Prayer 4 U: The Hail Mary

We've been talking about prayers and the Bible and how we use them.  This next prayer is also important.  As a Catholic, we pray to Mary, Jesus' mom, to help us grow closer to her Son, Jesus.  Don't you think as His mom, Jesus listens to Mary?  MM and MC know our children don't always listen to us (that's why MC's dog is wearing underwear right now) but we know Jesus listens to us and His mom.

Lots of people misunderstand this and think Catholics worship Mary.  We don't worship Mary. No, No Way, Nada, Zilch, Crazy Thinking.  We hold Mary up because she is the queen of saints and as someone who is close to God.  We also think of her as our mother up in heaven!!

There is a prayer called the Hail Mary.  You may have heard of the "Hail Mary pass" in football but Catholics used the Hail Mary first.  It goes like this:

Hail Mary, full of grace.
Our Lord is with thee.
Blessed art thou among women,
and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus.
Holy Mary, Mother of God,
pray for us sinners,
now and at the hour of our death.
Amen.

This prayer comes directly from the Bible.  Go to the New Testament and look up Luke 1:28-35, 42-48.  Don't tell us you don't know how.  We already talked about how to look of things in the Bible.  Need help?  Go here.

Basically, Gabriel the Archangel was acting like God's Smart Phone.  He came to Mary who was probably a teen and not married and asked her to be God's mother. 

Now remember this was about 2000 years ago.  If a woman became pregnant and wasn't married, the community would throw stones at her for getting pregnant.  Mary was incredibly brave and said, "Sure, bring it on."  Actually she didn't say that but she said yes to the angel and God and trusted God to see her through the pregnancy and not get pelted with rocks.

God also spoke to Joseph in a dream and told him to marry Mary because she was pregnant with Jesus so she would not get hit with rocks. 

 Joe was a great guy!

So let's go over the prayer:

Hail Mary, full of grace. (Hey Mary, you are a nice person)
Our Lord is with thee. (God really thinks you are awesome)
Blessed art thou among women,  (Because God thinks you are awesome, you've been chosen by God)
and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus. (God is blessing your baby, Jesus)
Holy Mary, Mother of God, (Mary's a saint and she is Jesus' mom)
pray for us sinners,  (Pray for us because we are not perfect and MC's kids didn't listen to her and put underwear on the dog anyway)
now and at the hour of our death. (Help us right now and when we die)
Amen.

Now just because Mary is up in heaven, it doesn't mean she stays up there.  She grabs her rosary, slips out heaven's back door and appears to very special people like St. Bernadette, St. Catherine Laboure, St. Juan Diego and St. Simon Stock to give messages of hope and love.  What a mom!!!  .

 Our Lady of Guadalupe when Mary appeared Juan Diego

Now, go brush your teeth, wash your hands--use soap--and get ready for dinner.