Hail Mary - Japanese

May is the Month of Mary. As we focus our prayer on Our Lady, you can listen to our audio series ‘Full of Grace’. Here we pray the Hail Mary in Japanese - an East Asian language spoken by about 128 million people. There is a wooden statue of the Blessed Virgin Mary - Our Lady of Akita - that is venerated by the faithful of Japan after Marian apparitions were reported in 1973 by Sister Agnes Katsuko Sasagawa in the remote area of Yuzawadai, on the outskirts of Akita. Sister Sasagawa was miraculously healed of a hearing impairment after the visions. Extraordinarily, the apparitions of the weeping statue of the Virgin Mary were broadcast on Japanese national television. The power of prayer overcomes the difficulties we face with the COVID19 pandemic. We have been sent – through Facebook messenger, WhatsApp voice notes and email – recitations of this sacred prayer that we pray through the decades of the Rosary. The aim is that we stand in solidarity with believers the world over and entrust our joys and sorrows (and everything in-between) to Mary. Our audio is truly global – for example our Burmese Hail Mary comes from Yangon engulfed in a frightening coup that certainly needs our prayers.