Who could better fully realize (and lead us to understand and embrace!) the true depth of meaning enfolded within the Angelic Salutation to Mary (the "Hail Mary") than the "Seraphic Doctor," St. Bonaventure? In this masterwork of Marian spirituality, Bonaventure guides us line by line through this treasured Catholic prayer, revealing many remarkable, even "mystical" dimensions of Mary's unique blessing and unsurpassed Grace – a Grace which, as St. Jerome writes (quoted in this volume by Bonaventure) "… nature possesses not, which custom uses not, which eclipses reason, which the mind of man is unable to compass, which makes the heavens tremble, and strikes dumb the earth, which amazes every inhabitant of Heaven, all this was divinely announced by Gabriel to Mary, and was fulfilled in Christ." THE MIRROR OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY is every Catholic's indispensable guide, not only to a better understanding of the "Hail Mary" prayer, but to a deeper personal devotion to the Mother of God.
