The angel Gabriel delivered the first “Hail Mary” when God sent him to Mary of Nazareth with a special request.  Gabriel explained God’s Plan to Mary, that God had chosen her to bear His Only Son, and to call Him, “Jesus”.  Thank you Mary for saying, “Yes”, to Gabriel.  God chose Mary from the very start of salvation history – in The Garden of Eden – to be “The Woman” who would do battle with the serpent, Lucifer.

Six months before he appeared to Mary, Gabriel appeared to Zacharias, the High Priest and husband of Mary’s cousin, Elizabeth.  When Zacharias did not believe that they could conceive in their old age, Gabriel rendered him mute when he did not believe what Gabriel told him.

 

Gabriel first appears in the Bible when he appears to the prophet Daniel after he had a vision.  Gabriel explained the vision to Daniel.  Gabriel first appeared to Daniel as a man.  The second time, he came to him “in swift flight at the time of the evening sacrifice” (Daniel 9:21).