Earlier in Advent, I offered some thoughts on the Annunciation. You can read them here.

Today as we near Christmas, the same Gospel passage returns for our hearing. A line that strikes my heart is the final sentence, “Then the angel departed from her.”

Mary has become the Mother of Jesus and the Mother of all humanity. After being given this immense vocation, the angel left her. Mary was alone …

Oh, what solitude she must have felt at this moment! Yet Mary sees her life from that moment on in her heart. She treasures and ponders the great mystery of God inside her.

In her heart, Mary kept “not only her memory of what she had seen and heard, but also those aspects of it that she did not yet understand; these nonetheless remained present and alive in her memory, waiting to be “put together” in her heart” (Pope Francis, Dilexit nos 19).

As we continue to contemplate this event of the Annunciation, I tip my hat to Caryll Houselander, who said:

“The history of the Incarnation is like a fugue, in which the love of God for the world is the ever-recurring motif. It was uttered first in Mary’s voice, in its very simplest phrase, like a few single notes.

A few words spoken to an angel and heard only by him: “Be it done unto me according to thy word.”

Then, like the pause that measures music as truly the sounds, the word of God is silent; for nine months in is inaudible.

It is the pause during which the opening phrase grows within us in loveliness, preparing our minds for the coming splendor.”

Loving Mother, help me ponder, treasure, and keep the will of God in my own fragile heart. Teach me to be patient as God reveals his plan for my life. As Christmas draws near, help me make room for Jesus in my heart. Help me be in the solitude of his loving presence. Amen.