The Hail Mary, Word by Word

The Hail Mary, Word by Word

Of all the prayers we say, few are prayed as often as the Hail Mary. On the Rosary alone we say it fifty times or more. But familiar words can grow quiet on us, and it is worth slowing down to hear them again.

The words

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 half is Scripture

The opening is not something we invented — it comes straight from the Gospel of Luke.

"Hail, full of grace, the Lord is with thee" are the words of the angel Gabriel at the Annunciation. "Blessed art thou amongst women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb" are the words of Elizabeth, spoken when Mary came to visit her.

So when we pray the first half of the Hail Mary, we are joining our voices to an angel and a saint — greeting Mary exactly as heaven and earth first greeted her.

The second half is our own

"Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death."

Here the Church adds her own voice. We call Mary what the early Christians dared to call her — Mother of God — and then we ask, simply, for her prayers. Not once, but at the two moments that matter most: now, in this ordinary moment, and at the hour of our death, when we will need a mother most of all.

A prayer you can lean on

That is the whole shape of the Hail Mary: heaven's greeting, and a child's request. It asks nothing complicated. It only draws near to Mary and says — pray for me.

The next time you pray the Rosary, try praying just one Hail Mary slowly, hearing each phrase. You may find that the fifty that follow are never quite the same again.

The words often come easier with a rosary you love resting in your hand.

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