Advent Novena Meditation: Day 2

The Annunciation, Matthew Alderman

The following is the meditation for Day 2 (December 17) of the Advent Novena. For the full text of the novena, click here.

Day 2

At the holy house of Nazareth, where Mary and Joseph lived, the Eternal Word was about to take on a created nature. As the Holy Spirit approached to overshadow her with the divine decree, Mary was alone, engulfed in prayer. She spent the quite hours of the night in a most intimate union with God, and as she prayed, the Word took possession of His created abode. However, He did not arrive uninvited. Before coming to her He sent a messenger, the Archangel Gabriel, to request on God’s behalf Mary’s consent to the miracle of the Incarnation. The Creator did not wish to consummate this great mystery without the assent of His creature.

It was a solemn moment, for it remained within Mary’s power to refuse. With what sublime delights, with what ineffable rejoicing the Holy Trinity must have awaited the moment in which Mary was to open her lips to pronounce that “fiat,” a word must have been as a tender melody before God! Through it, Mary conformed her being, in an act of free and profound humility, to the omnipotent divine will.

The Immaculate Virgin has given her assent. The archangel has vanished. God has clothed Himself in a created nature. The eternal will has been accomplished, the whole of Creation consummated. From the angelic realms bursts forth a roar of jubilation, but the Virgin Mary does not hear it—nor would she have paid attention to it if she had. Rather, her head was bowed and her soul immersed in a godly silence. The Word had become flesh, and though He remained still invisible to the world, He now dwelled among those whom his limitless love had come to rescue. He was no longer simply the Eternal Word; he was the Child Jesus, clothed in human form, already worthy of being called by all generations the most beautiful among the sons of men.