III
Novena for the Feast of the Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin Mary
FIRST DAY
The Annunciation
PREPARATORY PRAYER
My Queen, my Mother, remember I am thine own. Keep me, guard me, as thy property and possession!
Indulgence. 40 days, every time. (Pius IX, August 5, 1851.)
MEDITATION
At Nazareth, a mountain village in Judea, lived poor and in obscurity Mary, the virgin selected by God to become the Mother of His Son, On March 25th she was in prayer in her chamber, and perhaps sent up to heaven the yearning petition, "Drop down dew, ye heavens, from above, and let the clouds rain the just; let the earth be opened and bud a Saviour" (Is. xlv. 8). Behold, suddenly the chamber is suffused by a heavenly light. The archangel Gabriel stands reverently before her and says, "Hail, full of grace, the Lord is with thee. Blessed art thou among women. And when Mary heard the
