View attachment 2875 The first part of any prayer is the most important because as we start , so we shall continue on. If we start bad , we'll end up bad. If we start well, you can pretty sure we stay the course and end up right on through very well. So for the first two words of the pray, 'Hail Mary', pay careful attention and go slow. This is the angelic greeting , one of the seven spirits of God who stand right in from of Him continually forever has been sent from heaven by God Himself to ask the biggest favour in history. It is the most majestic and powerful embassy ever on which the most counted, God is asking Mary to be the Mother of God...then heaven holds its breath ..all Creation holds its breath..and Mary agrees, you can here all Creation release its breath.
Our Lady taught me that there are tow major mistakes made in praying, especially a prayer like the , 'Hail Mary' , which is so much part of the rosary. These two faults are closely associated and walk hand in hand. The first is to pray with thinking, to gabble the prayer out without actually thinking about what we say. This kind of prayer is pretty well useless. For if we are not thinking about what we are saying how can we mean it? It is just like chicken's gabbling. Matthew 15:8 "'These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me.
The second fault, which walks right alongside it, is to say the prayer far, far too quickly. You have probably noticed this in conversation yourself . When you are really earnestly trying to get something across to someone you really slow down a lot. Imagine a young man asking his girl friend if she will marry him. He is not going to speak to her like he would ask for a bag of sugar in a grocery shop. View attachment 2876
I find one of the best ways to say the Hail Mary - Rosary, is in silence, meditation; listen to God. God Bless!
I must confess that I, many times, am a chicken gabbling. I am always ashamed of my desperate, rushed efforts to solve many problems/situations which could only be described as fear inspired attempts to grab hold of the divine, usually in times of desperation which normally involves the fear for a child, where the luxury of meditation on words and meaning is torn violently from me. However I believe the merciful Lord accepts my puny, flawed and gabbling efforts to pray as He sees how small and sinful I am and realises this is the best I can do. Let everyone know the Glories and the Mercies of our Dearest loving God who is a Father, Brother and Consoler who Sees, Knows and Loves immeasurably even unto the most wretched. Blessed be God. Blessed be His Holy Name. Blessed be Jesus Christ, true God and true Man. Blessed be the Name of Jesus. Blessed be His Most Sacred Heart. Blessed be His Most Precious Blood. Blessed be Jesus in the Most Holy Sacrament of the Altar. Blessed be the Holy Spirit, the Paraclete. Blessed be the great Mother of God, Mary most Holy. Blessed be her Holy and Immaculate Conception. Blessed be her Glorious Assumption. Blessed be the name of Mary, Virgin and Mother. Blessed be St. Joseph, her most chaste spouse. Blessed be God in His Angels and in His Saints. Amen.
I think prayer is a journey and hopefully in every way, every day we may be getting better and better, if we correspond to God's grace. The way we pray to God is not, I suppose too much different from how we talk to others. I have met several people I consider to be saints and the great quality I think that set them apart was that they were loving listeners and talkers. When they listened, they did so with all their heart. When they talked it was clearly from the heart too.
The next question then is how to keep ourselves paying attention as we pray? For myself the Hail Mary and the Rosary remind me of Ham and Eggs because they go so well together. View attachment 2906 The Hail Mary is the key link for the rosary , the building block on which the rosary is itself built. The 'Hail Mary', in its turn takes fire from the rosary. What do I mean by, 'Takes fire?' Why, well it takes fire from meditation the meditation is the key in the locks of our hearts that opens them to loving attention. I was speaking one time to a very saintly Irish hermit, Father Kevin and he was telling em about a visit he made to France to meet a guy who is most certainly a saint , Abbe Louf (he wrote a great book on the, 'Our Father' , by the way) So anyway I asked Father Kevin if he got the impression Abbe Louf was a saint? He said he did and when I asked why he said the Abbot had a crucifix in his hand and he kept stroking it and glancing at it lovingly , unconciously. Such a little thing but saying just so much. The same with the Hail Mary , when h our hearts are open we will stroke this prayer lovingly, saying it so slowly and sweetly; meaning every word.
