Q&A: St. Luke’s Gospel uses the words, “Rejoice 0 highly favored daughter.” These words could also be applied to St. Elizabeth, St. Mary Magdalene and other women in both the Old and New Testament, but only Our Blessed Mother is full of grace. To me this takes away the privilege given to her by God the Father. Which greeting honors God the Father, and Our Blessed Mother best?
Fr. James McMillan, SMM
Submitted by AZ., Detroit, MI.
Which title is best?
The words: “Rejoice, O highly favored daughter,” can certainly be applied to many women of the Old and the New Testaments. The Church has traditionally understood these words as applying to the Blessed Mother in an extraordinary manner, in the sense that she is being greeted as “full of grace”. She is the eminently favored daughter of God, because her fulness of grace and consequent lack of any stain of sin, makes her specially favored by God. This is the interpretation — long accepted in Catholic tradition—stressed by Pius IX in his declaration of Our Lady’s Immaculate Conception.
