The Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin Mary

The Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin Mary is one of the highest and most evocative points within the Catholic Christian religion. Its symbolic and spiritual value is immense, as is the exact moment in which God held out his hand to men and gave them a second chance with the miraculous incarnation of his Son in the pure and virgin womb of Mary.

The announcement is in fact led by the Archangel Gabriel to Mary about her pregnancy. It is reported in the Gospels of Luke and Matthew (in which the Annunciation is addressed to Joseph, husband of Mary, and takes place in a dream).

That is how the adventure of Jesus among men begins, his mission of love and hope of salvation for those who will welcome his message. It is the first time in the history of religions, that a God deliberately chooses to become man, to take upon himself the burden of the flesh, and all this for a gesture of pure, absolute love.

Annunciation to Mary fulfils the alliance, as promised to the prophets in the Old Testament. The date on which we celebrate the Annunciation, March 25, was a symbolic date for Christianity and many other festivals were celebrated on this day. The dialogue between the Angel and Mary became the Hail Mary, one of the most important prayers and spread of Christianity, matched only by Our Father.

The Annunciation is not just a Marian Holiday, although over time countless works of art have been created to celebrate it. Paintings of immortal masters and Madonna statues tell the world of this miraculous moment when the Word was made flesh, and did so through a young woman of Galilee. Some of the Madonna statues depict the exact moment of Annunciation and Incarnation. They represent Mary in a humble, devoted attitude, her hands clasped in her lap or chest, while pronouncing the “fiat”, with which she will accept her destiny and will mark the destiny of all men from that moment onwards.