Fourth Sunday of Advent: "Hail, full of grace."

"The blessed virgin Mary, saluted as 'full of grace' by the angel, freely chooses to cooperate with God's plan, such that our Savior was 'conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit,' as we recite in the Creed. 'From the first formulations of her faith, the Church has confessed that Jesus was conceived solely by the power of the Holy Spirit in the womb of the virgin Mary, affirming also the corporeal aspect of this event: Jesus was conceived "by the Holy Spirit without human seed." ' (Council of the Lateran, 469)." (CCC 496)

Meeting Christ in the Liturgy offers a reflection for the Fourth Sunday of Advent.

(Image: Annunciation, Botticelli.)