Hail Mary, full of grace, the 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.

A reflection on the word “WORD”

By Barb Szyszkiewicz

How many of the contributors to this wonderful “Hail Mary one word at a time” project have mentioned a woman’s influence in their own devotion–usually a mother or grandmother? I haven’t counted, but it seems like there have been quite a few. Guess what: there’s one more.

Growing up, I spent a lot of time at my grandmother’s house. I loved to visit her and even remember telling her that when I grew up, I was going to move in! There was no doubt that her home was a Catholic home. “My” chair in the kitchen faced a picture of Our Lady of Perpetual Help, an image that to this day makes me think of my grandmother. After she died, I put a holy card with this image on my kitchen windowsill so that my kitchen, too, would be graced by the Blessed Mother.

My grandmother’s kitchen was the heart of her home, and not just because she made the world’s best potato salad and roast chicken there. More importantly, she did her praying there.

Through her example, she showed me the importance of being dedicated to daily prayer. She had an envelope full of holy cards with prayers and novenas on the back and would work through the entire stack daily. It was part of her routine; it was integral to her life. When one of us kids would come into the kitchen bursting with a story or a riddle to tell, she’d listen a moment and then quietly remind us, “I’m saying my prayers,” and we’d wander off and try to silently raid the candy dish until she finished. She didn’t yell at us to stop interrupting, no matter how many times we did.

Those quiet witnesses in the kitchen really stuck with me. My grandmother wove prayer into her daily life. What an example to set for her family!

It is in my own kitchen, not surprisingly, that I feel closest to Mary. It is there that I serve my family–just as Mary once served hers. It’s a place of work and a place of prayer.

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Barb Szyszkiewicz is a wife, mom of three, Secular Franciscan, homemaker, and freelance writer who blogs at Franciscan Mom and Mom’s Fridge. She’s been a “virtual but real-life” friend in my life for many years now, and it’s a joy and pleasure to have her as part of this series!

image credit: Our Lady of Perpetual Help, provided by the author

I thought I was being all clever, linking each word at the beginning of each post in the Looking Closer at the Hail Mary series, but as a service to you, dear reader, here is a round-up of what we’ve covered so far. When we’re finished, I’ll do a wrap-up post and link to everything again, too.

Click on the highlighted words to go to the associated post. As you can see, we’re just past the halfway mark. New posts go live on Tuesdays and Thursdays at 7 AM Eastern.

Hail Mary, full of grace, the 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.

I like to think I have some powers of persuasion, that I am good with words. But still, the fact remains: I have never succeeded in converting another person.

A few years ago, I nearly severed a close friendship in my enthusiasm and zeal over Theology of the Body and Church teaching on contraception.

Conversion isn’t something I have any power over. I have to remind myself, sometimes hourly, that my job is that of a farmer: I plant seeds. I sow prayers.

I continue to be terrified by the call to the New Evangelization. What good can I do? I wonder if God really picked an instrument that can do any good.

Join me over at New Evangelizers for the rest.

Hail Mary, full of grace, the 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.

A reflection on the word “HOLY”

By Karina Fabian

I have a lot of friends, especially through Facebook, the Catholic Writers Guild, and other groups, who don’t hesitate to ask for prayers for themselves or for those they know.  And I have just as many who are glad to say prayers for me or my family and friends times of need.

Prayer does more than send a message to God; it gives us comfort, even if it’s just the comfort of knowing someone is laying our aching hearts in God’s tender hands.

Yet there is something special about asking Mary to pray for us, and it comes down to that word: Holy.

Mary was a woman like any woman and at the same time, something more.  God chose her, and in her beautiful, holy sacrifice of bearing His son, she chose Him in a way no other woman can.  She shares an ineffable closeness with the Trinity:  handmaid of the Father, vessel of the Spirit, mother of the Son.  Her being and her actions brought her to holiness.

When Mary prays for us, she is more than offering comfort or sending a message to our Lord.  She is also holding our hearts in her hands, the same hands that caressed Jesus’ brow and comforted him as a baby.  She is pressing them upon Him as a parent might give a child something precious and alive to hold.  She loves with a heart big enough to embrace the world because becoming the Mother of God gave her that ability.

Mary is not god or a goddess, as some people claim we Catholics think.  But she is something more than woman, more than a saint.

She is holy.

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Karina Fabian is an acclaimed author of a number of books and can be found blogging at “Rocket Science for the Rest of Us” and at “Fabianspace.” She’s a founding member of the Catholic Writers Guild and to call me a fangirl is not an exaggeration. Karina is truly as awesome in person as the characters she crafts.

image credit: MorgueFile

Hail Mary, full of grace, the 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.

A reflection on the word “JESUS”

By Walt Staples

In reciting the “Hail Mary,” at the end of the second line, one comes to the Word which is the point of the whole exercise, “Jesus.”

This fruit of Mary’s womb smiles back at me from the arms of the Bavarian Virgin on my desk as she dances with her child, just as I’ve watched my wife dance with our children when they were babes.

But who is this Jesus?

Is He the Victorian Jesus who appears to say, “There, there,” and seems to be trying to reassure the comfortable? Is He the angry rebel Jesus of the the Jackson Browne song who appears to snarl at these same comfortable? Is He the confused, swept away Jesus of Anderew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice’s depiction on Broadway?

Is He the deeply-moved Jesus, with His arms thrown around one of the faithful who made it to that reward above all others, in the painting that draws sneers from the super cool? Is He the tired, smelly, wood shaving covered workman at the end of a long day as suggested by one thoughtful priest? Is He the friendly, fun to be around guest at the marriage feast as shown by the pen and ink drawing known as the “Laughing Christ?”

Is He the wise rabbi who is sharp with those who know better but gentle with those who don’t?  Is He the agonized, bleeding man suffering because of the sins each of us commit with little thought, that is represented by a Spanish bust? Is He the baby smiling at me as His mother gayly dances barefoot with Him on my desk?

Perhaps He is all of these. Man is a finite creature attempting to get his or her head around the Infinite. We are only able to catch facets of this visible part of the Trinity at the best of times; not because He keeps Himself hidden from us but, rather, because of our own limitations.

H.G. Wells used the simile of a fox attempting to understand a steam locomotive in his book, War of the Worlds. We often seem in the same position in trying to understand the Infinite. But, unlike Wells’ fox, we have something going for us; we are God’s children—He tells us so quite often. And like children, we have the capacity to learn as we mature. This holds out the hope that when we each finally meet up with Jesus—some by direct route, most via Purgatory—we’ll understand a lot more.

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Walt sent me this contribution shortly after I asked him if he would be interested in participating in this project. He passed away in mid-March, and I hope he has found his direct route to find the answer for himself as to which Jesus it is.

image credit: MorgueFile

Hail Mary, full of grace, the 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.

A reflection on the word “WOMB”

By Kevin Lowry

Womb. What a great word. Of course, we don’t actually use the word much anymore. It’s a “uterus” or worse, an “oven” (as in, she’s got a bun in the oven).

What a happy absurdity for a guy to write a guest post on the word womb.  Never had one, never will. Why would anyone, let alone Sarah’s scholarettes and esteemed blog followers, give a rip about what I have to say? The word womb itself has esoteric connotations… for a man, writing about the womb is like trying to write about the joys of shopping, or why crying can be a good thing, or why women go to the bathroom at the same time when they’re together at a restaurant. We don’t get it at all.

Yet here’s what impresses me about the womb in the context of the Hail Mary. In a very practical, concrete sense (that even a guy can grasp), Mary’s assent to the angel at the annunciation gave God a big thumbs-up to change her from within. Of course, this would be manifested externally soon enough, and Mary was certainly aware of the possible ramifications. But she said yes anyway.

In my conversion to the Church, the thing that first caught my attention was the teaching on artificial birth control. At the time, I was Presbyterian, and the topic was a non-issue. After questioning (at some length) what substances my classmates at Franciscan University were inhaling or otherwise ingesting, I had to listen. At least well enough to pass the class. Sex has something to do with babies? Actions have consequences? Responsibility? It was all quite appalling.

Later, some guy named Scott Hahn gave me a rosary. I had no idea what it was. But there I was, and I had the audacity and lack of judgment to use it. What was I thinking?

You know where this all leads – my wife and I faced the inevitable, and entered the Church. We have eight kids.

Wouldn’t you know it, twenty years later, I still don’t fully understand the Hail Mary – but it’s my favorite prayer. And I know one thing – without the women in my life who opened their wombs out of love, I wouldn’t be who I am today. Or I wouldn’t be at all.

I’m a rather obtuse guy, for sure, but also one who wants more than anything to give God a thumbs up to change me from within – not via a womb, of course, but in my interior, spiritual life. To be more like the next word in the Hail Mary – the Word Incarnate Himself. Jesus.

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Kevin Lowry is an enthusiastic Catholic, husband, father, and serves as Chief Operating Officer of the Coming Home Network International. His first book, Faith at Work: Finding Purpose Beyond the Paycheck, was just released by Our Sunday Visitor. Kevin’s website and blog can be found at Grateful Convert. He’s also an Ohio resident, which makes him a rockin’ awesome guy.

image credit: MorgueFile

Hail Mary, full of grace, the 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.

A reflection on the word “THY”

By Dorian Speed

What’s so special about Mary, huh?

That’s what “THY” provokes in me – a memory of myself as the pettiest of teacher’s pets, grousing in my room about why Mary gets all the attention. What about ME? I am in the green group for reading, and I can play three hymns on the piano, and I always get chosen to write names on the board when the teacher is out of the room. Why should Mary get all this attention?

I’m happy to report this memory dates back to 1981, but I must admit I still struggle with the same sins – pride, jealousy, selfishness. And though I’ve matured a bit since first grade, I do still find Mary a bit of a mystery. My affection for her has grown, particularly since becoming a mother myself. At the same time, I understand why some find Marian devotion baffling at best.

So what is so special about Mary? It comes down to two words - fiat and magnificat.

Fiat - “let it be done.” She lived her life in perfect unity with the will of God. This is so difficult for me to wrap my mind around – to imagine myself at the foot of the cross, not lashing out at the crowd, but offering up a heart pierced by a sword. I can’t understand her forgiveness, and I can’t understand her humility, but I can look to her as a model of both.

Magnificat - from Magnificat anima mea Dominum - “my soul declares the greatness of the Lord.” She held nothing back – no hidden corner of her soul where she kept her List of Grudges, no gloating over her perfection. And because she devoted her entire being to God, her life was a reflection of His glory.

Every once in a blue moon, I understand what this means – my soul rejoices in the glory of God. Triggers include: sweet baby kisses, tomatoes that actually taste like tomatoes, a gap-toothed grin on a face full of freckles. And I see that my soul is proclaiming the glory of the Lord not because I did something super-amazing, but because I am allowing myself to cooperate fully with Him at that moment.

This, then, is what makes Mary unique, and if I can take my mind off myself long enough to contemplate her fullness of grace, perhaps I can bring a little more fiat and magnificat into my own life.

–

Dorian Speed is a writer and web designer who blogs about culture, family, faith and random craft projects at Scrutinies.net. She’s also the genius behind the design of my blog, so if you’re reading this in a feed reader, do take a moment to click through and admire her handiwork.

image credit: MorgueFile

Hail Mary, full of grace, the 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.

A reflection on the word “OF”

By Lisa M. Hendey

My friend Sarah Reinhard has a permanent spot on my “superhero” list of friends – so gracious has she been with sharing her time and talents that I feel like I’ll never succeed in returning the many favors I owe her. But even more than Sarah’s ability to blog or podcast with such aplomb on a second’s notice, the thing that draws her so near to the center of my heart is the way in which she’s come to help me better know and love Mary, our Blessed Mother.

So when Sarah asks, I try to respond from the default position of “yes”. When she invited me to be a part of this special project, there was no reservation in my consent. She’s been generous with her patience in my taking every last second to meet my deadline – and here I am, virtual pencil sharpened, ready to take on the work of saying something completely earth shattering and inspirational about my word – “of”.

… And it’s not even the first “of” in the Hail Mary. My “of” is the second of four in this forty-two word prayer that has enkindled so many hearts. And you’ve already been gifted such a fabulous treatment of the first “of” by Carol Ann Chybowski (who holds a Master’s in English Literature for goodness sake!), that I find myself completely at a loss. Lacking Carol Ann’s literary style, my ponderings of the word “of” remind me of some of the best words I’ve ever heard on praying the Rosary.

If the following sounds familiar to you, it’s perhaps because I shared this same bit of wisdom in The Handbook for Catholic Moms in my chapter on Mary. Their author is my favorite Irish pastor, Msgr. Michael Collins, who I sincerely hope now has at least one little toe out of purgatory and into heaven. The following should be read with the lilting Irish accent of a 92-year-old parish priest who was about to meet his Maker:

Please say the Rosary.  I’ve always been afraid of Hell, I don’t like Hell, but I’m convinced that if I’m true to the Rosary, which I have been – I’ve said the Rosary ever since I was a child, I’ve never deliberately missed the Rosary and I don’t say that as a boast, I say that as kind of an assurance that if I ask the Blessed Mother fifty times a day to be with me now and at the hour of my death she’ll be around somewhere to take me home.

Simple thoughts, a simple prayer made up of a handful of short, simple words. Yet when collected together, they hold the ticket to such profound grace. Yes, our Blessed Mother is there for us to lead us to the fruit “of” her womb: Jesus Christ.

What a blessing to know with such confidence as Father Collins did that she who loved –and continues to love – with such tenderness through so much pain, has unending patience with my shortcomings. Forty-two words, recited in a matter of minutes, and yet how often I rattle through them mindlessly, neglecting the grace of each syllable – even of that second “of”, or forget them all together in my busyness.

They deserve such awe, such reverence and such thanksgiving. Each of them, collected together in our hearts, and expressed in confident love, take us Home.

–

Lisa M. Hendey, founder and editor of www.CatholicMom.com, is the author of A Book of Saints for Catholic Moms and The Handbook for Catholic Moms. She has claimed the title of President of the Sarah Reinhard fan club. She is also one of the most amazing people I know and continues to inspire me with her ongoing faith and example.

image via Trendy Traditions

Hail Mary, full of grace, the 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.

A reflection on the word “FRUIT”

By Pat Gohn

Bite into any lush, ripened, fresh fruit and you feel the gush of juices between your lips and running down along your tongue to the little well underneath. You move the pulpy flesh of the fruit around in your mouth, gliding it in place with your tongue to chew. Depending on the variety of fruit, you may experience momentary dripping down your cheek or lower dimples as you savor the flavor and enjoy that first full bite.

The fruit was where the trouble started. One taste of the fruit of the tree — the tree that God had expressly forbidden (Cf. Gen 2:2-3) — and Eve was in deep trouble.

One bite of the fruit and Eve was mesmerized. Her knowledge grew immediately, but in ways she did not expect. She expected to be like God; duped, instead she became a lesser mortal than before. The preternatural gifts she was endowed with by her Creator were shut down. No longer blessed with infused knowledge, she could not see the truth of her present situation. She gave the fruit to Adam.

The woman, the fruit-gatherer and eventual fruit bearer, unwittingly tasted decay and death disguised as a temporary tasty morsel that slid down the back of her throat. The mother of all the living had triggered the trap door leading to separation from God and eventual suffering and death. Her husband, unable to withstand the temptation, also acquiesced and took a bite.

We know the rest of the story.

The Divine Will and Providence of God so loved the man and the woman and their progeny — us!– that He sent them a Way out of their plight. But first God would cultivate a new fruit, and a new fruit bearer.

The Woman, the one that God envisioned from the start (Cf. Gen 3:15), would, one day, bear the fruit that saves humanity from its sins.

It was St. Irenaeus who taught, the knot Eve tied was untied by Mary. St Louis de Montfort also spoke a deep truth: “The salvation of the whole world began with the ‘Hail Mary’. Hence, the salvation of each person is also attached to this prayer.”

Only Mary, God’s pure and perfect creature, the masterpiece of Creation, could bear such good fruit, both in word and deed. Jesus, the offspring of the Virgin’s womb, was indeed the blessed fruit of a remarkable, holy union… the sign and promise of the wedding of God to his Creation.

We sing of it with every note of Ave Maria, and pray it with every syllable of “Hail, Mary!”

The fruit we sing of and adore in the center of this prayer is the vital and everlasting fruit of Mary’s womb, JESUS!

The fruit — Jesus! – would sweeten and strengthen humanity, answering every angelic prayer of heaven and longsuffering mortal supplication of earth since that fateful day in the Garden.

Not surprisingly, we can understand why the Fruit that is Jesus would one day be eaten.

Jesus would lay his own flesh down to be food and those who eat of it would partake of eternity (Jn 6: 35-58, Luke 22: 19).

Down through the ages the flesh of that miraculous fruit would feed apostles and martyrs, kings and saints, rich and poor, poets and psalmists, young and old, saints and sinners, you and me.

No longer would a fruit bring a curse. No longer would the thirst of sin go unquenched.

Blessed is the Fruit that revives the soul and restores true Life… the good fruit, the holy fruit… the succulent fleshy fruit of God’s own nature mingling with our own, its juice running down our chin, nourishing our bodies, transforming our lot with its precious wine.

©2012 Patricia W. Gohn

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Pat Gohn is a writer, speaker, and (my favorite) host of the “Among Women” podcast and blog. She holds a Masters in Theology, and a Bachelors in Communications. Her passion is working within Catholic adult faith formation and using media for evangelization and catechesis. Find out more at PatGohn.com.

image credit: MorgueFile

Hail Mary, full of grace, the 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.

A reflection on the word “THE”

By Melanie Betanelli

“The” is a humble little word and that is what makes it so hard to write about. I am beset on all sides with temptations to pride. How can I make ‘the’ important? How can I make it shine and stand out? How can I make a wonderful, memorable point despite the seeming limitations of this so ordinary word?

At first I was going to write about how I am such a pedant. How my first reaction to the word ‘the’ was to retort that it isn’t even in the Latin version of the prayer. It’s just a piece of English grammar, it doesn’t have any real meaning. And yet I knew that path was one of intellectual pride: Hey, look at me, I studied Latin. Don’t I seem so important?

I saw that instead I needed to focus on ‘the’ as a call to humility. I recently read in a biography of St Anthony of Padua that “humility is the mother and root of all virtues”. Yes, humility is the soil in which all the virtues grow. “God resists the proud but shows Himself to and uses the Humble,” St Anthony proclaims.

And yet even with this resolution firmly in place, I keep experiencing mission creep. I want to write about the mystery of Mary’s perpetual virginity and her role as the Ark of the New Covenant. I want to ponder the mystery of the Incarnation. (Yes, in an earlier draft I somehow managed to drag poor little ‘the’ kicking and screaming into those waters which are really too deep for this humble word.) But that isn’t where this meditation is leading.

Instead I need to accept the very littleness of ‘the’. It is important, every word has a role to play or it wouldn’t be there, this in not a prayer with excess verbiage; but it is not a profound role. ‘The’ is a necessary bit of grammar; but it is a very humble, everyday sort of word. We use it without much thought or care. I mistype it a hundred times in a day ‘hte’ my fingers type, much to my great chagrin. And how often do I post a blog entry without even noticing that typo?

I’m working on accepting ‘the’ for what it is and not demanding that it be something more. I need to just let ‘the’ be itself.

Humility. Why is it so hard to accept smallness? Why is it so hard to be unnoticed, unimportant? Why do we want to stand out from the crowd? To follow Mary must be to follow her example of humility. She always points away from herself and toward someone else. She points toward her son.

So it is with “the”. Don’t notice me, it says. I’m not important here. Look at Him. He’s what really matters. Keep your eyes on Him. The blessed. The fruit. Jesus.

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Melanie Bettinelli is a wife and mother to four small children. She writes at that temptation to pride, her blog, The Wine Dark Sea.

image credit: MorgueFile