Excerpts from The Catechism of The Catholic Church and The Catechetical Instructions of St. Thomas Aquinas
In prayer, the Holy Spirit unites us to the person of the only Son, in His glorified humanity, through which and in which our filial prayer unites us in the Church with the Mother of Jesus.
Mary gave her consent in faith at the Annunciation and maintained it without hesitation at the foot of the Cross. Ever since, her motherhood has extended to the brothers and sisters of her Son "who still journey on earth surrounded by dangers and difficulties." Jesus, the only mediator, is the way of our prayer; Mary, His mother and ours (Ref. John 19:25-27), is wholly transparent to Him: she "shows the way" (hodigitria), and is herself "the Sign" of the way, according to the traditional iconography of East and West.
Beginning with Mary's unique co-operation with the working of the Holy Spirit, the Churches developed their prayer to the holy Mother of God, centring it on the person of Christ manifested in His mysteries. In countless hymns and antiphons expressing this prayer, two movements usually alternate with one another: the first "magnifies" the Lord for the "great things" He did for His lowly servant and through her for all human beings; the second entrusts the supplications and praises of the children of God to the Mother of Jesus, because she now knows the humanity which, in her, the Son of God espoused.
Hail, Mary.
Full of grace, the Lord is with thee.
Blessed art thou among 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.
Hail, Mary (Rejoice, Mary)
The greeting of the Angel Gabriel opens this prayer. It is God Himself who, through His Angel as intermediary, greets Mary. It must be considered that in ancient times, it was no small event when Angels appeared to men; and that man should show them reverence was especially praiseworthy. This is because Angels are greater than men in three ways:
- They are greater than men in dignity for they are of a spiritual nature while men are of a corruptible nature. Therefore, it was not fitting that a spiritual and incorruptible creature should show reverence to one that is corruptible as is a man.
- They are closer to God and, indeed, are of the family of God. Man, on the other hand, is rather a stranger and afar off from God because of sin. Therefore, it is fitting that man should reverence an Angel who is an initimate and one of the household of the King.
- They far exceed men in the fullness of the splendor of divine grace. Hence, the Angels always appear among men clothed in light, but men on the contrary, although they partake somewhat of the light of grace, nevertheless do so in a much slighter degree and with a certain obscurity. It was therefore not fitting that an Angel should show reverence to a man until it should come to pass that one would be found in human nature who exceeded the Angels in the points mentioned, in which we have seen that they excel over men - and this was the Blessed Virgin.
It is written to the praise of Abraham that he received the Angels with all courtesy and showed them reverence. But that an Angel should show reverence to a man was never heard of until the Angel reverently greeted the Blessed Virgin saying: "Hail."
Full of Grace, the Lord is with thee
These two phrases of the Angel's greeting shed light on one another. Mary is full of grace because the Lord is with her. The grace with which she is filled is the presence of Him who is the source of all grace. "Rejoice... O Daughter of Jerusalem... The Lord your God is in your midst." Mary, in whom the Lord Himself has just made His dwelling, is the daugther of Zion in person, the ark of the covenant, the place where the glory of the Lord dwells. She is "the dwelling of God... with men." Full of grace, Mary is wholly given over to Him who has come to dwell in her and whom she is about to give to the world.
Mary is said to be full of grace in three ways:
- As regards her soul, she was full of grace. The grace of God is given for two chief purposes, namely, to do good and to avoid evil. Hence, Mary received grace in the most perfect degree, because she had avoided every sin more than any other Saint after Christ. To her was granted grace to overcome every kind of sin by Him whom she merited to conceive and bring forth, and He certainly was wholly without sin.
- In Mary is the fullness of the virtue of humility: "Behold the handmaid of the Lord." And again: "He hath regarded the humility of His handmaid." She is also exemplar of the virtue of chastity: "Because I know not man." Thus, it is with all the virtues, as is evident, Mary was full of grace not only in the performance of all good, but also in the avoidance of all evil. Again, Mary was full of grace in the overflowing effect of this grace upon her flesh and body.
- The plenitude of grace in Mary was such that its effects overflow upon all men. In every work of virtue, one can have her as one's helper. Of her it was spoken: "In me is all grace of the way and of the truth, in me is all hope of life and of virtue." Therefore, Mary is full of grace, exceeding the Angels in this fullness and very fittingly is she called "Mary" which means "in herself enlightened." And she will illuminate others throughout the world, for which reason she is compared to the sun and to the moon.
Mary excels the Angels in her closeness to God. The Angel Gabriel indicated this when he said: "The Lord is with thee" - as if to say: "I reverence thee because thou art nearer to God than I, because the Lord is with thee." By the Lord, he means that the Father with the Son and the Holy Spirit, who in like manner are not with any Angel or any other spirit: "The Holy which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God." The Lord is not with the Angel in the manner as with Mary; for with her He is a Son, and with the Angel He is the Lord. Hence, Mary is closer to God than is an Angel, because with her are the Lord the Father, the Lord the Son, and the Lord the Holy Spirit - in a word, the Holy Trinity.
Blessed art thou among women and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus
After the Angel's greeting, we make Elizabeth's greeting our own. "Filled with the Holy Spirit," Elizabeth is the first in the long successions of generations who have called Mary "blessed." "Blessed is she who believed..." Mary is "blessed among women" because she believed in the fulfilment of the Lord's word. Abraham, because of his faith, became a blessing for all the nations of the earth. Mary, because of her faith, became the mother of believers, through whom all nations of the earth receive Him who is God's own blessing: Jesus, the "fruit of thy womb."
Mary exceeds the Angels in purity. She is not only pure, but she obtains purity for others. She is purity itself, wholly lacking in every guilt of sin, for she never incurred either mortal or venial sin. So, too, she was free from the penalties of sin.
Mary, who conceived without corruption, bore her Child in comfort, and brought Him forth in joy: "It shall bud forth and blossom, and shall rejoice with joy and praise." She was also immune from the penalty inflicted upon man in that he shall earn his bread by the sweat of his brow as the Apostle says, virgins are free from the cares of this world and are occupied wholly with the things of the Lord. Mary was spared from the penalty that is common to both man and woman in that both shall one day return to dust for her body was raised up into heaven, and so we believe that after her death she was revived and transported into heaven: "Arise, O Lord, into Thy resting place, Thou and the ark which Thou hast sanctified."
Because Mary was immune from these punishments, she is "blessed among women." Moreover, she alone escaped the curse of sin, brought forth the Source of blessing, and opened the gate of heaven.
Mary, and all Christians found in the Fruit of her womb Him whereby we are all united to God and are made like to Him: "When He shall appear, we shall be like Him, because we shall see Him as He is." The fruit which Eve desired was beautiful to look upon, but the Fruit of the Blessed Virgin is far more beautiful, for the Angels desire to look upon Him. He is the splendor of the glory of the Father.
We must seek in the Fruit of the womb of the Virgin Mary whatsoever we desire. This is He who is the Fruit blessed by God, who has filled Him with every grace, which in turn is poured out upon us who adore Him: "Blessed be God and the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with spiritual blessings in Christ."
Holy Mary, Mother of God
With Elizabeth we marvel, "And why is this granted me, that the mother of my Lord should come to me?" Because she gives me Jesus, her Son, Mary is Mother of God and our mother; we can entrust all our cares and petitions to her: 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."
Pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death
By asking Mary to pray for us, we acknowledge ourselves to be poor sinners and we address ourselves to the "Mother of Mercy," the All-Holy One. We give ourselves over to her now, in the Today of our lives. And our trust broadens further, already at the present moment, to surrender "the hour of our death" wholly to her care. May she be there as she was at her Son's death on the cross. May she welcomes us as our mother at the hour of passing to lead us to her Son, Jesus, in the paradise.
