Topic: What is the Rosary and why do we Hail Mary?

Source of this posting: moderator response

Date originally posted: September 19, 2003

Moderator who originally posted this source:  Kathy Martyn

Question:  My Fiancee is a protestant as of now. But when we do marry, she is planning on after, becoming a Catholic. For it is in her belief that the family should not be seperated, and she has been to mass with me and really loves it. So I am teaching her about our faith as time goes by. but there are Questions she asks that i know not the answer too a full extent. She recently asked me a lot about the Rosary. Specifically the Hail Mary's. I know we do not worship Mary, and i've expressed that to her, but i would like a more exact answer. The question is basically -What is the Rosary- and sub-question -Why is it a Hail Mary? Since Hail can denote a form of praise, which is for God alone?- Thank you.

Answer:

Thanks for your question. As for the explanation about why we pray to Mary I will refer you to our FAQ library from Fr. PHillip Leach(February 2002) - "To be a Christian means, among other things, accepting Jesus into your life. Mary literally accepted Jesus into her life for when she said "Yes!" to the archangel's invitation and the Holy Spirit overshadowed her, Jesus made His home in her womb. So, for Catholics Mary is the First Christian, the first human being to accept Jesus Christ into her life.

As the First Christian, she is, so the speak, the Prototype of what being a Christian means. In that role, we Catholics feel that Mary has something like a "first among equals" role as exemplar for us.

So, we Catholics feel very comfortable going to her in prayer for guidance and help since she walked this road of living the Christian life before anybody else. When we pray to her, we are, in a sense, asking for her wisdom and insight about how to live our Christian lives more perfectly; since she's already done it, we look to her for example, direction and guidance.

Another way that we Catholics think of our practice of praying to Mary is the following. We are perfectly comfortable as Christians asking other Christians for prayer support when we are confronted by special needs, crises, or stressful circumstances. Calling up a Christian friend and saying, "Please pray for me, I'm going through a really tough time" makes complete sense to us.

Christians also believe that death is not the end of life. Death is a 'door' through which we pass, as we move from one room in our Father's Mansion, the room of this life, to another room in the Lord's House, which is the room of eternal life. The dead in Christ are surely alive!

Mary, as the First Christian, is, then, alive in Christ -- sharing the glory of heaven with her Son and all those to whom God has given eternal life.

So, when we Catholics pray to Mary, we are simply saying that since she is alive in Christ in the glory of heaven, we can go to her, asking for her prayerful support -- in much the same way that we would ask a Christian in our Church community to support us with his or her prayers.

The fact that Mary is alive in life-beyond-death in no way minimizes her ability to pray. In fact, we Catholics would say that since Mary is with her Son, her prayers have a special kind of efficacy and power.

Another way that Catholics talk about praying to Mary builds on the idea of a special bond between a parent and a child, and particularly on the bond between a Mother and her Son. In many human relationships, a mother has a special role in the life of her children. Mary, being such a magnificent mother, and Jesus, being the Perfect Son, surely had a marvelous and ultimately close relationship. When we Catholics pray to Mary, we are simply assuming that the closeness between this Mother and her divine Son continues in life-beyond-death, and we are asking this special and wonderful Mother to speak to her beloved and divine Son on our behalf.

A last word about the way Catholics see our prayer to Mary: When we pray to Mary, we Catholics are, essentially, saying, "Blessed Mary, you are living in the very Presence of God, would you please take my request, my prayer, and put it before God Who chose you to be the Mother of His Son?" We are acknowledging that, as the Bible says, all generations call her "blessed" precisely because God offered her a unique role as the Mother of Jesus and because she accepted God's invitation. That intimacy which Mary had with God continues in the glory of heaven. When we Catholics pray to her, we are simply saying, "Please ask God to hear our prayers now...and at the hour of our death!"

Does a Catholic HAVE to pray to Mary? No, we don't HAVE to pray to Mary. But, praying to Mary is one of the greatest gifts the Catholic Church has to offer us -- so why in the world wouldn't we accept this magnificent gift?!? While we don't have to pray to Mary, most Catholics WANT to pray to her because she is special to God, special to God's Son, and she, therefore, very special to us! We never 'worship' Mary -- "worship" is what we give to God alone. But we do have a very deep love and a very high regard for this blessed woman!

I will also refer you to our FAQ library regarding the rosary. From Becky Egan (2002) - Although the rosary as we know it today (both in terms of the structure of its prayers and the length of the string of beads) has developed over the centuries, its origins date back to the late twelfth century and the person of St. Dominic. During that time, the Catholic Church was forced to contend with the existence of the Albigensian heresy (a dualistic belief in the presence of two gods – one that created all good and another that created all evil; Albigensians believed that all earthly things were evil). Troubled by this heresy, St. Dominic prayed to Mary, the Mother of Our Lord, for guidance. Tradition holds that St. Dominic had a vision of Mary who told him to pray the psalms and preach the mysteries of our salvation in order to combat the heresy.

As it stands today, the rosary consists of fifteen groups of ten decades of the Hail Mary. Thus if you were to pray the entire rosary, you would recite the Hail Mary 150 times. It is believed that this number is directly linked to the total number of psalms, which have always been an integral part of the prayer lives of most religious orders (and St. Dominic was the founder of a religious order – the Dominicans). The 150 Hail Mary’s have been divided into three groups of fifty, each group being recited while meditating on either the “Joyful,” “Sorrowful,” or “Glorious” mysteries (significant events in Jesus’ life, death, and Resurrection that are especially linked to Mary). The connections between the rosary and the Bible go even beyond the 150 psalms and the mysteries. The Hail Mary and the Our Father, both essential prayers that are recited as part of the rosary, have their origins in the Scriptures (Mt 6:9-13; Lk 1:28; Lk 1:42).

According to Webster, hail is a greeting or an acclamation. Hail to the Queen. Hail to the Chief. In my opinion, the word "hail" does not denote worship.

Hope this helps. Thank you for your question.