“Greetings, O favored one, the Lord is with you!”Luke 1:28.

A teenager engaged to be married to a carpenter had her world turned upside down by this strange greeting and the even stranger invitation that followed it.

“Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. And the Lord God will give to him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end.” Luke 1: 30-33.

Mary consented, and her world would never be the same

She was favored, indeed. Favored to carry the Christ, to bring into the world the Light of the World. It…