" Then the angel said to her, 'Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. Behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall name Him Jesus.'" (Luke 1:30-31)

NAZARETH - As life begins at conception, the story of Jesus' earthly life really begins here.

Nazareth is a city of more than 50,000, a third of whom are Christian, according to local estimates. But at the time of Christ's birth, it was home to only about 200 Jews, and located several days' journey north of Jerusalem and its nearby hamlet of Bethlehem.

An expansive, three-level church built in 1969 towers over the remains of the tiny stone home in which a virgin named Mary lived with her parents while preparing to wed a local carpenter named Joseph.

It was there that the Angel Gabriel appeared to her and announced that she would bear not just a son, but one who would be "great and called the Son of the Most High," as well as one who would "rule over the house of Jacob forever, and of His kingdom there will be no end" (Luke, 1:32-33).

That was certainly a frightening experience for a young woman, perhaps in only her late teens, especially when told that such a birth would be not by man but by the power of "the Holy Spirit" (Luke, 1:35).

The virgin birth was the fulfillment of Scripture's prediction found in Isaiah 7:14 ("Therefore the Lord Himself will give you this sign: The virgin shall be with child, and bear a Son, and shall name him Immanuel, meaning 'God with us.'")

Mary's acceptance of that announcement demonstrated the selflessness of God-fearing people who obey His will: "Behold I am the handmaid of the Lord. May it be done unto me according to your word" (Luke 1:36).

Joseph, her betrothed, also demonstrated his obedience to God at this time. Realizing Mary was pregnant, but not by him, he at first desired to divorce her quietly. But "the angel of the Lord" appeared to him in a dream and told him that it had been by the Holy Spirit. "When Joseph awoke, he did as the angel of the Lord had commanded of him and took his wife into his home." (Matthew 1:24)

The modern Basilica of the Annunciation is the fourth church built on the site of Gabriel's apparition to Mary, going back to the Byzantine era in the fourth century, when Christianity received official state approval. The current church replaced one that dated from the 1700s and which Pope John XXIII, who convened the Second Vatican Council, was determined to replace with something he thought would be more reverent.

He didn't live to see the result of his efforts, but among the many murals in the sanctuary of the main level is one depicting him and the other popes who did what they could to make Nazareth a holy place for Christians.

Those many murals also depict scenes from the life of Christ. They include a symbolic depiction of the 120 Franciscans who have been martyred.

The most striking feature of the church is the skylight through its dome. The dome is in the shape of an inverted lily, and it allows a shaft of daylight to stream down through the church and to illuminate the area in front of the altar at the entrance to what was Mary's home.

That beam of concentrated light symbolizes "God's intercession coming down on Mary," said Father Peter Vasko, OFM, who has lived in the Holy Land for 18 years and guided many Catholics in their pilgrimage through it.

Images of Mary, donated by many nations, are on the walls of the main level of the church. This merely fulfills what she herself said, "...behold, from now on, all ages will call me blessed" (Luke 1:48).

Father Vasko said the Basilica of the Annunciation is a particular favorite place of women who travel to the Holy Land. "They identify so closely with Mary; she was a mother, wife. She cleaned and worked like they do," he said.

Nazareth was the place that the child Jesus "grew and became strong, filled with wisdom; and the favor of God was upon Him (Luke 3:40)."

It also was the place where the Holy Family - Joseph, Mary and Jesus - put down its roots after the flight from Bethlehem into Egypt to escape the murderous King Herod and the return from there.

The residents of Nazareth rejected Jesus when he came of age and began his public ministry, leading him to conclude that "A prophet is not without honor except in his native place and in his own house." (Matthew 13:58) "... He began to teach in the synagogue, and many who heard Him were astonished ... (saying) 'Where did this Man get all this?' ... Is He not the carpenter, the son of Mary ... And they took offense at Him ... So He was not able to perform any mighty deeds there ... He was amazed at their lack of faith" (Mark 6:2-6).

But the skepticism of others soon turned to belief. When the apostle Philip told his friend Nathaniel that the Messiah was among them, and that He was from Nazareth, Nathaniel scoffed, "Can anything good come from Nazareth?" (John, 1:46). But Nathaniel, in becoming one of the 12, soon changed his mind and told Jesus that he knew Him to be the Son of God.

Father Vasko noted that many people wonder how a particular site - such as the one occupied by the Basilica of the Annunciation - is noted as being holy and authentic. He believes it comes from the documented veneration of those places by the early Christians long before any permanent church was built on them. That continuous veneration of the site continued for three centuries until the emperor Constantine made Christianity the official religion of the Roman Empire - thereby allowing his mother, St. Helena, to begin building the first churches on these sites.

"People say, 'It's reported to have been the place.' It is the place," he said emphatically.