The Our Father and the Hail Mary. Wednesday June 1, 2011.

Ever since I was little, I’ve always wondered why the Hail Mary is prayed around ten times more than the Our Father during the Rosary.  When I was younger I would almost become concerned with how this question could be answered.  I thought that it seemed almost prideful that Mary would want a prayer to be prayed to Her so many more times than a prayer prayed to Her Son but I knew that couldn’t be the case. I never came up with a good enough answer and just accepted it as is.  Well, during the homily that Fr. Charbel gave on Mothers’ day, he gave a brilliant answer to this question.

The answer is in the content of the prayers themselves. 

Our Father, Who art in heaven
Hallowed be Thy Name;
Thy kingdom come,
Thy will be done,
on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread,
and forgive us our trespasses,
as we forgive those who trespass against us;
and lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from evil. Amen.

The Our Father is a prayer of things to be, of things to come.

Holy be Your name.

Your kingdom come.

And Your will be done.

Bless us with Yourself, our daily bread.

Forgive us of our sins, as we forgive those who have sinned against us.

Keep us from temptation and evil.

Each and every line of the Our Father will come, will be done-

the moment we enter heaven.

We will truly know the definition of the word holy

And we will clearly see why and how it is applied to the Father.

His will for us will be complete.

We will be with Him every moment and therefore not in need of the tangible Eucharist.

We will be forgiven of our sins and will hold nothing against those who did us wrong.

We can no longer be tempted in heaven

And we will have clearly been kept from evil.

The Our Father is a prayer of hope.

It is a prayer of the things yet to come.

It is a plea of the helpless crying out for help.

He can do nothing but help us to the end that we are destined for.

He will answer the cries of the helpless.

The cries and pleas of Our Father will be answered.

The Hail Mary is quite different.

It is not a prayer of the helpless.

It is not a cry for better things.

It is a prayer of praise.

Hail Mary, full of grace.
Our 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.

Mary, You who are completely filled will with grace, we greet You.

The Lord is with You.

Blessed, holy, are You among women.

The fruit of Your womb, Your Son, Jesus, He is also Holy.

Mother of God.

Pray for us.

We are sinners.

Pray for us now and at the hour of our death.

Heaven will be full of praises.

Pleas will no longer be a necessity.

And there’s the answer;

the answer to the question that has been pondered over by many.

The Our Father will no longer need to be prayed in heaven.

We will be with Our Lord, His Mother, and the saints.

We will no longer need to ask for anything or make any requests or cry for mercy.

We will be with Him.

All of our needs will be met beyond what any of us could imagine.

But the Hail Mary, the prayer of complete praise and honor, will forever ring.

Praise of Mary will never cease.

Even more so in heaven we will continue to boldly proclaim these praises.

The answer to this question brings hope to many.

It is a joy and a relief to know that there will be a day when pleas will no longer be necessary.

There will be a day when our only duty will be to praise.

Praise the Father, praise the Son, praise the Spirit.

No longer will we need to hope for a better life, or for peace, or for forgiveness.

We will be in the presence of peace and mercy.

The day of no more pleas and continuous praise will come.

Until the day that we may be blessed enough to enter heaven,

Lord please help us to praise You and Your Mother who are so worthy of all praise

and please help us to pray the Our Father with fervor and hope that one day each of those pleas may be fulfilled.

Amen.