How Many Times Can You Say the “Hail Mary”?

I was trying to figure out how many times I say the “Hail Mary” in a year and estimated 3,650 as I say 10 every morning. Throw in other occasions and the figure could easily reach an annual total of 4,000. I know some people who say the full rosary every day so they must be saying it 18,250 times and with some extras added reaching a whopping 20,000.

As Catholics we believe prayer is important. People often speak of the “power” of prayer. Atheists would say we are wishful thinkers muttering meaningless words. However, we believe in the effectiveness of individual and group prayer. That is part of our faith. We should not use prayer as an means of special pleading or for asking favors although I´m sure all of us have done so at some point. Prayer not only connects us to God but also to each other – to our fellow parishioners standing next to us at mass and the tens of millions of other Catholics around the world.

As for Mary, one of the main reasons we pray to her is because she was a human being like us. She may have been born without sin but she was exactly like us in every other way. The fact that Mary was a mother is another reason why we feel such proximity to her. All of us have or had a mother whom we would cling to as children because we knew she would look after us and love us unselfishly.

Yet the very fact that Mary was a human being like us is what makes some people wonder if we do not exaggerate our devotion to her.

A friend of mine claims that the cult of the Virgin Mary did not begin until the fourth century and said it was a deliberate creation of the Church to replace the worship of pagan goddesses.

I don´t know enough history to verify this but it seems true that it was only centuries after Jesus´s death that Mary was elevated in status. The first church in Rome created as a Marian sanctuary was Santa Maria Maggiore where the late Pope Francis now lies. It was opened in AD 432.

The veneration of the Virgin was at its height in medieval times and became the target of Protestants during the Reformation who claimed it had gotten out of hand. They claimed that if the Apostles, who actually knew Mary when she was alive, did not regard her as being on the same level as God the Father and Son then why should we.

While Martin Luther acknowledged her importance as the mother of Jesus he dismissed the idea that she could be some kind of mediator between us and God. Only Jesus could fulfill this role, he claimed. Yet despite this Luther continued to say the Hail Mary. Just like us today.

I write this in May, the month dedicated to Mary, and would like to end by quoting from a hymn we used to sing at my school in Glasgow, Scotland, when I was a boy.

O Mary, dear Mother,
We sing a hymn to thee;
Thou art the Queen of heaven,
Thou too our Queen shalt be.
O rule us and guide us
Unto eternity.