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” According to Luke 1:28 - “Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with you.” These are the words spoken by God and delivered to us by the angel Gabriel (who is a messenger of God). Thus, when Catholics recite this verse while praying the Rosary, they are uttering the words of God. / Also, the phrase “full of grace” is translated from the Greek word kecharitomene. This is a unique title given to Mary, and suggests a perfection of grace from a past event. Mary is not just “highly favored.” She has been perfected in grace by God. “Full of grace” is only used to describe one other person - Jesus Christ in John 1:14.”

Hmmm...” 28And coming in, he said to her, “Greetings, favored one! The Lord is with you.” - NASB

Guess there is some debate on how best to translate the verse. Here is an explanation that seem reasonable, although I don’t know Greek so it could be a bunch of baloney...

http://www.ichthys.com/mail-Mary-full-of-grace.html

Mind you - this is not an insult to Mary, or an attempt to overturn early councils. I honestly don’t care what Mary is called, as long as it isn’t God. And I find the Immaculate Conception kind of strange, but I’m not smart enough to figure out the implications. And of course, that probably displays my amazing lack of curiosity...

Well, here's what we Greeks have done with Luke 1 for a devotion, the Akathist to the Holy Mother of God, the Chairetismoi. It was written in the 6th century by +Romanos the Melodist. We chant this on Friday evenings during Great Lent. Notice how the Archangel is himself in awe of Mary. This is no average, good girl. . http://lent.goarch.org/media/audio.asp?pageloc=akathist&play=true&title=The%20Akathist%20Hymn&location=/en/services/akathist/eikona/akathist_MSTR.mov#akathist "And I find the Immaculate Conception kind of strange....""

So do we Orthodox; so did +Thomas Aquinas. Given the West's concept of Original Sin, however, an argument can be made for it. The problem is that it makes the Theotokos something other than a human mother and thus deprives Christ of His human nature, a Christoloical heresy of ever there was one.

Well, here's what we Greeks have done with Luke 1 for a devotion, the Akathist to the Holy Mother of God, the Chairetismoi. It was written in the 6th century by +Romanos the Melodist. We chant this on Friday evenings during Great Lent. Notice how the Archangel is himself in awe of Mary. This is no average, good girl.

http://lent.goarch.org/media/audio.asp?pageloc=akathist&play=true&title=The%20Akathist%20Hymn&location=/en/services/akathist/eikona/akathist_MSTR.mov#akathist

"And I find the Immaculate Conception kind of strange....""

So do we Orthodox; so did +Thomas Aquinas. Given the West's concept of Original Sin, however, an argument can be made for it. The problem is that it makes the Theotokos something other than a human mother and thus deprives Christ of His human nature, a Christological heresy if ever there was one.

No great conundrum there: the NASB got it wrong.