Announcing a child
It defies logic and biological science that a young girl can get pregnant without the intervention of a man in some way. But that's the tenet underpinning what is termed the immaculate conception of Mary.
And in the sources of the Holy Land saga, where it began was at Nazareth, where the mother to be of Jesus lived and where she is said to have been visited by the angel Gabriel to tell her why she was here.
Today it is a sprawling mountain top town of some 68,000 people, but in the time of this tale it seems to have been a fairly insignificant place. Various estimates by archeologists and historians put its population anywhere between 16 and 2,000 people. Most scholars now accept that it was likely 300 or less.
Mary was a typical young girl of her time, with daily chores that included going to the town well for water with which to fill the clay jars in her home. She was betrothed to Joseph, usually described as a carpenter but most likely a working class man with various building skills.
There are conflicting stories as to where Mary was visited by the angel. Some say it was on her way to the well, others suggest that it was in her home. Whichever, it must have been really scary for her, because unwed motherhood wasn't welcomed in Jewish families and communities of the time.
The truth of the whole matter we don't know. There's no direct documentary evidence, no letters, no birth certificates, no doctor's records, all the things that today mark pregnancy and birth. Just a story in the new testament, suggesting that prophecy had been fulfilled. It is still incredible, really.
"But this was an occasion when something extraordinary took place," Fr Murphy said during celebration of a mass for the Kilcullen pilgrimage in the magnificent modern basilica built over the grotto where the Annunciation is said to have happened.
"Part of our faith is that what we commemorate here actually happened, that the angel did appear and that the child was born without the intervention of a human father. This is a very sacred place -- the Word was made flesh here."
As the angel is reported to have said, Mary had 'won God's favour'. But it seems it was a mixed blessing for Nazareth itself, and in the serious years of the ministry of Jesus the townspeople weren't all that enamoured of its newly most famous son or his work. According to the four Gospels, he was a prophet 'without honour ... in his own country, and among his own kin, and in his own house'.
In addition to the lower level which is designed around the remains of the grotto where 'the angel appeared unto Mary', there is a truly international second level where the daily worship of the local community is carried out.
It is international by virtue of the various donations from many countries of artwork, bronze doors, and other elements of its architecture, and worth a visit for that alone.
Nearby in the same Franciscan-managed complex is another church, under which is the 'St Joseph's Workshop'. This is said to be the home of Joseph, set underground in the rock for even temperature through the year and with his workshop over where it would get the best light.
Whether it ever was what it is claimed to be is a matter for archaeological investigation and conclusions, which are never final. But as another touchstone for the faith of millions, it is as credible as it needs to be.
Because faith is not in remains of buildings, or in the churches that mark them today, but in hearts and souls.
Pictures from the trip.Reported from Nazareth by the Accidental Pilgrim.
