150th Anniversary Dinner Presentation

At the dinner in celebration of Ave Maria Press's 150th Anniversary, a group of Ave employees stood before the many guests to offer an interactive history of Holy Cross apostolate. Members from every department stood before the large crowd recounting significant events throughout our history.

The presentation concluded by praying together the “Ave Maria,” a Hail Mary. It was a fitting prayer not only because it recalls our namesake, but because the decades of the Rosary symbolically represented the number 150.

To quote Tom Grady's conclusion to the presentation:

Which brings us from 1865 to the present . . . and from there let us turn briefly to the future and could we do so with a prayer? One of our authors responded to a request from us for a short testimonial with some words that inspired a thought that I’m sure she hadn’t intended. She wrote that we must be proud of Ave’s “fifteen decades” and “excited to start a new one,” and while I know she meant years–150 years–my mind turned to another meaning of the word and to the decades of the Rosary.

Prior to 2002, when Saint John Paul II introduced the Luminous Mysteries, we would just be finishing a full Rosary, all three sets of mysteries: 150 Ave Marias. We ask you now to pray with and for us in the hope that our glorious years lie ahead.