Nine months from today we will celebrate Christmas. Today we celebrate the promise of Christ to come, we celebrate God's willingness to involve humanity deeply in the work of salvation, and we celebrate a young woman's humility to say 'yes'. By the power of the Holy Spirit the Word takes flesh in the Virgin's womb.

To be with child and yet unmarried, was to risk death by stoning in Israel. Mary is perplexed by the angel's message and cannot see how all it describes will come to fruition. Yet she trusts in God's plan and has the courage to embrace it completely. Grace and humility allow Mary to realize that, although she will be the mother of the long-awaited Messiah, it is not her, but God who will bring this plan to fulfillment. All she must do is continue to recognize God's voice in her life and continue to say 'yes'.

God did not send the angel to a palace, but to an ordinary house in a small town. Today we are reminded that blessings come to those who courageously embrace God's plan. How is the Lord inviting me to cooperate more fully with him in my life? To what is God asking me to say 'yes'?