Daily Gospel Reflection
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December 20, 2025
In the sixth month,
the angel Gabriel was sent from God
to a town of Galilee called Nazareth,
to a virgin betrothed to a man named Joseph,
of the house of David,
and the virgin’s name was Mary.
And coming to her, he said,
“Hail, full of grace! The Lord is with you.”
But she was greatly troubled at what was said
and pondered what sort of greeting this might be.
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.”
But Mary said to the angel,
“How can this be,
since I have no relations with a man?”
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.
And behold, Elizabeth, your relative,
has also conceived a son in her old age,
and this is the sixth month for her who was called barren;
for nothing will be impossible for God.”
Mary said, “Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord.
May it be done to me according to your word.”
Then the angel departed from her.
In this gospel passage, Gabriel, God’s messenger, greets Mary with a message of trust, not fear. Today is my 62nd birthday, and in these 62 years, I have often met God’s plans and purposes in my life with fear, and not trust.
Fear can envelop us in a fog. We don’t see the fingerprints of grace in our ordinary encounters that mark Jesus’ friendship with us. We don’t recognize his unique plan for our lives, or trust that the miraculous can intervene in our daily lives and in the events of our shared human story. We don’t fully embrace in faith Jesus’ sovereignty over our journey on earth and his kingship over all human history.
Maybe that’s because in this improbable story of salvation, Jesus arrives in human history as a baby. He was unexpected, unplanned, inconvenient, vulnerable, and waiting to be born through the “yes” of a powerless and poor woman—a woman whose yes now echoes throughout all human history.
The yes of Mary is our yes. The perfect human bore our imperfect will in her yes. In Mary’s yes, she makes space for new life in her body, and in this most intimate and private part of her humanity, she gives up control to God. Mary is not afraid. In her trust, she welcomes the Savior into her life and into all our lives. May we today, like Mary, say yes and welcome Jesus into our very selves, our plans, and our purposes. “Do not be afraid.”
Prayer
Once again, during these Advent days, Lord God, we are blessed to hear a divine announcement to Mary. Her Son, to be born shortly, will be called holy indeed, Son of God most high. Mary’s bewilderment is ours, too: how can it be that we deserve to have the divine Son of God come among us and teach us the lessons of holiness? We live in the midst of a great mystery, and we ask for faith that can help us truly understand. We pray in Jesus’ name. Amen.
Saint of the Day
Dominic was born in eleventh century Spain to a poor family. He grew up doing the work of his father—shepherding—and he came to love the solitude and silence. He left the family and joined a monastery nearby, and grew in holiness and stature. He was eventually elected abbot.
He came into a dispute with the king, and was removed from the monastery. He traveled to a different monastery in another part of Spain, Silos, and was appointed abbot there. The monastery in Silos was in disrepair and its community life was in sad shape—Dominic restored the physical and spiritual foundations of life there and made it one of the most famous monasteries in Spain.
Miracles were attributed to Dominic in his work—it was said that there was not an illness that could not be cured through his intercession. There is even a story that has been passed down that a group of 300 Christians who were enslaved in north Africa were set free when they prayed in his name.
Dominic died in 1073. Nearly 100 years later he appeared to Blessed Joan of Aza, a woman who was making a pilgrimage to his shrine. In this vision, he promised Joan that she would have a son—soon after, she did, and named her son after the saint who appeared to her. This Dominic is famous for restoring the Church through the establishment of a religious order that continues today: the Order of Preachers.
St. Dominic of Silos is patron saint of prisoners, pregnant women, and shepherds.
St. Dominic of Silos, you appeared to the mother of the great St. Dominic to foretell her son’s birth, pray for us!
Image Credit: Our featured image of St. Dominic of Silos is in the public domain. Last accessed November 1, 2024 on Wikimedia Commons.
