Each of the 4 Sundays of Advent remind us of those who prepared for the coming of Christ. Today we think of the Virgin Mary, a young girl who knowing that it could mean her death to be pregnant before marriage, quietly fully accepted the will of God for her life. Mary who bore Him in her womb and due to a Roman order, had to travel in her 3rd timester of pregnancy on a donkey. Mary who would not have her mother or women she knew helping when she gave birth for the first time. It must have been a frightening idea, yet she put her entire trust in God's ability to both do as the angel had foretold and to protect her life in the process. She needed that trust on the road to Bethlehem. Can we trust God enough to surrender to His will the way Mary did?

O Antiphon - O Oriens

A literal translation of the Latin yields "O Rising Sun", but the poetic "O Morning Star" or "O Dayspring" is often preferred.

O Morning Star,
splendour of light eternal and sun of righteousness:
Come and enlighten those who dwell in darkness and the shadow of death.

Listen to me, O Joshua the High Priest, and all you other priests, you are illustrations of the good things to come. Don’t you see?—Joshua represents my servant the Branch[a] whom I will send.– Zechariah 3:8

The people who walk in darkness shall see a great Light—a Light that will shine on all those who live in the land of the shadow of death.- Isaiah 9:2

But for you who fear my name, the Sun of Righteousness will rise with healing in his wings. And you will go free, leaping with joy like calves let out to pasture. - Malachi 4:2