The rest of the prayer was added by the Church much later.Īll in all, the prayer comes from a mixture of Scripture, Catholic tradition and the experience of the saints. ‘Blessed art thou among women and blessed is the fruit of thy womb!’Īdded together, these two phrases make up the first half of the Hail Mary prayer. Later in the chapter, St Elizabeth adds some extra words to Mary: ‘Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee!’ In Luke’s gospel, chapter 1, the Archangel visits Mary and says to her: The Hail Mary prayer was originally invented by the Archangel St Gabriel. The Hail Mary is simply one of them, though it is the most popular and the most important. Many Catholics appeal to her, and often with the Hail Mary. There is nothing wrong with this.Īs Queen of saints, and Mother of God, Mary in a special way has the ear of her Son and our Saviour. Praying to saints is asking for their help, like we do with other Christians. If we were to offer this to Mary, it would be terrible idolatry and sin.īut this does not mean we cannot pray to saints. We do believe that we can only offer the Holy Sacrifice of the Eucharist (the body and blood of Jesus) to God. We don’t believe that we must only pray to God.
A Prayer to MaryĪs can be seen, the Hail Mary is a prayer to Mary.įirst of all, we need to address the very common question: Why do Catholics pray to Mary?Ĭatholics pray to Mary because we don’t believe it is sinful to do so. The English one above is one such authorised translation.
Many translations have been made of this prayer, but they require approval by Bishops in order for Catholics to use them.
As a dead language, it helps to preserve accurately the very words of the prayer. Latin is still the official language of the Roman Catholic Church. Some Catholics pray the Hail Mary in Latin, because this is how the prayer has been transmitted down through the ages. The Words of the Prayerįor those who aren’t familiar with the Hail Mary, here it is.Īnd blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus. In this article we will explore some of the significance of this prayer in the Church. It is second in importance only to the Our Father (the Lord’s prayer). The Catholic Hail Mary prayer is one of the most sacred prayers in the Catholic Church.
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