The Annunciation of the Lord

On March 25 — nine months before Christmas — the Church celebrates the moment when the angel Gabriel greeted Mary in Nazareth and asked her consent to the Incarnation. Her "Let it be done unto me according to your word" is the hinge on which salvation history turns. The Annunciation is at once a Marian feast and a feast of the Lord, marking the very beginning of Jesus' life on earth.

The scene has been depicted more often than perhaps any other in Christian art, from the catacombs of Priscilla in Rome to the canvases of Fra Angelico and Leonardo. Each rendering captures the same mystery: the infinite God waits upon the free answer of a young woman. In Mary's fiat the Church sees the model of every human yes to grace — a consent that changed the course of creation.