The Grace of Mary’s Yes
The Virgin is also duly called “Lady” as she has the mastery of all things, having divinely conceived and borne in virginity the Master of all by his nature. Yet she is the Lady not just because she is free from servitude and a partaker of divine power, but because she is the font and root of the freedom of the human race, especially after the ineffable and joyful Birth….
Freeing the human race, the Virgin Mother received through the angel joy and blessing instead of this curse. And the angel came in to her, it says, and said, Hail, thou that art highly favored, the Lord is with thee: blessed art thou among women (Lk 1:28). The Archangel was not foretelling the future by saying, The Lord is with thee, but was declaring what he saw happening invisibly at that time. Perceiving that divine and human gifts of grace were to be found in her, and that she was adorned with all the gifts of the Holy Spirit, he truly proclaimed her full of grace. He saw that she had already received to dwell within her the One in whom are all these treasures of grace. He saw in advance the painless pregnancy and the birth without labor, and announced to her that she should rejoice, and affirmed that she alone was rightly blessed and glorified among women. Even if other women may be extolled, no other can be magnified with the surpassing glory of the Virgin Mother of God.
Saint Gregory Palamas
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