Advent and the Hail Mary

Reciting it as a Protestant

L’Angelus (The Angelus) by French painter, Jean-Francois Millet. Completed between 1857-59

Hail Mary, full of grace,
the Lord is with thee.
Blessed art thou amongst 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.

Dear reader,

This Advent I feel compelled to contemplate Mary.

Here’s where you find out how weird a Protestant I have become.

As someone who sits downstream from the Reformation, and having largely Evangelical roots, Mary is someone who has had a mention from time to time in my own pilgrimage of faith over the years, but aside from thinking she’s pretty cool at Christmas, she doesn’t get much of a focus.

Over the years that has been changing for me. Largely that shift has been theological and intellectual as I’ve taken time with beliefs related to Mary, particularly where the Catholic and Eastern Orthodox churches converge.¹

There are two areas in which my faith has evolved that are relevant and important for the main point of this article - my recitation of the Hail Mary, which is something I will be doing more of this Advent.