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.
The Rosary, including Hail Mary, has been the focus of several Popes over the millennium. I want to say it was Pope Paul VI that wrote a paper elevating the Rosary.
The Rosary (click here) is a Scripture-based prayer. It begins with the Apostles' Creed, which summarizes the great mysteries of the Catholic faith. The Our Father, which introduces each mystery, is from the Gospels. The first part of the Hail Mary is the angel's words announcing Christ's birth and Elizabeth's greeting to Mary. St. Pius V officially added the second part of the Hail Mary. The Mysteries of the Rosary center on the events of Christ's life. There are four sets of Mysteries: Joyful, Sorrowful, Glorious and––added by Pope John Paul II in 2002––the Luminous.
The repetition in the Rosary is meant to lead one into restful and contemplative prayer related to each Mystery. The gentle repetition of the words helps us to enter into the silence of our hearts, where Christ's spirit dwells. The Rosary can be said privately or with a group....
Nope, it was Pope John Paul II:
1. The Rosary of the Virgin Mary, (click here) which gradually took form in the second millennium under the guidance of the Spirit of God, is a prayer loved by countless Saints and encouraged by the Magisterium. Simple yet profound, it still remains, at the dawn of this third millennium, a prayer of great significance, destined to bring forth a harvest of holiness. It blends easily into the spiritual journey of the Christian life, which, after two thousand years, has lost none of the freshness of its beginnings and feels drawn by the Spirit of God to “set out into the deep” (duc in altum!) in order once more to proclaim, and even cry out, before the world that Jesus Christ is Lord and Saviour, “the way, and the truth and the life” (Jn 14:6), “the goal of human history and the point on which the desires of history and civilization turn”.(1)...
"The Hail Mary" is one of the earliest prayers a child learns in the Roman Catholic faith. But, the rosary is well engaged by the age of 7, when most children receive their "First Holy Communion." That ceremony is a very big deal for young Catholic people.
But, the Rosary, containing "The Hail Mary," is not at all a prayer of desperation. It is a prayer of sustaining peace for the soul. The expression "Hail Mary" really has evolved into a far different definition than it's purposeful meaning in the Roman Catholic Faith.
"The First Holy Communion" is the first autonomous act by a young person regarding their soul in the Catholic faith. Up to that point Baptism protected the soul. At the age of 7, girls and boys are introduced to the idea of having control over their behavior and decisions that will bring diminishing character of their soul. They are also introduced to the idea of penance to bring back the standing of their soul with God. Roman Catholic children are asked from an early age to conduct themselves in the graces of God.
