Gabriel, that angel bright,
     Brighter than the sun is light,
     From heaven to earth he took his flight,
       Letare.

     In Nazareth, that great city,
     Before a maiden he kneeled on knee,
     And said, “Mary, God is with thee,
       Letare.”

     “Hail Mary, full of grace,
     God is with thee, and ever was;
     He hath in thee chosen a place. 
       Letare.”

     Mary was afraid of that sight,
     That came to her with so great light,
     Then said the angel that was so bright,
       “Letare.”

     “Be not aghast of least nor most,
     In thee is conceived of the Holy Ghost,
     To save the souls that were for-lost. 
       Letare.”

     Fifteenth Century.

PART TWO

CHAPTER III

THE ANNUNCIATION II

And Mary said, Behold the handmaid of the Lord; be it unto me according to thy word.

S. Luke I. 38

O God, who through the fruitful virginity of blessed Mary didst bestow on mankind the rewards of eternal salvation:  grant, we beseech thee, that we may experience her intercession for us through whom we were made worthy to receive the author of life, even Jesus Christ thy Son our Lord.

Roman.

S. Mary’s momentary hesitation had been due to the surprise that she felt at the nature of the angelic message and the difficulty that there was in relating it to her state of life.  That she, a virgin, should bear a son was vastly perplexing; but the answer of S. Gabriel speedily cleared away the difficulty:  “The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee.”

Blessed Mary had no difficulty about the supernatural; she was not afflicted with the modern disease that there are no things in heaven and earth save such as are contained in our philosophy.  She was not of those who “cannot believe what they do not understand,” It was enough for her that a message had come from God:  and no matter how little she was able to understand the mode of God’s proposed action within her, she was willing to offer herself to be the instrument of the will of God.  No doubt that was an habitual attitude and not one taken up on the spur of the moment.  It is indeed very rarely that what seem spontaneous actions are really such; and S. Mary’s first word was nearer spontaneity than the second.  Her exclamation in answer to the angelic Ave was the natural expression of her surprise at so unexpected a message:  its variance from all her thought about her life was the thing that struck her; and therefore her instinctive, “How can this be?”