"Annunciation"

'Hail, space for the uncontained God'
From the Agathistos Hymn, Greece, VIc

We know the scene: the room, variously furnished,
almost always a lectern, a book; always
the tall lily.
                    Arrived on solemn grandeur of great wings,
the angelic ambassador, standing or hovering,
whom she acknowledges, a guest.

But we are told of meek obedience.  No one mentions
courage.
                    The engendering Spirit
did not enter her without consent.
                                                      God waited.
She was free
to accept or to refuse, choice
integral to humanness.

Aren't there annunciations
of one sort or another
in most lives?
                       Some unwillingly
undertake great destinies,
enact them in sullen pride,
uncomprehendingly.
                                   More often
those moments
            when roads of light and storm
            open from darkness in a man or woman,
are turned away from
in dread, in a wave of weakness, in despair
and with relief.
Ordinary lives continue.
                                        God does not smite them.
But the gates close, the pathway vanishes.

--Denise Levertov--