Article 18 of the Vatican II document Lumen Gentium said of the ministerial priesthood that "for the nurturing and constant growth of the people of God, Christ the Lord instituted in his church a variety of ministries which work for the good of the whole body. For those ministers who are endowed with sacred power serve their brethren so that all who are of the people of God and therefore enjoy a true Christian dignity working towards a common goal, freely and in an orderly way, may arrive at salvation."

The ministerial priesthood then involves a special ministry of service for the body of Christ and is constituted by a divine commission by which a sacred power is conferred on a certain chosen individual or individuals.

Let us look at the accounts of the Annunciation in Luke and Matthew.

A certain individual is chosen. She is "a virgin bethrothed to a man named Joseph, of the House of David; and the virgin's name was Mary". She was residing at a town in Galilee called Nazareth. (Luke 1:2627).

A special ministry is given her. ". . . you are to conceive and bear a son, and you must name him Jesus." (Luke 1:31). Jesus did not have a human father.

The ministry is given by God. " . . . the angel Gabriel was sent by God . . . " (Luke 1:26).

A sacred power is conferred on Mary. "The Holy Spirit will come upon you," the angel answered, "and the power of the Most High will cover you with its shadow. And so the child will be holy and will be called Son of God . . . " (Luke 1:35)

This special ministry is for the body of Christ. "She will give birth to a son and you [Joseph] must name him Jesus, because he is the one who is to save his people from their sins." (Matthew 1:21)

In Luke's account of the Annunciation, Chapter 1, 26-38, the angel Gabriel greeted Mary: "Rejoice, so highly favoured! The Lord is with you."

Mary is invited to "rejoice" at the coming of the messianic times. She is "so highly favoured" as she is chosen to play an essential part in God's plan and, with the assurance "The Lord is with you", the Lord guarantees the success of his plan to Mary.

In Matthew, Chapter 1, 18-25, Joseph is central and the active figure. Matthew tells us the angel of the Lord spoke to Joseph in a dream and said: "Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because she has conceived what is in her by the Holy Spirit. She will give birth to a son and you must name him Jesus, because he is the one who is to save his people from their sins.

"When Joseph woke up he did what the angel of the Lord had told him to do: he took his wife to his home and, though he had not had intercourse with her, she gave birth to a son; and he named him Jesus." (Matthew 1. 24-25)

Mary was commissioned to conceive and bear Jesus. So it was through being the mother of Jesus that she carried out her ministry.

Mary's ministerial priesthood began at the Annunciation when she said: "Let what you have said be done to me." (Luke 1.38)

Her ministerial priesthood ended when Jesus was born. There is no evidence that Mary received any other ministerial priesthood.

In both the Nicene and Athanasian creeds the church teaches that (1) God the Son, the second person of the most Holy Trinity, became man; (2) that he was born of the Blessed Virgin Mary; (3) that he is true God and true man.

St Paul, in 1 Timothy, 2.5, said: "For there is only one God, and there is only one mediator between God and mankind, himself a man, Christ Jesus, who sacrificed himself as a ransom for them all."

He is the perfect mediator between God and mankind, because he himself is both God and man . . . having been born of the Blessed Virgin Mary, as we have seen above.

"Hail! Mary, full of grace/Rejoice, so highly favoured!" Mary was so highly favoured because she was chosen to be the mother of Jesus Christ, mother of God.

Because she was chosen to be the mother of Jesus, she was born free of all stain of sin, including original sin: and, secondly, having completed the course of her earthly life without sin, she was assumed body and soul into heavenly glory.

The Catholic Church's "solemn definition" of the doctrine of the Immaculate Conception, first proclaimed on December 8th, 1854, by Pope Pius IX, declares: "We by the authority of our Lord Jesus Christ, of the blessed Apostles Peter and Paul, and by that invested in us, do, to the honour of the holy and undivided Trinity, for the glory and adornment of the Virgin Mother of God, for the exaltation of the Catholic faith, and the advancement of the Christian religion, declare, and pronounce, and define that the doctrine which holds that the Blessed Virgin Mary, in the first instant of her conception, has been, by a special grace and privilege of Almighty God, and in view of the merits of Jesus Christ, the Saviour of the human race, preserved and exempted from every stain of original sin, is revealed by God, and consequently is to be believed firmly and inviolably by all the faithful."

On November 1st, 1950, Pope Pius XII solemnly defined Mary's bodily assumption into heaven as a dogma of the Catholic faith "for the increase of the glory of that same august mother". He continued: "We pronounce, declare, and define it to be a divinely revealed dogma that the Immaculate Mother of God, the ever Virgin Mary, having completed the course of her earthly life, was assumed body and soul into heavenly glory."

We have seen that Mary was a ministerial priest by being the mother of Jesus, mother of God. So, if in both above definitions, we replace "mother of God" by "ministerial priest", the new versions would be true, though not defined.

The Blessed Virgin Mary was the first ever ministerial priest. She was the first person ever to exercise ministerial priesthood. She exercised this ministerial priesthood once only. Then she ceased to be a ministerial priest.

Canon Patrick Towey is a retired parish priest of Gurteen, Co Sligo.