May it be done to me according to your word
Mary said, “Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord.
May it be done to me according to your word.”
– The Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Luke 1:38 (the full passage of this account is Luke 1:26-38)
 
With these final words of the account of the Annunciation – the “announcement” of the Archangel Gabriel to Mary – our Blessed Mother accepted God’s will for her life.  The “let it be done to me” of the Blessed Virgin Mary began the life of Christ on earth, the very beginning of the flesh of Jesus. 
 
Here is the beautiful “The Annunciation” a fresco by Fra Angelico – I hope you like it!
 
 
 

Rightly, there is much to be considered, studied, and meditated upon regarding the Annunciation (both in the account of Sacred Scripture and the implications of the event for all of Salvation History).  For today, on this Solemnity of the Annunciation (March 25) in such strange times of restrictions and limitations, I would like to see the connection between our Marian Devotion and the Word of God.  (It remains my hope that these days will allow each of us to increase our prayer life and our love for the Word of God – yesterday’s post has many suggestions on how to begin to study the Catholic Faith in these challenging days.)  Mary permits Christ to become the God-Man through saying yes to the Word of God, the word of God’s messenger the Archangel Gabriel.  She abandon’s her will, her whole life, to the Divine Providence of the Lord.
 
Mary, second only to the Son of God, is the greatest witness to the Christian Life: a life abandoned to the Word of God.
 
Pope Saint John Paul II
 
“The mystery of the Incarnation was accomplished when Mary uttered her fiat: "Let it be to me according to your word," which made possible, as far as it depended upon her in the divine plan, the granting of her Son's desire.”  -- Pope Saint John Paul II, Redemptoris Mater (§13.3)
 
Our beloved Pope Saint John Paul II ordered his whole life as an act of Consecration to Jesus through Mary.  This is expressed beautifully in his Episcopal Motto “Totus Tuus” – Latin for “all yours” – which summed up this saint’s deep and enduring devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary; further, “Totus Tuus” is taken from Saint Louis de Montfort’s Marian Consecration prayer ( "Totus tuus ego sum, et omnia mea tua sunt. Accipio te in mea omnia. Praebe mihi cor tuum, Maria." – translation: "I belong entirely to you, and all that I have is yours. I take you for my all. O Mary, give me your heart"). 
 
In our pursuit of coming to know, love, and serve the Lord and live with Him in Heaven forever, we have much to learn from Saint John Paul II – especially how the Blessed Virgin Mary, the Mother of God, is our example and intercessor in the Christian Life.  Among his many writings and reflections on the Blessed Virgin Mary, I would recommend the Encyclical Letter REDEMPTORIS MATER – On the Blessed Virgin Mary in the Life of the Pilgrim Church – which was promulgated on this feast in 1987. 
 
In closing…
This close relationship between God’s word and joy is evident in the Mother of God. Let us recall the words of Saint Elizabeth: “Blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfilment of what was spoken to her by the Lord” (Lk 1:45). Mary is blessed because she has faith, because she believed, and in this faith she received the Word of God into her womb in order to give him to the world. The joy born of the Word can now expand to all those who, by faith, let themselves be changed by God’s word.” – Pope Benedict XVI, Verbum Domini (§124)


Through our devotion to the Mother of God may each of us come to love the Word of God in a more profound way.  Please continue to pray your Rosary each day and build the good habit of studying the faith each day.


Know of my prayers for you, please pray for me!
 
Father Wilke
 
Saint Joseph, Guardian of the Redeemer, pray for us!