Ave Maria, gratia plena. Dominus tecum.

Just some thoughts on this Holy day...

Today marks the beginning of our salvation history. Today, a young woman was born, without the stain of original sin, that would one day give birth to our Lord and Savior. This morning, Father Michael Duffy preached about how God changed the world with this one birth. God didn’t use floods or famine, He didn’t use some celebrity to preach His cause. He went to a small town with a tarnished reputation, granted amnesty from original sin to a newly conceived baby, and watched as His plan to change the world unfolded.

So maybe, yet again, we are being taught a lesson of humility. Maybe we aren’t supposed to be starting foundations, or orchestrating benefit concerts with big names. Maybe, just maybe we can change the world, starting in Kensington- a lost neighborhood with a tainted reputation- starting with one person.

My non-Catholic friends admire, envy, question and doubt the Catholic devotion to Mary. Honestly, what’s not to revere with a thirteen year old girl in a poor town, imbued by the Holy Spirit with the immaculate conception of the Messiah? She is an example of grace (as the Hail Mary chimes in), of faith, of total surrender to the will of God.

So often people act according to how others will respond. We can count ourselves blessed that Mary did not act as most teenagers do. And we can give thanks to God for creating, on this Feast of the Immaculate Conception, a young woman that would become a model of faith for the rest of us who struggle day-to-day with listening to the Word of God.