“When he [God] takes the initiative, it is always a matter of love, love which will care for us and take us up into his saving purposes. Mary is, to that extent, the supreme example of what always happens when God is working by grace through human beings. God’s power from outside, and the indwelling spirit within, together result in things being done which would have been unthinkable any other way.”

Tom Wright, discussing the Annunciation of the (Virgin) Birth of Jesus (Luke 1. 26-38), in his Luke for Everyone, SPCK and Westminster John Knox Press, second edition 2004, p. 11.

The Church remembers The Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary in its prayers on Wednesday 8^th December.