Meditation:

Mary, Mother of the Son of God and our Mother, immaculately conceived, and full of grace, remains perpetually a virgin. Given the singular grace of her immaculate conception, made sinless so as to bear the Son of God in her womb and bring Him to birth into the world, Our Lady offers herself to God pure, holy, undivided in love, untouched by man. When the Angel comes to her at the Annunciation inviting her to be the Mother of God, her response “How can this be since I know not man?” makes it clear that from the very beginning she has the intention of preserving her virginity. In the words of the Church Fathers: “the holy and ever virgin and immaculate Mary was really and truly the Mother of God. Inasmuch as she, in the fullness of time, and without seed, conceived by the Holy Spirit, God the Word Himself, Who before all time was born of God the Father, and without loss of integrity brought Him forth, and after His birth preserved her virginity inviolate.” This choice to remain as “virgin before, during and after birth” is why the Church can say of her that she is the Blessed Ever-Virgin Mary, Mother of God.

Mary, the girl from Nazareth, guided by an exceptional inspiration of the Holy Spirit, chose from the beginning to live a virginal life so as to be pleasing to the Lord. She gave all of herself… body, mind, heart and soul without condition, a total gift of self. The desire of her whole being was to be all for Him and Him alone. We ask her to intercede for us so that God our Heavenly Father may preserve us in holiness, whole and entire, spirit, soul, and body and that we too may be irreproachable at the coming of Our Lord Jesus Christ.

At the time of the Visitation, Elizabeth, moved by the Holy Spirit exclaims: “Most blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb. And how does this happen to me that the mother of my Lord should come to me?” With this proclamation, she makes known the fruitfulness that comes forth from the Woman who has chosen to place the gift of her virginity into the loving hands of the Father who cares for her. Mary, Most Holy, who intentionally offers herself so as to be for God alone, becomes the Virgin Mother bearing in her virginal womb the Son of God, the Savior of the world.