| Documents |
VI. The Life of Mary /
2b. Sacred Scripture: New Testament Elements: Infancy: Annunciation |
| Lumen Gentium, 1964
|
- at the message of the angel received the Word of God... 53
- hailed by the heralding angel ... (cf. Lk 1:28) 56
- "Behold the handmaid of the Lord, be it done unto me according to they word" (Lk 1:38)
56
- Spirit...who had already overshadowed her in the Annunciation 59
- she conceived, brought forth, and nourished Christ... 61
- the consent which she loyally gave at the Annunciation 62
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| Behold Your Mother (USA), 1973
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- By accepting the Annunciation... 18 [Also 137]
- In Mary's response, "Let it be done to me as you say," the expectation of the old covenant
achieves perfect expression. 15
- [OT allusions in]summary of the Annunciation story 22
The episode of the Annunciation concludes with a double tribute to Mary's faith. ... her maternal
"yes" was also her act of faith: ... (Lk 1:38) 28 [and] Gabriel ... nothing is impossible with God
(Lk 1:37) 29
- The chapter on Mary in the Dogmatic Constitution on the Church may be regarded as an ex-
tended commentary on her consent at the Annunciation. The opening sentence of n. 53 is
typical:
"At the message of the angel, the Virgin Mary received the Word of God into her heart and her
body, and gave Life to the world." [LG 53] 28
- At the Annunciation, Mary conceived Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit. 115
- [Annunciation and Pentecost parallel, 79]
- [Annunciation and Calvary parallel, victim priesthood, 120]
- From...Annunciation , she was the living chalice of the son of God made man. 131
|
| Redemptoris Mater, 1987
|
- Mary is definitively introduced into the mystery of Christ through this event: the
Annunciation by the angel. [historical reality] 8
- [Article 9, extensive discussion based on sacred text] The Annunciation, therefore, is the
revelation of the mystery of the Incarnation at the very beginning of its fulfilment on earth.
God's
salvific giving of himself and his life, in some way to all creation but directly to man, reaches
one
of its high points in the mystery of the Incarnation. 9 [See also 20, DV5/26, 28, 36,
37, 62/39]
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| Letter to Priests for Holy
Thursday, 1988
|
- How far the fiat uttered by Mary at the
annunciation had taken her! 2
- The Incarnation was brought about by the Holy Spirit when he came down upon the Virgin
of Nazareth and she spoke her fiat in response to the angel's message (cf. Lk 1:38).
1
|
| The VM in Intellectual and Spiritual
Formation, 1988 |
- Persevering with them in one accord, we see Mary " prayerfully imploring the gift of the
Spirit, who had already overshadowed her in the Annunciation: (LG 59). 8
- the Virgin was actively present in the life of the Church
- at its beginning (the mystery of the Incarnation) ... 17
|
| To All Consecrated Persons, Marian
Year, 1988 |
- The words spoken to Mary at the Annunciation were certainly unusual. A careful reading of
Luke's text shows that the angel's words to her contain the truth about God, in a manner that
already conforms to the Gospel and to the New Covenant. The Virgin of Nazareth has been
introduced into the inscrutable mystery, which is the living God, the Triune God: Father, Son and
Holy Spirit. In that context the Virgin's vocation to be Mother of the Messiah was revealed to
her, a vocation to which she responded with her fiat: "Let it be done to me according to your
word: (Lk 1:38) 4
- Meditating on what happened at the Annunciation, we also think about our own vocation.
A
vocation always marks a sort of turning point on the path of our relationship with the living God.
5
- The moment of vocation always directly concerns a particular person, but as with the
Annunciation at Nazareth it also means a certain "unveiling" of the mystery of God. Before it
becomes an accomplished fact within an individual, before taking on the form of a choice and
personal decision, a vocation refers back to another choice, a choice on the part of God, which
has preceded the human choice and decision 6
- This choice invites us - as it did Mary at the Annunciation - to discover ourselves in the
depths of the eternal mystery of God who is love 7
- Together with the Virgin at the Annunciation in Nazareth, let us meditate upon the mystery
of the vocation which has become our "part" in Christ and in the Church 9
|
| Mulieris Dignitatem, 1988
|
- The self-revelation of God, who is the inscrutable unity of the Trinity, is outlined in the
Annunciation at Nazareth. "Behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you
shall
call his name Jesus. He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Most High." ... "How
shall
this be, since I have no husband?" ... "The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the
Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be called holy, the son of
God.... For with God nothing will be impossible" [Ftn 16: the Fathers see Annununciation as
revelation of the Trinity] (cf. Lk 1:31-37) 3
- Do we not find in the Annunciation at Nazareth the beginning of the definitive answer by
which God himself "attempts to calm people's hearts"? [NA 2] 3 [See also Mary's
relation to Holy Spirit, 27]
| Redemptoris Custos, St. Joseph, 1989
|
- Mary went to the house of Zechariah to
visit her kinswoman Elizabeth... (Lk 1:41).
4
|
|
| Tertio Millennio Adveniente, 1994
|
- Thus was fulfilled what the Angel Gabriel foretold at the Annunciation, when he spoke to
the
Virgin of Nazareth in these words: "Hail, full of grace, the Lord is with you" (1:28). Mary was
troubled by these words, and so the divine messenger quickly added: "Do not be afraid, Mary,
for
you have found favor with God. ... (1:32-33, 35). Mary's reply to the angel was unhesitating:
"Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word" (1:38). Never in
human history did so much depend, as it did then, upon the consent of one human creature. (Cf..
St. Bernard) 2
|
| Evangelium Vitae, 1995
|
- The one who accepted "Life" in the name of all and for the sake of all was Mary, the Virgin
Mother; she is thus most closely and personally associated with the Gospel of life. Mary's
consent
at the Annunciation and her motherhood stand at the very beginning of the mystery of life which
Christ came to bestow on humanity (cf. Jn 10:10) 102
- The "yes" spoken on the day of the Annunciation reaches full maturity on the day of the
Cross, when the time comes for Mary to receive and beget as her children all those who becomes
disciples, pouring out upon them the saving love of her Son 103
- The angel's Annunciation to Mary is framed by these reassuring words: "Do not be afraid,
Mary" and "with God nothing will be impossible" (Lk 1:30, 37). 105
|
Catechism of the Catholic Church,
1994
Fidei Depositum, 1992 |
[See also: 148, 490]
Annunciation (as vocation): 430, 484, 490, 491, 492, 493, 508, 721, 2097 [BB]
430 Jesus means in Hebrew: "God saves." At the annunciation, the angel Gabriel
gave him the name Jesus as his proper name, which expresses both his identity and his mission.
(Cf.. Lk 1:31) Since God alone can forgive sins, it is God who, in Jesus his eternal Son made
man, "will save his people from their sins." (Mt 1:21; cf. 2:7) In Jesus, God recapitulates all of
his history of salvation on behalf of men.
|
|
Veritatis Splendor, 1993
|
- Annunciation and Virgin of the visitation 112
|
| Rosarium Virginis Mariae, 2002
|
- No one has ever devoted himself to the contemplation of the face of Christ as faithfully as
Mary. The eyes of her heart already turned to him at the Annunciation, when she conceived him
by the power of the Holy Spirit. In the months that followed she began to sense his presence and
to picture his features. 10
- As we contemplate each mystery of her Son's life, she invites us to do as she did at the
Annunciation: to ask humbly the questions which open us to the light, in order to end with the
obedience of faith: "Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord; be it done to me according to your
word" (Lk 1:38). 14
- The Rosary is one of the traditional paths of Christian prayer directed to the contemplation
of Christ's face. Pope Paul VI described it in these words: "As a Gospel prayer, centred on the
mystery of the redemptive Incarnation, the Rosary is a prayer with a clearly Christological
orientation. Its most characteristic element, in fact, the litany-like succession of Hail Marys,
becomes in itself an unceasing praise of Christ, who is the ultimate object both of the Angel's
announcement and of the greeting of the Mother of John the Baptist: 'Blessed is the fruit of your
womb' (Lk 1:42). 18
- The first five decades, the "joyful mysteries," are marked by the joy radiating from the event
of the Incarnation. This is clear from the very first mystery, the Annunciation, where Gabriel's
greeting to the Virgin of Nazareth is linked to an invitation to messianic joy: "Rejoice, Mary."
The whole of salvation history, in some sense the entire history of the world, has led up to this
greeting. If it is the Father's plan to unite all things in Christ (cf. Eph 1:10), then the whole of the
universe is in some way touched by the divine favor with which the Father looks upon Mary and
makes her the Mother of his Son. The whole of humanity, in turn, is embraced by the fiat with
which she readily agrees to the will of God. 20
- By making our own the words of the Angel Gabriel and Saint Elizabeth contained in the
Hail Mary, we find ourselves constantly drawn to seek out afresh in Mary, in her arms and in her
heart, the "blessed fruit of her womb" (cf Lk 1:42). 24
- Yet when the Hail Mary is properly understood, we come to see clearly that its Marian
character is not opposed to its Christological character, but that it actually emphasizes and
increases it. The first part of the Hail Mary, drawn from the words spoken to Mary by the Angel
Gabriel and by Saint Elizabeth, is a contemplation in adoration of the mystery accomplished in
the Virgin of Nazareth. 33
|
Ecclesia de Eucharistia, 2003
|
- At the Annunciation Mary conceived the
Son of God in the physical reality of his body and blood, thus anticipating within herself what to
some degree happens sacramentally in every believer who receives, under the signs of bread and
wine, the Lord's body and blood. As a result, there is a profound analogy between the
fiat which
Mary said in reply to the angel, and the Amen which every believer says when receiving the body
of the Lord. Mary was asked to believe that the One whom she conceived "through the Holy
Spirit" was "the Son of God" (Lk 1:30-35). In continuity with the Virgin's faith, in the
Eucharistic mystery we are asked to believe that the same Jesus Christ, Son of God and Son of
Mary, becomes present in his full humanity and divinity under the signs of bread and wine.
55
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