Then Mary said, “… Let it be done to me according to your word.”
Lk 1:38
Every year I look forward to the Oration on the 1st Sunday of Advent, which already heralds Advent in Vespers on Saturday evening. I love the first sentence: “Lord, our God, all things are in your power; you give the willing and the doing.” Every year this is like a wake-up call for me into Advent. It tells me: without God, nothing works. It is his doing and his gift that I can “will and do”. And at the same time, it tells me: without my participation, it doesn’t work. I have to give my yes to it. My decision is needed. Because even if God gives it, it remains my will and my doing. Just as Advent and Christmas and God’s Incarnation would not have existed without Mary’s yes, her fiat.
So for me, every year begins anew with this decision on the first Sunday of Advent: I want to let You, God, give me the willing and the doing – and then also do it with you.
Sr. Adelheid
Photo by Sr. Adelheid Scheloske SAC: Detail from the Annunciation scene, Nativity, Marienborn 2018
