A Prayer of One's Own

December 15, 2025

Donna Marie Mazzola

Visitation © Mary Southard, www.ministryofthearts.org. Used with permission.

As my faith life has changed over time, so has my sensitivity to language. When words of traditional prayers no longer ring true, it is difficult to speak them. The Community of St. Bridget uses inclusive language in liturgical prayers to reflect our theology. We offer an inclusive catholic experience that welcomes the feminine story, voice, and vision in its prayers, rituals and ministry.

I grew up, as many of us, praying the rosary with my family, mostly my mother. Though it was often rote and lifeless for me, something about it attuned me to Mary as mother of Jesus and mother of me. As Advent is Mary’s time, this is my story about making the Hail Mary my own.

In my 50s and 60s I practiced yoga and also learned to use a string of mala beads to repeat a mantra, a Sanskrit phrase honoring the Divine Feminine, 108 times. The irony wasn’t lost on me. I had abandoned the catholic prayers of the rosary for Hindu ones. Yet, it was meaningful and had value then and now.

Along with discovering the Community of St. Bridget and reclaiming the traditions I grew up with, in time, I returned to the words of the Hail Mary. I pondered the words I had learned:

Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with you. Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb, Jesus. Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners, now at the hour of our death. Amen.

The words were steeped in atonement theology. Glaring back at me was all that I had ingested from a patriarchal institution. The chiseling began.

Over time, each word and phrase went through a metamorphosis. It was like a piano tuner, hitting a key over and over until “ping” – that’s it. I believe this is a spiritual practice that has had value for me and imagine that each of us has had to do similar work along our own faith journeys.

I listened for words that were current and reflected the transformation going on in me:     Greetings, Mother Mary, you are full of grace and I, too, am full of grace. The Holy One is with you and with me.

In contemplating the wisdom underneath the original prayer, along with the company of Spirit Sophia, a prayer that resonates with my spirit is finding a home in me. It is alive and not surprisingly, still changing.

Greetings, Mother Mary, you are full of grace and wisdom and compassion. The Source of All is with you and with us. Blessed are you among all sentient beings. Blessed is all that you are birthing and that you are birthing through us in these times. Cosmic Mother of God, Mother of All, thank you for praying and walking with us pilgrims, now and at the hour of this Great Turning. Amen.

Song for Meditation: Ave Maria (Caccini) performed by Hayley Westenra and Tomotaka Okamoto (2007 TV Asahi).

https://youtu.be/PI5lWJv4ty0?si=nuWLoofL3LNlL-Yw (performance video)