9 December 2026 · Syro-Malabar Rite
Open in the Daily Word appAlso: Latin Rite · Syro-Malankara Rite · മലയാളം
“For nothing will be impossible with God.” Luke 1:37
Paul blesses God who “chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world to be holy and blameless before him in love.” God's plan for each of us began before we were born; our vocation is to say yes to it.
Mary's question, “How can this be?”, is not doubt but a desire to understand. The answer reveals the Holy Spirit's power and gives a sign, Elizabeth's pregnancy, “for nothing will be impossible with God.” Mary then gives herself completely: “Here am I, the servant of the Lord.”
Theme: “Nothing will be impossible with God.”
Chosen in Christ; Mary's question and consent.
“Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you.” Jeremiah 1:5
“Mary said to the angel, “How can this be, since I am a virgin?”” Luke 1:34
Apply: Thank God for your vocation.
“Is anything too wonderful for the LORD?” Genesis 18:14
“For nothing will be impossible with God.” Luke 1:37
Apply: Give God one impossible situation today.
“And I said, “Here am I; send me!”” Isaiah 6:8
“Then Mary said, “Here am I, the servant of the Lord; let it be with me according to your word.”” Luke 1:38
Apply: Say “Here I am, Lord” at the start of each day.
God's plan is greater than our limits.
Let us answer with Mary: here I am.
Take-home resolution: Pray the Angelus at noon this week.
Dear friends, St Paul opens his letter to the Ephesians with a hymn of blessing: blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing (Ephesians 1:3). Before we ask God for anything, Paul teaches us to bless him.
He continues: he chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world to be holy and blameless before him in love; he destined us for adoption as his children (Ephesians 1:4–5). Before the stars were made, God knew you and chose you. Your life is not an accident.
In the Gospel we return to Nazareth. Mary, hearing that she will conceive the Son of the Most High, asks: how can this be, since I am a virgin? (Luke 1:34). It is a real question. Mary does not pretend to understand everything. Faith is not the absence of questions; it is trust that God has an answer.
The angel answers: the Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; and he adds: nothing will be impossible with God (Luke 1:35–37). Elizabeth, old and childless, is pregnant: a sign that God can do what seems impossible.
Then Mary says the words that changed history: here am I, the servant of the Lord; let it be with me according to your word (Luke 1:38). God's eternal plan, chosen before the foundation of the world, became real through the free yes of a young woman.
God has a plan for you too: for your family, your work, your vocation. Sometimes it seems impossible. You may ask, like Mary: how can this be? Ask, but then trust. Nothing is impossible with God.
Today, let us pray Mary's words slowly: here am I, the servant of the Lord. Let us say them about one concrete area of our lives where God is asking for our yes. Amen.
Children, Mary said yes to God. You can say yes to God every day by being kind and obedient!
Father, you chose me in Christ before the foundation of the world. With Mary I give you my yes, for nothing is impossible with you. Amen.
The day after the feast of the Immaculate Conception, the readings take up its two great themes. Paul's hymn says that God chose us in Christ “before the foundation of the world”, to be holy and blameless. Luke shows the moment when one young woman of Nazareth, already prepared by God, says yes. God's plan is older than the world, and it passes through one person's willing word of consent.
Setting.
The letter comes from prison (3:1; 4:1) and is traditionally by Paul. Some of the oldest manuscripts lack the words “in Ephesus” in 1:1, and many scholars think it was meant for several churches of the region; some think a later disciple wrote it. In Greek, vv. 3–14 are one long sentence of blessing, shaped like the Jewish berakah, the prayer that begins “Blessed be God”. Today's reading takes most of it.
Structure.
Key words.
Verse by verse.
“just as he chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world to be holy and blameless before him in love.” (1:4)
Choice comes first, holiness follows. We are not chosen because we are holy, but so that we may become holy. The word “blameless” is also used of an unblemished sacrifice.
“He destined us for adoption as his children through Jesus Christ,” (1:5)
Adoption was a serious legal act in the Roman world: the adopted son received the full rights of a son. By baptism, God's only Son shares his place with us.
“as a plan for the fullness of time, to gather up all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth.” (1:10)
Salvation is not only for souls. The whole universe is to find its head and its peace in Christ.
How the Church reads it.
The Catechism applies these words directly to Mary: the Father blessed her more than any other created person with every spiritual blessing and chose her in Christ before the foundation of the world, to be holy and blameless (CCC 492). It also takes this hymn as the model of all Christian liturgy, which blesses the Father for his blessings (CCC 1077–1083). What God did perfectly in Mary is what he wants for each of us.
Setting.
Gabriel has greeted a young woman of Nazareth, engaged to Joseph of the house of David, and has told her that she will bear a son, the heir of David's throne (1:26–33). In the Jewish custom of the time, engagement was a binding legal bond, though the couple did not yet live together. Nazareth was a small, unimportant village of Galilee. Our reading is the second half of the scene: her question and her answer.
Structure.
Key words.
Verse by verse.
“Mary said to the angel, “How can this be, since I am a virgin?”” (1:34)
The Greek says, “since I do not know a man”, which the POC keeps. “Know” is the biblical word for marital union. Her question is about how, not whether.
“For nothing will be impossible with God.”” (1:37)
These words echo what the Lord said to Abraham about Sarah (Genesis 18:14 in Greek). The God of the first barren mother is the God of Elizabeth and of the virgin of Nazareth.
“Then Mary said, “Here am I, the servant of the Lord; let it be with me according to your word.”” (1:38)
After this Luke simply says that the angel departed. She is left with the promise, and no further explanation.
How the Church reads it.
The Catechism presents Mary's answer as the obedience of faith (CCC 148, 494). St Irenaeus, quoted there, says that the knot of Eve's disobedience was loosed by Mary's obedience, and Lumen Gentium 56 teaches that she was not a passive instrument but cooperated by her faith and obedience. St Augustine says that she conceived Christ in her heart by faith before she conceived him in her womb (in substance). St Bernard of Clairvaux, in a famous homily, imagines the whole world waiting for her reply (in substance).
Zechariah was struck silent for asking a question. Why was Mary not?
The two questions differ. Zechariah asks for a guarantee: “How will I know that this is so?” (1:18), and the angel himself says that he did not believe (1:20). Mary already accepts the promise and asks how it will come about, since she does not know a man. Elizabeth later says of her, “blessed is she who believed” (1:45).