The Hail Mary is scriptural. What?!

So, I kind of left out introductions in my last blog post.  Back at the beginning of 2009, I tried starting a blog, but I never kept up with it.  I think I aspired too much to try to write extremely long and informative blog posts, but I found out it wasn't necessary to do that.  Yet, with the former mentality, I lost my motivation to consistently post in my old blog.  This blog is now "take two", with the mindset of some shorter posts with somewhat simple topics either based on information about the Catholic faith or my own experiences.

The Blessed Mother has increasingly become one of my favorite topics to discuss.  I have great affection for Mary, for she is my spiritual mother and my mistress.  Back in March of this year on the feast of the Annunciation, I completed my Total Consecration to Jesus through Mary according to St. Louis de Montfort.  Mary has certainly put me to work, and I've seen the effects of how she has led me closer to her Son.  Of course, the Total Consecration is a topic for a whole other post.  Don't get me wrong; I struggled for a very long time with the concept of honoring Mary and praying to her for help, but God did enough work in me to accept her as the Mother of the Church and my Mother.  It was only a few years ago that I really started letting this enter into my spiritual life, and I haven't looked back.

I bring up St. Louis de Montfort because I recently read one of his works called The Secret of the Rosary.  He was deeply devoted to Mary and to the Rosary, and in this book he discusses how to pray the Rosary and recalls the miraculous events he's witnessed and personally experienced throughout his life.  The first section of the book is devoted to the explanation and importance of the Our Father and the Haily Mary prayers that are an integral part of praying the Rosary, and I discovered in his explanations that the Hail Mary is mostly based on passages from the Gospel of Luke.

For the Catholics reading this, we all know that Mary is a hot topic of debate between us and our Protestant brothers and sisters, and even among some Catholics.  There's the whole "worship of Mary" idea, and the Hail Mary could be argued as a sketchy prayer.  First, Catholics do not worship Mary; we honor her as the Mother of God.  She aided in the salvation of the human race by consenting to birth the Son of God; she is the first disciple; and she is the model of who we should aspire to be in holiness.  Second, the Hail Mary prayer is mostly based on Scripture.  When I read this in St. Louis' book, I thought, how did I not see this before?  My attentiveness to the prayer was so lacking!  If you do not know what the prayer is, here you go:

"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 first sentence of the prayer comes from Luke 1:28 when the angel Gabriel came to Mary in Nazareth and said, "Hail, full of grace, the Lord is with you!"  How wonderful to think that an angel could greet a human being with such a salutation!  The passage continues on in verses 29 and 30 to say, "But she was greatly troubled at the saying, and considered in her mind what sort of greeting this might be.  And the angel said to her, 'Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God.'"  She is favored by God!

The second sentence of the prayer comes from Luke 1:42 when Mary goes to visit her cousin Elizabeth, the mother of John the Baptist.  I'll start the passage with verse 41: "And when Elizabeth heard the greeting of Mary, the child leaped in her womb; and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit and she exclaimed with a loud cry, 'Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb!'"  Elizabeth was inspired by the Holy Spirit Himself to proclaim that Mary was indeed blessed, and the child she was carry was also blessed.  Mary is never praised without there being praise of Jesus.

At the end of the prayer, we are simply asking Mary to pray for us now and at the time of our death, because we need those prayers always.  How could we not ask the Mother of our Lord and King to pray for us?  She was the person who was closest to Jesus Christ, and she continues to be the closest person to Him.  He cannot refuse the requests of His Mother.  Look at the wedding feast of Cana.  She went to Him and told Him that they had no more wine, and He insisted that His time had not yet come.  BUT, she said to the servants, "Do whatever He tells you."  They went to Him for instruction, and He could not refuse.

With this in mind, may we reverently pray the Hail Mary and ask her to guide us to the Sacred Heart of her Son, Jesus!