Gratia plena...

Athanasius over at Suffering World has a superb post, after a manner consonant with my own sentiments, on the Ave Maria - viewed from a Classical perspective. The post highlights the etymological significance of kharis (Latin gratia) and how this ties in with profound reciprocal communion of Grace Godwards to Manwards through the medium of the Theotokos. The significance of words is something I find very interesting, although my education was too ill to encompass anything so good. My language and English tuition at school was solely limited to bad modern French and a ghastly green anthology of poor poesy and appalling prose. Would that I were coeval with Tolkien...