In my piece on Project Hail Mary, I mentioned having some thoughts on the title. I was talking about the use of ‘Hail Mary’ to mean a last-ditch attempt. All else has failed, we have no other hope left, this is our ‘Hail Mary’. I believe the use of it in that form comes from American sports. Most likely American football. I’ve seen the term ‘a Hail Mary play’.

It baffles me how the expression came to be used that way. I was brought up as a Roman Catholic. The ‘Hail Mary’ is a prayer to ‘Our Lady’, Mary the mother of Jesus. It is very much a Catholic prayer. Presbyterians, such as members of the Church of Scotland, wouldn’t be heard dead reciting such a prayer. Nor, I imagine, would Baptists, Evangelicals, or other non-Catholic Christians. I’m not sure about the Church of England, they can go either way.

So it surprises me the term would originate in the United States, a country drenched in Christianity, but not so much in Catholicism. True, there have been a couple of Catholic Presidents, including the last vaguely sane one, so it is a mainstream sect there. But it doesn’t seem exactly a major player.

Maybe people have some sort of sense that Catholics have better access? That Catholic prayers have more power? Or is it something like, ‘Even God won’t answer my prayers, maybe his mom will’?

I don’t know, but the thing is, it’s the wrong prayer to choose. The ‘Hail Mary’ isn’t a last-chance prayer, something you save for desperation. It’s not just an everyday prayer for Catholics, it’s one that’s used with mantra-like repetition. It’s mostly said as part of the rosary, where groups of one ‘Our Father’ and ten ‘Hail Marys’ are tracked on a set of beads. The rosary is recited in churches at least weekly at regular services (not the mass), and no doubt daily by real believers.

If you’re looking for a Catholic prayer that’s appropriate for all hope being gone, try the Last Rites (or in Latin, extreme unction), the prayers said for a dying person. Though the intent there is not to prevent the death, but to help to ease the soul on its way.

You’re not really supposed to pray for help on the football field. Saving the world, maybe. But what if those astrophages were ‘God’s will’? Maybe He chose to destroy the world not by the expected fire, but by ice?

What do I know, though, I’ve been an atheist a lot longer than I was a Catholic.