Advent Retreat (Fiat Mihi) - First Meditation (The Angelic Message)

You who became incarnate among us at the message of an angel, in the immaculate womb of Your Blessed Mother, Our Blessed Mother. The events of the Annunciation took place nine months ago, celebrated as they are every year on March 25th, an event which normally occurs during the Lenten Season, a very different liturgical time. Nevertheless, we would not be celebrating Christmas without that intimate encounter between an Angel of God and a young maiden from Nazareth. The Church recalls the importance of the Annunciation for us several times during this Advent Season, on the Immaculate Conception, at the Saturday Votive Mass of Our Lady (the Rorate Mass), and again this past week, as the gospel passage for Ember Wednesday.

We know, without doubt then, that meditating on the events of the Annunciation are central to our preparation for the Christmas celebrations. Today, then, we will spend our time recollecting those events, and the lessons we can learn for our own spiritual lives.

God’s plan of salvation was announced from the very moment sin entered the world, “The LORD God said to the serpent,

I will put enmity between you and the woman,

and between your seed and her seed;

he shall bruise your head,

and you shall bruise his heel.”

He continued to announce that plan throughout the history of the People of Israel. Again, several times in this Advent season we have heard:

Revised Standard Version, Second Catholic Edition Chapter 7

10 Again the LORD spoke to Ahaz, 11 “Ask a sign of the LORD your God; let it be deep as Sheol or high as heaven.” 12 But Ahaz said, “I will not ask, and I will not put the LORD to the test.” 13 And he said, “Hear then, O house of David! Is it too little for you to weary men, that you weary my God also? 14 ¶ Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Behold, a virgin * shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanu-el. 15 He shall eat curds and honey when he knows how to refuse the evil and choose the good.

Even though God had announced His plan (and continued announcing it for thousands of years), He would not carry it out without the consent of the Blessed Virgin. So He sent an angel to announce to her the precious role she would play in Salvation History, and to obtain her consent to play that role.

God does the same with us. He will not raise anyone to the dignity of sonship without his consent and cooperation. As St. Augustine famously said, “He who created us without our help will not save us without our consent.”

But God does not send angels to us, rather He sends graces and inspiriations, in order that we might cooperate with His plan of salvation for us.

ILLUSTRATION

In the lives of the religious belonging to the Dominican Order, we read of one who was famous for his eloquence, and for the zeal with which he preached the holy Word of God.

“God made me to serve Him,” he used to say. “I am in this world, O my God, to serve Thee. Show me then, dearest Lord, how I am to do so most perfectly, for this is the greatest, the only desire of my heart.”

God was pleased with the fervour of this holy man, and answered his prayer.

As he was one day before the altar, pouring out his soul in the presence of God, and saying with more than usual fervour this little prayer, “O my God, what must I do to save my soul?” he heard a voice near him which answered him in these words: “Believe, Accomplish, Employ.”

For a few minutes he reapeated them to himself, trying to find out what they meant. But the more he thought over them, the more difficult they seemed to be.

“O my God, make known to me the meaning of these words, for how can I understand them unless Thou dost explain them to me?”

This time, also, God was pleased to answer him. He heard the same voice again; it said: “My son, Believe all that God has revealed to you, Accomplish all that He has appointed to be done, by keeping His holy commandments, Employ the means He has given you to enable you to become holy and to reach Heaven.”

The pious religious now clearly saw what God required of him to do, that he might might serve Him in the most perfect manner. From that day until the hour of his happy death, he kept these words always before his mind; his whole life was thus spent in serving God most perfectly, and after death he was numbered among the saints of God in Heaven.

While the messages that God sends to us likely will not take the form of an angel, or even an explicit message as this Dominican friar received, He nonetheless sends us daily graces and inspiriations to guide us towards salvation; an insight in prayer, the wise counsel of a friend. We must be attuned to these inspiriations and respond just as Our Lady did.

SECOND POINT: Mary’s Prudent Response

PRESENTATION

It is important to observe, however, that Our Lady’s response was not an immediate and unconditional “yes”. “And Mary said to the angel: How shall this be done, because I know not man?”

We are not privy to exactly how long Our Lady pondered the angel’s message before raising her question, nor are we told exactly how long she pondered the angel’s response before giving her consent. St. Luke is not concerened with those details, but he did find it important enough to include the fact that she did raise a question and take a moment of reflection before responding.

Interestingly, if we look just a few verses earlier in this same chapter of St. Luke’s Gospel, we find a similar situation, but with a very different outcome:

Revised Standard Version, Second Catholic Edition Chapter 1

18 ¶ And Zechariah said to the angel, “How shall I know this? For I am an old man, and my wife is advanced in years.” 19 ¶ And the angel answered him, “I am Gabriel, who stand in the presence of God; and I was sent to speak to you, and to bring you this good news. 20 And behold, you will be silent and unable to speak until the day that these things come to pass, because you did not believe my words, which will be fulfilled in their time.”

Why is Zechariah punished for his question, but not Our Lady? Because these questions sprung from very different motivations.

In the case of Zechariah, he questioned the angel’s message due to a lack of faith, even if only momentary, as the Angel Gabriel says, “you did not believe my words”. Our Lady’s question comes rather from the holy virtue of Prudence.

As the Sacred Tradition tells us, from a very young age Mary had consecrated her virginity to God. The author Dr. Brent Pitre expounds on the Jewish origin of this holy vow, and the subtle scriptural evidence for it in his excellent book, Jesus and the Jewish Roots of Mary.

But returning to our subject of consideration, because Our Lady had consecrated her virginity to God, she wanted to be certain that taking on the role that was being presented to her, that of Mother of God, would not conflict with the vows she had already made. An easy way to tell if an inspiration or supernatural message does not come from God is if it asks us to abandon our vows, or our state in life.

Even though an angel was standing in her presence, speaking a message of incredible blessing to her, her prudence forced her to pause, to discern whether this role was truly consistent with serving God in the manner she had already undertaken, and whether this was the proper way for her to continue to serve according to God’s holy will.

ILLUSTRATION

There once lived in Rome a young man named Francis, who was a great favourite of St. Philip Neri.

From the time when he was a little boy the Saint loved him with a special tenderness because he was so gentle and pious. He was clever too, and learned his lessons with great care, so that everyone said he would become a great man some day, and make a great name for himself in the world.

When he left school he apprenticed in a lawyer’s office, where, in a short time, he became so famous that people even among the nobility and at Court began to speak about him.

Unfortunately, this praise which people gave him began to have a bad influence upon him. He who used to formerly be so fervent and pious, and went frequently to the Sacraments, now became so taken up with his studies that he shortened his usual prayers and went to the Sacraments more rarely and with less fervour.

St. Philip observed this falling off, and was much grieved at it. One day he sent for him to come ot his house to speak to him. Francis went at once, for he loved his dear spiritual Father with a great affection; and although he had at this time some forebodings in his mind that he was about to receive a reprimand for his negligence, yet he went anyway.

When he reached the room of the Saint, he sat down in his usual place at St. Philip’s knee, and looked up into his face, as if to ask him what he wanted to say to him.

The Saint put his arms around him, and lavished upon him the most endearing caresses.

“My own dear boy,” he said, with a sweet smile on his countenance, “my own dear boy! So you are busy at your studies, and you intend, I hear, to gain for yourself a great name in the world. O happy you! And then you will, no doubt, be made a Doctor of Law, and begin to gain money. And then, my child, what then?”

“Then, Father,” continued the youth, “I may become an advocate, and then some day, perhaps, I may be a prelate.”

“And then?” said St. Philip.

“And then,” said Francis, “I may become a Cardinal.” And he went on with great enthusiasm to enumerate all the honours he might one day obtain. Afther each one that he mentioned, the Saint always said, “And then?”

When he had finished describing all the honours he could think of, St. Philip said again to him, “And then, my child, what then?”

“Father,” said the youth, “that is the highest dignity to which I can aspire.”

St. Philip then, pressing the young man’s head to his bosom, whispered once more in his ear: “And then, my child, what then?”

These words, so tenderly said, made such an impression on the mind of Francis that on the way to his own house, and when he reached it, he kept continually saying to himself: “And then? I am studying to get on in the world, and then? what then?” They seemed to sound in his ears whatever he did, or wherever he went.

At last he said: “Yes, O my God, then I shall have to die; then I shall have to be judged. What will it avail me then to have got on in the world, and to have become great here below? When I die, all will be over; my fame will be at an end, and the praise of the world will be of no use to me; and perhaps because I am trying to gain these perishable things I may lose my soul. O my God, I will no longer thing of these things, but from this time forward I wll serve Thee alone; from this moment I will trample under my feet all human praise, and seek only to gain merit which will last for ever. And then? Ah, yes, and then I shall be happy.”

He returned in hasted to St. Philip, and threw himself at his feet, and besought him to receive him at once among his religious, where he would be able to serve God faithfully.

The Catechism defines the Virtue of Prudence for us:

Catechism of the Catholic Church (U.S. Edition with Glossary and Index) The Cardinal Virtues

Prudence is the virtue that disposes practical reason to discern our true good in every circumstance and to choose the right means of achieving it

Our Lady took the time to discern the angel’s message and how it would affect her service to God. We need to employ all the means available to us to discern how to follow God’s inspiriations and follow His Holy Will.

THIRD POINT: Mary, Dispenser of Grace

PRESENTATION

Once she discerned the angel’s message and consented to play her part in God’s plan of Salvation, she became the vessel of the Incarnation, the channel through which God Himself entered into the world, into time, and into human history.

Christ chose Our Lady to be His mother not only so that she could be raised to the great dignity of becoming the Mother of God, but also that she might welcome the Lord in the name of all of humanity.

In this way she became the protectress of all mankind and continues to serve as the channel through which God enters the world, not through the Incarnation but through grace, as mediatrix and dispenser of all graces.

In his book, The Glories of Mary, St. Alponsus Liguori declares:

The Glories of Mary (Meditation for the Eighth Day of September: On, the Feast of the Nativity of Mary)

At the same time that Mary was destined to be the mother of our Redeemer, she was also destined to be the mediatrix between God and us sinners. Hence the Angelic Doctor, St. Thomas, says, that Mary received grace sufficient to save all men; and therefore St. Bernard calls Mary a channel so full that we can all partake of its fulness. (Plenus aquæductus, ut accipiant ceteri de ejus plenitudine.)

Nothing pleases God more than when we turn to Our Lady and seek from her the graces we need to remain faithful to His Holy Will and to be guided by His inspirations.

ILLUSTRATION

A young man who had many times fallen into grievous mortal sins went to Confession to a certain priest. The good priest was greatly afflicted on learning that he had fallen so often; but, to encourage him, he said: “My child, I will tell you an easy means of overcoiming the temptations to which you have so often yielded. If you do what I tell you, you will never fall again.”

“O my Father,” he replied, “tell me what it is, for with my whole heart do I desire to overcome these evil habits.”

“Place yourself entirely under the protection of the Blessed Virgin,” said the priest. “Say a ‘Hail Mary’ every morning and evening in honour of her immaculate purity; and whenever you are tempted to do evil, say to her at once, ‘O Mary, help me, for I am thine.’”

The young man followed this advice, and in a short time was entirely delivered from his evil habits.

Now, it happened some time afterwards that he was relating this to some of his acquaintances whom he had formerly scandalized by his bad conduct. He told them of his having placed himself entirely under the protection of her who is called the Refuge of Sinners, and of the prayer he always said when tempted.

Amongst those who were listening to him was a young officer, who, like himself, had fallen into many sins, because he went wilfully with bad companions.

As soon as he heard the young man’s story he resolved in his own mind to follow his example. He at once prepared for Confession, and continued afterwards to lead a pious life under the protection of the Immaculate Mother of God. Her holy name was continually on his lips, and that devout prayer, “O Mary, help me, for I am thine,” was his watchword whenever any temptation assailed him.

Some months after his conversion he had the imprudence to go again to visit those companions who had formerly led him into sin; he wished to see if they had imitated his example and begun a new life as he himself had done, or were still following the path of evil.

But no sooner had he reached the place where they dwelt then a strange feeling of terror came over him, and he cried out: “O Mary, help me, for I am thine.”

That very instant he felt himself thrust back by an invisible hand, and found himself at a distance from the house. He immediately saw the danger in which he had been, and returned his most heartfel thanks to God and to his holy Mother Mary for having thus preserved him.

CONCLUSION

May God grant that we might imitate Our Lady by cooperating with God’s divine inspiriations, just as she did with the angel’s message. That we might exercise true prudence in all that we do, so that all we do may be pleasing to God and work towards our salvation. And may we constantly turn to Our Lady, dispenser of all graces to send us the graces we need to remain faithful to God, and to His Most Holy Will.

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