Hail Mary

I was officially a Catholic from 4th to about 7th grade. There is a lot of beauty, grace and magic in Catholicism, and more than other religions it seems to harbor multitheistic diversity even when these subcultures are officially shunned by the orthodoxy of the Church.

Eventually, it was the demons, misogeny and antisex positions of the Church that drove me to Atheism for a long, very healing time.

Someone who I really missed from Catholicism was Our Lady of Guadalupe. Upon renewing my religious devotions, I was pleased to find the Catholic Mary, Our Lady of Guadalupe, Virgin and Mother, very welcome in modern Pagan witchcraft.

One of the sweet spells taught to us by the Catholic nuns was to say the Hail Mary whenever you heard ambulance sirens. It just seems like the Christian (or Pagan) thing to do, to say a prayer for a stranger in need. I found myself doing it even in my atheiest of days.

Here is my Pagan/feminist rewrite of the Hail Mary prayer, employing very few subtle changes that hopefully even a real Catholic could appreciate:

Hail Mary, full of grace,
The Power is with thee.
Blessed art Thou as Woman,
And blessed is the fruit of Thy womb.
Holy Mary, Mother of God,
Pray with us mortals
Now, in the hour of our need.

Amen

Say this prayer whenever you hear StarFlight, an ambulance or fire rescue siren, or feel in danger yourself.