I love to call into a little Lourdes Grotto outside a Chapel near my home. I only stop to say a simple, 'Hail Mary', just one but to take my time over it and to really think and feel what I am saying. Not just to rush through it. To Savour it like a good cigar or wine , as Mary taught me. I was thinking about the initial greeting, 'Hail Mary'. What word could we substitute for the word, 'Hail'? Well we could say, 'Hi Mary', 'Hello Mary' r even, 'What's happening Mary'. But nothing just nothing seems to fit so well as that simple word, 'Hail' derived from the Ancient Latin greeting, , 'Salve' A word of deep respect and solemnity, it sets the moment. Pere Lamy said that when the angels greet the Mother of God they use the simple word , 'Queen' in tones of deepest respect. In the , 'Mystical City of God' the word Mary is carried on a banner in letters of Gold to show profound veneration. Miriam, 'Exalted one'. When we say , 'Hail' we know at once we have entered the Palace of a Great Queen.
I’ve heard that Our Lady once told a mystic that whenever someone recites the Hail Mary, She is reminded of the time that She first felt Her Divine Son move in Her womb and thus, She wants us to consider that more and share in those intimate feelings of Her. I definitely want to work on saying the Hail Mary more reverently.
I also heard that at Medugorje one of the visionaries asked Our Lady what her favourite prayer to her was. After a pause she said, 'Oh Mary conceived without sin, pray for us who have recourse to you !' I think this is because the Immaculate Conception if the beginning and the end of Mary; it is all that she is. Which explains how she could say in Lourdes, 'I am the Immaculate Conception'.
Just as the first knock on the door is the, 'Hail', the seocnd knock on the door is the Holy Name, 'Mary' and I think at once of the Words of Scripture regarding her Son, Jesus: Philippians 2:10 9Therefore God exalted Him to the highest place and gave Him the name above all names, 10that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, 11and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.… Exorcists tell us that as soon as Mary, the Mother of God shows up the demons at once flee screamimg without a struggle. A single glance of Mary causes them at once to scream and leave. When we say the Holy Name , 'Mary', we are at once at the Feet of Mary our Mother and she gives us all her attention and love... ..but do we really believe this?..and if we did truly deep beleive this how our attiudes would change. Imagine for a moment that we could see her and hear her, what a difference we think that would make! But hhse really is there in our presence we just have to have the Faith to truly believe and see. Did you ever notice at apparition site (for instance at the Rue Du Bac with St Catherine Laboure) the visionary cannot see. The Faith eyes are not adjusted to the Celestial Vision. Dear God grant us the Faith, that at the holy Name of Mary, that we may truly see. Romans 5:2 1Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, 2through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we stand. And we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. 3Not only that, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance;…
https://thepathlesstaken7.blogspot.com/2021/03/when-our-lord-and-lady-revealed-some.html ON THIS FEAST OF THE ANNUNCIATION, HOW YOU MAY RECEIVE THE PERFUMED PEARLS OF PRAYER The glorious Feast of the Annunciation falls on March 25th, when we celebrate the occasion the Archangel Gabriel appearing to the Virgin Mary and announcing that she was with Child. This Feast occurs a full nine months before Christmas to signify the start of Mary's pregnancy. Over 700 years ago, on the Feast of the Annunciation St Gertrude the Great was given extraordinary revelations as to the gifts Our Lady bestows on those who honor and pray to her. This was sometime during the life of St Gertrude, she lived to be 46, from 1256 to 1302. On the Vigil of the Annunciation St Gertrude strode into the chapel in her convent, her long black habit sweeping the floor. She saw an awesome sight: Our Lord and His Blessed Mother were sitting in the place of Mother Superior. When Gertrude and her sisters started praying in honor of the Annunciation, she saw Our Lord incline ever more closer and lovingly towards His Mother and He "saluted her with such goodness and condescension as to renew in her that sweet and inestimable joy which she had felt when His Divinity took flesh in her womb."
'Full of Grace'. 'Our poor Nature's Solitary Boast' Dante Alligheri. Our Lady never put a single solitary foot wrong. Not one , not once. I am so glad that this was so. In this she is such a huge Sign of Hope. Even the Holy Angels kneel bore her in awe, ever the Seven Spirits, the highest angels kneel before her . Spes Nostra Salve. Our Hope, Our Bright Beacon, Star of the Sea. Reminder of what is possible. I was reading Blessed Catherine Emmerich's , Life of Mary', yet again the other day and a wonderful account of he journey to the Temple as a little child. It mentioned the two sides of Mary. The serious wise side of a little girl who stunned the priests with her Wisdom. On the other hand she was a laughing , smiling, playing , normal child. I so love this.
