LOLSaints

Of course Mary wants to be prepared!

[In this Renaissance-era portrayal of the Annunciation, Mary has every right to get ready for the big announcement—everything is so beautiful, Mary just wants to make sure she's ready :-) — Ed.]

The blessed event captured in this picture—the Annunciation and Jesus' Incarnation—is beautifully commemorated in many great prayers of the Church.

• The "Angelic Salutaton"or Hail Mary.
• The Annunciation is the first mystery of the Rosary.
• The Angelus.
• The Magnificat.
• The Creed ("He was conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit, and was born of the Virgin Mary").

The Incarnation teaches us important lessons about the inestimable value God places on human life.

1. He loved us so much that He chose to become one of us to take on our humanity so completely that He "became flesh", as utterly weak and dependent as any human infant is.
2. God became "like us in all things except sin" at the moment of His conception in Mary's womb, not at some later time.

Interestingly, the Quran also recognizes and documents the Annunciation--at least the parts about Gabriel being the messenger and Mary conceiving without man involved...