You do not ask for sacrifice and offerings,
but an open ear.
You do not ask for holocaust and victim.
Instead, here am I.
From Afternoon Prayer for Monday of the 2nd Week of Ordinary Time
Mary, Mother of God
From a letter by Saint Athanasius, bishop
Gabriel used careful and prudent language when he announced his birth. He did not speak of “what will be born in you” to avoid the impression that a body would be introduced into her womb from the outside; he spoke of “what will be born from you,” so that we might know by faith that the child originated with her and from her.