We celebrate today the Feast of the Annunciation.  For us as faithful Christians, the Annunciation is an important feast integrally tied to Christmas; to the celebration of the Birth of Christ.  Nine months before the birth of our Lord, young Mary said ‘yes’ to God’s invitation to give her life as His mother.  We are mindful that this great act is so powerful a vocational witness that we give thanks and we look to our Lady as a model for our own vocational openness and response.  Mary did not have all the answers, or at this point many of them in fact.  She did not know what this ‘yes’ was to mean for her, her life, the world in fact.  She surely was more in the dark than in the light (so to speak) except for the fact that she was the bearer of light; the light of Christ. She had her faith, she had her love and devotion to God, she had a rock-solid trust in His love and mercy that she was able to say “be it done unto me according to Your Word!”  Last week we celebrated the Feast of St. Joseph, a model for men discerning their vocation and how we might live that out.  This week it’s a great day for us to reflect upon the Annunciation and Mary’s faith-based ‘yes’ to her vocation.  We know now how her yes impacted human history and our own lives, how will our yes impact the future, is yet to be seen.