The Hail Mary Prayer

(Sharing at the Novena to Our Mother of Perpetual Help on 30 October 2010)

Last week we heard about Glorifying the Blessed Trinity, and this week as we continue on the theme of the Rosary, I shall share on the Hail Mary Prayer.

I believe all of us here, however young or old we may be, pray the rosary, be it all 4 mysteries, one mystery, one decade, 3 Hail Mary’s or even one Hail Mary.

However, the question that perhaps we should ask ourselves are :

1)    Do we pray the rosary and the Hail Mary meaningfully?

2)    Do we contemplate on the Hail Mary as we pray or do we merely say it while our heart and mind wander thinking about other matters ?

3)    Do we truly understand the Hail Mary prayer when we pray it?

As such, today my sharing is divided into 2 main aspects:

1)    A brief  history of the Hail Mary prayer

2)    The meaning of the Hail Mary Prayer.

Some of us may be familiar with the tradition that goes back many centuries and which has been accepted in the writings of many Popes, as to the connection of St. Dominic with the beginnings of the Rosary devotion. 

According to tradition, Mary appeared to St. Dominic during the Albigensian heresy which ravaged Christendom, and told him to use her Psalter in conjunction with his preaching of the mysteries of our salvation, as an instrument in combatting the great heresy of his day during the 13th century.

We have to keep in mind that over the centuries there has been a considerable evolution in the form that this devotion called the Rosary has taken. We have to remember that in the time of St. Dominic, the HAIL MARY did not exist as we pray it today. Only the first half of it was then used. The word JESUS was not added until the 14th century, and the second half of the prayer came later still. 


Some of us perhaps when asked about why Catholics pray the Hail Mary, would have explained that it was a prayer in which we ask the mother of Jesus to pray for us. Since Mary is so close to her Son in heaven, she serves as an ideal intercessor whose prayers bring us closer to Jesus. 

While this is true, today I would like to share the approach Pope John Paul II took when explaining the Hail Mary in his apostolic letter Rosarium Virginis Mariae (RVM). For Pope John Paul II, the Hail Mary is not just an intercessory prayer that is permissible for Christians to recite. It's actually a Christ-centered prayer that gives Jesus great praise.He explains the Hail Mary prayer in 4 main aspects :

1^st aspect:  Put Yourself in Gabriel's Shoes

First, Pope John Paul II explains that although the Hail Mary is addressed to Our Lady, "it is to Jesus that the act of love is ultimately directed" (RVM, no. 26). When expounding on this prayer, he divides the Hail Mary into two halves. The words from the first half of the Hail Mary express "the wonder of heaven and earth" over the mystery of Christ in the womb of the Virgin Mary (RVM, no. 33).

So what does he means about "the wonder of heaven and earth" in the Hail Mary?  The first line -- "Hail, Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee" -- is drawn right from the angel Gabriel's words to Our Lady in the Annunciation (Lk. 1:28). To fully appreciate the meaning of this opening line in the Hail Mary, imagine what these words originally meant to the Archangel Gabriel. Gabriel is an angel who existed long before Mary did. In fact, Gabriel was there when God first created the world. From the beginning of his existence, Gabriel has been worshipping, adoring, and loving the infinite, almighty God, the Creator: the Blessed Trinity.

In awe over that profound mystery of his eternal God becoming a little embryo in Mary's womb, Gabriel greets Mary saying, "Hail, full of grace, the Lord is with you" (Lk. 1:28). In joyful wonder, Gabriel recognizes this, and his words give praise to God for becoming man in her.

The 2^nd aspect :Joining Heaven and Earth

Similarly, Elizabeth greets Mary with great honor. The biblical account of the Visitation tells us that Elizabeth was "filled with the Holy Spirit" (Lk. 1:41), which indicates that she was given prophetic insight. Before Mary has a chance to say anything about her own pregnancy, Elizabeth already knows. And she knows Mary is pregnant not with any ordinary child, but with the Lord Himself. In wonder over this mystery of God becoming man in Mary, Elizabeth exclaims, "blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb!" Like Gabriel, Elizabeth's words give praise to God for the Incarnation.

The 3^rd aspect : God's Own Wonderment

Since these words of Gabriel and Elizabeth are from the inspired Word of God in Scripture, they also represent God's own response to the mystery of the Christ. Hence, whenever we repeat these words in the Hail Mary, we participate in God's joy over the Incarnation. As Pope John Paul II explains, "These words could be said to give us a glimpse of God's own wonderment as he contemplates his ‘masterpiece' -- the Incarnation of the Son in the womb of the Virgin Mary. . . . The repetition of the Hail Mary gives us a share in God's own wonder and pleasure.

The second half of the Hail Mary also is focused on Jesus. Here, we entrust our lives to Mary's intercession, asking her to "pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death."

As a 1^st model disciple of Christ, who said "yes" to God's will all throughout her life -- from the time when Gabriel first appeared to her all the way to the Cross -- Mary is the ideal person to be interceding for us through the many trials and struggles we face in our lives. We ask her to pray for us, so that we may follow God faithfully like she did. As the CCC teaches, "She prays for us as she prayed for herself: ‘let it be to me according to your word.' by entrusting ourselves to her prayer, we abandon ourselves to the will of God together with her: ‘Thy will be done'" (no. 2677).

The 4th aspect :The Language of Love

Finally, we see just how Christ-centered the Hail Mary is when we come to what Pope John Paul II calls "the hinge" of this prayer: the holy name of Jesus. Not only is the name of Jesus the hinge that binds the two halves together, but it is truly meant to be the "center of gravity" of the entire Hail Mary.

This should encourage us to examine how we pray the Hail Mary: Is Jesus' name truly "the center of gravity" of our prayer? Do we treat the name of Jesus with extra care and speak His name with love when we recite the Hail Mary?

Pope John Paul II notes how emphasis should be given to the name of Jesus in this prayer. However, if we pray the Hail Mary too quickly, we may not give the proper reverence and loving attention to Jesus' name that we should. "Sometimes, in hurried recitation, this centre of gravity can be overlooked" (RVM, no. 33)

Another analogy might be taken from the language of love. Like a lover tenderly speaking the name of one's beloved, we should speak the name of Jesus in this prayer. With each Hail Mary, we should affectionately repeat the name of our Bridegroom -- "blessed is the fruit of thy womb . . . Jesus" -- so that the holy name of Jesus, spoken with tender love, truly becomes the heartbeat of every Hail Mary we pray.

So dear friends, do you realize that every time you recite the Hail Mary, you are repeating these words of Gabriel and Elizabeth? And in doing so, you enter into the ecstatic joy of "heaven and earth" over the mystery of Christ: heaven, represented by Gabriel, and earth, represented by Elizabeth. Both come together to praise God for becoming man in Jesus Christ, the child conceived in Mary's womb. And we join in that praise of God every time we pray the Hail Mary. Indeed, the Hail Mary is truly a Christ-centered prayer!

Glorifying the Trinity

(Sharing at the Novena to Our Mother of Perpetual Help on 23 October 2010)

Our sharing this week will be the first of two-parts on how praying the Rosary glorifies our worship of the Blessed Trinity  and our contemplation of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Why is this necessary?

Pope John Paul II, in his Apostolic Letter Novo Millennio Ineunte  at the turn of the millenium, said that “The most important reason for strongly encouraging the practice of the Rosary is that it represents a most effective means of fostering among the faithful that commitment to the contemplation of the Christian mystery as a genuine ‘training in holiness’.

What is needed is a Christian life distinguished above all in the art of prayer”.

It is more urgent than ever that our Christian communities should become “genuine schools of prayer”.

In the Apostolic letter Rosarium Virginis Mariae of Pope John Paul II, the Rosary, under guidance of the Spirit of God, is a prayer loved by countless Saints.

Simple yet profound, it still remains, after two millenia of the spiritual journey of Christian life, a prayer of great significance, destined to bring forth a harvest of holiness.

It has lost none of the freshness of its beginnings and feels drawn by the Spirit of God to “set out into the deep” (duc in altum!) in order once more to proclaim, and even cry out, before the world that Jesus Christ is Lord and Saviour, “the way, and the truth and the life” (Jn 14:6).

To recite the Rosary is nothing other than to contemplate with Mary the face of Christ.

Today we shall read into three of the Rosary prayers, the Apostles Creed, Our Father and Glory Be.

The Secret of the Rosary by St Louis de Montfort contains a beautiful explanation of the significance of the Rosary Prayers and is strongly recommended to improve our understanding of the importance of praying the Rosary.

The Creed or the Symbol of the Apostles is a holy summary of all Christian truths.

It is a prayer that has great merit because faith is the root, foundation and beginning of all Christian virtues, of all eternal virtues and also of all prayers that are pleasing to Almighty God.

"He that cometh to God, must believe...."

The first few words "I believe in God" are marvelously effective as a means of sanctifying our souls and of putting devils to rout, because these three words contain the acts of the three theological virtues of faith, hope and charity.

The holy Rosary contains the mysteries of Jesus.

Faith is the only key which opens up these mysteries for us.

We must begin the Rosary by saying the Creed very devoutly.

The stronger our faith the more merit our Rosary will have.

St Thomas Aquinas wrote in the Pange lingua in the 13th century that “Faith will tell us Christ is present when our human senses fail”, that is, “Faith alone suffices”.

To pray the rosary with strong and constant faith, good intention and charity, is to be in search of God’s grace.

After listening to the word and focusing on the mystery, it is natural for the mind to be lifted up towards the Father. In each of his mysteries, Jesus always leads us to the Father.

God the Father listens more willingly to the Prayer that we have learned from His Son rather than those of our own making which have all our human limitations.

The eternal father will hear it because it is the prayer of His Son whom He always hears and we are his members.

In John 1:18, Jesus rests in the Father's bosom and is continually turned towards him. Jesus wants us to share in his intimacy with the Father, so that we can say with him: “Abba, Father” (Rom 8:15; Gal 4:6). 

By virtue of His relationship to the Father, Jesus makes us brothers and sisters of Himself and of one another, communicating to us the Spirit of Love for God and our neighbour, and heaven our homeland and heritage, freeing us from attachment to the things of this world.

The Our Father makes meditation upon the mystery an ecclesial experience.

Christian contemplation points towards Trinitarian doxology.  Christ is the way that leads us to the Father in the Spirit. If we travel this way to the end, we encounter the mystery of the three Divine persons, to whom all praise, worship and thanksgiving are due. The Gloria, the high point of contemplation, should be given due prominence in the Rosary.

The glorification of the Trinity at the end of each decade, far from being a perfunctory conclusion, takes on its proper contemplative tone, raising the mind as it were to the heights of heaven and enabling us in some way to relive the experience of Tabor, a foretaste of the contemplation yet to come: “It is good for us to be here!” (Lk 9:33).

Next week our sharing at the Novena to our Mother of Perpetual Help will continue the theme of exploring the Rosary prayers through the contemplation of Mary.

Difficulties in Praying the Rosary

(Sharing at the Novena to Our Mother of Perpetual Help on 16 October 2010)

My dear friends,

Today’s sharing is on “The Difficulties in Praying the Rosary” and I would like to begin by sharing with you an experience. It is an experience that all of us go through each day in all seasons. It is called “DAWN”.

Many of us have seen the word ‘dawn’ in songs and movies but may not be aware that ‘dawn’, although often associated with ‘emergence of light after a period of darkness’ is not sunlight itself.

Dawn is the time that marks the beginning of twilight before sunrise.  It should not be confused with sunrise. It is the period of time in-between night and morning where it is the coldest and darkest. It is the time where we do not wish to wake up, especially those of us who have to work or go to school in the next few hours. It is the time where things seem lifeless as there is nothing much going around. It is the time where our surroundings look eerie. In short, dawn is the dragging moment before sunrise.

As dawn progresses, faint beams of sunlight began to emerge. Slowly, the sun rises from the horizon, illuminating our land and bringing light back to our world once more. As we wake up, activities began. Those of us who work, goes to work. Children who are schooling go to school. Those of us who are holy go to Church, singing praises to God for a new day! Indeed, the coldest, darkest part of the night has passed.

My dear friends,

Starting to pray the Rosary may be like “dawn” to some of us. We may feel distracted or discouraged as it may be perceived to be long and repetitive. After all, we are praying five decades of Hail Mary’s, which may seem ‘long’, not forgetting the Our Father, Glory Be and Apostles’ Creed.

Perhaps we may be lazy, just like during dawn when we are in slumberland, not wishing to wake up.

It may also be difficult in keeping focus on the Mysteries as very often our minds tend to wander and let distracting thoughts enter.

Or, perhaps we may be facing some of life’s challenges which may seem overwhelming.

In other words, the process of starting to pray the Rosary is like the coldest and darkest part before morning comes.

But, just like we endure the chill and lifelessness of dawn, we need to endure the ‘dawn’ in our minds which takes us away from meditating upon the Holy Mysteries of the Rosary. Some ways could be:

• Try not to let ourselves float and slide and be carried away by imagination.

• When tired and without much focus, "concentrate" on the peaceful repetition of the Hail Mary’s, entering its rhythm and imaging to be in the company of Mary.

• If we are in somewhat better disposition, let us try to focus on images of Jesus, Mary or scenes of their lives as in the Mysteries. Look at and contemplate what we see, while praying the different decades. It will lead us to a reflection on the deeper meaning of each one of the Mysteries.

• In a special manner, let us also try to develop a personal habit to pray the Rosary in company with Mother Mary.

A Redemptorist priest once shared that praying the Rosary is like making and putting a crown of roses on Mother Mary’s head; each bead representing one rose.

Just like the flow that comes after dawn, daybreak will emerge as sunlight appears slowly and surely. The Rosary brings hope just like daybreak, which heralds morning. Mother Mary has promised that whoever prays the Rosary shall receive special protection and the greatest graces. Indeed, Mother Mary is like morning after dawn and that is why she was bestowed with the title “Morning Star.”

Praying the Rosary and overcoming the ‘dawn’ that distracts us from praying are our best ways to reach Our Mother of Perpetual Help and seek her intercession to pray with us and for us.

The Rosary as a Prayer of Reparation

(Sharing at the Novena to Our Mother of Perpetual Help on 9 October 2010)

Dear brothers and sisters,

My sharing today on “The Rosary as a Prayer of Reparation” will focus on Our Lady’s messages given at her approved apparitions, with extracts and references from the Internet. Four of the apparitions featured the Rosary, amidst calls to unceasing prayer, penance and repentance.

(1) At Massabielle, near Lourdes in Southern France, Our Lady first appeared to St Bernadette Soubirous on 11^th Feb 1858 

(2) In Fatima, Portugal, to Francisco, Jacinta and Lucia in 1917

(3) In Akita, Japan, to Sr. Agnes Katsuko Sasagawa in 1973 and

(4) At Kibeho, Rwanda, to three high-school girls from late 1981 to 1983.

At Lourdes, Our Lady urgently called for penance. The rosary was prominently featured in the apparitions where St. Bernadette saw Our Lady took the rosary that she held in her hands and made the sign of the cross.

Similarly, the message of Fatima was also a call to conversion and repentance, echoing what our Saviour addressed to the whole of humanity in Mark 1:15.  (Rosary Center website: http://www.rosary-center.org/maryfatm.htm, downloaded 18 August 2010)  At Fatima, Our Lady specifically identified herself as “the Lady of the Rosary.”  Her message invites to repentance, gives a warning and calls to prayer, sacrifice and penance. She recommends the Rosary. She asked the children who saw her to say at least five decades of the Rosary and meditate on the mysteries every day, and to pray especially for peace, for poor sinners and for the Holy Father. We are to use our talents generously and make greater sacrifices for God’s greater glory and honour, especially if we have been given much by God, for Luke 12:48 says –“ From every one who has been given much, much will be required.” Our Lady of Fatima calls for  the penance of each person ‘fulfilling his or her daily duty well, obeying God’s laws, avoiding the near occasions of sin and acting in accordance with His will in all things.’ (The Fatima Network website: http://fatima.org/essentials/message/msgtoindivis.asp, downloaded 5 Oct 2009). The love and care of the Saviour’s Mother reaches out and extends to every individual of our time and to all societies, nations and peoples; societies menaced by apostasy, threatened by moral degradation. Collapse of morality brings about the collapse of societies e.g. the rising rate of divorces, adultery, promiscuity, abortions, murders and other crimes and offences. (Rosary Center website: http://www.rosary-center.org/maryfatm.htm, downloaded 18 August 2010) 

“The present state of the world attests to the fact that most individuals have chosen to ignore the requests of Our Lady of Fatima: wars rage the world over, the Church is in a state of crisis, apostasy is almost everywhere, millions of the innocent unborn are murdered every year.” (The Fatima Network website: http://fatima.org/essentials/message/msgtoindivis.asp, downloaded 5 Oct 2009)

At Akita, Japan, Our Lady told Sr. Agnes to pray in reparation for the sins of men and to pray very much for the Pope, Bishops, and Priests. Our Lady wished, with her Son our Lord Jesus Christ, that souls who by their suffering and their poverty will repair the afflictions and outrages against the Lord by sinners and ingrates. Prayer, penance and courageous sacrifices can soften the Father’s anger.  Prayer is necessary even in a secular institute. Each day the prayers of the Rosary very much need to be recited, for oneself and for the Pope, the bishops and priests. Mother Mary has asked us to trust in her powerful intercession. (Eternal World Television Network website: http://www.ewtn.com/library/mary/akita.htm, downloaded 5 October 2009)

In Kibeho, Rwanda, Our Lady lamented, “The world has become deaf and cannot hear the truth of the Word." She stressed on the Rosary of the Seven Sorrows as a means to obtain the grace for true repentance (Anderson, 29 Jan 2009). One of the seers, Marie Claire kept saying:  “One must meditate on the Passion of Jesus, and on the deep sorrows of His Mother. One must recite the Rosary every day, and also the Rosary of the Seven Sorrows of Mary, to obtain the favour of repentance.” (Tardif, 2001 as cited in the Michael website: http://www.michaeljournal.org/kibeho.htm, downloaded 9 Oct 2010)

On a final note, sin has thus set itself firmly in the world; denial of God has become widespread in the ideologies, ideas and plans of human beings. For this very reason, the evangelical call to repentance and conversion, uttered in the Mother’s messages remains ever relevant.  It is still as relevant as it was in 1858, 1917, 1973, or early 1980s. IT IS EVEN MORE URGENT. Our Blessed Mother, through her apparitions, has invited us to a conversion of heart through praying the Rosary. She has never failed those who turn to her maternal intercession. We all know the world is really in need of conversion and healing. Let us pray the Rosary, offering with it, all our sufferings, in union with Christ her Son, asking Him to accept our humble offering and make it part of His redemptive mission in our world".

The Rosary as an Intercessory Prayer

(Sharing at the Novena to Our Mother of Perpetual Help on 2 October 2010)

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ,

Next Thursday, 7 October, the Church celebrates the Memorial of Our Lady of the Rosary. It is the anniversary of the Christian’s victory in the Battle of Lepanto in 1571, two years after Pope St. Pius V officially approved the Rosary. The Church celebrates it not only to commemorate the victory, but also to thank God for His providence and remember the powerful intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary.

The Ottoman Turks were ravaging Eastern Europe then. If they succeeded in raiding the coast of Italy, they would gain control of the Mediterranean, and possibly invade Rome. As the Christian’s Holy League prepared for battle to stem this, Pope St. Pius V asked that the Rosary be recited publicly throughout Europe, for Our Lady’s intercession for victory. On the day of the battle, members of the Confraternity of the Rosary in Rome processed praying the Rosary (Feeney, downloaded 2 Oct 2009). Although outnumbered, the Christians won the battle miraculously in just a few hours.

While historians see it as a major battle of minor significance, the victory was a religious triumph to the Christians, and a psychological boost to the European world – the seemingly unbeatable Turks were beaten.

Closer to us, exactly 75 years after that, another celebration due to the intercession of Our Lady through the Rosary took place. It was the Feast of La Naval de Manila, first celebrated on 8 October 1646 in Manila. It marked the victory of the Spanish and Filipino Catholic forces against the invasion of the Dutch in 1646.

In the Battles of La Naval, the joint Filipino-Spanish forces had only two aged and ill-equipped Spanish warships to fight against the Dutch fleet that arrived in Manila. Remembering Lepanto, and as advised by the Dominican friars, the sailors prayed the Holy Rosary before each encounter with the Dutch between 15 March and 4 October. (Manila Bulletin, 2005, 2007, 2008, 2009) They recited it in alternating choruses on the bridges of the two ships (Faroni and Crisostomo, 2006). Finally, the Dutch fleet gave up and left the country (Manila Bulletin, 2005, 2007, 2008, 2009). In thanksgiving, the Spanish church leaders declared the first celebration of the feast in honour of Our Lady of the Rosary. Every year since then, on the second Sunday of October, there is a procession from Manila to Quezon City (Manila Bulletin, 2008). According to Fr. Marie-Dominic, as cited by Fr. Faroni and Crisostomo (2006), this victory was important because it saved Catholicism in Asia; had the Protestant Dutch won, Christendom might have been destroyed as in Sri Lanka when they conquered it in 1657.

Dear brothers and sisters, these are just two of many true and significant examples of how powerful the Rosary is. Fr. Faroni and Crisostomo wrote in “The Five Warnings” that even greater victories were won through the Rosary in the 20^th century, especially against the apostate forces of Freemasonry and Communism.

The intercessory nature of the Rosary is evident by the invocation to our Holy Mother to “pray for us, sinners, now and at the hour of our death”. St. James wrote in the Bible, “…the fervent prayer of a righteous man is very powerful.” What more the prayer of our Blessed Mother, who was sinless and Jesus’ most perfect disciple, and now living with God in heaven?

In the Apostolic Letter, Rosarium Virginis Mariae, Pope John Paul II wrote that in the Rosary, we pray to Christ with Mary. He wrote, “If Jesus, the one Mediator, is the Way of our prayer, then Mary, his purest and most transparent reflection, shows us the Way.” The Catechism of the Catholic Church (#2679) says, “The prayer of the Church is sustained by the prayer of Mary”. As at the wedding of Cana, Mary makes our needs known to Jesus. Thus Mary, sanctuary of the Holy Spirit, fulfils her role as the Queen Mother of the Church, who prays with us and for us before the Father and the Son. (Pope JPII, 2002) And we know, that never was it known, that anyone who sought her intercession was left unaided.

Pope JPII further wrote, “To pray the Rosary is to hand over our burdens to the merciful hearts of Christ and his Mother”, for the psalmist says (Ps. 55:23), “Cast your burden on the Lord and he will sustain you”.

Do we not hear of despair nowadays? Can our problems be too difficult for God? Accompanied by our Blessed Mother, we dare to go before Him and plead unceasingly. Praying the Rosary is the best way to do so.

References:

Catechism of the Catholic Church

Faroni & Crisostomo. 2006. The Five Warnings.

Feeney, R. n.d. St. Dominic & The Rosary. Downloaded on 2 October 2009 from the Catholic-pages.com website: http://www.catholic-pages.com/prayers/rosary_dominic.asp

John Paul II. 2002. Apostolic Letter: Rosarium Virginis Mariae.

Manila Bulletin (via Highbeam Research)