Hail to thee, full of grace, the Lord is with thee.

From the Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Luke

At that time, the angel Gabriel was sent by God to a city of Galilee called Nazareth, to a virgin girl, given in marriage to a man of the house of David, called Joseph ; and the girl’s name was Mary. And the angel came in to her and said : « Hail, O full of grace, the Lord is with thee. »

When she heard this, she was very upset and wondered what this greeting could mean. Then the angel said to her, « Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favour with God. Behold, you are about to conceive and bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus.

He will be great and will be called Son of the Most High ; And the Lord God will give him the throne of David his father ; and he shall reign over the house of Jacob for ever, and his reign shall have no end. »
Mary said to the angel : « How can this be, since I know no man ? « 

The angel answered her : «  The Holy Spirit will come upon thee, and the power of the Most  » High will overshadow thee ; therefore he that is to be born shall be holy, and shall be called the Son of God. Now behold, Elizabeth, your relative, in her old age, has also conceived a son and is in her sixth month, when she was called the barren woman.

For nothing is impossible for God.  » Then Mary said : « Behold the handmaid of the Lord ; let all things be done to me according to thy word. Then the angel left her. »  (Lk 1, 26-38)

Announcement of the birth of Jesus

The original idea of the work of Luke, an apostle of Jesus, and the circumstances in which he undertook it. The historical foundation of his story : the source from which his predecessors drew and from which he proposed to draw himself. The method he followed: going back to the origin, presenting the facts in a complete and consistent manner. The aim he had in mind: to make Theophilus, to whom he dedicated his book, recognise the certainty of the Gospel and the Christian truth in which he was taught.

Since many have undertaken to compose an account of the facts which have been fully certified among us : This admirable preface by Luke, so precise and clear in its brevity, so rich in thought, in the purest classical style, and which recalls the prologues of the great Greek historians (Herodotus, Thucydides, Polybius), teaches us that the evangelist had several predecessors, that the facts reported by them and which he in turn undertook to recount were based on apostolic witness; that he was scrupulously accurate in ascertaining this, and that his aim was to confirm the teachings received by Theophilus, to whom he dedicated his writing.

From the very first words, he indicated what inspired the idea of his work : it was the fact, well known at the time, that many had already undertaken to write similar narratives.

Deacon Michel Houyoux

Links to other Christian websites

◊ The Incarnation : click here to read the paper →    The Incarnation – Hail Mary full of grace, the Lord is which thee

◊The word among us : click here to read the paper →  Hail Mary, Full of Grace

♥ Fr. John J. Raphael, SSJ : « Hail, full of grace, the Lord is with thee ! »