From before her birth, the life of the Virgin St. Mary was embraced in the eternal counsel of God the Father. The prophets had spoken of "the virgin" who would conceive and bear a son, whose name would be called Immanuel - God with us (Isaiah 7:14). Long before the Archangel Gabriel's greeting in Nazareth, the Father was already preparing the one who would become the Living Temple of the Eternal Word, the Ark of the New Covenant, and the Mother of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Savior of the World.
According to the ancient tradition preserved in the Church, her conception was itself a sign of God's mercy - the answer to the fervent prayers of her righteous parents, Saint Joachim and Saint Anna. Like Abraham and Sarah (Genesis 21:1-3) and Elkanah and Hannah (1 Samuel 1:19-20), they received a child by the Lord's gracious intervention: "He gives the barren woman a home, making her the joyous mother of children" (Psalm 113:9). In gratitude, they dedicated the child wholly to the Lord, fulfilling their vow and setting her apart for His service.
Brought to the Temple as a small child, Mary, the Ever-Virgin, dwelt in the courts of the Lord, echoing the Psalmist's longing: "One thing I have asked of the Lord... that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life" (Psalm 27:4). There, in the place where His Name dwelt (1 Kings 8:29), she was nurtured in prayer, purity, and obedience to the Law. The Fathers tell us she lived in the Holy of Holies, fed by angels, and filled with grace - a hidden work of the Holy Spirit preparing her to receive Jesus Christ, the Only-Begotten Son of God, Light from Light, true God from true God. St. Gregory Palamas calls these years "a divine school" in which she learned, not from human teachers alone, but from the direct illumination of God.
When the time came for her to leave the Temple, the Father's providence entrusted her to the care of the righteous Joseph the Betrothed, a humble and faithful son of David. This guardianship fulfilled the prophetic promise that the Messiah would come from David's house (2 Samuel 7:12-16). It ensured that the Virgin's dedication to God would be safeguarded until "the fullness of time" (Galatians 4:4).
From her first breath to her final glory, the Mother of God lived an unbroken "yes" to the will of the Father. Her surrender did not begin at the Annunciation; it was the fruit of a life already rooted in faith. As a child in the Temple, as the Virgin of Nazareth, as the Mother of the Messiah in Bethlehem, as the first disciple at Cana, as the steadfast Mother at the Cross of Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world (John 1:29), and as a prayerful intercessor with the Apostles in the Upper Room, she lived in continual openness to the Father's will. In her, the Psalmist's words find perfect fulfillment: "Behold, I have come... I delight to do Your will, O my God; Your law is within my heart" (Psalm 40:7-8).
This book invites you to contemplate the whole journey of the Blessed Virgin Mary as the Father's work of salvation - from her earliest days in her parents' home and the Temple, through the mysteries of the Incarnation, the Passion, and the Resurrection of Our Lord Jesus Christ, to the glory she now shares in the Father's presence. Each chapter traces how the Father's love shaped her through seasons of hiddenness and witness, joy and sorrow, receiving the Word made flesh (John 1:14) and bearing Him to the world.
Mary's story is not merely a biography; it is the pattern for the Christian life. As St. Ambrose exhorts, "Let the life of Mary be ever present to you; in her you find the model of your own life" (On Virgins 2.2). She is the sign of what the Father desires for all His children - to be made holy by His Spirit, conformed to the image of His Son, and brought into the joy of His kingdom (Romans 8:29-30).