The virtues and qualities found in the Virgin Mary

The Angel Gabriel greeted Mary as “full of grace” or the one who enjoys “God’s favor,” which is enough to give us an idea of her magnificence! Yes, she who was to become the Mother of the divine Son, our Redeemer, chosen by God from all eternity, could only be endowed with all natural and supernatural perfection, and consequently with all the corresponding virtues.

The Virgin Mary was preserved in anticipation, from the moment of her conception, of original sin by the merits of Redemption. This was the unheard of and unique privilege that God willed for the woman in whom His Word was to become incarnate, "when the fullness of time had come." Therefore Mary was born with the perfection of the natural gifts - of all kinds - that God had given His creation before Adam's fall.

Of course, we must add the gift of grace to all these natural gifts! Mary was not marred by any personal weakness due to sin nor by any sin for that matter, even venial, so these gifts were able to shine forth through her body, soul and spirit, “filling her with grace”.

Yet Mary was no less a free creature than Adam and Eve were in Paradise, and the “Yes” she gave Gabriel, the messenger of God, at the Annunciation, was a free “Yes”, through and through. It was a “Yes” spoken freely and by choice. God proposed and Mary could have said no... Yet she said “Yes,” in absolute obedience (“let it happen to me as you have said”) whereas Eve, by disobeying, had caused the fall of the human race...

So, Mary was “full of grace” on one hand, but free on the other, and like any other creature, she had to practice the moral virtues (i.e. natural) and the theological virtues (i.e. supernatural) (1), in order to faithfully progress along the path that God set before her, and to hold on firmly, no matter what, in spite of the enormous trials which would take her all the way to the crucifixion of her own Son on Calvary...

So it is definitely by personal virtue and by Mary’s freely consented choice that she assented to her vocation until the end. In this sense the Blessed Virgin is a model for all Christians who want to answer God's call faithfully. We know that God has a divine loving plan for each of His children and Mary is the most apt to help us say “Yes” to the Father's loving plan...

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