Mary, Mother of God

From a homily of Blessed Simon of Cascia, priest:

Imagine how reverently the angel stood before this glorious village girl, knowing that she was to be the mother of the Son of God! See and contemplate how humbly and modestly she listened and gave answer to the angel who had come as ambassador and was awaiting her reply.

What would you have done if you had been at the door of this room or cell and had heard this holy, pleasing dialogue between this blessed girl and the angel? Would not your heart have been sweetly riven by great joy and boundless consolation? Harder than stone and steel is the heart that is not riven as it reads or hears or thinks about the words the virgin spoke to the angel and the angel to the virgin. Would you not have cried aloud, humbly but very fervently and from a full heart: "Sweet Madonna, kindest of women, I beg you, agree quickly to what the angel says, so that your Son may deliver us from the damnation in which our first mother has put us!"

What would you have said and done, Christian soul, when you heard the Virgin Mary say to the angel: "I am the servant and handmaiden of the Lord; be it done to me according to your word?" At that moment, the power of the Holy Spirit immediately formed and generated the body of Christ form the pure blood of the Virgin, infused and newly created soul into that body, and united the divinity inseparably with that soul and body. We must therefore firmly believe that Christ is true God and true man, the Son of Mary who was a virgin before, during, and after his birth. Those who do not belive this will be damned, unless they are converted to the true faith.

Sincerely in Christ,

Rev. Jeffery A. Fasching