The Annunciation of the Lord

Everything is contained in a single word: obedience

Not that of the enslaved and heavy soul

The bovine effort, dead set, the eye swarming with flies

The yoke,

But the dazzling face-to-face

Of the one and same Yes.

Everything is contained in this woman's look upon Him

Who knows her.

Face open to ages upon ages

Magnificat for ages upon ages

Yes to everything.

The young woman

Dared to do this.

To be the mold, the crucible

In which the eternal misery of humans

In which the eternal misery that humans are

Becomes God.

~P. Emmanuel, quoted in Days of the Lord, Vol. 7

Dear Mary, Handmaid of the Lord, when you consented to give birth to Our Lord in the mystery of the Annunciation, you said yes to the salvation of the world. Today the flowers appear on the earth and the time of singing has come! Today is the first day of the rest of our lives! Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with you! And blessed forever is the fruit of your womb, Jesus! Amen!

After annunciation

Photography by Ann L. Krumrein

This is the irrational season

When love blooms bright and wild.

Had Mary been filled with reason

There'd have been no room for the child.

Madeleine L'Engle, "After annunciation"

from The Widening Light,

Poems of the Incarnation

edited by Luci Shaw

The Annunciation, Tanner and Morneau

The Annunciation, 1898, by Henry Ossawa Tanner

On her bed of doubt
in wrinkled night garment,
She sat, glancing with fear
at the golden shaft of streaming light,
pondering perhaps, “Was this
but a sequel to a dream?”
This light too bright for disbelief,
yet its silence eased not her trembling.
Somehow she murmured a “YES”
And with that the light’s love and life
pierced her womb.
The room remained the same
– rug still needed smoothing,
– jug and paten awaited using.
Now all was different
In a maiden’s
soft but firm “FIAT.”

Bishop Robert F. Morneau

For a larger, clearer view of Henry O. Tanner's "The Annunciation," click on the photo above. Then you can better see the jug and paten at the wall on the right. This is my most favorite depiction of the Annunciation. The light that is the angel Gabriel simply mesmerizes me, and the look on Mary's face -- ah, I have never yet found words to adequately describe it. One picture really is worth a thousand words! In case you don't know, the original painting by Tanner is kept in the Philadelphia Musem of Art, so all you lucky people who live there or may be visiting there in the future, don't miss it! Meanwhile, here in Texas, I thank God for being able to view amazing art such as this on the Web.