A Little Project: Jesse Tree Week 4 Day 2

Ornament: White Lily

The angel Gabriel appears to a young woman named Mary in a town of Judea called Nazareth and tells her that she will have a baby, who she should name Jesus - and that he will be the Son of the 'Most High.'

Mary is a young woman who lives in a town called Nazareth. She is not married yet and has never done anything that would make her have a baby. But one night, an angel appears to her - a messenger from God who is pure spirit. She knows that it is an angel because she feels afraid in its presence, just like Elijah did in his visions.

But the angel says to Mary: "Hail, Full of Grace! The Lord is with you." She has never been called "Full of Grace" before, as if it were her name and wonders what the angel might mean by telling her the Lord is with her.

Then the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God.  Behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall name him Jesus.  He will be great and will be called Son of the Most High, and the Lord God will give him the throne of David his father, and he will rule over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end.”

Mary is amazed at this, but still had one question for the angel: How will she have this child if she promised never to do anything that would cause her to be pregnant? We can imagine that she had made a promise to the Lord to never have children, and focus only on a life of prayer, because of what she asks - she knew how children came to be. 

And the angel said to her in reply, “The holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. Therefore the child to be born will be called holy, the Son of God."

Mary is young, and if she becomes pregnant before she has married Joseph, the man she is engaged to, she could face being cast out from her society forever - or worse, she could be killed for people thinking she has sinned against Joseph with another man. 

But without hesitating, Mary says

“Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord. May it be done to me according to your word.” This means that Mary has so much love and trust for the Lord that she will obey even the most dangerous and confusing of commands. 

Connection & Reflection: The white lily has for a long time been a flower that represents holiness and purity. Mary is considered to have been made & born completely without sin, and lived her whole life without ever sinning, not even once! This is because of how the angel says hello to her - "Hail, Full of Grace!" The angel calls her "full of grace" instead of Mary, as if it is her name! Grace is the presence of God, and sin is the absence of God - so we assume that Mary being FULL of the presence of God all the time, then that means she does not have any room for sin, or godlessness. 

Mary has a very special role for the world - she is going to carry inside her the God of All Creation - the one who made all the stars of the sky, the one who parted the sea for the Hebrews coming out of Egypt, the one who made her, too! She will get to be his mother, and nurse him and change his diapers and help him with his school work. This is how humble the Lord of All Creation is - the Most High, the Most Powerful Thing, will become a tiny little baby who is weak and needs a mother to even survive one day. 

Prayer: Lord, we know that saying thank you for becoming human is not ever enough to give you back for what you did for us. Help us to fully understand how amazing it is that you became human, especially as Christmas comes closer. Help us to remember that it was love for each one of us that lead you to do this, and let us love others, especially our families, in the same way. 

Conclude with your favorite family prayer, or an Our Father, Hail Mary & Glory be.