JAN 1 - Solemnity of Mary, the Holy Mother of God

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October 7 - Our Lady of the Rosary.

Quoting an article on Our Lady of the Rosary from:
www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/calendar/day.cfm?date=2016-10-07

Our Lady of the Rosary

"This feast was instituted by Pope St. Pius V in thanksgiving for the great naval victory over the Turks at the battle of Lepanto on this day in the year 1570, a favor due to the recitation of the Rosary. This victory saved Europe from being overrun by the forces of Islam.

Lepanto, perhaps the most complete victory ever gained over the Ottoman Empire, on October 7, 1571, is commemorated by the invocation “Help of Christians,” inserted in the Litany of Loretto. At Belgrade the Turks were defeated on the Feast of Our Lady ad Nives in 1716. A second victory gained that year on the Octave of the Assumption determined Pope Clement XI to command the Feast of the Rosary to be celebrated by the universal Church. Leo XIII added the invocation “Queen of the most Holy Rosary, pray for us,” to the Litany of Loretto. The Feast is in reality a great festival of thanksgiving for the signal and countless benefits bestowed on Christendom through the Rosary of our blessed Queen.

In modern times successive popes have urged the faithful to pray the Rosary. It is a form of contemplative prayer, mental and vocal prayer, which brings down God’s blessing on the Church. It is a biblically inspired prayer which is centered on meditation on the salvific mysteries of Christ in union with Mary, who was so closely associated with her Son in his redeeming activity."​

Our Lady of the Rosary, dear Mother, pray for us!

 

[grateful_child]

Dear everyone,

In preparation for the coming Month of the Holy Rosary, i.e., October, below are links to a prayerful lifting up of our minds and hearts to God through the 4 Mysteries of the Rosary. (Prayed by Fr. Kevin Scallon and Dana Rosemary Scallon.)

THE JOYFUL MYSTERIES:
youtube.com/watch?v=cvKWpiVLuRk

THE SORROWFUL MYSTERIES:
youtube.com/watch?v=gsY9yaBsgls

THE LUMINOUS MYSTERIES
youtube.com/watch?v=6e3fkgLT30c

THE GLORIOUS MYSTERIES
youtube.com/watch?v=OouX72ADvSA

 

[grateful_child]

Quoting an article on The Divine Maternity of Our Lady from:
www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/calendar/day.cfm?date=2016-10-11

The Divine Maternity of Our Lady

"In the year 1931 a jubilee marking the fifteenth centenary of the Council of Ephesus was celebrated to the great joy of the whole Catholic world. The fathers at that Council, under the guidance of Pope Celestine, formally condemned the errors of Nestorius and declared as Catholic faith the doctrine that the Blessed Virgin Mary, who gave birth to Jesus, was truly the Mother of God. Prompted by holy zeal, Pope Pius XI determined that the memory of so important an event should continue alive in the Church. Accordingly he ordered the renovation of Rome’s famous memorial to the Council of Ephesus, namely, the triumphal arch and transept in the Basilica of St. Mary Major on the Esquiline. His predecessor Pope St. Sixtus III (432-440) had embellished that arch with a beautiful mosaic, but time had done it damage.

In an encyclical Pius XI, moreover, underscored the principal teachings of the General Council at Ephesus, developing in detail and with loving affection the singular privilege of divine Motherhood granted to the Blessed Virgin Mary. He believed that so sublime a mystery should ever become more firmly anchored in the hearts of the faithful. At the same time the Pope singled out Mary, the Mother of God and the one blessed among women together with the holy Family of Nazareth as the foremost model for the dignity and sanctity of chaste married life and for the religious education of youth.

Excerpted from The Church’s Year of Grace, Pius Parsch."

 

[grateful_child]

MARY, TEACH US HOW TO PRAY
An article from spiritualdirection.com, by Peter Howard, October 7, 2016:

spiritualdirection.com/2016/10/07/mary-teach-us-how-to-pray

 

[grateful_child]

On Thursday, December 8th, we celebrate the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary.

December 8 - Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary.

Opening Prayer:
“O God, who by the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin
prepared a worthy dwelling for your Son,
grant, we pray,
that, as you preserved her from every stain
by virtue of the Death of your Son, which you foresaw,
so, through her intercession,
we, too, may be cleansed and admitted to your presence.
Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,
who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, for ever and ever.”

Today’s Scripture Readings & Reflection
www.usccb.org/bible/reflections/
ymlp232.net/archive_gbmbuqgjgu.php

“Pope Bl. Pius IX solemnly defined the traditional belief of the Church: the Blessed Virgin Mary was conceived free from all stain of Original Sin. Her Immaculate Conception is the most beautiful fruit of the work of redemption accomplished by her Son, Jesus Christ. Chosen to be the Mother of the Savior, God did not allow sin to contaminate her, which makes her a model of holiness of life for all Christians.” (Daily Roman Missal, MTF.)

“Originating in the 7th c. feast of the ‘Conception of Mary by St. Anne,’ Pope Clement XI, in his Bull, Commissi Nobis, established this solemnity for the entire Church (1708)…” (Ordo.)

For more on the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary, see links:
www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/calendar/day.cfm?date=2016-12-08
www.ewtn.com/faith/teachings/marya2.htm
www.ewtn.com/faith/teachings/maryc3a.htm

 

[grateful_child]

December 8 - Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary.

The following are thoughts posted last year for the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception. Am posting them again for the benefit of our new members.

The Proclaimed Mary - The Immaculate Conception

The following reflections on *the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary *are taken mainly from Fr. Peter John Cameron, O.P.'s book, ‘Mysteries of the Virgin Mary’.

What does this Solemnity mean for each of us?

The Catechism of the Catholic Church introduces its section on The Immaculate Conception thus:

490 - “To become the mother of the Savior, Mary ‘was enriched by God with gifts appropriate to such a role.’ The angel Gabriel at the moment of the annunciation salutes her as ‘full of grace’.”

491 - "Through the centuries the Church has become ever more aware that Mary, ‘full of grace’ through God, was redeemed from the moment of her conception. That is what the dogma of the Immaculate Conception confesses, as Pope Pius IX proclaimed in 1854:

‘The most Blessed Virgin Mary was, from the first moment of her conception, by a singular grace and privilege of Almighty God and by virtue of the merits of Jesus Christ, Savior of the human race, preserved immune from all stain of original sin.’" (Pius IX, Ineffabilis Deus, 1854.)
(Read on for continuation of thought.)

 

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The Proclaimed Mary - The Immaculate Conception - continued:

Thus, “The solemnity celebrates the supernatural fact that when the Blessed Virgin Mary was conceived … she was conceived without orginial sin. At the moment of her biological conception (and ever after), Mary’s human existence was endowed with an absolutely immaculate purity. And God worked that miracle of holiness in Mary for us.” (Cameron, p.13; emphasis added.)

Saint John Paul Ii expresses it this way: "Mary’s unique vocation is inseparable from humanity’s vocation." (Theotokos, p. 63.)

Further, “Pope [Emeritus] Benedict XVI explains how the mystery of the Immaculate Conception is totally other-directed: 'Preservation from original sin signifies that Mary reserves no area of being, life, or will for herself as a private possession. Instead, precisely in the total dispossession of self, in giving herself to God, she comes to the true possession of self.’ The ‘method’ of the Immaculate Conception is our path to 'the true possession of self.” (Cameron, p. 13; emphasis added.)
(Read on for continuation of thought.)

 

[grateful_child]

The Proclaimed Mary - The Immaculate Conception - continued:

Fr. Cameron further writes:

"God deigned to work such an august miracle in St. Anne’s little girl in order to form her for her vocation as the Mother of God. St. Bede the Venerable (+735) observes, 'No wonder that the Lord, when he was about to redeem the world, began his work with his Mother, so that she, through whom salvation would be put into place for all, would be the first to taste the fruit of salvation from her Child." (p.15; emphasis added.)

While the doctrine of the Immaculate Conception was not explicitly revealed to us, the Church, however, believed it to be true for centuries before the doctrine was defined as a dogma in 1854.

Fr. Cameron adds: “It just seems logical that if God were to have a mother, it would be only fitting for her to be perfectly pure from the first moment of her existence and ever after.” (p. 15.)

Today, we celebrate this Solemnity to recognize the awesome wonder God has performed on the woman He chose to be the Mother of God.

For such an important event, Fr. Cameron gives us this warning:

"To treat the Immaculate Conception merely as the commemoration of an occurrence two thousand years ago threatens to turn this seminal mystery of the faith into an abstraction, blurring its relevance and distancing it from our life. What God does for Mary in this miraculour event he does for us here and now through her." (p. 15; emphasis added.)
(Read on for continuation of thought.)

 

[grateful_child]

The Proclaimed Mary - The Immaculate Conception - continued:

“The Immaculate Conception is the Mirror of Justice in whom we see what we are destined to become by saying yes to the conception God proposes in his Mother.” (Cameron, p. 18; emphasis added.)

"The Catechism emphatically states that God wishes to make us capable of responding to him, knowing him, and loving him far beyond our own natural capacity. At the same time it acknowledges that we cannot respond to God’s divine love by our own powers, but we must hope that God will give us the capacity to love him (see CCC, 52, 2090). God does precisely that in the Immaculate Conception! He endows Mary the Immaculate Conception with a capacity to know, love, and respond to him that exceeds ordinary human capacities; and through Our Lady’s maternal mediation, he imparts those capacities to us." (Cameron, p. 18; emphasis added.)

“Through God’s loving initiative in the Immaculate Conception, the Lord reverses the downward spiral of human, sin-driven self-destruction. Thanks to the event of the Immaculate Conception, God’s goodness has become pre-eminently present in the world and ultimately accessible to all, offered to us by one whom Christ begs us to call Mother.” (Cameron, p. 19.)
(Read on for continuation of thought.)

 

[grateful_child]

The Proclaimed Mary - The Immaculate Conception - continued:

Referring to Saint John Paul II’s Theotokos, Fr. Cameron observes:

“Mary’s exalted holiness is to encourage all Christians to open themselves to the sanctifying power of the grace of God. In Mary all are called to put total trust in the divine omnipotence, which transforms hearts, guiding them toward full receptivity of his providential plan of love.” (p. 22.)

Thus, through "the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception, God invites us to leave behind all our inadequate and disappointing preconceptions and to live devoted to his Immaculate Conception, to open ourselves to the sanctifying power of his grace made present in a person we are destined to call mother. Because that kind of obedient surrender to the Immaculate will be the beginning of a newness for us that will never end." (Cameron, p.22; emphasis added.)

O Mary, conceived without original sin,
pray for us who have recourse to thee. Amen.​

May Our Immaculate Mother bless each of us by name,
with an abundance of graces we need most
at this particular time of our life!
Happy feastday, everyone!

 

[grateful_child]

Quoting an article on ** Our Lady of Guadalupe** from:
www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/calendar/day.cfm?date=2016-12-12

Our Lady of Guadalupe

“Hear me and understand well, my son the least, that nothing should frighten or grieve you. Let not your heart be disturbed. Do not fear that sickness, nor any other sickness or anguish. Am I not here, who is your Mother? Are you not under my protection? Am I not your health? Are you not happily within my fold? What else do you wish? Do not grieve nor be disturbed by anything.”
— Our Lady to Juan Diego

"In the winter of 1531, a poor, 57-year-old Aztec Indian living five miles outside of Mexico City encountered a miraculous happening on his way to morning Mass. First he heard strange music coming from Tepeyac Hill, and then he heard a woman’s voice calling his name. Juan Diego climbed the hill and encountered a young woman, appearing to be of his own people in physical appearance and dress. The woman identified herself as the Virgin Mary, and told Juan Diego to ask the bishop of Mexico City to build a church on the hill to assist in the conversion of the nation and be a source of consolation to the people.

Juan Diego obeyed the request, but the bishop was skeptical regarding the message, even though he perceived that Juan was a humble, and well meaning Catholic. Juan reported the bishop’s doubt to Our Lady at Tepeyac Hill, and she asked him to return to the bishop once again, bearing the same message. The bishop once again heard the story, and told Juan Diego to ask Our Lady for a sign that it was indeed herself that wished for the church to be built.

When he returned to the hill, Mary gave Juan Diego such a sign. Miraculously, roses appeared on the hill in the middle of winter, and Juan gathered them in his tilma, or cloak. Our Lady arranged the roses in his tilma with her own hands, and Juan returned to the bishop’s presence. When Juan released the tilma, allowing the flowers to fall to the floor, it was revealed that a miraculous image of Our Lady had imprinted itself on his tilma (see above).

The bishop immediately fell to his knees, and came to believe in Juan Diego’s message. A church was built on the spot of the apparition, as Mary had requested, and 8 million people converted to Catholicism in a short period of time upon hearing of or viewing the miraculous image of Our Lady.

The tilma of Juan Diego has been the subject of much modern research. The tilma, woven out of coarse cactus fiber, should have disintegrated after 20 years, but although over 500 years have passed the tilma is still in perfect condition. The pupils of Mary in the picture reflect the Indians and clergy present at the time of the first revelation of the image. No paint was used, and chemical analysis has not been able to identify the color imprint. Additionally, studies have revealed that the stars on Mary’s mantle match exactly what a Mexican would have seen in the sky in December of 1531.

Patron: The Americas; pro-life movement."

 

[grateful_child]

Diary of St. Faustina - 915

Sweet Mother, unite my soul to Jesus, because it is only then that I will be able to endure all trials and tribulations, and only in union with Jesus will my little sacrifices be pleasing to God. Sweetest Mother, continue to teach me about the interior life. May the sword of suffering never break me. O pure Virgin, pour courage into my heart and guard it.

 

[grateful_child]

Diary of St. Faustina - 843

The more I imitate the Mother of God, the more deeply I get to know God.

 

[grateful_child]

Diary of St. Faustina - 79

O Mary, my Mother and my Lady, I offer You my soul, my body, my life and my death, and all that will follow it. I place everything in Your hands. O my Mother, cover my soul with Your virginal mantle and grant me the grace of purity of heart, soul and body. Defend me with Your power against all enemies.

 

[patricius79]

Diary of St. Faustina - 79

O Mary, my Mother and my Lady, I offer You my soul, my body, my life and my death, and all that will follow it. I place everything in Your hands. O my Mother, cover my soul with Your virginal mantle and grant me the grace of purity of heart, soul and body. Defend me with Your power against all enemies.

That’s beautiful. May we all, like St. Faustina and St. Louis DeMontfort, put ourselves entirely in Mary’s merciful hands.

 

[grateful_child]

February 2 - Feast of the Presentation of the Lord.
(In the Old Calendar = Purification of the Blessed Virgin Mary.)

Excerpt from catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/calendar/day.cfm?date=2017-02-02

"Until 1969, the ancient feast of the Presentation of Our Lord, which is of Oriental origin, was known in the West as the feast of the Purification of Our Lady, and closed the Christmas Cycle, forty days after the Lord’s birth. This feast has for long been associated with many popular devotional exercises. The faithful:

•gladly participate in the processions commemorating the Lord’s entry into the Temple in Jerusalem and His encounter with God, whose house He had come to for the first time, and then with Simeon and Anna. Such processions, which in the West had taken the place of licentious pagan events, always had a penitential character, and were later identified with the blessing of candles which were carried in procession in honor of Christ, ‘the light to enlighten the Gentiles’ (Lk 2, 32);

•are sensitive to the actions of the Blessed Virgin in presenting her Son in the Temple, and to her submission to the Law of Moses (Lk 12, 1-8) in the rite of purification; popular piety sees in the rite of purification the humility of Our Lady and hence, 2 February has long been regarded as a feast for those in humble service.

Popular piety is sensitive to the providential and mysterious event that is the conception and birth of new life. Christian mothers can easily identify with the maternity of Our Lady, the most pure Mother of the Head of the mystical Body — notwithstanding the notable differences in the Virgin’s unique conception and birth.

These too are mothers in God’s plan and are about to give birth to future members of the Church. From this intuition and a certain mimesis of the purification of Our Lady, the rite of purification after birth was developed, some of whose elements reflect negatively on birth.

The revised Rituale Romanum provides for the blessing of women both before and after birth, this latter only in cases where the mother could not participate at the baptism of her child.

It is a highly desirable thing for mothers and married couples to ask for these blessings which should be given in accord with the Church’s prayer: in a communion of faith and charity in prayer so that pregnancy can be brought to term without difficulty (blessing before birth), and to give thanks to God for the gift of a child (blessing after birth).

In some local Churches, certain elements taken from the Gospel account of the Presentation of the Lord (Lk 2, 22-40), such as the obedience of Joseph and Mary to the Law of the Lord, the poverty of the holy spouses, the virginity of Our Lady, mark out 2 February as a special feast for those at the service of the brethren in the various forms of consecrated life.

The feast of 2 February still retains a popular character. It is necessary, however, that such should reflect the true Christian significance of the feast. It would not be proper for popular piety in its celebration of this feast to overlook its Christological significance and concentrate exclusively on its Marian aspects. The fact that this feast should be ‘considered …] a joint memorial of Son and Mother’ would not support such an inversion. The candles kept by the faithful in their homes should be seen as a sign of Christ ‘the light of the world’ and an expression of faith.

— Excerpted from Directory on Popular Piety and the Liturgy

Things to Do:
…
•Read Luke 2:22-35, the account of the presentation including the Canticle of Simeon.
•Meditate on the constant fiat of Our Lady of Sorrows, who embraced the will of God even as Simeon predicted that a sword would pierce her heart."

 

[grateful_child]

February 11 - Our Lady of Lourdes, Optional Memorial

Quoting an article on ** Our Lady of Lourdes** from:
www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/calendar/day.cfm?date=2017-02-11

Our Lady of Lourdes

"Today marks the first apparition of the Blessed Virgin Mary in 1858 to fourteen-year-old Marie Bernade (St. Bernadette) Soubirous. Between February 11 and July 16, 1858, the Blessed Virgin appeared eighteen times, and showed herself to St. Bernadette in the hollow of the rock at Lourdes. On March 25 she said to the little shepherdess who was only fourteen years of age: “I am the Immaculate Conception.” Since then Lourdes has become a place of pilgrimage and many cures and conversions have taken place. The message of Lourdes is a call to personal conversion, prayer, and charity.

Our Lady of Lourdes
The many miracles which have been performed through the intercession of the Blessed Virgin at Lourdes prompted the Church to institute a special commemorative feast, the “Apparition of the Immaculate Virgin Mary.” The Office gives the historical background. Four years after the promulgation of the dogma of the Immaculate Conception (1854), the Blessed Virgin appeared a number of times to a very poor and holy girl named Bernadette. The actual spot was in a grotto on the bank of the Gave River near Lourdes.

The Immaculate Conception had a youthful appearance and was clothed in a pure white gown and mantle, with an azure blue girdle. A golden rose adorned each of her bare feet. On her first apparition, February 11, 1858, the Blessed Virgin bade the girl make the sign of the Cross piously and say the rosary with her. Bernadette saw her take the rosary that was hanging from her arms into her hands. This was repeated in subsequent apparitions.

With childlike simplicity Bernadette once sprinkled holy water on the vision, fearing that it was a deception of the evil spirit; but the Blessed Virgin smiled pleasantly, and her face became even more lovely. The third time Mary appeared she invited the girl to come to the grotto daily for two weeks. Now she frequently spoke to Bernadette. On one occasion she ordered her to tell the ecclesiastical authorities to build a church on the spot and to organize processions. Bernadette also was told to drink and wash at the spring still hidden under the sand.

Finally on the feast of the Annunciation, the beautiful Lady announced her name, “I am the Immaculate Conception.”

The report of cures occurring at the grotto spread quickly and the more it spread, the greater the number of Christians who visited the hallowed place. The publicity given these miraculous events on the one hand and the seeming sincerity and innocence of the girl on the other made it necessary for the bishop of Tarbes to institute a judicial inquiry. Four years later he declared the apparitions to be supernatural and permitted the public veneration of the Immaculate Conception in the grotto. Soon a chapel was erected, and since that time countless pilgrims come every year to Lourdes to fulfill promises or to beg graces.

— Excerpted from The Church’s Year of Grace, Pius Parsch."

 

[grateful_child]

Our Lady of Mercy

Quoting an article on Our Lady of Mercy from:
catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/calendar/day.cfm?date=2017-03-18

"Devotion to the Virgin of Mercy dates back to the time of the founding of Lima. It is known that the Mercederian friars, who came to Peru with the conquerors, had already built their primitive convent chapel around 1535. This chapel served as Lima’s first parish until the construction of the Main Church in 1540. The Mercederians not only evangelized the region, but they also participated in the city’s development, building beautiful churches that have been preserved as a valuable cultural and religious patrimony.

With these friars came their celestial patroness, the Virgin of Mercy, a Marian title of the thirteenth century. Tradition has it that around 1218, St. Peter Nolasco and James I, King of Aragon and Catalonia, experienced separately a vision of the Most Holy Virgin who asked them to found a religious order dedicated to rescuing the many Christian captives held by the Moslems. This Order of Our Lady of Mercy, approved as a military order in 1235 by Pope Gregory IX, was able to liberate thousands of Christian prisoners, and later became dedicated to teaching and social work. The Mercederian friars’ habit imitates the garments worn by the Virgin when she appeared to the founder of the order. [Our Lady of Our Lady of Mercy] The image of the Virgin of Mercy is dressed all in white: over her long tunic she wears a scapular with the shield of the order imprinted breast high. A cloak covers her shoulders and her long hair is veiled by a fine lace mantilla. Some images have her standing, with the child in her arms, and others with her arms extended showing a royal scepter in her right hand and in the left some open chains, a symbol of liberation. Such is the appearance of the beautiful image venerated in the Basilica of Mercy in the capital of Peru. It was enthroned at the beginning of the XVII century and has been considered the patroness of the capital. In 1730 she was proclaimed “Patroness of the Peruvian Lands” and in 1823 “Patroness of the Armies of the Republic.” On the first centennial of the nation’s independence, the image was solemnly crowned and received the title of “Grand Marshall of Peru,” on September 24, 1921, Feast of Our Lady of Mercy, since then declared a national holiday, when every year the army renders homage to her high military rank.

The image carries numerous decorations granted by the Republic of Peru, its governors and national institutions. In 1970 the town council of Lima gave her the “Keys of the City,” and in 1971 the president of the Republic conferred on her the Great Peruvian Cross of Naval Merit, gestures which evidence the affection and devotion of Peru to Our Lady of Mercy, that many consider their national patroness."

“Excerpted from ALL ABOUT MARY”

 

[grateful_child]

March 25, 2017 - The Annunciation of the Lord (Solemnity):

Collect (Opening Prayer):
“O God, who willed that your Word
should take on the reality of human flesh
in the womb of the Virgin Mary,
grant, we pray,
that we, who confess our Redeemer to be God and man,
may merit to become partakers even in his divine nature.
Who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, for ever and ever.”

Today’s Scripture readings and reflections:
usccb.org/bible/reflections/
www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/calendar/day.cfm?date=2017-03-25

Daily Holy Mass from the National Catholic Broadcasting Council, Canada:
www.dailytvmass.com

“At the Annunciation St. Gabriel the Archangel told the Blesssed Virgin Mary she would be the Mother of the Son of God. She gave her fiat (‘be it done’), upon which she conceived the Savior by the power of the Holy Spirit. Christians find meaning in this dialogue in which the Mother of God appears so great because of her humility. Because of her consent to God’s Word, she participated in the redemptive work of her Son, Jesus Christ. She is the Mother of Christ and of each Christian.” (Daily Roman Missal, MTF.)

For more on the Annunciation, see link:
www.ewtn.com/saintsHoly/saints/A/theannunciation.asp

 

[grateful_child]

Last year, a reflection on the Solemnity of the Annunciation of the Lord was shared in our group. As a refresher for all of us, some excerpts from the reflection are being re-posted here:

The Annunciation narrative actually begins in Genesis 3 where we are made aware of the tragic Fall which occurred in Paradise and which affected all of creation. To undo the Fall’s evil and deadly effects, God promised to send a Redeemer through a woman. The Book of Isaiah describes this woman as a virgin who ‘shall conceive and bear a Son’. Luke’s Gospel, then, identified this woman as Mary of Nazareth, a poor, simple, unknown peasant. St. Luke further discloses through the Archangel’s greeting that the Holy Spirit has previously prepared Mary for this important mission through the grace of her Immaculate Conception.

'Hail, full of grace. The Lord is with you’ (Lk 1:28), that is: Rejoice, be glad! O plenitude of grace! The Lord ‘dwells in you in an extraordinary way because he wants to accomplish a work in a totally extraordinary way.’ (MMTQ, p.34.)
(Pls read on for continuation of thought.)

Reference: MMTQ = More Mother than Queen, by Venerable Fr. Marie-Eugene of the Child Jesus, OCD.