The Annunciation

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Nine months from today we'll be wishing everybody a Merry Christmas!  Christmas itself is an arbitrary date, but if that is the birth of the Lord then just count backwards nine months and March 25th is when Mary conceived.

We sometimes focus on her last words "May it be done to me according to your word.”   But there are a couple of steps before that that really complete the picture.  When the angel greeted her, Luke says that she was greatly troubled.  And then when the angel says "you will bear a son" she says "how can this be?"

Maybe in our lives, we have times of trouble.  Times when we are not sure how this can be.  Perhaps we can ask the intercession of Mary to allow ourselves to voice her final words "Let it be done to me according to your word."

Msgr. Daniel F. Hoye