Every prayer to Mary is centered on Christ

The maternity of Mary in the order of grace began with the consent she gave in faith at the Annunciation and which she sustained without wavering beneath the cross, and lasts until the eternal fulfillment of all the elect. Taken up to heaven she did not lay aside this salvific duty, but by her constant intercession continued to bring us the gifts of eternal salvation. By her maternal charity, she cares for the brethren of her Son, who still journey on earth surrounded by dangers and cultics, until they are led into the happiness of their true home. (Lumen Gentium 62)

Jesus, the only Mediator, is the Way of our prayer; Mary, His Mother and our Mother, is completely transparent to Him: she shows the Way, "she is its Sign," according to traditional Eastern and Western iconography.

Prayer to the Blessed Mother of God is therefore centered on the Person of Christ manifested in her mysteries. In the countless hymns and antiphons that express this Marian prayer, we usually find two alternating movements: one that "magnifies" the Lord for the "great things" He has done for His humble servant, and through her, for all human beings (cf. Lk 1:46-55); the other that entrusts to the Mother of Jesus the supplications and praises of the children of God, since she now knows the humanity that in her has been espoused by the Son of God.

This double movement of Marian prayer is perfectly expressed in the "Hail Mary."

Parish of Our Lady of Victories (Paris, France), 2017