Q: I suspect you’ve already treated this question, but do you have something to say about the custom (which seems to be growing) of using the Hail Mary to conclude the Universal Prayer?
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A: I didn’t address this directly in Let Us Pray, but I do point out that the pray that concludes the universal prayer is to be:
* said by the priest (GIRM 71)
* addressed to God
* and preferably connected to the scriptures or the homily (Into to the Lectionary for Mass 43).
The Hail Mary does not fulfill these criteria.
I understand the devotion of those who reason that the people can learn the Hail Mary if they say it at Mass the way they recite the Lord’s Prayer and the Creed. But the concerns of the Mass pertain to the proclamation of the Word and sharing of communion.
A public recitation of the angelus or the rosary—apart from Mass— is a better way for the faithful to pray the Hail Mary together.