DECEMBER 23RD | BEARINGS
In the sixth month of Elizabeth’s pregnancy, God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a town in Galilee, to a virgin pledged to be married to a man named Joseph, a descendant of David. The virgin’s name was Mary. The angel went to her and said, “Greetings, you who are highly favored! The Lord is with you.”
Mary was greatly troubled at his words and wondered what kind of greeting this might be. But the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary; you have found favor with God. You will conceive and give birth to a son, and you are to call him Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over Jacob’s descendants forever; his kingdom will never end.”
“How will this be,” Mary asked the angel, “since I am a virgin?”
“THE ANGEL ANSWERED, “THE HOLY SPIRIT WILL COME ON YOU, AND THE POWER OF THE MOST HIGH WILL OVERSHADOW YOU. SO THE HOLY ONE TO BE BORN WILL BE CALLED THE SON OF GOD. EVEN ELIZABETH YOUR RELATIVE IS GOING TO HAVE A CHILD IN HER OLD AGE, AND SHE WHO WAS SAID TO BE UNABLE TO CONCEIVE IS IN HER SIXTH MONTH. FOR NO WORD FROM GOD WILL EVER FAIL.”
“I AM THE LORD’S SERVANT,” MARY ANSWERED. “MAY YOUR WORD TO ME BE FULFILLED.” THEN THE ANGEL LEFT HER.”
How do we bear your promise into this world,
(barren, bleak, our destitute situation!)
Carry banners far too noble for our lowly station?
The hours push against our hope, unfurled,
Time’s fullness rising, too late, too soon, all swirl’d;
She scales that heavy-wait anticipation
Virgin, bearing marks of sin’s cessation,
Holds court, raises oath sworn on her crown impearled
Like Mary, we without spark to conceive,
A plot that plants the fruit to bear the tree
Watchful witness to such a plan, our suff ‘ring to relieve;
Flyer, both brace and bearing corps d’esprit
No Word from You will ever fail- that we believe-
This Banner raised and carried, pow’r: Paraclete