URC Daily Devotion Saturday, 8 August 2026 2026

Saturday, 8 August 2026 
A Marian Spirituality 
 

Luke 1:26-38
 
In the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent by God to a town in Galilee called Nazareth,  to a virgin engaged to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David. The virgin’s name was Mary.  And he came to her and said, ‘Greetings, favoured one! The Lord is with you.’  But she was much perplexed by his words and pondered what sort of greeting this might be.  The angel said to her, ‘Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favour with God. And now, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you will name him Jesus.  He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Most High, and the Lord God will give to him the throne of his ancestor David.  He will reign over the house of Jacob for ever, and of his kingdom there will be no end.’  Mary said to the angel, ‘How can this be, since I am a virgin?’  The angel said to her, ‘The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be holy; he will be called Son of God.  And now, your relative Elizabeth in her old age has also conceived a son; and this is the sixth month for her who was said to be barren.  For nothing will be impossible with God.’  Then Mary said, ‘Here am I, the servant of the Lord; let it be with me according to your word.’ Then the angel departed from her.
 
Reflection
 
In September 1888 a pioneering Presbyterian woman Biblical scholar, Agnes Smith-Lewis, visited Lourdes with her husband Samuel (an Anglican priest) and her sister.
 
‘Clear in the evening air, encircled by two brilliant rows of flaming gas-jets, stood a terra-cotta image of Mary on a lofty pedestal, her white robes relieved by a broad sash of blue light, by the huge silver rosary depending from her clasped hands, and by the tall golden diadem on her head ….One and all were singing a hymn of which we could only catch the Chorus: “Ave, ave, ave, Maria”….[T]heir voices rising and falling in perfect cadence the incense of their worship seemed to rise to the placid motherly face of the image, the incarnation, as it were, of feminine goodness.’
 
It was a moment that entranced and shocked her in equal measure – the Reformed had good theological reasons to be suspicious of such worship, yet in its own way it was glorious and good.
 
Luke’s account of the Annunciation is a breathtaking piece of spiritual poetry, for this is the point at which God’s intent for the salvation  and redemption of the world rests on the will of a teenage Palestinian peasant girl. What would have happened if Mary had said ‘No’? God would have found other ways, Calvin thought. But after questioning ‘How can this be?’, Mary said ‘Yes’. Is this free will? Is this God’s choosing and election?  The gospel reads as if Mary was indeed making an active, conscious and free choice. One modern Reformed theologian impishly noted, ‘Mary elects God’s election of her’.
 
In an era where we have learnt to value so profoundly feminist theology and the gifts of women to the Church, might it be time for the Reformed to ask again what they might gain from re-visiting the place of Mary in their theological and devotional life?
 
Prayer
 
Eternal God
You chose Mary to be the mother of our Lord.
We praise you that her ‘Yes’ made salvation possible,
and as we too try to say ‘Yes’ to you,
we ask that we might be open to explore
how she might help us grow in faith and love.
Through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Amen