The Three Hail Marys

The Three Hail Marys In Honor of the Three Great Privileges

This devotion promoted by St. Anthony of Padua, St. Leonard of Port-Maurice 

and St. Alphonsus de Liguori

Said Morning and Evening...

(1) "The First Hail Mary will be in honor of God the Father, whose omnipotence raised my soul so high above every other creature, that, after God, I have the greatest power in Heaven and on earth. Promise: In the hour of your death I will use that power of God the Father to keep any hostile power from you."

(2) "The Second Hail Mary will be in honor of God the Son, who communicated His inscrutable wisdom to me... Promise: In the hour of your death I will fill your soul with the light of that wisdom so that all the darkness of ignorance and error will be dispelled."

(3) "The Third Hail Mary will be in honor of God the Holy Ghost, who filled my soul with the sweetness of His love and tenderness and mercy. Promise: In your last hour I will then change the bitterness of death into divine sweetness and delight."

Recommended after each Hail Mary: By thy Pure and Immaculate Conception, O Mary, make my body pure and my soul holy.  

With this invocation at the end: for the morning: "O my Mother, preserve me from mortal sin during this day," for the evening: "O my Mother, preserve me from mortal sin during this night."

PROMISE: During an apparition to St. Gertrude, the Blessed Mother promised: "To any souls who faithfully prays the Three Hail Marys, I will appear at the hour of death in a spendor of beauty so extraordinary that it will fill the souls with heavenly consolation."

PRACTICE OF ST. LEONARD: St. Leonard often preached the devotion of the Three Hail Marys morning and evening in honor of Mary Immaculate, to obtain the grace of avoiding all mortal sin during the day or night. He assured his listeners: “Those who remain persistently faithful to this pious practice will most certainly receive the grace of eternal salvation.”

PRACTICE OF ST. ALPHONSUS LIGUORI: The Saint suggested that the Three Hail Marys be said kneeling and that this ejaculation should be recited after each Hail Mary: “By thy pure and Immaculate Conception, O Mary, make my body pure and my soul holy.”

The devotion of the Three Hail Marys was also promoted by Fr. John Baptist of Blois, who founded the Confraternity of the Three Hail Marys. Pope Leo XIII granted an indulgence to those who practiced the devotion and Pope Benedict XV raised the Confraternity to the rank of an Archconfraternity.

Image Credit Waiting for the Word