Mary, Hope of the World: Mary's Youth

This is a podcast about the richness of the Gospel message for our nation and for our world, and today we are delving deeply into the Gospel behind the scenes, taking a look at the life of the Blessed Virgin Mary, who was conceived of and formed by God to be the Mother of the Messiah--that great and blessed role that many women of Israel hoped to fulfill! (That was one of the reasons why becoming a mother was so highly esteemed. It was thought that one day, one of those mothers would give birth to the coming Messiah in fulfillment of the prophecies.)

So, the Blessed Virgin Mary was chosen and, in fact, conceived of from all eternity for this purpose. Think about it, whether the Fall of mankind was necessary or not, from all eternity, God wanted to be with His creation in a profoundly intimate way. And so that is indeed what we have with the Blessed Virgin Mary’s life. She is like Jacob’s ladder to heaven, connecting us to the Father through the Son and the Spirit.
In today's chapter -- Chapter 3 of Mary, Hope of the World -- we take a look at Mary’s youth. Now, this is based on oral tradition, passed down from Mary to the apostles and to the early church fathers-- presumably from John the Apostle with whom she lived as a true mother to a true son after the death, resurrection and glorious ascension of Her Son, Jesus Christ. There is also another figure that knew Mary well and sought to imitate her, and so listen to the end to find out who this is!