Holy Mary, Mother of God.

Imagine the teenage Mary. She must have been aware of Isaiah’s prophecy—“the virgin shall be with child”—but did she ever picture herself as that virgin?

We think of Mary as the Queen of Heaven, smiling beatifically and holding her all-loving arms out to us, but imagine her earlier encounter with the angel Gabriel, described today in the Gospel of Luke. She, Mary, had found favor with God? She would be the vessel of this mysterious communion with the Holy Spirit? Today we’d expect a fourteen-year-old to say, “Shut Up!” Instead, Mary replies, “May it be done to me according to your word.” Imagine!

My first child arrived in late December. Throughout the previous nine months, through the wonders and indignities and joys and fears of pregnancy, my thoughts dwelled with Mary. I’d often rushed the words of the Hail Mary together, by rote—HolyMaryMotherofGod. But as an expectant first-time mother, I felt a spiritual kinship, more like a palpable bond, to Mary, the Mother of God, the holy girl who grew up quickly. In the story of Mary’s pregnancy, from the Annunciation to her son’s birth, we mothers see our own stories. We know that diving-off moment when a pregnancy is confirmed: Here we go! We know that leap of faith in accepting any baby, let alone the Son of God. Mary, with her simple consent, gives us the courage to say yes to God’s will. Yes, Lord. Yes.

Valerie Schultz. Taken from Give Us This Day.

Valerie Schultz is a freelance writer and award-winning essayist. The author of Closer, a collection of essays on marriage and intimacy, she and her husband Randy have four daughters.