Miracles occur when the Lord makes the “impossible” happen. In today’s Gospel Mary’s just been told, by an angel, that she was meant to fulfill the prophecy made by Isaiah in today’s First Reading, a prophecy even she considered impossible: that a virgin would conceive and bear a son. She’d decided to remain celibate in order to show her complete love for the Lord alone, and now Gabriel was telling her the Lord had other plans. When you’re confused about what God is asking of you, or how things will turn out, it’s okay to ask him in prayer how he wants the “impossible” to become possible.
Mary asked and discovered that miraculously both her plans and the Lord’s would blend into one. She she would have a vocation to love that respected how she wanted to love the Lord, yet went beyond the opportunities most people would have: she would be able to love the Lord as virgin, as his mother, and through being a good wife to Joseph.
Sometimes in life we face obstacles in moving forward. Our Lord may not always intervene miraculously, but in prayer he always shows us the way, and, eventually, the way forward becomes clear and seemingly insurmountable obstacles disappear. Don’t be afraid of taking time out at times in prayer to ask Our Lord how he’d like you to move forward. With his help you may not find the way forward a difficult as you thought.
Readings: Isaiah 7:10–14; Psalm 24:1–6; Luke 1:26–38. See also Annunciation of the Lord and Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception.
