On the Power of the Angelical Salutation (Ave Maria)

Amen.
That Amen was uttered to the Glory of God.
Amen...
May all that I say in reciting my Ave, may everything it signifies,
be believed, honored and glorified!
May all that it asks for, be obtained for time and eternity;
for the now of this life passing away,
for today,
for this very moment that flits by!
May that Ave realize its triumph over us, over me, for the glory of Jesus Christ,
for the honor of Holy Mary,
Mother of God and Mother of men,
at the hour of our death,
at the hour of my death, mine, a sinner, a sinner!
Amen!
 How grateful I am to you, Mary, for having allowed me to meditate on the grandeur of that Ave, that incomparable prayer, companion of the Our Father,
to write some few words about it.
Only too well I know that my thoughts and my written words
scarcely do justice to the reality of your being so sublime.
 They are merely crumbs collected here and there from the banquet-table at which your great servitors, your saints, your doctors and learned theologians regale themselves.

What does it matter? This meditation on the Hail Mary foreshadows, though from afar, that reality of you.
It gives me, as it were, a foretaste in this vale of tears of that towards the everlasting vision of God, the meeting with Jesus, your Son, the sight of your beauty, of you, the all beautiful.
Amen. So be it!

The Hail Mary . . . that beautiful prayer!
What an exquisite antiphon!
I am not surprised that the sacred liturgy is filled with it;
that your holy Mass De Beata abounds in it,
that it runs throughout my breviary . . .
It pleased Jesus so!
You, too, it pleases, O Mother. May it always be so!
Amen. So be it!

The Hail Mary. A prayer which God spoke to a Virgin Mother,
which He delivered not by man's lips, but by those of an archangel,
one of the seven who stand before God,
a prayer, which the Most Blessed Trinity composed and gave to Gabriel to bring to an Immaculate
Conception!
After the Our Father, spoken by Jesus, eternal Wisdom,
can we truly compare it to any other prayer for holiness, depth, sublimity, efficacy?

Each time we recite it, we renew in the Virgin'a heart that boundless joy which flooded her soul at the moment when the Son God, Mary's Son, became flesh within her?

The Hail Mary. Surely we must realize now that that salutation is the heavenly antidote of the soul against the mortal bite of the serpent, of that serpent found in so many a statue and picture of Mary, whose head she crushes under her virginal heel!

What a veritable bludgeon it is, for smiting unceasingly that head which contrived and still unflaggingly contrives every plot attempted against the glory of God and of His Christ, against the honor of the Virgin Mother, against her Immaculate Heart, against the conservation and integrity of the Church, against the perfection of her saints, against the welfare of peoples, of society, of families, of individuals!

The Hail Mary. It is the nail driven by the woman clothed with the sun into the temple of Sisara, the enemy of God's people;
the millstone crashing on the abominable Abimelech;
Judith's sword severing the head of the impious Holofernes.

The Hail Mary remains the sword ever brandished by the Mother of God and ever crushing schisms, heresies, every enemy of the Christian name.

With the Hail Mary she triumphs and always will triumph over Satan, the eternal murderer.
Amen. So be it!
Ave Maria . . . Hail Mary!

Take, then, Christian soul, that sword with which you, too, may crush the hordes of hell;
with which you may overcome all temptations, in yourself and in all those you love;
with which you may accomplish marvels, perform miracles, heal bodies and save souls.

If it is possible for you, never neglect to say your beads every day, and if you find time, even the whole fifteen decades.

Be not afraid of distractions, provided you are willing to struggle against them.

Our heavenly Mother understands so well our weakness, our tired feelings, our weariness at times.

Hail Mary's multiplied never displease her.
She appreciates your murmurings of faith, hope and love.
Do your best. But, never give up your beads.
To carry them on your person . . . is that not as if your were saying them all day, all night secretly?
Keep them, at times, especially in time of trial, in the hollow of your hand. That is to clasp Mary's hand.

To conclude, keep this in mind, at least:
do not neglect to say three Hail Mary's morning and night to Mary, Mother of God and your Mother, to thank the Most Blessed Trinity for having given us her . . .
we can report marvelous results from faithfulness to that practice, among those who suffer, who labor, who undergo pain of any kind, in body, in soul, in the midst of cares, to safeguard their interest, for time and eternity.
When we love someone, we cease not to remind him of our love, and always we love him more.
In saying Hail Mary, you will never deceive your heart, and above all the Immaculate Heart of Mary.
She is your Mother . . . Does not that say all?
Amen! So be it! Yes, altogether right, sweet and good that it be so.

                                                                                    -from the book Hail Mary by Dom Eugene Vandeur, translated by John H. Collins, S.J., 1954, Newman Press, Westminster, Maryland. pages 132-135.

On the Immaculate Conception

1.  For she is a vapor of the power of God, and a certain pure emanation of the glory of the Almighty God: and therefore no defiled thing cometh into her. For she is the brightness of Eternal Light, and the unspotted mirror of God's Majesty, and the image of His Goodness.
                                          -Wisdom VIII, 25, 26.

2.  We deem indeed only fitting that all the faithful in Christ should give thanks and praise to Almighty God for the marvelous Conception of the Immaculate Virgin, should celebrate and take part in the Masses and other Offices appointed for that purpose, and also strive to gain indulgences and the remission of their sins . . .
                                          -Pope Sixtus IV (O.M.C.) (+1484): Constitution Cum prae excelsa, 28 February 1476.

3.  This devotion and homage toward the Mother of God was again increased and propagated . . . so that the universities having adopted this pious belief that she was conceived without sin, already nearly all Catholics have embraced it.
                                          -Pope Alexander VII (1655-1667): Constitution Solicitude omnium ecclesiarum, published 1661.

4.  In honor of the Holy and Undivided Trinity, to give glory and due honor to the Virgin Mother of God, for the exaltation of the Catholic faith and the increase of Christian religion, by the authority of Our Lord Jesus Christ, of the blessed Apostles Peter and Paul, and by Our own, We pronounce and define that the doctrine which states that the Most Blessed Virgin Mary was, in the first instant of her conception, by the singular grace and privilege of God, in view of the merits of Jesus Christ the Savior of the human race, preserved immune from all stain of original sin, has revealed by God and is therefore to be firmly and unswervingly believed by all the faithful. Wherefore if any should presume - which God avert - to think otherwise in their hearts than We have defined, let them know and understand that they stand condemned by their own judgment, that they have made shipwreck of the faith, have fallen away from the unity of the Church, and that in consequence they automatically fall under the canonical penalties if they venture to make known by word or writing or in any other outward way what they think in their hears.
                                           -Pope Pius IX (1846-1878): Constitution Ineffabilis Deus, 8 December, 1854 (Acta Pii IX, i , 616).

5.  If anyone says that man once justified can during his whole life avoid all sins, even venial ones, as the Church holds that the Blessed Virgin did by special privilege of God, let him be anathema.
                                           -Council of Trent, Session VI, can. xx ii.

6.  The Immaculate Conception of the glorious ever-Virgin Mary, Mother of God, whom on this day Pope Pius IX solemnly defined to have been by a singular privilege of God preserved free from all stain of original sin.
                                           -Roman Martyrology, 8 December.

7.  God, by a singular Providence, caused the Most Holy Virgin to be as perfectly pure from the very first moment of her existence, as it was fitting that she should be, who was to be the worthy Mother of God.
                                           -Greek Menology, 25 March.

8.  Our most holy, immaculate, and most glorious Lady, Mother of God and ever-Virgin Mary.
                                           -Protoevangelium of Saint James (c. A.D. 170).

9.  All blameless, more to be honored than the Cherubim, incomparably more glorious than the Seraphim.
                                           -Liturgy of Saint James the Apostle.

10.  Mary was altogether sinless.
                                           -Liturgy of Saint John Chrysostom.

11.  It was meet that the God of all purity should spring from the greatest purity, from the most pure bosom.
                                           -Saint Irenaeus (+ c. 202), cited by Fr. Kane in School of Mary, ch. ii, p. 14.

12.  She was not contaminated by the venomous breath of the serpent.
                                           -Origen (+ c. 253): In Div., hom. i.

13.  The only daughter of life, the tabernacle most holy, not made by hands of man, preserved incorrupt, and blessed from the head to the feet.
                                           -Saint Dionysius of Alexandria (+ 265), quoted by Chandlery.

14.  The new Eve, and the Mother of Life.
                                           -Saint Athanasius, Doctor of the Church (+ 373): In Annunt.

15.  Of a truth O Lord, Thou and Thy Mother are they alone who are in every way wholly fair; for in Thee, O Lord, there is no spot, in Thy Mother no stain.
                                           -Saint Ephraem of Edessa, Deacon, Doctor of the Church (+ c. 373): Carmina Nisibena, XXVII, 8 (ed. Brickell, pp. 122-3).

16.  She was as innocent as Eve before her fall, a Virgin most estranged from every stain of sin, more holy than the Seraphim, the sealed fountain of the Holy Ghost, the pure seed of God, ever in body and in mind intact and immaculate.
                                           -Saint Ephraem of Edessa supra: Carmina Nisibena.

17.  Most holy Lady, Mother of God, alone most pure in soul and body, alone exceeding all perfection of purity . . . alone made in thy entirety the home of all the graces of the Most Holy Spirit, and hence exceeding beyond all compare even the angelic virtues in purity and sanctity of soul and body . . . my Lady most holy, all pure, all immaculate, all stainless, all undefiled, all incorrupt, all inviolate . . . spotless robe of Him Who clothes Himself with light as with a garment . . . flower unfading, purple woven by God, alone most immaculate.
                                            - Saint Ephraem of Edessa supra: Precationes ad Deiparam, in Opp. Graec. Lat., III, 524-537.

18.  She was immaculate, and remote from all stain of sin.
                                            - Saint Ephraem of Edessa supra: Orat. ad Deiparam.

19.  Hers was a purity without shadow.
                                            -Saint Gregory of Nyssa (+ c. 395).

20.  Receive me not from Sarah, but from Mary; that it may be an uncorrupted Virgin, a Virgin free by grace from every stain of sin.
                                            -Saint Ambrose, Doctor of the Church (+ 397): in Ps. CXVIII, s. 22.

21.  She was a Virgin not in body only, but in mind also; the purity of her thoughts had been deflowered by no evil suggestion . . . So pure was Blessed Mary that she was chosen to be the Mother of the Lord; God made her whom He had chosen, and chose of her of whom He would be made.
                                            -Saint Ambrose, Bp. of Milan, supra.

22.  He Who formed the first virgin (Eve) without deformity, also made the second Virgin (Mary) without spot or stain.
                                            -Saint Amphilochius of Iconic (+ c. 400): In S. Deip. et Sim.

After Christ, the best defense against the Devil

The chief remedy against the Devil is to have recourse to the Virgin Mary.
                                                 - St. John of Avila (+ 1569)

O my sovereign Lady, delight of my soul, heavenly dew quenching my burning thirst, liquid flowing from God into my parched heart, bright light in the midst of my soul's darkness, guide of my poor judgment, strength of my weakness, covering of my nudity, treasure of my poverty, remedy for incurable wounds, wiper away of tears, end of sighs, reverser of misfortunes, lightener of grief, loosener of my bonds, my hope of salvation, listen to my prayers, have mercy on my sighs, and reject not my lamentations; have mercy on me, and may my tears move thee; be moved by thine own feeling of compassion towards me, who art the Mother of God, the lover of men, hear and grant my prayers, fulfill my petition.
                                                 -St. Germanus

Praise of the Mother of God from Maximus the Confessor, 7th century

Behold, what mind will fathom, or what tongue will express, or what master scribe's hand will write the innumerable multitude of the graces and benevolences of the holy and ever-virgin Theotokos, which she manifested and manifests from day to day among the human race?

She is the ardent intercessor with her son, Christ God, for all those who entreat her.
She is the calm harbor of all those buffeted by waves, who rescues them from spiritual and fleshy waves.
She is the guide on the way of life for all who have gone astray.
She is the one who seeks and converts those who are lost.
She is the help and support of those who are afflicted.
She is the intercessor and mediator of those who are penitent.
And I will say even more than the above:
She is the resurrection of the fallen Adam.
She is the destruction of Eve's tears.
She is the comforter of those who mourn.
She is the throne of the king, who bears the one who bears all.
She is the one who renews the old world.
She is the ladder that reaches to heaven, by which God descended to the earth.
She is the bridge that leads from earth to Paradise.
She is the wonder of angels, and she is the wound of demons and their destruction.
She is the root of the incorruptible shoot.
She is the tree of immortal fruit.
She worked on the worker, the lover of humanity.
She sprouted forth the planter of life.
She is the furrow sprouting forth the wheat that strengthens hearts.
She is the table bearing eternal delight.
She is the incense offered to God for intercession on our behalf.
She is the ransom of the world.
She is the cause of boldness before God for mortal humans.
She is the mother of the good shepherd.
She is the dwelling place of the rational sheep.
She is the chasing away of the invisible enemies.
She is the opening of the gates of Paradise.
She is the unsilenced mouth of the apostles.
She is the invincible courage of the martyrs.
She is the power and strength of Christians.
She is the dawn of the undarkening day.
She is the bearer of the sun of truth.
Through her the raging tyrant was banished from his dominion.
Through her the Lord Christ, the lover of humanity, has appeared to us as savior.
Through her we have been saved from the mire of many sins, and we have been freed from the rule of various passions.
She is the raising of human beings and the downfall of demons.
She is the rock of life from which the thirsty drink the water of immortality.
She is the pillar of light leading and illuminating those in darkness.
She is the urn receiving the manna coming from heaven.
She is the land of promise producing sweetness.
She is the flower of incorruptibility, the crown of virtue, the model of the life of angels.
She is the thickly leaved tree in whose shade the weary rest, the bearer of the redeemer of captives, the guide of those who have gone astray.
She is our intercessor before the just judge.
She is the destroyer of the record of our sins.
She is the garment of those who are bare of any good.
She is the door of great mystery.
She is the unquestioned pride of the faithful.
She is the one who received the uncontainable God.
She is the holy throne of the one seated on the cherubim.
She is the virtuous inheritance of the one glorified by the seraphim.
She leads forth the angels and humans together.
She united virginity and childbearing, for she was both the Immaculate Virgin and the mother of Emmanuel.
Through her was the curse removed.
On her account was Paradise opened.
She is the key of the kingdom of heaven.
She is the cause of eternal good things.
She is the one receiving the Wisdom of God.
She is the treasure house of his Providence.
She is the pillar of virginity.
She is the gate of salvation.
She is the beginning of our renewal.
She is the cause of divine mercy toward humanity.
She is the crown of the invisible sun.
She is the brilliance of the undarkening light.
She is the lightning that illuminates souls.
She is the thunder that shatters the enemies and the deceptive demons.
She is the one who engendered the source of life.
She is the font that purifies thoughts.
She is the cup brimming with joy.
She is the tent of the Word of God.
She is the saint of saints, the height of all sanctity.
She is the ark covered by the Holy Spirit.
She is the precious crown of faithful kings.
She is the pride and ornament of worthy and holy bishops.
She is the unshakable tower of the Catholic Church.
She is the impregnable wall of the city of the faithful, about which David said, "Who will lead me to the fortified city?" (Ps 59.11), which is the assembly of the faithful, gathered from the nations.
She is the healer of our infirmities.
She is the hope and helper of our souls.
- Maximus the Confessor, 7th century, as excerpted form the book "The Life of the Virgin" translated by Stephen J. Shoemaker.