The Annunciation

In the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a city of Galilee named Nazareth, to a virgin betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David; and the virgin's name was Mary. And he came to her and said, "Hail, full of grace, the Lord is with you!" But she was greatly troubled at the saying, and considered in her mind what sort of greeting this might be. And the angel said to her, "Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus. He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Most High; and the Lord God will give to him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob for ever; and of his kingdom there will be no end." 

And Mary said to the angel, "How shall this be, since I have no husband?" And the angel said to her, "The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be called holy, the Son of God.

And behold, your kinswoman Elizabeth in her old age has also conceived a son; and this is the sixth month with her who was called barren. For with God nothing will be impossible." And Mary said, "Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word." And the angel departed from her.

The Annunciation – John O’Donohue             

Cast from afar before the storms were born
And rain had rinsed the darkness for colour,

The words have waited for the hunger in her

To become the silence where they could form.

The day’s last light frames her by the window,

A young women with distance in her gaze.

She could never imagine the surprise

That is hovering over her life now.

The sentence awakens like a raven, fluttering and dark,

Opening her heart to nest the voice

That first whispered the earth,

From dream into wind, stone, sky and ocean,

She offers to mother the shadow’s child,

Her untouched life becoming wild inside.

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• S+L - Hail, favored one! - A Reflection on the Hail Mary
• WoF - Bishop Barron on the Annunciation
• Between doctrine and discipleship: reflections on the Annunciation