The First Joyful Mystery: The Annunciation

This post is by Juan Pablo Saju, Verbum’s Representative to the the Spanish-speaking world. He is based in Argentina.  the-navarre-bible-saint-lukes-gospel

For this post, Juan-Pablo has made reference to  Navarre Bible: The Gospel of Luke, available from Verbum’s digital library!

 

The Blessed Virgin Mary in the Gospel of Saint Luke

In this first joyful mystery, I invite you to contemplate Mary, the mother through whom God chose to incarnate and thus dwell among us. God created and filled Mary with many gifts. She is a pure and humble Mother, and she bears in her womb the one who is the purest and most humble: her Son, our Savior Jesus Christ.

The third Gospel throws special light on the Mother of Christ, a light which gently reveals the greatness and beauty of her soul. The Gospel of Luke is a basic source for doctrine of our Lady and also for devotion to the Mother of our Redeemer. Luke’s recounting of the Annunciation has inspired much Christian art in which Mary figures. With the logical exception of Jesus, no other protagonist in the Gospel story has been described with such love and admiration as Mary.

Leonardo_da_Vinci_Annunciation
Annunciation, Leonardo da Vinci, 1475

Nor has any other human creature received such sublime and singular graces as she:

1-      She is “full of grace”(Lk 1:28)

2-      The Lord is with her  (Lk1:28)

3-      She has found favor with God (Lk 1:30)

4-      She conceived by the work of The Holy Spirit (Lk 1:35)

5-      She is the Mother of Jesus (Lk 2:7)

6-      Yet she is a virgin (Lk 1:34)

7-      She is intimately involved in the redemptive mystery of the Cross (Lk 2:35)

8-      She will be blessed by all generations, for the Almighty has done great thing for her (Lk 1:49)

9-      With good reason does the woman in the crowd cry out in praise of Jesus’ Mother (Lk 11:27)

Our Mother has received many graces because God wanted to prepare her to be His Mother. Actually the greatest title of our Mother is to be “the Mother of God.”

Our Lady responds to these gifts in the most faithful and generous way:

1-      Elizabeth calls her blessed because she has believed (Lk 1:45)

2-      The virgin received with humility the archangel’s announcement that she is to become the Mother of God (Lk 1:29)

3-      She asks, in all simplicity, what she has to do to obey God’s will (Lk 1:34)

4-      She surrenders herself completely to God’s plan (Lk 1:38; 2:50)

5-      She hastens to help others (Lk 1,39,56)

6-      She is full of gratitude for the gifts she has received (Lk 1,46-55)

7-      She faithfully observes God’s law (Lk 2,24)

As Paul VI said, Mary “is not only the sublime type of the creature redeemed by Christ’s merits, she is also the type of all mankind as it makes its pilgrim way in faith.”

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Kathryn Hogan
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Written by Kathryn Hogan