The Ave Maria and Louis de Montfort

The Ave Maria/Hail Mary brought salvation to mankind.

Here’s a beautiful rendition sung by the powerful singer, Celine Dion, enjoy …

It really brings the beauty of the prayer to life…

From “The Secret of the Rosary” by Louis de Montfort-this is the best book I have ever read on the Rosary and this passage brings out the wonders of the simple yet beautiful scriptural prayer of the Hail Mary…

  • THIS HEAVENLY SALUTATION draws down upon us the blessings of Jesus and Mary in abundance, for it is an infallible truth that Jesus and Mary reward in a marvelous way those who glorify them. They repay us a hundred fold for the praises that we give them. “I love them that love Me . . . that I may enrich them that love Me and fill their treasures.” [1] Jesus and Mary have always said: “We love those who love Us; we enrich them and fill their treasuries to overflowing.” “He who soweth in blessings, shall also reap blessings.” [2]
  • Now, if we say the Hail Mary properly, is not this a way to love, bless and glorify Jesus and Mary?
  • In each Hail Mary we bless both Jesus and Mary: “Blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus.”
  • By each Hail Mary we give Our Lady the same honor that God gave her when He sent the Archangel Gabriel to greet her for Him. How could anyone possibly think that Jesus and Mary, who often do good to those that curse them, could ever curse those that bless and honor them by the Hail Mary?
  • Both Saint Bernard and Saint Bonaventure say that the Queen of Heaven is certainly no less grateful and conscientious than gracious and well-mannered people of this world. Just as she excels in all other perfections, she surpasses us all in the virtue of gratitude; so she would never let us honor her with love and respect without repaying us one hundred fold. Saint Bonaventure says that Mary will greet us with grace if we greet her with the Hail Mary.
  • Who could possibly understand the graces and blessings which the greeting and tender regard of Our Lady effect in us? From the very first instant that Saint Elizabeth heard the greeting that the Mother of God gave her, she was filled with the Holy Spirit and the child in her womb leaped for joy. If we make ourselves worthy of the greeting and blessings of Our Lady we shall certainly be filled with graces and a flood of spiritual consolations will come down into our souls.

  1. Prov. 8:17, 21. 2. Cor. 9:6. (Extract from http://www.catholictradition.org/Classics/secret-rosary18.htm)

Therefore it is a privilege to know and pray the words over and over again in Our Lady’s favourite prayer, the Rosary:

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 death.
Amen.

St Teresa of Avila I recall once told the story of a nun from her Convent who died and appeared to St Teresa in a dream.
The nun told St Teresa that she would willingly undergo the sufferings of her whole life again in exchange for the merits of one Hail Mary said with love.
The Hail Mary is SO powerful because the Angelic Salutation brought eternal salvation to the world!

The Lady of Guadalupe-the Mother of God’s Words of Comfort (1531)

THE STORY OF OUR LADY OF GUADALUPE-see below

On December 9, 1531, in Mexico, Our Lady appeared to Juan Diego, a poor humble Aztec Indian who had recently converted to the Catholic faith. She asked him to go to the Bishop and tell him to build a church where she said “I will show and offer all of my love, my compassion, my help and my protection to my people.”

Juan Diego did as she asked, but the Bishop asked for a sign that this message was really from Our Lady.Mary granted his request. On December 12, she showed Juan where the most beautiful Castilian roses were and told him to gather them. It was a miracle that the roses were there and in bloom because there was frost on the ground, and the ground was an infertile place where only cactus and thistles grew. After he gathered them, she helped arrange them in his tilma, or poncho, and told him to show them to the Bishop. When he brought them to the Bishop, the Bishop was amazed at the roses, but was even more amazed at what began to happen to Juan Diego’s tilma. Right before their very eyes, the image of Our Lady began to form on the cloth.

The picture of Mary was beautiful and the Bishop fell to his knees. He had the church built at her request.The tilma is still intact after 470 years. The colors have notfaded and the cloth has not deteriorated. It has been on display in the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe for all this time.The manner in whichOur Lady appeared on the tilma was very significant to the Aztec Indians. God had her dressed in a way that they would understand who she was. She was dressed in royal clothes that showed that she was very important, perhaps a queen. She also had the symbol of the cross at her neck which was the same symbol the Spaniards had on their ships and in the churches they built. She had a sash tied around her waist which meant that she was with child, for this was the way the Aztec women dressed when they were pregnant. And on her beautiful dress were all sorts of designs and flowers. But there was one flower on her dress that was very significant. It had only four petals. To the Aztecs, the four petal flower was the symbol for the true God, the God above all gods. This flower was located on her abdomen, right over the place where Jesus was growing inside of her. The Aztecs immediately understood that this was the mother of the true God!

This appearance of Our Lady of Guadalupe was very important to the history of the continent. You see, the Aztec Indians and the Spaniards were on the brink of war. The Aztec Indians’ culture and religion were very different from the Spaniards. They worshipped gods, to whom they would offer human sacrifices, often killing 50,000 people a year. The Spaniards, who were Catholic, wanted to stop this. But they were cruel to the Aztecs too, treating them like animals and sometimes killing them for no reason. If a war had occurred, it would have been very brutal and the Spaniards and Christianity would have been totally wiped out.

Mary’s appearance changed everything and the Indians embraced Christianity and it helped the Spaniards to treat the Indians with respect and as human beings. In the course of seven years, 6,000,000 Indians converted to the Catholic faith. This was the biggest conversion in the history of the Church!This is why Our Lady of Guadalupe is the Patroness of the Americas.

Juan Diego, the humble man to whom she appeared, was canonized in the summer of 2002.Mary’s appearance also put an end to the worship of stone gods and the ritual of human sacrifice. We pray for Mary’s help today to bring an end to the human sacrifice of God’s children through abortion and to convert non-believers. Our Lady of Guadalupe is also called the Patroness of the Unborn.