Sunday, December 20, 2026 — Fourth Sunday of Advent
Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord
Luke 1:26-38
Readings of the day: 2 Samuel 7:1-5, 8b-12, 14a, 16; Psalm 89:2-3, 4-5, 27, 29; Romans 16:25-27; Luke 1:26-38.
The Gospel
In the sixth month, the angel Gabriel is sent from God to a virgin in Nazareth named Mary, betrothed to Joseph of the house of David. “Hail, full of grace! The Lord is with you.” Troubled at the greeting, Mary asks how this can be, since she has no relations with a man. The angel answers that the Holy Spirit will come upon her and the power of the Most High will overshadow her, and the child will be called Son of God; for nothing will be impossible for God. Mary says, “Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord. May it be done to me according to your word.”
Reflection
God wanted a house of cedar for David, but David’s son would build it: not a temple of stone, but a kingdom without end, and its foundation is a young woman’s yes. The angel sent is no ordinary messenger: “To the virgin Mary was sent, not any one of the angels, but the archangel Gabriel,” says St. Gregory, for the highest tidings call for the highest angel, and “Gabriel is interpreted, the strength of God.” Strength, then, does not come to Mary as force; it comes as a word she is free to receive. The Greek Expositor admires how she receives it: “When she heard the joyful words, she pondered them in her mind, and neither openly resisted through unbelief, nor forthwith lightly complied; avoiding equally the inconstancy of Eve, and the insensibility of Zacharias.” She asks her question, she listens, and then she gives herself. That is the whole of Advent in one sentence: “May it be done to me according to your word.”
From the Fathers
“Gabriel is interpreted, ‘the strength of God.’ By the strength of God then was He to be announced Who was coming as the God of strength, and mighty in battle, to put down the powers of the air.”
— St. Gregory the Great, Homily 34 on the Gospels, in the Catena Aurea on Luke 1:26–27
“When she heard the joyful words, she pondered them in her mind, and neither openly resisted through unbelief, nor forthwith lightly complied; avoiding equally the inconstancy of Eve, and the insensibility of Zacharias.”
— Greek Expositor (Geometer), in the Catena Aurea on Luke 1:28–29
Saint of the day
Saint Dominic of Silos (c. 1000–1073), Spanish Benedictine abbot who rebuilt the monastery of Silos into a center of prayer, learning, and refuge. He died on 20 December 1073 and is invoked as patron of prisoners and pregnant women. The Sunday liturgy takes precedence today.
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Sources: the day’s readings follow the Sunday lectionary, Cycle B (USCCB, Lectionary 11). The Gospel text is not reproduced here; read it at the link above. Patristic quotes: Catena Aurea on Luke 1:26–38, compiled by St. Thomas Aquinas, translated by John Henry Newman (1841, public domain).