“Blessed are you, 0 Mary, because you trusted that the Lord’s

words to you would be fulfilled.” (Lk 1:45)

The Hail Mary, a favorite Catholic prayer, is a good prayer for today because it nourishes something we need now– hope

It’s found in its earliest form in medieval times. Christians approached Mary, the mother of Jesus, with only the Angel Gabriel’s greeting to her at Nazareth, from St. Luke’s gospel:

Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with you.

Over time, the greeting of her cousin Elizabeth, also in St. Luke’s gospel, was added:

Blessed are you among women and blessed is the fruit of your womb. (Luke 1:28-42)

Finally, in the 15th century, the remainder of the prayer appears:

Holy Mary, Mother of God,

pray for us sinners,

now, and at the hour of our death. Amen.

God’s favor rests on you, Mary, the angel said. God’s favor promised her a part in a great mystery and Mary trusted God’s word to her would be fulfilled. She brought God’s Son into the world and witnessed his life, death and resurrection. She kept the joys, sorrows and glories of those mysteries in her heart. She makes them known to us now. 

Mother of Jesus, Mother of God, she is our mother too. We share her with the disciple who received her as mother on Calvary when Jesus said: “Behold, your mother.” (John 19: 25-27) She who brought the needs of a newly married couple at Cana in Galilee to Jesus then, brings our cares to him now.

Our cares small and great. “They have no wine,” she told Jesus at Cana in Galilee, and a young couple was quietly saved from embarrassment. (John 2:1-12)  “How can this be?”, she asked the angel who invited her to be the mother of Jesus. Only slowly were the great mysteries of God, the Father and Creator, revealed to her. Now, she helps us know these mysteries and to trust in the promises they bring.

The Rosary, a prayer going back to the 16th century, is a “School of Mary”. It begins with the Apostles’ Creed: “I believe in God, the Father Almighty, Creator of heaven and earth.” Each decade of the Rosary starts with the Our Father, a prayer Jesus taught his disciples. As the decades are prayed, the mysteries of Jesus life, death and resurrection are recalled. A good  prayer for our time.

“How can this be?” was Mary’s question to the angel. It was not a question answered quickly, for she was only told so much. She was to believe in God, Creator of heaven and earth, and the overshadowing Spirit. “Be it done to me according to your word,” was her answer.

Then, “the angel left her”, with no timetable, no detailed plan, no glimpse into what was to come. So much of the future was unknown to her. She was called to believe in God, Creator of all that’s good and the Spirit always at work. She trusted that the Lord’s words to her would be fulfilled.

We’re facing an unknown future today, in this worldwide pandemic, aren’t we? What will life be? What’s the world going to be ? 

Our situation now, full of questions and with few answers, may not be far from hers then. Mary teaches us to believe and to trust.  “Pray for us, O Holy Mother of God, that we may be made worthy of the promises of Christ.”

Today, the Passionists celebrate the Feast of Mary, Mother of Holy Hope.

Father, Creator of heaven and earth,

may we who honor the Mother of our hope 

come to share with her

the blessings that are our hope.

Through Christ our Lord.