Annunciation and Incarnation

Happy Day, humanity! This is the glorious day the Lord has made, the day of His Incarnation, the day He lowered Himself, beyond all comprehension, and became one of us, His creatures.

It is the day that truly boggles the mind, the day the Creator of all and everything asked the permission of a teenage girl in an obscure corner of the world to become man through her. And she said, "Yes!" -- and set into motion the remarkable act of redemption that saved humanity from its sinfulness.

From today's  Office of Readings -- a Letter by St. Leo the Great (c 400-461 A.D.):

"Lowliness is assured by majesty, weakness by power, mortality by eternity. To pay the debt of our sinful state, a nature that is incapable of suffering was joined to one that could suffer. Thus, in keeping with the healing that we needed, one and the same mediator between God and man, the man Jesus Christ, was able to die in one nature and unable to die in another.,,One nature is resplendent with miracles, the other falls victim to injuries...One and the same person -- this must be said over and over again -- is truly the Son of God and truly the son of man. He is God in virtue of the fact that in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. His man in virtue of the fact that the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us."

...and from the Gospel of Luke, Mary's magnificent Magnificat, prayed every day at Evening Prayer:

"My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord; my spirit rejoices in God my savior. For he has looked upon his handmaid's lowliness; behold, from now on will all ages call me blessed. The Mighty One has done great things for me, and holy is his name. His mercy is from age to age to those who fear him. He has shown might with his arm, dispersed the arrogant of mind and heart. He has thrown down the rulers from their thrones but lifted up the lowly. The hungry he has filled with good things; the rich he has sent away empty. He has helped Israel his servant, remembering his mercy, according to his promise to our fathers, to Abraham and to his descendants forever."

Spend today thanking God for His glorious act of divine love, for the salvation He has brought to His people. And thank Mary, His Mother and our Mother, for saying, "Yes."


Praise God!