Mary our Mother was a mortal human being, like you and me. She was made for immortality and eternal life, like you and me. She was chosen for a particular vocation, like you and me. Yet, her vocation is utterly unique in that she was the only person chosen from all eternity to be the bearer of the most high God, and given a singular grace to preserve her from all sin. Mary is the Ark of the Covenant, the sanctuary and first tabernacle of the living God.
Mary is blessed not simply because she was chosen to be theotokos, or God-bearer, but more especially because she heard the word of God and observed it as the first disciple thus rendering her worthy of great veneration and imitation. By her powerful intercession, may we follow her into eternal blessedness where our mortal bodies will be resurrected into unimaginable glory. Amen.
—Emanuel Werner, SJ, is a Jesuit scholastic of the Midwest Province currently studying philosophy and theology at Fordham University.