What is the Origin of the "Hail Mary"?

The first part of the "Hail Mary" is taken entirely from the Gospel. Read  Luke 1:28 and Luke 1:42. The second part is a text formulated by the Church during its history.

Hail Mary [or Rejoice,Mary]:the greeting of the angel Gabriel opens this prayer. It is God himself who, through his angel as an intermediary, greets Mary. Our prayer dares to take up this greeting to Mary with the regard God had  for the        lowliness of his humble servant and to exult in the joy he finds in her.

Full of grace,the Lord is with thee: These two phrases of the angel's greeting shed light on one another. Mary is full of grace because the Lord is with her.
The grace with which she is filled is the presence of him who is the source of all grace. "Rejoice... O Daughter of Jerusalem... the Lord your God is in your midst."Mary in whom the Lord himself has just made his dwelling, is the daughter of Zion in person, the ark of the covenant.The place where the glory of the Lord dwells. She is "the dwelling of God...with men." Full of grace, Mary is wholly given over to him who has come to dwell in her and whom she is about to give to the world.

Blessed art thou among women and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus: After the angel's greeting, we make Elizabeth's greeting our own. "Filled with the Holy Spirit," Elizabeth is the long succession of generations who have called Mary "blessed." "Blessed is she who believed..." Mary is "blessed among women" because she believed in the fulfillment of the Lord's word. Abraham, because of his faith, became a blessing for all the nations of the earth. Mary, because of her faith became the mother of believers, through whom all nations of the earth receive him who is God 's own blessing: Jesus the "fruit of thy womb."

Holy Mary, mother of God: With Elizabeth we marvel, "And why is this granted me, that the mother of my Lord should come to me?" Because she gives us Jesus, her Son, Mary is Mother of God and our mother, we can entrust all our cares and petitions to her: she prays for us she prayed for herself: "Let it be  to me according to your word." By entrusting ourselves to her prayer, we abandon ourselves to the will of God together with her: "Thy will be done."

Pray for the sinners, now and at the hour of our death: By asking Mary to pray for us, we acknowledge ourselves to be poor sinners and we address ourselves to the "Mother of Mercy," the holy one. We give ourselves over to her now, in the today of our lives. And our trust broadens further, already at the present moment, to surrender "the hour of our death" wholly to her care. May she be there as she was at her son's death on the cross.May she welcome at the hour of our passing to lead us to her son, Jesus, in paradise. [ See CCC 2676- 2677 ]

"What is the devotion of the "Three Hail Marys"

The three Hail Marys are recited in honor of the three great priviledges bestowed upon the Blessed Virgin Mary by the most Blessed Trinity - the Power of the Father, the Wisdom of the Son, and the Merciful Tenderness of the Holy Spirit.

When reciting the Rosary, why do we say five decades of the Hail Marys,  Joyful Mysteries,Sorrowful and Glorious Mysteries, it is a perfect number or is it a reminder of the 150 Psalms? What is the history of the Rosary?

There is a connection with Mary's Psalter (the Rosary) and the recitation of the 150 Psalm (psalter) of the Bible, as in ancient times, monks and clergy used to recite the entire psalter every day. But, as many people in that day were either illiterate or could not afford a psalter, the practice of saying one hundred and fifty Pater Nosters (Our Fathers in Latin)developed as an alternative to remind them of the 150 Psalms.

Now coming to the Rosary, according to tradition, it was St. Dominic de Guzman (in the 12th century) to whom Our Lady revealed the praying of the 150 Hail Marys along with his preaching of the salvation mysteries to combat the great heresy of his day. (The Dominicans were preachers). Saint Dominic though of the "Rosary"as a crown of roses on the head of the heavenly Queen. With the introduction of the Rosary, a new kind of psalter- the Marian Psalter - the Rosary - came into being. Rosary Beads usually contain 50 beads in groups of ten (the decades), with an additional large bead before each decade. These numbers were chosen to match the 150 Psalms, therefore 159 Hail Marys (the 15 Mysteries

When Greece was threatened by the Turks, back in 1571, the Italian navigators prayed the Rosary. They attributed the victory of the Battle of Lepanto (today Navpaktos) on October 7, 1571to our Lady. Then, in the sixteenth century, the feast of "Our Last of Victory" which was later the feast of "Our Lady of the Rosary" on 7th October was established by Saint (Pope) Pius V to commemorate that victory. The Pope, then, himself a Dominican, issued an apostolic letter establishing the twenty Mystery form of the Holy Rosary as the official, Church-authorized version. This was the prescribed format for the next four centuries. In the year 2002, Pope Jonh Paul II published an apostolic letter that added five more Mysteries (The Luminous Mysteries), making a total of twenty authorized Mysteries.

The Rosary is an "epitome of the whole Gospel." It is a contemplative prayer, and it has great intercessory power and every Catholic should pray it regularly. The Rosary - in Arabic- "misbahah", "praise tool", is NOT at all meant to "praise the Virgin, as if she were a goddess", but to praise the Lord through and with Mary who had sung: "My soul praises the Lord and my spirit rejoices in God my Saviour." As a master of fact, the "Hail Marys" are preceded by the Lord's Prayer ("Our Father") and always followed by the "Glory" - not to Mary - but to the triun One God. The Muslim world has also a "misbahah", for the praise of Allah, with 33 beads - which, multiplied by three, reach the number of 99, the traditional "best names of Allah" (al-assmaa' al-husana). This is an opportunity to clarify that the Church never worshipped- not ever advocated the woeship of the Virgin Mary as a goddess, though , we might find among individuals, sometimes, some exaggerations in popular devotion, contrary to the Scriptures and also according to the Church directives. [ See CCC 2678 ]

Where are the prayers and Mysteries of the Rosary mentioned in the Bible?

The Rosary is composed of biblical prayers - and meditates mainly on                   biblical events,with the  exception of the Assumption and the Coronation of Our Lady which is accepted by Catholic - Orthodox and even Anglican creeds and traditions. The prayers are:

- The Our Father (Matthew 6)
- The Glory is a wonderful doxology. One finds often similar formulas at the beginning  of Pauline Letters.
- The Hail Mary - the first part of which is taken from the greetings of the Angel Gabriel and of Elizabeth.  

Is the Rosary simply a repetitive prayer?

The repetition of the Hail Mary is not meant to awaken a sleeping god but rather to express our love and devotion, to God and Mary, for how can we forget that the Lord has done mighty things for her? Like the beloved disciples we welcome Jesus' mother into our homes by praying the Rosary. Repetition of prayer is not wrong. The Lord himself repeated the same prayer thrice at Gethsemane. Psalm 136 (135 according to the Greek) repeats "Because eternal is his love (or mercy)"26 times. When bishop Fulton Sheen was asked by a young fiancee: "Why do we repeat the Hail Mary so often?" The Bishop asked him: "How many times do you tell your fiancee that you love her?" Let us not forget that the Rosary is a popular prayer, but not an official one we find in the Holy Mass or in the Breviary. 

By praying the Rosary,doesn't it seem that we are placing Mother Mary higher than God. since the 'Hail Mary' far outnumbers the 'Our Father'and 'Glory Be'?

Of course, our devotion must be to God the Father through Jesus Christ. However, the intercession of our Mother Mary is to take us to Jesus Christ and to God the Father. As John Paul II said,"To Jesus to Mary". Her intercession is not independent of Jesus Christ,like in the normal family the role of the mother is not separated(or should not be) from the one of the father.We venerate the  Virgin Mary (we don't adore her, we adore only God) because she is the Mother of God and she wants us to be with him. Besides, the prayer "Hail Mary" is almost all taken from the Gospel,which, along with the tradition of the Church, is the    source of Jesus Christ's teaching, and we glorify her for the (fruit of thine womb 'Jesus, who is the center of this prayer. Ask the Virgin  Mary to help you to know Jesus Christ better and  she will do it.         

During the season of Lent should we say the Sorrowful Mysteries every day?Or we can say all the mysteries like we normally do?

During Lent we can either recite only the Sorrowful Mysteries or as usual all the Mysteries.The Rosary is a private prayer,so there is no official rule from the Church about it. Personally, I prefer to say all the Mysteries as usual because we have to contemplate on the whole life of Jesus and not only on    one part of it. Even during Lent, we should meditate on his birth and other aspects of his life.The mystery of Jesus has to be concentrated in complete vision, with the help of all the mysteries and at all times of the year.

How are the Saints guide for Prayer?

The saints are our models for prayer by the example of their lives, their writings, and their intense prayer life.Even now in heaven, they contemplate God, praise him and constantly care for those whom they have left on earth. We can and should ask them to intercede for us and for the whole world.Their intercession is their most exalted service to God 's plan. In the communion of saints, throughout the history of the Church, there have developed different types of spiritualities that teach us how to live and to practice the way of prayer.[See CCC 2683-2684]