”All will call me blessed…” No one has been more accurate in that statement than Mary. She had told God yes to the huge announcement that she of all the young Jewish women would bear God’s son. Called “Theotikos” — “God-bearer” by the Orthodox, Mary indeed bore God, impossibly made man, within her and birthed God in the flesh through her life. She was the first God-bearer. As the priests in Israel had borne the Ark, the presence of God on their shoulders supported by the poles, so we still “bear God” in this world. The ark and the temple combined in humanity because of Mary. After Jesus came through her, we have become Him in this world. We shoulder God’s presence. He is again conceived in our hearts, “you have been born again through the imperishable seed implanted” penned Peter (1 Peter 1:23) in order to become mature in him, complete (Matthew 5:48). Do we, like Mary, remember our connection to this long history? Do we remember we are blessed?