The Holy Name of Mary

The Holy Name of Mary
In the monastic community we are awash with Scriptures and Theology and Lectio Divina, Spiritual reading. In practice prayer for the monk is the prayer of simplicity; the simpler the better. The simplest, the most familiar of the simplest prayers can fill all the monk's day, like, for example; - the Hail Mary - the Holy Mary.
The "Angelic Salutation", as we call it, has two invocation of the Name of Mary.
The first invocation, "Hail Mary" is greeting and praise and thanksgiving and proclamation.In great Cathedrals there is a feature known as the Galilean Porch, that is the main entrance to the sacred place.
Here it is the Visitation Porch, so to speak, that summonses us with the Name of Mary. When Elizabeth greets Mary, "Blessed is the fruit of your womb", it can be seen as a revolutionary feminist Proclamation. Elizabeth the expectant mother of John the Baptist, Mary the expectant mother of Jesus, leading us, in the most human approach, the birth of the Child Jesus, to the greatest Mystery, to the Incarnate the Son of God.
The second, "Holy Mary" starts us off, in the same way as we begin each Mass, recognizing that we are sinners. "Pray for us sinners", - NOW and at the hour of our death.- NOW is the only time. As one theologian put it, there is no NEXT life. There is only the NOW of the Divine Presence. The same applies to the HOUR of death. The NOW and that HOUR are part of the fullness of presence in God.

ORDINARY TIME: THE HOLY NAME OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. The Collection of Masses of the Blessed Virgin Mary, published by the Congregation of Divine Worship in 1986, is a set of 46 Masses intended for use at Marian shrines and for communities who wish to celebrate the Memorial of the Blessed Virgin on Saturday.
A memorial of the Most Holy Name of the Virgin is celebrated on 12 September A commentary on the Opening Prayer of the Mass itself forms a litany of the Holy Name of Mary.

"Lord our God, when your Son was dying on the altar of the cross, he gave us as our mother the one he had chosen to be his own mother, the Blessed Virgin Mary; grant that we who call upon the holy name of Mary, our mother, with confidence in her protection may receive strength and comfort in all our needs" (Marian Sacramentary, Mass for the Holy Name of the Blessed Virgin Mary).