Hail Mary Holy Mother of God

	Mother as lucid as you are tender, tell the Father and the Son about us Hail Mary, the Almighty awaited your answer while we were all there in the shadows, waiting for it with him. God did not impose anything on your freedom. You saw what was at stake, and you believed that the fullness of time had come when God would send his Son. You died to yourself, and placed yourself at the Lord's service. (...) Holy Mother of God, you were alone at first in carrying this unutterable secret and then Joseph was allowed to share in it with you. Who better than you could enter into the Savior's plan? Limpid and inflexible, you proceeded on the proffered way. For more than thirty years you retained in the silence of your heart all that had been revealed to you. You watched the Son—your little boy—growing into a man. You followed him all the way to Jerusalem where he was exalted on the cross and you stood upright beside him. You believed, all alone, until the Lord appeared to the others. You were certain of his resurrection from the dead and amidst the apostles you waited for the coming of the promised Spirit. Holy Mother of God, keep the place among us that you held in the nascent Church. O Mother of the Risen Christ, like the apostles we remember your unique relationship with him. We see in you the first link in our testimony, the model of a staunch and steadfast faith. O Mother of the Savior and of all the saved, may your presence stimulate and teach us to let ourselves be filled with and to soak up the grace of our vocation. May your prayer encourage and envelope ours. May it make us attentive and flexible to the breath of the Spirit who prays within us. (...)
	L.M. Dewailly, O.P. With Protestant Friends in Le livre d'heures de Marie, texts collected by Alphonse Bossard, S.M.M. Desclée de Brouwer, 1981.