This was my mother’s favourite song. Although she’d been brought up in a Catholic school and had an Irish Catholic father, she was not religious. However, she had a good voice–a soprano’s voice–and she was capable of dissolving in tears when she heard a certain song. One of these that I remember causing this effect was “The Wind beneath your Wings” sung by Barbra Streisand.
I love this hymn sung above by Nelson Eddy. The shots of the Vatican and the Michaelangelo statue “La Pieta” provide such a beautiful background for it. There’s something about this song that touches me deeply. Perhaps I’m my mother’s daughter, after all. Only thing is, I couldn’t sing like her.
The Angelic Salutation, Hail Mary, or Ave Maria (Latin) is a traditional Catholic prayer asking for the intercession of the Virgin Mary, the mother of Jesus. The Hail Mary is used within the Catholic Church, and it forms the basis of the Rosary. It was made famous and popular when set to music by Bach, and also Schubert.
The following is taken from Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hail_Mary#Latin_version)
The prayer incorporates two passages from Saint Luke’s Gospel: “Hail, full of grace, the Lord is with thee,” and “Blessed art thou amongst women and blessed is the fruit of thy womb. In mid-13th-century Western Europe the prayer consisted only of these words with the single addition of the name “Mary” after the word “Hail,” as is evident from the commentary of Saint Thomas Aquinas on the prayer.
The first of the two passages from Saint Luke’s Gospel is the greeting of the Angel Gabriel to Mary, originally written in Koine Greek. The opening word of greeting, χαῖρε, chaire, here translated “Hail,” literally has the meaning “rejoice” or “be glad.” This was the normal greeting in the language in which Saint Luke’s Gospel is written and continues to be used in the same sense in Modern Greek. Accordingly, both “Hail” and “Rejoice” are valid English translations of the word (“Hail” reflecting the Latin translation, and “Rejoice” reflecting the original Greek).
Related articles
Which version do you prefer?
- Ave Maria (poodyheads.wordpress.com)
- Ave, Ave, Ave Maria! (hymn) (prayers4reparation.wordpress.com)
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