She heard, she pondered, she believed!

"Mary, do not be afraid, you have won God's favor. Look! You are to conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you must name him Jesus." (Luke 1: 30-31)NJB

Mary in the Annunciation story pondered the message of the angel. She asked for clarification. 'But how can this come about, since I have no knowledge of man?' Then she made up her mind: 'You see before you the Lord's servant, let it happen to me as you have said.'

All her life, Mary prepared herself to say 'yes' to God. Through Mary's 'fiat' or yes, Jesus became physically formed in her womb. The Annunciation is the celebration of the robust faith of Mary. Mary becomes the model for our true vocation in life. Whoever hears the word of God and ponders it in his heart everyday becomes disposed for God's action. Of the incarnation, St Augustine and St Leo said that Mary conceived the word of God first in her heart and then in her body.

"In the faith of his humble handmaid, the Gift of God found the acceptance he had awaited from the beginning of time. She whom the Almighty made 'full of grace' responds by offering her whole being: "Behold I am the handmaid of the Lord; let it be done to me according to your word." (Catechism of the Catholic Church #2617)

Pope Leo XIII in Encyclical, Octobri Mense wrote: "The eternal Son of God, about to take upon himself our nature for the saving and ennobling of man, and about to consummate thus a mystical union between himself and all mankind, did not accomplish his design without obtaining the free consent of her who was to become his Mother. She was the representative of all mankind, according to the illustrious and learned opinion of St Thomas, who says that 'in the annunciation was awaited the consent of the Virgin standing in the place of humanity.'"

"The Navarre Bible: Text and Commentaries" on the Annunciation

Books on Mary