When words fail my mother who, to my knowledge, never recited the Rosary as such, in the last month or so of her life would constantly exclaim the words ‘Hail Mary’ and I would finish the prayer for and with her. One of the most moving and beautiful moments one has as a priest visiting people who are dying is that, despite apparently losing most ability to converse, invariably they are easily able to recite with you the Hail Mary. Of course, what is especially moving in these instances is the concluding petition: ‘Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners now and at the hour of our death. Amen.’
Facing death, facing the ultimate encounter with Divine Love, facing the unimaginable transformation of our existence, we abandon our own words and seek the intercession of one who already shares in Christ’s divine glory. In the ‘Hail Mary’ we ask the one who is ‘blessed among women’ to pray for us as our own words fail. But there is an even deeper intercession below the articulate level, available to us at any time. In writing to the Romans St Paul tells us, ‘When we cannot choose words to pray properly, the Spirit himself expresses our plea in a way that could never be put into words, and God who knows everything in our hearts knows perfectly well what he means.’
We have all been in various situations. One loves someone so much – a child, a parent, a spouse or partner – yet when one tries to pray for that person the words seem only a pale shadow of the intensity of feeling and total love one feels. Stop! Simply put the person or situation before God and say nothing. The Holy Spirit will express our heartfelt prayer for us. One’s heart is breaking with grief for someone close who is very ill or dying. Or one feels a terrible anxiety or anguish. Words don’t come easily even though one wants to pray. Stop! Put the person or situation before God and say nothing. The Holy Spirit will express our heartfelt prayer for us.
Sometimes we have the idea that God has to be assaulted with a torrent of words to get the message we are trying to convey into his loving presence. But when Our Lord was teaching his disciples how to pray he said ‘In your prayers do not babble as the pagans do, for they think that by using many words they will make themselves heard.’ (Matt 6:7) Perhaps this is all accentuated by the constant messaging of ‘social media’. So that, when trying to pray we can get anxious when there is a lull in the noise and no words come. We fear that God will think we have given up praying. We should fall back on tried and tested, short and simple prayers such as the ‘Our Father’ or the ‘Hail Mary’ – the little mustard seeds which we sow in faith. These are good, but there can be occasions when we are faced with situations where St Paul encourages us to relax beyond even these wonderful short prayers.
We can relax with the wordless confidence that comes from what we learnt from St Paul two weeks ago, that the Holy Spirit makes a dwelling place in our hearts. It is little wonder then that, ‘When we cannot choose words to pray properly, the Spirit himself expresses our plea in a way which could never be put into words and God who knows everything in our hearts knows perfectly well what he means.’ Holy Spirit, divine companion dwelling in our hearts, pray for us. Amen.
© Rev Prof Michael Tate, https:///www.liturgyhelp.com/calendar/date/2026Jul19/0/HomMiTa