THE  HAIL  MARY! 

SAVOR  IT!  SAY  IT  SLOWLY! 

INTRODUCTION

The title of my homily for December 21st in Advent is, “The Hail Mary! Savor it! Say it Slowly!”

I have a complaint - but I don’t want to make this a complaining homily.

The complaint is the rushing of prayers: like the Hail Mary.

Instead of complaining, I want to suggest a few things about saying the ancient prayer: the Hail Mary.

This is a very easy homily - because we all know and say the Hail Mary all the time.

So a homily entitled, “The Hail Mary! Savor it. Say it Slowly.”

BREAK IT DOWN

Let’s begin with “Hail.”

It’s a greeting - a message - a connection - we say 100 times a day. It’s simply, “Hi!” or “Hello.”

In German, it’s “Heil!” We’ve heard that before.

So “Hi Mary!” I’ve never heard anyone who tried to modernize the Hail Mary to “Hi Mary!” - but “Hi” or “Hey” or “Hello” is what we’re saying. It’s the call to connect - to greet. It’s the beginning of communion and connection - be it long or short.

Next comes the other’s name. Who are the names of the persons in our communion - connection. Mom, dad, brothers, sisters, neighbors, friends.

Name tags are an attempt to help communication.

I read somewhere that the number one word people who are in love say is the name of the person they love. They are saying it inwardly all the time.

I’ve been with many high school groups - and I've noticed that girls write the name of the kid they like, love, are after - 100 times on their note pads or loose leaf fillers. Men sometimes do the tattoo.

Full of grace comes next.  We’ve heard people say, “You’re full of baloney", etc. etc. etc. Mary is filled with grace, which means for starters: gifts - the gifts we need, especially, faith, hope and charity.

We’ve all heard someone begin talking to us - buttering us up - and we wonder what they want - what they want to eat up in us - probably our time.

Does Mary say back to us, “Okay what do you want?”

And in the Hail Mary we express what we want. Help - for us sinners - for our family - for health - for patience - for strength.

We add, “the Lord is with you!”  Translation: Mary, you can do it. You can help. You have the Lord on your side.

All those who think we think Mary is God - tell them we don’t. But we do think “The Lord is with her.”

And because of the Lord we think she is blessed among all women - because  blessed is the fruit of her womb, Jesus.

I noticed on the Democratic debate on Saturday night each candidate was asked about roles their spouse might take on if elected president. Fun was made of Bill Clinton if Hillary wins. Martin O’Malley our former governor - made a double blessing - that his wife, Katie, doesn’t need me to be delegated any duties - and besides that she gets her skills and gifts from her mother. One commentator said, “Smart move, praising not only his wife, but also his mother-in-law.”

So praise is key to the Hail Mary - not just prayers of petition.

We know the first part of the Hail Mary contains 2 scripture texts from here in the Gospel of Luke. We heard one here in today’s gospel.

We also know that by at least the 13^th Century the Hail Mary was being used in the Western Church and had added two words, “Mary” and “Jesus” to make the prayer clearer. We see that in various writings. St. Thomas Aquinas is often mentioned for saying this.

We also know Part Two, the "Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners now and at the hour of our death" - is first found in print by 1495 in Girolamo Savonarola’s “Esposizione sopra l’Ave Maria.”

We know that the Dutch Jesuit Saint, Peter Canisius - whose feast is today - has that second part of the Hail Mary in his 1555 catechism.

Scholars next say that it made its way into the Catechism of the Council of Trent 11 years late. Here’s the sentence in that Catechism. "we render to God the highest praise and return Him most gracious thanks, because He has bestowed all His heavenly gifts on the most holy Virgin ... the Church of God has wisely added prayers and an invocation addressed to the most holy Mother of God ... we should earnestly implore her help and assistance; for that she possesses exalted merits with God, and that she is most desirous to assist us by her prayers, no one can doubt without impiety and wickedness.”

CONCLUSION

So when saying the Hail Mary, say it slowly. Savor it. It has a long history.

Say it to Mary - not at Mary.

Didn’t Jesus - the fruit of her womb - say something like that - not babbling our prayers, but praying our prayers.

Let’s close with a Hail Mary.