A blessed solemnity of the Annunciation! to all our readers, which commemorates the conception of the Son of God in the womb of the Blessed Virgin, in the Second Person of the Blessed Trinity united His divine nature with a human nature, through a human body, made from her own, who was given a choice to make by the Angel Gabriel, to which she replied:
Fiat mihi secundum verbum tuum,
May it be done to me according to thy will. This act, and the mission that followed therefrom – to be the Mother of God – was freely chosen by the young Hebrew maiden Mary, Her response should be our own, to anything manifested as the will of God – poignant in these times – whether through an angel of light, or any of the ‘messengers’ of providence whom we may meet in our daily journeys. As Saint Augustine wrote, Mary conceived Christ in her heart before she conceived Him physically.
How can this be, since I know not man?
Tradition teaches that she was a virgin, consecrating herself by vow, thus, in all expectation, foregoing and offering up her opportunity to be the mother of the Messiah.
Yet God, as a God of surprises, often does the unexpected, and chooses the lowly, the meek, the humble, and those who trust most in Him. For the apparent wisdom and strength of the world are not His wisdom and strength, which far surpass anything we could think or hope.
O Virgo Maria, ora pro nobis semper.