Now that we have celebrated the birth of our Lord, every year I find it difficult to exit the Season of Advent. I love the liturgies in both the Mass and Offices and that great expectation of the coming of the Lord. It's also a Season in which I often think about our Lady's fiat. In the Little Office of the Blessed Virgin Mary during Advent, something I find particularly moving occurs during the hour of Lauds and the fifth antiphon, which is:
Ecce ancilla Domini: Fiat mihi secundum verbum tuum.
Behold the handmaid of the Lord: Be it done unto me according to Your word.
And then what follows is Psalm 148 in which virtually all of God's creation is called to praise Him: the angels, the sun, the moon, the stars, the heaven of heavens, all the waters above the heavens, dragons and all deeps, fire, hail, snow, ice, stormy winds, mountains, hills, fruitful trees, cedars, beasts, cattle, creeping things, feathered fowls, kings of the earth, princes, all judges of the earth, young men, maidens, young children and all people.
Having this psalm follow that particular antiphon, it's as if the universe stood still, completely silent, waiting on Mary's answer; and then when she says: "Fiat, yes, so be it," then all of God's creation breaks out of this hush and praises Him as though everything and everyone understands the magnitude of our Lady's reply and what God was going to do through her. Eternally grateful for God's gift of salvation, may we never lose sight that it began with a Virgin girl who completely and unreservedly surrendered herself to God. She is our model for faith.
