The Annunciation (March 25)

"Can you imagine today a 15-year-old girl from Fox Point telling her parents that she was pregnant but didn't have sex? And, that she was pregnant with the Son of God?" Father McCaffrey asked us one Saturday afternoon during Mass at St. Joseph's Church in Providence.
It was the Annunciation, a Feast of Solemnity in the Roman Catholic Church. And, I think it was supposed to get us thinking about how Mary must have felt telling her parents that she had a visit from an angel.
March 25 was when the Gabriel the Archangel appeared to Mary and told her she would give birth to the Son of God and to name the baby Jesus.
"The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee and the power of the Most High shall overshadow thee. And therefore also the Holy which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God."
According to the Bible, this happened during the sixth month of pregnancy of Mary's cousin Elizabeth who was carrying John the Baptist.

St. Gabriel the Archangel

One day when I was at Mass at St. Joseph's Church in Providence, Father McCaffrey posed a good question about the Annunciation (March 25). It's when the Archangel Gabriel told Mary that she would conceive a child who was the son of God.
The priest asked if a teenage girl who lived in Fox Point went home and told her parents she never had sex but was going to have a baby and, in addition to that, it would be the son of God, do you think they would believe her? Probably not.
We can only imagine how Mary and her parents must have felt.
Gabriel told Mary to name the child Jesus who would be conceived by the Holy Spirit, Son of the Most High, and the Savior of the world.
The archangel is depicted with a lily, shield, trumpet, or spear. He is also mentioned in the prophecies of Daniel in the Old Testament and in the apocryphal book of Henoch.
Gabriel the Archangel's feast day is celebrated Sept. 29 along with Archangels Michael and Raphael.