Solemnity of the Annunciation of the Lord

Isaiah 7:10-14; 8:10 | Behold, the virgin shall conceive.

The Lord spoke to Ahaz and said, ‘Ask the Lord your God for a sign for yourself coming either from the depths of Sheol or from the heights above.’ ‘No,’ Ahaz answered ‘I will not put the Lord to the test.’

Then Isaiah said:

‘Listen now, House of David:

are you not satisfied with trying the patience of men

without trying the patience of my God, too?

The Lord himself, therefore,

will give you a sign.

It is this: the maiden is with child

and will soon give birth to a son

whom she will call Immanuel,

a name which means “God-is-with-us.”’

Psalm 40:7-8, 8-9, 10, 11 | Here am I, Lord; I come to do your will.

Here I am, Lord! I come to do your will.

  You do not ask for sacrifice and offerings,

  but an open ear.

  You do not ask for holocaust and victim.

  Instead, here am I.

Here I am, Lord! I come to do your will.

  In the scroll of the book it stands written

  that I should do your will.

  My God, I delight in your law

  in the depth of my heart.

Here I am, Lord! I come to do your will.

  Your justice I have proclaimed

  in the great assembly.

  My lips I have not sealed;

  you know it, O Lord.

Here I am, Lord! I come to do your will.

  I have not hidden your justice in my heart

  but declared your faithful help.

  I have not hidden your love and your truth

  from the great assembly.

Here I am, Lord! I come to do your will.

Hebrews 10:4-10 | As is written of me in the scroll, behold, I come to do your will, O God.

Bulls’ blood and goats’ blood are useless for taking away sins, and this is what Christ said, on coming into the world:

You who wanted no sacrifice or oblation,

prepared a body for me.

You took no pleasure in holocausts or sacrifices for sin;

then I said,

just as I was commanded in the scroll of the book,

‘God, here I am! I am coming to obey your will.’

Notice that he says first: You did not want what the Law lays down as the things to be offered, that is: the sacrifices, the oblations, the holocausts and the sacrifices for sin, and you took no pleasure in them; and then he says: Here I am! I am coming to obey your will. He is abolishing the first sort to replace it with the second. And this will was for us to be made holy by the offering of his body made once and for all by Jesus Christ.

John 1:14ab | The Word became flesh, he lived among us, and we saw his glory.

Luke 1:26-38 | Behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son.

The angel Gabriel was sent by God to a town in Galilee called Nazareth, to a virgin betrothed to a man named Joseph, of the House of David; and the virgin’s name was Mary. He went in and said to her, ‘Rejoice, so highly favoured! The Lord is with you.’ She was deeply disturbed by these words and asked herself what this greeting could mean, but the angel said to her, ‘Mary, do not be afraid; you have won God’s favour. Listen! You are to conceive and bear a son, and you must name him Jesus. He will be great and will be called Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his ancestor David; he will rule over the House of Jacob for ever and his reign will have no end.’ Mary said to the angel, ‘But how can this come about, since I am a virgin?’ ‘The Holy Spirit will come upon you’ the angel answered ‘and the power of the Most High will cover you with its shadow. And so the child will be holy and will be called Son of God. Know this too: your kinswoman Elizabeth has, in her old age, herself conceived a son, and she whom people called barren is now in her sixth month, for nothing is impossible to God.’ ‘I am the handmaid of the Lord,’ said Mary ‘let what you have said be done to me.’ And the angel left her.

Scripture readings taken from The Jerusalem Bible, published and copyright 1966 by Darton, Longman and Todd Ltd, and used by permission of the publishers