Publisher's Synopsis
Imprimatur.Preface 4Origin of the Hail Mary 5Hail, Full of Grace, The Lord is With Thee 7The Annunciation 7The Visitation 21Blessed Art Thou Among Women 23The Magnificat 26Blessed is the Fruit of Thy Womb, Jesus 30The Name of Jesus 33The Name of Jesus 36Holy Mary 38The Name of Mary 43Holy Mary, Mother of God 46Pray For Us Sinners 52The Marriage at Cana 57Pray For Us Sinners 60Now 61And at the Hour of Our Death 62Mary, the Help of the Dying 66Amen 70Origin of the Hail MaryNext to the Our Father, which our Lord Jesus Christ Himself taught us, the Hail Mary is the best, the most beautiful and efficacious of prayers. It has also a divine origin, for each of its three parts has been taught by God Himself. The first part, "Hail (Mary), full of grace, the Lord is with thee, blessed art thou among women," was the greeting which the angel Gabriel, God's special messenger to the virgin Mary, addressed to her (Luke 1:27,28). The second part, "Blessed art thou among women and blessed is the fruit of thy womb (Jesus)" (5:41,42), was the reply Saint Elizabeth, filled with the Holy Ghost," made to Mary's greeting. And the Catholic Church, "the Church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth" (1 Timothy 3:15), founded by Jesus Christ and guided by the Holy Ghost, "the Spirit of truth" (John 15:26), has added the third part, "Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us, sinners, now and at the hour of our death. Amen."Therefore, when we recite the Hail Mary, we salute, venerate and exalt Mary as "the Mother of God" (Luke 1:43) with the very words which God Himself addressed to her through the angel Gabriel, His faithful ambassador, for the accomplishment of the mystery of the Incarnation of His divine Son; we congratulate Mary in the words the Holy Ghost inspired Saint Elizabeth to utter, for being exalted above all creatures as the Mother of Him who "is called the Son of the Most High" (Luke 1:32). Then with the in fallible Church of the Son of God, we invoke and beseech Mary, His divinely chosen Mother, to help us, to "pray for us," weak and frail and sinful mortals, both in life and at the hour of our death, that we, too, may be admitted to see, praise and love her divine Son and her forever in heaven.