Day 2: The Annunciation

The second day of the Saint Andrew Christmas Novena turns to the moment that begins the entire mystery of the Nativity: the Annunciation. The Lord Jesus was born at midnight in Bethlehem because, nine months earlier in Nazareth, the Blessed Virgin Mary said yes to the angel Gabriel. The Annunciation is the seed; the Nativity is the harvest. Today we meditate on the seed.

Today's prayer (recite fifteen times)

Hail and blessed be the hour and moment in which the Son of God was born of the most pure Virgin Mary, at midnight, in Bethlehem, in piercing cold. In that hour vouchsafe, O my God, to hear my prayer and grant my desires, through the merits of Our Saviour Jesus Christ, and of His blessed Mother. Amen.

Today's meditation

The Gospel of Saint Luke records the Annunciation in chapter one, verses 26 to 38. The angel Gabriel was sent by God to a town of Galilee called Nazareth, to a virgin named Mary, who was betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph. The angel greeted her: "Hail, full of grace, the Lord is with you!" Mary was troubled by the greeting and considered what kind of greeting this might be. The angel explained: she would conceive in her womb and bear a son, and would call His name Jesus; He would be great and would be called the Son of the Most High. Mary's question, "How can this be, since I have no husband?", was answered by the angel: the Holy Spirit would come upon her, and the power of the Most High would overshadow her; therefore the Child to be born would be called holy, the Son of God.

Mary's response is the fiat of the Catholic Marian theology: "Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word." The Catholic doctrine of the Annunciation holds that this fiat was free, deliberate, and consequential: the Incarnation of the Eternal Word was conditioned on the consent of the Virgin Mary, and her consent was given.

Today's intention

Today, in addition to your principal intention, ask the Mother of God for the disposition of her fiat. Blessed Virgin Mary, who said yes to the angel Gabriel, obtain for me the grace to say yes to the Lord in my own life. Where I have been resistant to His will, give me your readiness.

If you are praying this novena for a particular vocational discernment (the choice of a state of life, a major life decision, a moment of conscience), today is an appropriate day to bring it explicitly. The Annunciation is the Catholic paradigm of vocational consent.

Reflection

The Catholic spiritual tradition has long observed that every Catholic life has its own Annunciation: the moment in which the Lord asks for a particular consent that will shape the rest of life. The young Catholic discerns marriage or religious life or single life; the parent decides to receive this child whom God has given; the worker accepts the difficult assignment that conscience requires; the elderly Catholic says yes to the slow reduction of capacity that prepares for death. Each is a small Annunciation. Each requires the same disposition: the readiness to receive what the Lord asks.

The Catholic faithful are sometimes tempted to imagine the Annunciation as a unique event, beyond imitation. The proper Catholic reading is that it is paradigmatic: Mary's fiat is the form every Catholic fiat should take. The Saint Andrew Christmas Novena, with its meditation on the Annunciation on the second day, is the Catholic invitation to recognize our own Annunciations and to respond as Mary did.

Closing

Conclude with the Hail Mary, prayed slowly with attention to the words drawn from the Annunciation: Hail, full of grace, the Lord is with thee. Blessed art thou amongst women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus.