On March 25th we celebrate the Feast of the Annunciation. Father Leo Dehon, SCJ, the Founder of the Priests of the Sacred Heart, loved this feast because it is foundational to Christ’s and to his spirituality.
In The Year with the Sacred Heart, a book of meditations he finished in 1909, Fr. Dehon offered a meditation on the feast. Parts of it have been translated and are presented below.
1st POINT: Ecce venio [Behold I Come (to do your will, O God)], Jesus’ rule of life. — It is on this day that our Lord spoke his Ecce venio , and Mary spoke her Ecce ancilla [Behold the handmaid (of the Lord)]. The apostle Saint Paul remarked about it, it is on entering into this world through the incarnation that our Lord formulated his abandonment to the good pleasure of his Father, and the rule of His whole life: Here I come, my Father, to do your will (Hebrews 10:5).
David had said that such would be the law of His Heart (Ps. 39). He put this law of abandonment, of obedience, of conforming to the will of His Father, in the depths of his Heart, in order to constantly refer to it, in order to always follow it, in order the make it the rule of His whole life. And without ceasing it rose from his Heart to his lips, as the Gospel itself indicates: ‘My Father, may your will be done. — My Father, may it be done according to your will. — My Father, not my will but yours be done.’
These example from the Gospel suffice to show that for our Lord this is His rule of life and the habitual thought of His Heart.
What He always seeks is neither self-interest nor pleasure, it is the will of His Father. The only question He asks himself before acting it always this: ‘My Father, what would you have me do?’
2nd POINT: Ecce ancilla Domini [Behold the handmaid of the Lord], Mary’s rule of life. — Abandonment to God and to the divine will is also Mary’s rule of life, and we see her confusion and doubt stop with this disposition: ‘Behold the handmaid of the Lord, may it be it be done to me as you will.’ These words express abandonment, docility to grace, conformity to the divine will, sacrifice and immolation.
3rd POINT: Ecce Venio, Ecce ancilla Domini. These words trace in us our rule of life. In these words are found the whole vocation of souls devoted to the Sacred Heart, with their goal, their duties, their promises. This sentiment, this disposition, these spoken and felt words are sufficient in all situations, in all events, for the present and for the future.
O my God, here I come to do your will. Here I am, ready to do and to suffer, to undertake or to sacrifice all that you ask of me.
The will of God makes itself known in every instant; and if at some moment darkness and uncertainty fill our heart and spirit, let us persevere with patience and confidence in this state, until it pleases the divine wisdom and goodness to let His light shine anew.
Thus do we practice total abandonment, letting go while watching Him who walked the way before us, who has made it do-able, who left behind Him the bloody footprints of His steps.
The hairs of our head are counted. God looks after even the needs of the birds, He will not forget us. He will take care of us in all our needs at the right time. If we give ourselves to Him, He will also give Himself to us, and what then can we lack? When Mary gave herself by her Ecce ancilla, she received the greatest grace: The Word was made flesh and dwelt in her womb.
Resolutions. — Ecce venio. I give myself and abandon myself to you, Lord, I unite himself with your Ecce venio and with the Ecce ancilla of your divine Mother. I want to have no will but your own, no rule than your good pleasure. I want to seek your holy will at every instant and conform myself to it.
Our thanks to Fr. Jim Schroeder, SCJ, for providing the reflection.
