Kecharitomene

Gabriel does not call Mary by name. He says “Chaire, kecharitōmenē” — “Hail, full of grace” in the Church's traditional rendering. The word is a perfect passive participle of charitoō, “to bestow grace”: the perfect tense describes a completed action whose effect continues, so the sense is one who has been and remains graced. The Church has read this greeting as revealing that Mary was prepared by grace before the angel ever arrived. The Catechism cites it in teaching that she was “enriched by God with gifts appropriate to such a role,” redeemed from the moment of her conception, and that this fullness of grace was entirely God's gift.