I recently read about an vision of the Immaculate Mary to Saint Matilde. Mary related her the following information about the annunciation of Saint Gabriel:

In my pride, when I read this, I mocked it. I thought to myself:

“Hah, Ave is the Latin version of the angel’s greeting in the Vulgate. In the original Greek version of Luke, Saint Gabriel says, “Chaire,” not the Latin “Ave.”

I, being prideful, chalked this up to pious superstition. I assumed that Mary would not say something so silly to St Matilde.

How very wrong I was!

I was reading Cornelius de Lapide’s commentary on Luke’s Gospel, and he made an excellent point. Saint Gabriel would have addressed Mary in Hebrew, and likely would have begun his annunciation with the greeting: חוה pronounced “cha-ve” meaning “Live” as in “Long live the king” or “Viva Papa” or “Viva Christo Rey.”

Now then, according to Genesis 3:20, the Hebrew name of Eve is חוה or “cha-va” meaning “living” because, as the Holy Spirit explains, Eve is the “Mother of the Living.”

This shows that there is indeed a mystical meaning in the original Hebrew greeting of Gabriel to Mary, and that the Virgin’s explanation to St Matilde is linguistically accurate within the limits of Hebraic vocabulary. Moreover, this further links Mary as the New Eve! It also reveals that the Latin Vulgate version captures the original Semitic meaning through an Indo-European root.

This is a huge find and it has made my week!

Chava Miriam! Hail Mary!