03/25/2026
Feast of Mar. 25th
The Story of the Annunciation of the Lord
The feast of the Annunciation of the Lord, now recognized as a solemnity, was first celebrated in the fourth or fifth century. Its central focus is the Incarnation: God has become one of us. From all eternity God had decided that the Second Person of the Blessed Trinity should become human. Now, as Luke 1:26-38 tells us, the decision is being realized.
The God-Man embraces all humanity, indeed all creation, to bring it to God in one great act of love. Because human beings have rejected God, Jesus will accept a life of suffering and an agonizing death: “No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends” (John 15:13).
Mary has an important role to play in God’s plan. From all eternity, God destined her to be the mother of Jesus and closely related to him in the creation and redemption of the world. We could say that God’s decrees of creation and redemption are joined in the decree of Incarnation. Because Mary is God’s instrument in the Incarnation, she has a role to play with Jesus in creation and redemption. It is a God-given role. It is God’s grace from beginning to end. Mary becomes the eminent figure she is only by God’s grace. She is the empty space where God could act. Everything she is she owes to the Trinity.
Mary is the virgin-mother who fulfills Isaiah 7:14 in a way that Isaiah could not have imagined. She is united with her son in carrying out the will of God (Psalm 40:8-9; Hebrews 10:7-9; Luke 1:38).
Together with Jesus, the privileged and graced Mary is the link between heaven and earth. She is the human being who best, after Jesus, exemplifies the possibilities of human existence. She received into her lowliness the infinite love of God. She shows how an ordinary human being can reflect God in the ordinary circumstances of life. She exemplifies what the Church and every member of the Church is meant to become. She is the ultimate product of the creative and redemptive power of God. She manifests what the Incarnation is meant to accomplish for all of us.
Reflection
Sometimes spiritual writers are accused of putting Mary on a pedestal and thereby, discouraging ordinary humans from imitating her. Perhaps such an observation is misguided. God did put Mary on a pedestal and has put all human beings on a pedestal. We have scarcely begun to realize the magnificence of divine grace, the wonder of God’s freely given love. The marvel of Mary—even in the midst of her very ordinary life—is God’s shout to us to wake up to the marvelous creatures that we all are by divine design. The Annunciation of the Lord provides believers hope.
continued...
Mary first conceived Jesus in faith and then in the flesh, when she said “yes” to the message God gave her through the angel. What does this mean? It means that God did not want to become man by bypassing our freedom; he wanted to pass through Mary’s free assent, through her “yes.” He asked her: “Are you prepared to do this?” And she replied: “Yes.”
But what took place most singularly in the Virgin Mary also takes place within us, spiritually, when we receive the word of God with a good and sincere heart and put it into practice. It is as if God takes flesh within us; he comes to dwell in us, for he dwells in all who love him and keep his word. It is not easy to understand this, but really, it is easy to feel it in our heart. —Pope Francis, October 12, 2013
Mary: Handmaid of the Lord
The Gospel of Saint Luke presents us with Mary, a girl from Nazareth, a small town in Galilee, in the outskirts of the Roman Empire and on the outskirts of Israel as well. A village. Yet the Lord’s gaze rested on her, on this little girl from that distant village, on the one he had chosen to be the Mother of his Son.
In view of this motherhood, Mary was preserved from original sin, from that fracture in communion with God, with others and with creation, which deeply wounds every human being. But this fracture was healed in advance in the Mother of the One who came to free us from the slavery of sin. The Immaculata was written in God’s design; she is the fruit of God’s love that saves the world.
And Our Lady never distanced herself from that love: throughout her life her whole being is a “yes” to that love, it is the “yes” to God. But that didn’t make life easy for her! When the angel calls her “full of grace” (Lk 1:28), she is “greatly troubled” for in her humility she feels she is nothing before God.
The angel consoles her: “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus” (v. 30,31). This announcement troubles her even more because she was not yet married to Joseph; but the angel adds: “The Holy Spirit will come upon you…therefore the child to be born will be called holy, the Son of God” (v. 35). Mary listens, interiorly obeys, and responds: “Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord; let it be done to me according to your word” (v.38). —Pope Francis, December 8, 2013
3 thoughts on “Pope Francis on Mary’s ‘Yes’”
Kennadi Lower
December 8, 2022 at 6:05 am
Behold, I am the handmaiden of the Lord, let it be done unto me according to thy word. Amen! Alleluia! – Kennadi Lower
Ignatius Anyanwu
December 13, 2024 at 8:40 am
The Immaculate Conception, a dogma, yes, because it is divine truth revealed by the Most Holy Mother herself in the Marian Apparition to St. Bernadette Soubirous in 1858.
However, it is reasonable to recognize, that God must have envisioned the Singular grace and privilege to the Virgin Mary, in the mystery of the Incarnation, and embodied in the Anunciation -that a worthy temple had to be prepared for the Incarnate Word on earth.
This Singular grace and privilege is second only to the grace of the Incarnation, in order of graces the Almighty God has granted humanity.
This Singular grace and privilege is akin to a leavening agent, that transformed and elevated the status of God’s creature, Virgin Mary, into a Mustard tree (recall the parable).
The Holy mystery of the Immaculate Conception of the Virgin Mary, touches every aspect of the life of Christians. The Redeemer need that Immaculate Womb inorder to come dwell with humanity, and in that Holy womb He obtained the body and blood for the Saving Sacrifice, which, He in turn, gives to humanity at the Last Supper. And with that gift of His body and blood, we celebrate Mass everyday to perpetutate that Saving Sacrifice for atonment.
The Immaculate Conception should not be just, a dogma, divine truth revealed, but venerated, through which, we honor the Blessed Virgin Mother, to give thanks and glory to our God, who in His infinite love and mercy has given so much to humanity, through the Incarnate Word, and the Immaculate Conception.
The Litany of the Immaculate Conception should be prayed by the faithful, to make reparation to the Sacred, and Immaculate Hearts.
Audio: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zq5Ugiv2Qt4
Saints celebrated on this day.
St. Alfwold
St. Dismas
St. Dula
Bl. Emilian Kovch
St. Harold
St. Hermenland
St. Humbert of Morailles
Bl. James Bird
St. Kennocha
St. Lucy Filippini
St. Pelagius of Laodicea
St. Quirinus of Tegernsee
St. Robert of Bury
