preaching the rosary to bring souls back to God like St. Dominic, but how can they, if they know little about it? You can also hear the book on video now. St. Louis de Montfort said, “The devils revealed that St. Dominic was the man they hated most in the world because of all the souls he was bringing back to God by preaching the rosary.”
THE HAIL MARY
Hail, Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee. Blessed art thou amongst 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.
The Hail Mary is like a gold mine that we can take from but never exhaust. The saints had a great devotion to the Hail Mary and the rosary. St. Teresa of Avila became a great saint, but before she did, she fell into a state of lukewarmness, and St. Alphonsus said that God showed her, her place in hell if she did not shake off her lukewarmness. She acknowledged this herself. After she died, she appeared to one of her sisters in religion and she had this to say about one Hail Mary. “I would be willing to come back to earth and suffer until the end of time for the degree of merit for which God rewards one devoutly prayed Hail Mary.” Is it hard to say the Hail Mary well? All we have to do is know its value and understand it meaning, but it must be said respectfully and not in a slipshod manner as some people do. St. Louis de Montfort warns against this, and he says, “We would not address the most unimportant person in this manner, yet we expect Jesus and Mary to be pleased with it!” Remember the lady with only one pearl in the glass!
St. Jerome tells us that, “The truths contained in the Hail Mary are sublime, so wonderful that no man or angel could fully understand them.” St. Thomas Acquinas, the Prince of Theologians, “The wisest of saints and holiest of wise men,” as Leo XIII called him, preached for 40 days in Rome on the Hail Mary, filling his hearers with rapture. Father F. Suarez, the holy and learned Jesuit, declared when dying that he would willingly give all the many learned books he wrote, all his life’s labors, for the merit of one Hail Mary prayerfully and devoutly said.
A certain man found joy in saying slowly the Hail Mary. The Blessed Virgin in return appeared to him smiling and announced to him the day and hour that he should die, granting him a most holy and happy death. After death a beautiful white lily grew from his mouth having written on its petals, “Hail Mary.” Cesarius relates a similar incident. A humble and holy monk lived in the monastery. His poor mind and memory were so weak that he could only repeat one prayer which was the ‘Hail Mary.’ After death a tree grew over his grave and on its leaves were written, “Hail Mary.” These beautiful legends show us how much devotion to Our Lady was valued, and the power attributed to the Hail Mary devoutly prayed.
Devotion to our Blessed Mother has always been a part of the Christian’s devotion in the Church. Even in the 2nd century, St. Ignatius of Antioch, who was a disciple of St. John, had this to say for those who were devoted to our most holy Mother, “A devout client of Mary shall never perish.” There is a true story of a little protestant boy who learned the Hail Mary and loved to say it. When his mother found out, she was not happy. She told him to read the Bible instead so he did, and he found the Hail Mary in the Bible, and continued to say it. When he grew up, he converted to Catholicism and became a Catholic priest. His sister, like his mother, had a hatred for the Catholic religion. One day her son got deathly sick, and the doctors gave up any hope of recovery. and her brother went to her and said, “My dear sister, you naturally wish to have your child cured. Very well then, do what I ask you to do. Follow me, let us pray one Hail Mary for your son, and promise God that if he is healed, you would seriously study the Catholic doctrine, and should you come to the conclusion that Catholicism is the only true religion, you will take instructions in the faith, you will embrace it no matter what the sacrifices may be.” She reluctantly did so, and the next day her son was completely well. She kept her side of the bargain and became a Catholic, thanking her brother for being an apostle to her. The Hail Mary is a powerful prayer, and those who say it well have experienced it, but those who criticize it have never tried it. Blessed Alan de la Roche once had a terrifying vision or locution.
One day, while saying Mass, after consecrating the bread and wine into the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ, as did Jesus at the Last Supper, St. Matthew chapter 26; Jesus spoke to him in the Host and said, “Why are you crucifying me again?” “What Lord, did you say?” Blessed Alan asked. Jesus said to him, “You were crucifying Me before by your sins, and I would willingly be crucified again for them. But now, you are crucifying Me again, because you have all the knowledge and learning to bring souls back to God by preaching the rosary, and you fail to do so.” Blessed Alan wasted no time preaching the rosary after that terrible admonition. But this is what he had to say about the power of the Hail Mary: “At the words, ‘Hail Mary!’ Satan flies and hell trembles.”
Now protestants know nothing about why the Hail Mary is so powerful, but there are two Scriptures that bear out why the devils fear Mary so much. In the Garden of Eden, after Satan overcame the woman, God put a curse on the devil that a woman would crush his head. “I will put enmities between thee and the woman, and thy seed and her seed: she shall crush thy head, and thou shalt lie in wait for her heel.” Gen. 3:15. This woman, the Church teaches, is Mary, and she is often depicted in her images with her foot on a snake, representing the devil in the Garden. The second Scripture speaks of a woman as terrible as an army in battle array. “Who is she that cometh forth as the morning rising, fair as the moon, bright as the sun, terrible as an army set in array?”[Canticles (Solomon) 6:9]. This scripture is speaking of Mary as well because she is terrible to the demons. They all flee when Mary is invoked and shows up! By God’s power which He gave her over the demons, she is more powerful than all of them. The reason heretics remain in their error is because they refuse to call upon her. Yet St. Augustine, 1600 years ago, long before the Protestant religions came into being, said, “There are many graces which God wants to give to us, but we are not worthy. The only way He will gvie them to us is through the Blessed Virgin Mary.”
TO JESUS THROUGH MARY
Why do we go to Jesus through Mary? St. Louis de Montfort said, “We go to Jesus through Mary because that’s the way He came to us, and He said, ‘As I have given you an example, so do you also.” St. John 13:15. Also because Mary is the tree of life and Jesus is the fruit of Mary. “He who wishes to have the fruit of life, which is Jesus Christ, must have the tree of life, which is Mary.” – St. Louis de Montfort. You go to the tree to get the fruit. “She is a tree to them that lay hold on her, and he that shall retain her is blessed.” Proverbs 3:18. You won’t find Mary without Jesus. Therefore, St. Alphonsus de Liguori says, “Whoever wishes to find the fruit, must find the tree. Whoever wishes to find Jesus must find Mary. ‘’And going in, they found the child with Mary his Mother.” St. Matthew 2:11.
Each time that we pray the Hail Mary, we are repeating the very same words with which St. Gabriel the Archangel saluted Mary on the day of the Annunciation, when she was made the mother of God. Many graces and joys filled the soul of Mary at that moment. Now when we say the Hail Mary, we offer anew all these graces and joys to Our Lady and she accepts them with immense delight. In return she gives us a share in these joys. Once Our Lord asked St. Francis of Assisi to give him something. The Saint replied, “Dear Lord, I can give you nothing for I have already given you all, all my love.” Jesus smiled and said, “Francis, give Me it all again and again. It will give me the same pleasure.” Like two lovers, who continually like to tell the other, “I love you.” So with our dearest Mother, she accepts from us each time we say the Hail Mary the joys and delight she received from the words of St. Gabriel….to be continued.