Paul and Silvanus and Timothy, to the church of the Thessalonians in God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ: Grace to you, and peace. When, in the fullness of time, Mary was startled by Gabriel’s strange greeting—“Hail, O greatly favored one, the Lord is with you!” (AT)—she naturally wondered what those words might portend. They portended an unprecedented interruption to the lineage of the human race, as to the lineaments of her own life. She had
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