Like Mary, the Docile Handmaid of the Divine Word

This attitude of religious listening is the typical attitude of Mary Most Holy exactly as shown in the emblematic image of the Annunciation: The Virgin receives the heavenly messenger while meditating on the sacred Scriptures, represented generally with a book that she holds in her hands, or on her lap, or on a lectern. This is also the image of the Church offered by the Council itself, in the constitution "Dei Verbum" (No. 1). Let us pray that, like Mary, the Church may be a docile handmaid of the Divine Word and proclaim it always with firm confidence so that "the whole world, hearing, will believe in the proclamation of salvation; in believing will hope, and in hoping will love" (ibid.).