One of my main hurdles to the faith was the “Thou-Shall-Not-Ness” of Catholicism. I saw the faith as essentially walls of rules surrounding us which we crashed up against in our efforts to be happy. I still saw atheism's rejection of religion as liberation.

It was then that I read Mary’s response to the Angel who told her she would conceive Jesus. I'd read it before but it really hit me this time. The whole history of man balanced upon that moment. You cannot make too much of Mary's "Yes."

So through that moment, I began to look at Catholicism as a "yes" culture.

I thought of marriage. We say, "I do." We affirm that we are saying yes to loving this other person and only this person for the remainder of our time here on Earth. It is a great yes. But that one 'yes' contains two billion 'no’s.' I am essentially saying "no" to every other woman. (I can almost hear their collective sigh of relief.) We are called to actively love. The no’s are reminders.