Tuesday after Populus Sion, The Second Sunday in Advent
Posted on December 12, 2023 by under
Scripture: St. Luke 1:26-38 (NKJV)
1:26 Now in the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent by God to a city of Galilee named Nazareth, 27 to a virgin betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David. The virgin’s name was Mary. 28 And having come in, the angel said to her, “Rejoice, highly favored one, the Lord is with you; blessed are you among women!”
29 But when she saw him, she was troubled at his saying, and considered what manner of greeting this was. 30 Then the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. 31 And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bring forth a Son, and shall call His name Jesus. 32 He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Highest; and the Lord God will give Him the throne of His father David. 33 And He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of His kingdom there will be no end.”
34 Then Mary said to the angel, “How can this be, since I do not know a man?”
35 And the angel answered and said to her, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Highest will overshadow you; therefore, also, that Holy One who is to be born will be called the Son of God. 36 Now indeed, Elizabeth your relative has also conceived a son in her old age; and this is now the sixth month for her who was called barren. 37 For with God nothing will be impossible.”
38 Then Mary said, “Behold the maidservant of the Lord! Let it be to me according to your word.” And the angel departed from her.
Devotion
“Let it be to me according to your word.”
The angel Gabriel appears to the blessed virgin Mary and declares God’s intentions for her. She does not doubt God’s Word; she asks only about “how is this going to work?” The angel answers: the Holy Spirit will come upon her, and so she will conceive and give birth to the only-begotten Son of God. Once the angel answers, she speaks the faithful words: “Let it be to me according to your word.”
The Lord has His use of our lives. As children, we sometimes get asked, “what do you want to be when you grow up?” If ever St. Mary was asked that, she likely would not have imagined that she would become the “Theotokos,” the “Bearer” or “Mother of God”!
Our lives likewise take twists and turns that we could never have imagined, and they sometimes turn out completely different than we had thought. When He wills something we could not have foreseen, God grant us, like St. Mary, to submit to the plans He has for us, to rejoice in them, and at the last to receive our heavenly reward through faith in Jesus Christ.
Collect: Stir up our hearts, O Lord, to make ready the way of Thine only-begotten Son, so that by His coming we may be enabled to serve Thee with pure minds; through the same Jesus Christ, Thy Son, our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with the Father and the Holy Ghost, ever One God, world without end. Amen.
Collect for the Season of Advent
Stir up, we beseech Thee, Thy power, O Lord, and come, that by Thy protection we may be rescued from the threatening perils of our sins, and saved by Thy mighty deliverance; who livest and reignest with the Father and the Holy Ghost, ever One God, world without end. Amen.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
