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Gospel: Luke 1: 26-38
The angel Gabriel was sent from God
to a town of Galilee called Nazareth,
to a virgin betrothed to a man named Joseph,
of the house of David,
and the virgin’s name was Mary.
And coming to her, he said,
“Hail, full of grace! The Lord is with you.”
But she was greatly troubled at what was said
and pondered what sort of greeting this might be.
Then the angel said to her,
“Do not be afraid, Mary,
for you have found favor with God.
Behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son,
and you shall name him Jesus.
He will be great and will be called Son of the Most High,
and the Lord God will give him the throne of David his father,
and he will rule over the house of Jacob forever,
and of his Kingdom there will be no end.”
But Mary said to the angel,
“How can this be,
since I have no relations with a man?”
And the angel said to her in reply,
“The Holy Spirit will come upon you,
and the power of the Most High will overshadow you.
Therefore the child to be born
will be called holy, the Son of God.
And behold, Elizabeth, your relative,
has also conceived a son in her old age,
and this is the sixth month for her who was called barren;
for nothing will be impossible for God.”
Mary said, “Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord.
May it be done to me according to your word.”
Then the angel departed from her.
The Gospel of the Lord.
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A few years ago, on the cover page of National Geographic there was a picture of the Blessed Virgin Mary with the title, “The Most Powerful Woman in the World.”
More than one billion Catholics refer to her as their spiritual mother, a command first given by Jesus to John at the Cross: “Behold, your mother.”
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Two factors that inspire Marian devotion are her relatability and her many apparitions throughout the centuries.
Like many Christians, Mary was poor. She spent time as a refugee. She accepted God’s plan for her life while she was still a teenager, modeling the art of surrender, which she does again while standing faithfully at the foot of the Cross.
Mary is powerful because she is relatable.
Secondly, she pulls back the veil between heaven and earth. The first reported Marian apparition took place in the year 40 AD, some time after her assumption. There have been an estimated 2,000 apparitions since.
Of these, fewer than 20 have been officially approved by the Vatican because of their rigorous process of verification.
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But one of Mary’s apparitions, which we celebrate today, was her appearance as Our Lady of the Rosary to Saint Dominic in the 13th century. Part of her message to him was that, if he spread devotion to the rosary, then his religious order – the Dominicans – would flourish.
To this day, some 800 years later, Dominican nuns and priests minister around the world, their religious order having produced more than 70 Saints!
In several other apparitions since, Mary has continued encouraging devotion to the rosary, as we not only meditate on the life of Christ, but also seek Mary’s powerful intercession.
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May she, the most powerful woman in the world, pray for us.
Hail Mary…
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Image credits: (1) National Geographic, Mary Most Powerful Woman in the World (2) The Annunciation, Saint Louis Art Museum (3) Free Rosary Stock, StockImages