Fr Paul Gooley reads from the Gospel of Luke (1: 26-38), a continuation of the series, previously we heard the birth of John the Baptist foretold and in this Gospel the angel Gabriel visits Mary in Nazareth and greets her saying ‘Rejoice, so highly favoured the Lord is with you’. Fr Paul is curious and often wonders: what the young girl Mary was doing when this message from the angel came? Was she kneeling piously? Feeding the sheep? Fetching some water from the well? Sweeping the floor of the hut? He wonders, what was she thinking? She was engaged to be married, so no doubt, she was thinking about her approaching wedding to Joseph and all that had to be done and all that was about to happen in her life. Then came the message which she could either refuse or accept. On this message hung the future of the world: her child would be different from all others. How ‘different’? Her thoughts were turned back to the promise to David. It had been read to her so often in the Bible, and now the words were drummed into her mind, ‘his reign will have no end’. T his would all be the work of the Spirit which she had so often heard read out in Isaiah; ‘the Holy Spirit will come upon you’, the Spirit which was to come upon the Servant of the Lord, the Spirit of Emmanuel, ‘God with us’. Mary’s young body was to grow, nourish and develop this child. Then she would have the child in her arms to cherish and shape as both Son of God and her own son. By saying yes, Mary committed herself to the work of God. Fr Paul invites us to consider, what does her example mean to me?