Today (March 25) is the Feast of the Annunciation in the Roman Catholic tradition. I pay a lot more attention to this day than I did, say, twenty years ago. I am more and more impressed with Mary every time I ponder her part in the incarnation of Jesus. Her "yes" to God inspires me to trust God fully.

At the same time it occurs to me that this is also a day of God's yes to us. No one could have blamed God for giving up on the human experiment after so many disappointing developments. So much violence, greed, exploitation, etc., etc. Instead God did a "Hail Mary" (I couldn't resist) and planted Jesus among us to help us get it straight once and for all: you are loved. You are forgiven. What grace! 

A poem for today or any day...

Mary’s Yes

When I think of that modest room lit by a receptive heart 
even before the messenger appeared
I wonder if she was dreaming of her expected life
with Joseph
as many girls do when they are betrothed.
But then
a shift in the room’s energy
and a benediction uttered out of the silence,
not much of a preamble to the prediction
of pregnancy and prophecy landing
smack dab not only into her story
but her own body.

It was a lot to take in.
Wha…?
How….?

God will do the impossible
and is doing almost the same with Elizabeth
just in case you need a little help.

Let it be, then.

Just like that?
Well, she must have been good at saying yes
since it came so easily.
But this was yes of an altogether different sort.

Yes to telling Joseph.
Yes to the whispers
the accusations
the shame.

This yes would be the beginning,
the boot camp for much bigger yesses to come. 
She surely said no in her pondering heart 
as the story outgrew her first yes.
She was his mother.
But that first yes
by a devoted young woman
was enough.