Today's feast is transferred from March 25 which, this year, fell on Good Friday. This is perhaps the most central feast of the year because it relates to the very heart of our Christian belief. We all have our own image of the scene where the angel enters the house of Mary and invites her to be the Mother of the Son of God. It is an invitation which naturally fills Mary with some alarm and puzzlement, because she is not yet married to Joseph. But that is the whole point. The First Reading records the prophecy that a virgin will conceive and bear a son. Certainly an extraordinary privilege! "Blessed are you among women!" But we need also look at the response of Mary, made with great faith and trust. "Behold the servant girl of the Lord. Let it happen to me just as you say." And there lies Mary's greatness - in her total submission to God's will. It is something that she will stay with to the very end, as she stands desolate at the foot of the Cross.