‘Look, the young woman is with child and shall bear a son and shall name him Immanuel’ (Isaiah 7:14). We have all heard this beautiful Gospel a thousand times. Favoured one? Have you ever stopped to wonder why Mary was chosen? Surely, for possibly the most important role ever given to a human being, a queen would be chosen, or a wealthy woman, or a woman of influence, a powerful woman would be chosen – surely!

But no, a young girl, a village girl – simple and unassuming. We know little from the Scriptures about Mary. But Mary from Nazareth is a humble girl. She is deeply prayerful – attuned to the voice of God, the whisper of God within her. She is trusting. She trusts her ordinariness – that somehow, in the mysterious events all around her, she will cope; she will be the instrument of grace that God intends. She is generous and others-centred: upon hearing of her cousin Elizabeth, she ‘hurries’ to visit her, concerned for her welfare. She is prayerful, and she often ‘ponders these things in her heart.’ She is others-centred and notices at the wedding feast at Cana that ‘they have no wine’. (John 2:3).

But most importantly, this woman, in the midst of her ‘perplexity’ and ‘pondering’, responds to the loving whisper within with her ‘yes’ – her fiat – her total and unconditional giving to an urge for love that made no rational sense. It is this same ‘yes’, this same fiat that leads her to the foot of the cross and in the midst of a broken heart – she knows that somehow God’s redeeming love is powerfully at work. It is this same ‘yes’, this same fiat that leads her to sit with, pray with and journey with an embryonic, struggling Church!

No wonder she was favoured.

by Br Damien Price cfc