THERE IS a reason why the “ave” of the Archangel Gabriel’s annunciation to Mary inaugurates the most commonly used and most often recited prayer offered by the Church. No other greeting proclaimed throughout all of history announced such a shift in the hierarchy of being or bestowed such a blessing upon one creature.

    THE PROFUNDITY of the honor granted to the simple Virgin of Nazareth by the Almighty Father is a mystery so deep and so rich that the Church has not ceased to plumb it for all its treasures of divine wisdom. The fact that God chose to make his dwelling known within her womb, to be nursed at her breast and to be reared by her gentle hand is the first and greatest of the Church’s joys.

    THAT THE Word became flesh  [Jn 1:14] by the consent of a woman—who spoke on behalf of all mankind—demands that due praise be offered to such a woman who had the courage to say, Let it be done unto me.  [Lk 1:38]  

    SUCH IS the will and pleasure of him who makes the first last and the last first. Where Lucifer had once been the first and the highest of creatures, woman was left to be the final work and crown of creation. What a splendor it is in the mind of man to consider the wisdom of God who saw it befitting, for the sake of justice and charity, to bring such humiliation upon the once greatest and manifest his ultimate love by the power of the least.

    IT IS the virgin’s soul that most perfectly magnifies the Lord—she who is daughter, spouse and mother to the Holy Trinity. No other being is so closely bound to the beauty of the Most High, and no other being binds all others so closely to him.

    WHERE ALL men mediate on behalf of one another, the Ivory Tower reaches to the very throne of her son, whose ear she is given most readily and whose heart she holds the key. For this privilege held by her alone, she is deemed the mediatrix. This is why the Church seeks the mercy of Christ through her intercession, because to truly love Christ one must truly love his mother.

    AS AUTHOR of history, God spoke of his plan of salvation from the moment that it had been lost. Of one who would crush the serpent under heel, he prophesied from of old. As he prepared a people for his son, he did not forget his promise.

    THE TIME finally came within the peace of Rome to make due on his sacred Word, and where in time Adam had preceded Eve, woman now was first to be immaculately conceived. Preserved by prevenient grace she stood for all humanity, and just as Adam was not burdened alone with his tenancy, Jesus gave his mother the share in his work of mercy.

    FOR THIS, she is named Co-Redemptrix, because no one else participated so fully in the saving passion of our Lord than did his blessed mother. As the new Adam consummated his love in pain above the earth, the new Eve stood in sorrow with the place of the skull  [Lk 23:33]  firmly beneath her heels. Thus she became the new mother of all the living through her son’s sacrifice which broke the bonds of death and opened the gates of eternal life.

    IT IS no wonder then that the prayer chanted most often by the saints—and which laces the minds of both the contemplative and active alike—are the words of that sweet “ave,” which first met the ears and imbued the heart of the Most Blessed Virgin Mary:  

    Ave Maria, gratia plena, Dominus tecum. Benedicta tu in mulieribus,
et benedictus fructus ventris tui, Iesus. Sancta Maria, Mater Dei,
ora pro nobis peccatoribus, nunc, et in hora mortis nostrae. AMEN.
CHRIST, THANK you for your mother. Immaculate Heart of Mary, pray for us!