Day 7: Mother Most Pure

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On the Devotion of the Three Hail Marys:

This devotion was revealed by our Blessed Mother Herself to the Benedictine mystic, St. Mechtilde. In the Book of Revelations of St. Mechtilde we read:

"While Mechtilde was beseeching the glorious Virgin to assist her in her hour of death, Our Lady appeared to her and said: 'I will certainly. But I also want you to say three special Hail Mary's to me every day.

'The first 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. In the hour of your death, I will use that power of God the Father to keep any hostile power far from you.

'The second Hail Mary will be said in honor of the Son of God, Who communicated His inscrutable wisdom to me. 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.

'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. In your last hour, I will then change the bitterness of death into divine sweetness and delight."

The secretary who wrote down the revelations of St. Mechtilde at her dictation was St. Gertrude the Great. She was present when St. Mechtilde died and saw Our Lord appearing to her. Later, many revelations regarding the Three Hail Mary Devotion were revealed to her also.

On the Feast of the Annunciation, 1299, when the Ave Maria was being sung in chapel during Matins, St. Gertrude saw a vision of three bright flames emanating from each of the Three Divine Persons, which penetrated the Heart of the Holy Virgin, like three rays. She was given to understand that the three brilliant streams were symbols that: "After the Power of the Father, the Wisdom of the Son, and the merciful Tenderness of the Holy Ghost, nothing approaches the Power, the Wisdom, and the merciful Tenderness of Mary."

In a vision of Our Lady to St. Gertrude:
"To any soul who faithfully prays the Three Hail Mary's, I will appear at the hour of death in a splendor so extraordinary that it will fill the soul with heavenly consolation."