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The Secret of the Rosary

the Angelic Salutation is the source of all good for God's children.
This is what Our Lady herself said to Saint Gertrude: "Never has any man composed anything more
beautiful
than the Hail Mary. No salutation could be dearer to my
heart than those beautiful and dignified words that God the
Father addressed to me Himself."
One day Our Lady said to Saint Mechtilde:
"All the Angelic Salutations that you have given me are
blazoned on my Cloak." (Then she held out a portion of her mantle.) "When this part of my cloak is
full of Hail Marys
I shall gather you up and take you into the Kingdom of my Beloved Son."
Denis the Carthusian, speaking of a vision of Our Lady
to one "of her clients, said:
''We should salute the most Blessed Virgin with our hearts, our lips, and our deeds, so that she
will not be able to say to us:
"'These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. "
 
Richard of Saint Laurent lists the reasons why it is good
to say a Hail Mary at the beginning of a sermon:

1. The Church Militant should follow the example of Saint Gabriel who saluted Mary with great
respect saying the Hail Mary, before he told her the joyous tidings: "Behold thou shalt conceive
and bear a son •••" Thus the Church salutes the Blessed Virgin before announcing the Gospel
2. The congregation will derive more fruit from a sermon
that is prefaced by the Hail Mary; the priest who gives the sermon has the Angel's role as it were.
But in order that the congregation may give birth to Christ in their souls (by
faith) they must first of all obtain this grace from the Blessed
Virgin who gave birth to Him the first time, and together
with her they will become the Mothers of the Son of God. For without Mary they cannot produce
Jesus in their souls.
3. The Gospels show up the power of the Hail Mary; people will get help from Our Lady through this
prayer.
4. To say it is a great safeguard and a way of avoiding dangerous pitfalls: Mary, our
Illuminatrix, gives light to preachers.
5. The members of the congregation, following Our Lady's
example, listen more attentively and are more apt to remember God's words.

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