The Hail Mary prayer

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

Since the Hail Mary prayer is a prayer to Mary, many assume that it is unbiblical. Quite the opposite, this prayer has many biblical verses contained in it.

The beginning of this prayer is, "Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee." This is the greeting that the angel Gabriel said to Mary in Luke 1:28. The next sentence of the prayer reads, "Blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus." This is what Elizabeth said to Mary in Luke 1:42. The first part of the prayer is totally biblical.

The second part of the Hail Mary is not taken straight from Scripture, but it is truely within Bible teaching. "Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death. Amen." Saying Mary is holy is like saying she was leading a Christian life and the bible describes Christians in general as holy. Sometimes they are called saints, which means "holy ones."( Eph. 1:1, Phil. 1:1, Col. 1:2). As the mother of Christ, Mary was certainly a very holy woman.

Some will say, "Mary is dead and can't hear our prayers". But that is unbiblical. In Luke 20:38, Jesus says that "God is not the God of the dead, but of the living, for All live in Him". Also in Luke 15:7, "Just so I tell you, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentence". These Christians who have died must be alive to know what is going on down here if they are rejoicing over us turning away from sin.

I am certain that my dead husband, Gary, is alive with God now and can hear prayers from us just like Mary!!