The Annunciation account helps us to see the depth of Mary's faith. By her 'Yes' she became a partner in God's plan for the salvation of the world. Her openness is what we pray for daily so that we can be graced to do God's will and to follow Mary's example of freedom to submit ourselves to be God's instruments of love and hope.

However this 'yes' did not spare Mary of her anxiety and doubt of her ability and strength to respond to God's plan. We may feel the same if we are to submit ourselves to do what God wants of us. Yet we are assured that the act of self-surrender is accompanied by the assurance of God's presence through the Holy Spirit.

For this to be true, it presupposes there is discipline of Prayer as reflected in the First reading where the apostles with the women including Mary gathered in the Upper Room to pray.

Mary is described as the figure of Advent because her self-surrender and abandonment to God's will led her into the waiting of the Advent of God's reign in the birth of Jesus.

As we commemorate the feast of Our Lady of the Rosary today, we sincerely pray for the grace to have the inner freedom that Mary had in her 'yes' to God in the Annunciation.

"Hail Mary, full of grace ... Amen."