Shalom lakh Miryam

Folks, recently I was perusing some publications stored in the Association of Hebrew Catholic's website, when I stumbled upon the Hail Mary in Hebrew. As I read through the transliteration I was struck by its inner rhythm and coherence. It's poetic and beautiful. It is, in fact, probably as close as we are going to get to what the Archangel Gabriel actually said to the Blessed Mother – provided he didn't speak to her in Aramaic, which he probably did.

Here's the prayer in Hebrew:

Here's the transliteration:

Shalom lakh Miryam habtulah hakdoshah m'leah khesed. Elohim imekh. At m'vorekhet beyn kol hanashim u'pri betenekh, Yeshua, m'vorakh. Miryam hakdoshah, eym Ha'Elohim, titpalli bishvilenu ashshav u'bsha'ah hamavteynu. Amen!

Miryam hakdoshah, eym Ha'Elohim, it's a word pattern I recognize. It's "Holy Mary, Mother of God." The word hakdoshah contains the root word k•d•sh or "kadosh" which means "holy." The angels before the throne in heaven, that's what they sing: "Kadosh, kadosh, kadosh!" or "Holy, holy, holy!"

There's a sense of primitive awe in these words, of expectancy, like the one a child feels early Christmas morning. The words conspire, as it were, to enfold us into the quiet, tender mystery of a God who pulled a mere creature so close to Him that she began to irradiate, just as Moses did when he talked to Him, centuries before. There's a sweetness and a silence surrounding the salutation — Shalom lakh Miryam or Peace with you, Mary! — as if Eternity had stopped for just a second, as God subsumed the young Virgin unto his Love and asked her a question, and then sudden start of time starting to flow wing again after she said her "Yes."

The word kadosh sounds like the "shh" we say when commanding silence and hakdoshah, is more than an adjective, it's an invitation to contemplate in awe-filled silence the delicate mystery of God loving Woman and becoming Man for love of Mankind. Neither God, nor Woman, nor Man, nor Mankind emerged unchanged from the Encounter. Our salvation was made possible by that Encounter. We've all been marked by the love flowing from the tender, silent Encounter that one day culminated on the Cross.

But before that happened, a babe was born and placed on a manger.