“Hail full of grace, the Lord is with Thee.” The Feast of the Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin Mary commemorates the most important event in human history, the Incarnation of Our Lord (Gospel) in the womb of a Virgin (Epistle). Today is the day on which the Archangel Gabriel came from Heaven with the Gospel, the good news from Heaven, that God would become man to save the world from sin and death and an eternity separated from the love of God.

On this day the Word was made flesh, and united to itself forever the humanity of Jesus. March 25 is indeed the anniversary of the ordination of Christ as priest, for it is by the anointing of the divinity that He has become the Supreme Pontiff, Mediator between God and man. The mystery of the incarnation has earned for Mary her most glorious title, that of “Mother of God” (Collect). “Standing on the threshold of divinity” since she gave to the Word of God the flesh to which he was hypostatically united, the Virgin has always been honored by a supereminent worship, that of hyperdulia.

To March 25 will correspond, nine months later, December 25, the day on which will be manifested to the world the miracle as yet only known to heaven and to the humble Virgin.

The reversal of the punishments leveled against Adam and Eve and the entire human race after the fall was initiated today with those most famous words from St. Luke’s Gospel—”Hail full of grace, the Lord is with thee. Blessed art thou among women.”