Here at Women of Grace® we L-O-V-E Our Lady.  She is the model whom we look to as THE woman of grace.  In fact Mary is at the core of our Foundational Study Full of Grace: Women and the Abundant Life.  What is it about Our Mother Mary that makes her the exemplar of what it means to be a disciple AND a woman of grace?  Today's Feast of the Annunciation highlights her greatest attribute, her complete and total "Yes" to God.  A passage from the book Full of Grace briefly summarizes the greatness of Mary's fiat and how we as women are to follow her example:

"Because of her 'yes' to God at the moment of her Annunciation, Mary is intimately involved in the task of redemption.  We read in Galations 4:4, "But when the time had fully come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman."  Though Mary is but a creature like you and me, through her womb and from her genes came the One who is Redeemer.  Mary's 'yes' literally gave flesh to God's plan for salvation.  In this way, Mary mediated by being a channel of God's redemptive grace to enter the world.  She literally brought the Word of God to the world. Like Mary, our spiritual Mother, we are called to be mediators by bringing the Word of God to others.  Though the Blessed Virgin Mary is the only person to bring Jesus Christ into the world physically, by virtue of our baptism each of us is called to bring God's word to others by proclaiming the Good News of salvation.  The documents of the Second Vatican Council tell us that, as laity, we have an assignment in the mission of the whole people of God; namely, to work at the evangelization and sanctification of mankind.  Pope John Paul II reminds us that "every Christian has to participate in the task of Christian formation, to feel the urgent need to evangelize - something, says St. Paul, 'that gives me no ground for boasting.  For necessity is laid upon me."

In another passage we read the words of John Paul II in his encyclical "Mother of the Redeemer":

"In can thus be said that women, by looking to Mary, find in her the secret of living their femininity with dignity and of achieving their own true advancement.  In the light of Mary, the Church sees in the face of women the reflection of beauty which mirrors the loftiest sentiments of which the human heart is capable: the self-offering totality of love; the strength that is capable of bearing the greatest sorrows; limitless fidelity and tireless devotion to work; the ability to combine penetrating intuition with words of support and encouragement."

The secret to unlocking and living our vocation can be found in Mary.  Her receptivity, trust and surrender are the hallmarks of what it means to be a woman of grace.  Today, let us celebrate the fertility of her fiat and examine how we can more deeply embrace our own call and mission in our families, in our communities and in our world.