The Pope gave an extraordinary Urbi et Orbi (To the City and the World) blessing today. As part of this hour of prayer, Pope Francis preached a wonderful homily. The text of it is available on the Vatican's website. Click here to read it.

Vatican News has a video with English commentary, which I have included here:

L'Annonciation (The Annunciation) by Philippe de Champaigne, 1644.

In other news, I recently stumbled on an interesting little article by Philip Kosloski about the development of the Hail Mary prayer. The first half of the prayer is quite ancient; however, the second half seems to have developed during the dark times of the Black Death. If that is the case, than we should not hesitate to pray to Mary to ask for relief from this plague!
Click here to read the article on Aleteia.