Together with Mary

Pour forth, we beseech thee O Lord, Thy grace into our hearts,

That we, to whom the Incarnation of Christ, Thy Son, was made known by the message of an angel, 

May, by His passion and cross, be brought to the glory of His resurrection, 

Through the same Christ Our Lord. Amen. 

Have you ever stopped to think about that second line of this prayer of the Angelus: That we, to whom the Incarnation was made known?

The other day, I was struck by the fact the word we was used there. We all weren't there personally when the Angel Gabriel announced the birth of Jesus. It was just Mary alone. And the prayer doesn't allude to the fact eventually the whole human race knew about Jesus, but that we were made aware of it by the message of an angel. How can this be if we weren't there?

The prayer reminds us that we are all united under Christ's body. Mary was a real physical person who was assumed into Heaven, and she remains connected, of the same body under Christ, as each of us. She was the fully human link for us to her son Jesus, and thus to our Heavenly Father.

So, in essence, the Incarnation was proclaimed to each of us, through Mary. And through our union with her, we are able to be that much closer to her son Jesus. This is why Mary is such a wonderful friend to have -- not only because of her exemplary traits of femininity and maternity, but because she was God's mother and knows Jesus most intimately. She can share her intimate knowledge of Jesus with us, and then we can only know Him more closely by clinging to His mother.

God wanted all of us to know the message of His son through the Angel Gabriel, and then also through turning to His mother. What a wonderful blessing to be part of Christ's body on earth, united with His body in Heaven, including His Blessed Mother.

The Assumption of Mary into Heaven