Mary in Advent
She is the first to wait for him. She carries him before anyone else can hold him. In Advent, Mary is not just honored. She is our guide.
No one knows Advent like Mary.
We wait four weeks. She waited nine months. We light candles and sing hymns of longing. She carried the longing in her body, the Word made flesh growing beneath her heart.
If Advent is about waiting for Christ, then Mary is the one who teaches us how. She is not a distant figure to admire during this season. She is a companion. She has walked this road before us.
Prepared from the Beginning
Advent barely begins before the Church celebrates one of her greatest feasts: the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception on December 8th.
This feast tells us something essential about how God works. Before Mary ever said yes to the angel, God had already prepared her. From the first moment of her existence, she was preserved from original sin, not by her own merit, but by grace, applied in advance because of the saving work her Son would accomplish.
The angel's greeting says it all: "Hail, full of grace" (Luke 1:28). Mary was full before she was asked. God had already done the work.
This is good news for us. Advent is a season of preparation, yes, but we are not starting from scratch. God is already at work in us, preparing our hearts to receive what he wants to give. Like Mary, our task is not to earn the grace but to say yes to it.
Our Lady of Guadalupe
Just four days later, on December 12th, we celebrate Our Lady of Guadalupe.
In 1531, Mary appeared to a poor indigenous man named Juan Diego on a hill outside Mexico City. She spoke to him in his own language, called him by an affectionate name, and sent him to the bishop with a message: build a church here. When the bishop demanded a sign, Mary provided one, roses blooming in winter, and an image of herself miraculously imprinted on Juan Diego's tilma.
That image shows Mary pregnant.
She stands clothed with the sun, the moon beneath her feet, stars on her mantle. And she is visibly with child. It is an Advent image if ever there was one, Mary carrying Christ to a people who did not yet know him, bringing light to those walking in darkness.
Guadalupe reminds us that Mary's Advent mission didn't end in Bethlehem. She is still bringing Christ to the world. She is still appearing to the poor and forgotten, still asking us to build places where her Son can dwell.
The Waiting Was Not Passive
Mary's nine months of waiting were not spent in idle contemplation. The Gospels show us a woman in motion.
When she learns she is pregnant, she goes "with haste" to visit her cousin Elizabeth (Luke 1:39). She stays three months, serving a woman further along in her own pregnancy. She navigates the upheaval of her unexpected situation: the questions from Joseph, the scandal in her village, the journey to Bethlehem for the census.
None of this was easy. And none of it was passive.
Mary's example reframes how we think about Advent. This is not a season for sitting back and waiting for Christmas to arrive. It's a season for active preparation, serving others, pondering God's Word, trusting him when our plans are disrupted, saying yes even when the path is unclear.
The Magnificat
When Mary arrives at Elizabeth's house, she sings.
The Magnificat (Luke 1:46-55) is Mary's Advent hymn. She praises God for what he has done in her, but she doesn't stop there. She proclaims a revolution: the proud scattered, the mighty cast down, the hungry filled, the rich sent away empty. She announces that God is turning the world upside down, and that it starts with a baby in her womb.
The Church prays the Magnificat every evening at Vespers. During Advent, these words take on special weight. We are not just waiting for a sentimental Christmas moment. We are waiting for a King whose reign will overthrow everything that stands against God's love.
Mary knew this. She sang it before he was even born.
Walking with Her
As Advent deepens, especially in the final days before Christmas, when the O Antiphons are prayed and the readings grow more urgent, Mary's waiting reaches its peak. She is days away from giving birth. She is traveling to Bethlehem. She does not know where she will lay her head, let alone where she will lay her child.
And still she trusts.
This is what she offers us: a model of faithful waiting. Not passive, not anxious, but active and hopeful. She believed "that there would be a fulfillment of what was spoken to her by the Lord" (Luke 1:45). She didn't know exactly how. She just knew that God keeps his promises.
As we walk through these Advent weeks, let Mary walk with us. Ask for her intercession. Pray the Rosary, especially the Joyful Mysteries, which trace her journey from Annunciation to Nativity. Let her teach you how to wait, with faith, with service, with song.
She who carried Christ can help us prepare to receive him.