“In looking at Mary we gaze not outwardly, or even upwardly, but inwardly to our own adoption as children of God because it is there that we find Mary’s true vocation, and ours as well, to be the adopted daughters and sons of God.” On the feast of the Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Br. James Koester connects our vocation to that of the Mother of God and Queen of Heaven – Mary of Nazareth – who began, as we all do, as a simple child of God.