St John Henry Newman, in his reflections on Our Lady’s titles, said this of her title ‘Gate of Heaven’: ‘Mary is called the Gate of Heaven, because it was through her that our Lord passed from heaven to earth. … How, and when, did Mary take part, and the initial part, in the world’s restoration? It was when the Angel Gabriel came to her to announce to her the great dignity which was to be her portion. St. Paul bids us “present our bodies to God as a reasonable service.” We must not only pray with our lips, and fast, and do outward penance, and be chaste in our bodies; but we must be obedient, and pure in our minds. And so, as regards the Blessed Virgin, it was God’s will that she should undertake willingly and with full understanding to be the Mother of our Lord, and not to be a mere passive instrument whose maternity would have no merit and no reward. … Therefore, weighing well the Angel’s words before giving her answer to them—first she asked whether so great an office would be a forfeiture of that Virginity which she had vowed. When the Angel told her no, then, with the full consent of a full heart, full of God’s love to her and her own lowliness, she said, “Behold the handmaid of the Lord; be it done unto me according to thy word.” It was by this consent that she became the Gate of Heaven’.

May God bless you on this glorious day.