Edgar Maldonado, LC
In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.
Amen.
Christ, our King.
Thy Kingdom come!
Preparatory prayer (to put me in the presence of God)
Jesus Christ, our Lord, though I am unworthy, I hold you, through your holy Gospel, in my unholy hands.
I beg you, give me words of life and consolation through the mouth and tongue of your holy Gospel.
Grant me, O Lord, the grace to listen to them with new inner ears and to sing your glory with the tongue of the Spirit. Amen. (Prayer written by Joseph Busnaya, a Syriac monk of the 10th century, to ask the Lord for his light to understand the Holy Scriptures while holding the Gospel in one's hands.)
Gospel of the day (to guide your meditation)
From the Holy Gospel according to Luke 1:26-38
When she was six months old, the angel Gabriel was sent by God to a city of Galilee called Nazareth, to a virgin betrothed to a man named Joseph, of the seed of David; the virgin's name was Mary. The angel came into her presence and said, “Rejoice, full of grace; the Lord is with you. She was troubled at these words and wondered what the greeting was. The angel said to her, ”Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. You will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus. He will be great; he will be called the Son of the Most High; the Lord God will give him the throne of his father David; he will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end.“ And Mary said to the angel, ”How shall that be, for I know not a man?“ And the angel answered her, ”The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the Holy One to be born will be called the Son of God. Behold your kinswoman Elizabeth, who, in spite of her old age, has conceived a son, and she who was called barren is already six months along; for with God nothing is impossible.“ And Mary answered, ”Here is the handmaid of the Lord; let it be done to me according to your word. And the angel left her.
Word of the Lord.
Meditate on what God tells you in the Gospel
Let us read the Gospel once again with this question in mind, what did Mary do to make the angel appear to her? Yes, read the Gospel one more time, as many times as necessary to understand and hear the voice of the Lord.
Evidently, the Gospel says nothing about any special action of Mary because she did nothing in particular for the angel to come to greet her. However, the Virgin did do something that Luke does not mention explicitly.
A first presupposition is to accept the fact that prayer is a grace, since it is God who sends Gabriel to communicate a message to Mary. That is to say, the first person interested in the dialogue is God.
Fundamentally, Mary welcomes the angel's message. Welcoming implies listening to the message, pondering it with the heart and responding in such a way that our will coincides with that of the Lord, be it done unto me according to thy word. That is the ABC of prayer: awareness that prayer is a grace, attention and listening, and personal response. Read the text again and identify the moments of Mary's prayer.
«The passage of Luke's Gospel that we have heard tells us about the decisive moment in history, the most revolutionary. It is a convulsive situation, everything changes, history is turned upside down. It is difficult to preach on this passage. And when at Christmas or on the day of the Annunciation we profess our faith to say this mystery, we kneel down. It is the moment when everything changes, everything, from the root. Liturgically today is the day of the root. The Antiphon that today marks the meaning is the root of Jesse, “from which a shoot will be born”. God crouches down, God enters history and does so in his original style: a surprise. The God of surprises surprises us once again.». (H.H. Francis, Homily of December 20, 2018).
Dialogue with Christ
This is the most important part of your prayer, prepare yourself to talk with much love with the One who loves you.
I accept your Word, Lord, I let myself be challenged and I persevere in my heart. I want, like my Blessed Mother, to receive within me the Word of life. I want you to live in me, but I want even more to be the one who lives in you; I want to live from you, from your Word. I want my heart to be another Bethlehem grotto for your birth, for your incarnation, I want you to be the one who lives, prays and loves in me.
Purpose
Propose a personal one. The one that involves the most love in response to the Beloved... or, if you believe that this is what God is asking of you, live what is suggested below.
In front of an image of Our Lord, he repeats “Speak, Lord, I am listening”as many times as necessary. After each repetition, pause briefly and collect your senses and dispose yourself interiorly to dialogue with Christ.
Farewell
We thank you, Lord, for all your benefits, you who live and reign forever and ever.
Amen.
Christ, our King!
Thy Kingdom come!
Most prudent Virgin, Mary, Mother of the Church.
Pray for us.
In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.
Amen.
