Singing Mary’s Song– Session II
Today we are going to learn two prayers that come from the gospel according to Luke when the angel Gabriel appears to the Virgin Mary.
The first one is familiar—Hail Mary (also known as the Ave Maria)
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.
Hail Mary, full of grace comes from Luke 1: 28. Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb comes from Luke 1:42, Elizabeth’s words to Mary when Mary goes to visit her.
The last part of the prayer was added around the Council of Trent in the 1500’s.
The painting you see on the screen right now is by Jean Francois Milet, a French painter active in the 1800’s. He was the son of Norman peasants, and his humanity toward the peasants can be seen in much of his art, like this painting of the Angelus.
The Angelus is a Catholic prayer of devotion which is still prayed today. Although we don’t know its exact early history, we do know that this devotion was already well established over 700 years ago. In the 11th century monks recited three Hail Marys with the evening, or compline bell.
When the bell was rung at Prime, the monks also said the three Hail Marys. And at noon on Fridays, in order to remember crucifixion of Jesus, the prayer was also said three times when the bell was rung.
And so the custom of the Angelus grew—the prayer being said three times a day when the Angelus bell was rung.
This bell was rung in a series of three rings, occurring three times, with a pause between each set of rings—long enough to say the Lord’s Prayer and a Hail Mary.
The monks, as well as the common people, like this peasants, would stop what they were doing and pray the Angelus.
(Pass out sheets—let’s pray the Angelus together now—I’ll pray the verse, you pray the response and we’ll all pray the Hail Mary together.
* The angel of the Lord declared unto Mary,
* And she conceived of the Holy Spirit.
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.
* Behold the handmaid of the Lord.
* Be it done unto me according to thy word.
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.
* And the Word was made flesh.
* And dwelt amongst us.
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.
* Pray for us, O Holy Mother of God.
* That we might be made worthy of the promises of Christ.
Let us pray,
Pour forth, we beseech Thee, Lord, Thy grace into our hearts; that, as we have known the Incarnation of Christ, Thy Son, by the message of an angel, so by His Passion and Cross we may be brought to the glory of the Resurrection. Through the same Christ our Lord.
* Amen.
This custom of praying three times a day reminded people of Mary, Jesus, and the gift of grace to us.
Because we, like Mary, are the recipients of God’s grace.
I love this definition of grace from Tertullian, one of the early church fathers. He lived from 160 to 225. He was born in Carthage, brought up as a pagan, and was converted to Christianity before he was 40. He became one of the church’s influential theologians.
And he said that grace is God’s divine energy working in us.
So when we say, Hail Mary, Full of Grace, we are saying that Mary is someone that is full of divine energy working in her.
In Singing Mary’s Song, in this week’s readings, John Stroman tells the story of a huge concert that took place at Wembly Stadium in London to celebrate the end of apartheid in South Africa and Nelson Mandela’s 70th birthday.
This concert featured many rock bands, including Guns and Roses, as the show went on the crowd became increasingly intoxicated and rowdy.
Philip Yancey in his book What’s so Amazing about Grace? describes what happens next.
Jessye Norman was the last act—she is an opera singer, but no one at the concert knew who she was. When she came out, the crowd yelled for more Guns and Roses, that is, until she started singing Amazing Grace, unaccompanied.
By the time she reached the second verse of this hymn, the 70,000 raucous fans had grown quiet, and then they joined in with the singing.
At the end of the concert, the 70,000 people quietly and calmly left the stadium.
Norman said in a PBS interview with Bill Moyers that she had no idea what power descended on the stadium that night—she attributed what happened to the power, hope and promise of the words of this hymn.
Paul says in Galatians that “when the fullness of time had come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, in order to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as children.”
So let’s think about how the coming of Jesus 2000 years ago was an optimal time for his birth, full of grace. Stroman lists several reasons that God’s timing was great.
First of all, the Pax Romana, which lasted two hundred years, created a fairly peaceful atmosphere that made possible the spread of ideas through the Roman Empire.
Second, the Romans were master road builders, so that a network of roads throughout the empire meant that news could travel quickly and travel was fairly easy.
Third, many people spoke Koine Greek.
And there was a highly efficient postal system.
Judea was at the heart of the overland trade network, linking Egypt to the south, Rome to the west, and Mesopotamia to the east.
There had been no prophets for at least three hundred years. People experienced God as distant—God in nature, or God acting through mighty acts of salvation in history.
Many people who expected the Messiah wondered about God’s timing. There seemed to be a delay and then people weren’t sure when the Messiah came that Jesus really was the Messiah.
Mary must have wondered, after Jesus was born, how on earth he was going to end up with the throne of David.
Through the years of waiting and wondering, Mary developed the sort of endurance that got her through Jesus’ ministry and his death and resurrection.
Thinking back to the Angelus, the closing part of that prayer is that God will put grace (divine energy working in us) into our hearts, so that we can be brought into the glory of the resurrection.
Now let’s take some time to think about our own lives.
When in your life has God seemed silent? Where have you experienced what seems like God’s delay to work in your life?
And when have you experienced God’s grace in your life? Divine energy working in you? What has been “the fullness of time” in your life?
In closing, I want to share this information about grace from Stoman’s book.
This information comes from Dr. Frank Lake, a British psychiatrist who was interested in figuring out what gave meaning and significance to people’s lives.
He came up with something called the cycle of grace.
Here are four categories—acceptance, sustaining strength, significance, and achievement.
Start with acceptance. God chooses us and accepts us as we are, in spite of the fact that we are all less than perfect. This acceptance is free.
When we accept the fact that God has accepted us, then we find the sustaining strength to make healthy, faithful and obedient decisions. We can withstand temptations.
When we believe in God’s unconditional acceptance and experience this sustaining strength, then we experience ourselves as people of significance. And we know this from a place of humility, because our worth is tied to God and God’s love for us. And knowing all of this helps us to achieve great things for God.
How did Mary experience this cycle of grace?
And what about you? How does this cycle work in your own life?
Closing prayer.
Gracious God, in this season of Advent, give us pause and give us the desire to enter, along with Mary, into this cycle of grace—to believe in your acceptance, feel your strength, know our significance, and to achieve great things for you. And most of all, we pray that you would pour forth your grace into our hearts.
Amen.