Hail Mary
Excerpts taken from St. Louis de Montfort’s book,
The Secret of the Rosary.
The Angelic Salutation, or Hail Mary, is so heavenly and so
beyond us in its depth of meaning, that Blessed Alan de la Roche held that no
mere creature could ever understand it, and that only our Lord Jesus Christ,
born of the Virgin Mary, can really explain it.
Its enormous value is due, first of all, to our Lady to whom it was
addressed, to the purpose of the Incarnation of the word, for which reason this
prayer was brought from heaven, and also to the archangel Gabriel who was the
first ever to say it.
The Angelic
Salutation is a most concise summary of all that Catholic theology teaches
about the Blessed Virgin. It is divided
into two parts, that of praise and that of petition. The first shows all that goes to make up Mary’s
greatness; and the second, all that we need to ask her for, and all that we may
expect to receive through her goodness.
The most Blessed Trinity revealed the first part of it to us; St.
Elizabeth, inspired by the Holy Ghost, and the second; and the Church gave us
the conclusion in the years 430 when she condemned the Nestorian heresy at the
Council of Ephesus and defined that the Blessed Virgin is truly the Mother of
God.
At this time she (Holy Mother Church) ordered us to pray
to our Lady under this glorious title by saying, “Holy Mary, Mother of God,
pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death.”
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| The Annunciation by Nicolas Poussin |
The greatest event in the whole history of the world was the
Incarnation of the eternal Word by whom the world was redeemed and peace was
restored between God and men. Our Lady
was chosen as his instrument for this tremendous event and it was put into
effect when she was greeted with the Angelic Salutation. The archangel Gabriel, one of the leading
princes of the heavenly court, was chosen as ambassador to bear these glad
tidings.
In the Angelic Salutation can
be seen the faith and hope of the patriarchs, the prophets and the
apostles. Furthermore, it gives to
martyrs their unswerving constancy and strength, it is the wisdom of the
doctors of the Church, the perseverance of the holy confessors and the life of
all religious (Blessed Alan).
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| Blessed Alan de la Roche with Mary and Christ child |
It is the
new hymn of the law of grace, the joy of angels and men, and the hymn which
terrifies devils and puts them to shame.
By the Angelic Salutation God became man, a virgin became the Mother of
God, the souls of the just were delivered from Limbo, the empty thrones in
heaven have been filled, sin has been pardoned, grace been given to us, the
sick been made well, the dead brought back to life, exiles brought home, the
Blessed Trinity has been appeased, and men obtained eternal life. Finally, the Angelic Salutation is the
rainbow in the sky, a sign of the mercy and grace which God has given to the
world (Blessed Alan).
Even though there is nothing so great as the majesty of God
and nothing so low as man in so far as he is a sinner, Almighty God does not
despise our poor prayers. On the
contrary, he is pleased when we sing his praises. And the Angel’s greeting to our Lady is one
of the most beautiful hymns which we could possible sing to the glory of the
Most High. “To you will I sing a new
song.” This new hymn, which David foretold
would be sung at the coming of the Messiah, is none other than the Angelic Salutation.
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| The Holy Trinity |
There is an old hymn and a new hymn: the
first is that which the Jews sang out of gratitude to God for creating them and
maintaining them in existence, for delivering them from captivity and leading
them safely through the Red Sea, for giving them manna to eat, and for all his
other blessings. The new hymn is that
which Christians sing in thanksgiving for the graces of the Incarnation and the
Redemption. As these marvels were
brought about by the Angelic Salutation, so also do we repeat the same
salutation to thank the most Blessed Trinity for the immeasurable goodness shown
to us.
We praise God the Father because
he so loved the world that he gave us his only Son as our Saviour. We bless the Son because he deigned to leave heaven and come down upon earth, because he was made man and redeemed us. We glorify the Holy Ghost because he formed
our Lord’s pure body in the womb of our Lady, that body which was the victim
for our sins. In this spirit of deep
thankfulness should we, then, always say the Hail Mary, making acts of faith,
hope, love and thanksgiving for the priceless gift of salvation.
Although this new hymn is in praise of the Mother of God and
is sung directly to her, it is nevertheless most glorious to the Blessed
Trinity, for any honour we pay to our Lady returns inevitably to God, the
source of all her perfections and virtues.
God the Father is glorified when we honour the most perfect of his
creatures; God the Son is glorified when we praise his most pure Mother; the Holy
Ghost is glorified when we are lost in admiration at the graces with which he
has filled his spouse. When we praise and
bless our Lady by saying the Angelic Salutation, she always refers these
praises to God in the same way as she did when she was praised by St.
Elizabeth. The latter blessed her in her
high dignity as Mother of God and our Lady immediately returned these praises
to God in her beautiful Magnificat.
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| St. Mechtilde |
Just as the Angelic Salutation gave glory to the Blessed
Trinity, it is also the very highest praise that we can give to Mary. One day, when St. Mechtilde was praying and
was trying to think of some way in which she could express her love of the
Blessed Virgin better than before, she fell into ecstasy.
Our Lady appeared to her with the Angelic
Salutation written in letters of gold upon her breast and said to her, “My
daughter, I want you to know that no one can please me more than by saying the
greeting which the most adorable Trinity presented to me and by which I was
raised to the dignity of the Mother of God.
“By the word Ave, which is the name of Eve, Eva, I learned that God in
his infinite power had preserved me from all sin and its attendant misery which
the first woman had been subject to.
“The
name Mary, which means ‘lady of light’ shows that God has filled me with wisdom
and light, like a shining star, to light up heaven and earth.
“The words, full of grace, remind me that the
Holy Ghost has showered so many graces upon me that I am able to give these
graces in abundance to those who ask for them through my mediation.
“When people say, The Lord is with thee, they
renew the indescribable joy that was mine when the eternal Word became
incarnate in my womb.
“When you say to
me, Blessed art thou among women, I praise the mercy of God who has raised me
to this exalted degree of happiness.”
“And
at the words, Blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus, the whole of heaven
rejoices with me to see my Son Jesus adored and glorified for having saved
mankind.”
Blessed Alan de la Roche, who was so deeply devoted to the
Blessed Virgin, had many revelations from her, and we know that he confirmed
the truth of these revelations by a solemn oath. Three of them stand out with special
emphasis: the first, that if people fail to say the Hail Mary, which has saved
the world, out of carelessness, or because they are lukewarm, or because they
hate it, this is an indication that they will probably be condemned to eternal
punishment. The second truth is that
those who love this divine salutation bear the very special stamp of
predestination. The third is that those
to whom God has given this favour of loving our Lady and of serving her out of
love must take very great care to continue to love and serve her until the time
when she shall have had them placed in heaven by her Son in the degree of glory
which they have earned. (Blessed Alan)
This is but a glimpse of the wisdom and insight taught by St. Louis de Montfort. To read more obtain the book called The Secret of the Rosary.
http://catholicfaithwarriors.blogspot.ca/2014/09/the-hail-mary-and-st-louis-de-monfort.html
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