Step 9: The First Contemplation: The Incarnation

Assigned Scripture Reading (NIV) & Mystery Points

Scripture Reading: Luke 1:26–38 · John 1:1–14 · Philippians 2:5–8

Luke 1:26–38 (NIV)

²⁶In the sixth month of Elizabeth’s pregnancy, God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a town in Galilee, ²⁷to a virgin pledged to be married to a man named Joseph, a descendant of David. The virgin’s name was Mary. ²⁸The angel went to her and said, “Greetings, you who are highly favored! The Lord is with you.” ²⁹Mary was greatly troubled at his words and wondered what kind of greeting this might be. ³⁰But the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary; you have found favor with God. ³¹You will conceive and give birth to a son, and you are to call him Jesus. ³²He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, ³³and he will reign over Jacob’s descendants forever; his kingdom will never end.” ³⁴“How will this be,” Mary asked the angel, “since I am a virgin?” ³⁵The angel answered, “The Holy Spirit will come on you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the holy one to be born will be called the Son of God. ³⁶Even Elizabeth your relative is going to have a child in her old age, and she who was said to be unable to conceive is in her sixth month. ³⁷For no word from God will ever fail.” ³⁸“I am the Lord’s servant,” Mary answered. “May your word to me be fulfilled.” Then the angel left her.

John 1:1–14 (NIV)

¹In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. ²He was with God in the beginning. ³Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. ⁴In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. ⁵The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. ⁶There was a man sent from God whose name was John. ⁷He came as a witness to testify concerning that light, so that through him all might believe. ⁸He himself was not the light; he came only as a witness to the light. ⁹The true light that gives light to everyone was coming into the world. ¹⁰He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him. ¹¹He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him. ¹²Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God— ¹³children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God. ¹⁴The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.

Philippians 2:5–8 (NIV)

⁵In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus: ⁶Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage; ⁷rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. ⁸And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death— even death on a cross!

Points of the Mystery from St. Ignatius

First Point (Exx. 262): The Angel St. Gabriel, saluting Our Lady, announced to her the conception of Christ our Lord: ‘Hail, full of grace, thou shalt conceive in thy womb and shalt give birth to a son.’
Second Point (Exx. 262): The Angel confirms what he said to Our Lady, announcing the conception of St. John the Baptist: ‘And behold Elizabeth thy barren cousin has conceived a son in her old age.’
Third Point (Exx. 262): Our Lady answered the Angel very humbly: ‘Behold the handmaid of the Lord; be it done unto me according to thy word.’

Step 1 · Entering the Hour (2 Minutes)

Before You Start

Read Luke 1:26–38 slowly once or twice so the story is fresh in your memory. Then set the Bible aside. Stand a step or two from your chair or kneeler for the space of an Our Father, considering how God our Lord is looking upon you (Exx. 75). Make an act of reverence, kneel or sit, and pray the Preparatory Prayer (Exx. 46): “Lord, grant that all my intentions, actions, and operations may be directed purely to the praise and service of Your Divine Majesty.”

Step 2 · Orienting the Heart & Imagination (5 Minutes)

The Preludes

First Prelude · The Narrative (Exx. 102)

Call to mind the history you are about to contemplate: how the Three Divine Persons look at all the plain or circuit of all the world, full of men and women stumbling into darkness; and how they determine in Their eternity that the Second Person shall become man to save the human race; and so, the fullness of time being come, they send the Angel St. Gabriel to Our Lady in Nazareth.

Second Prelude · Composition of Place — Seeing the Spot (Exx. 103)

With the sight of the imagination, see two places at once: first, the great capacity and circuit of the world, in which dwell so many and such diverse nations of people; and then in particular, zoom in on the house and small rooms of Our Lady in the town of Nazareth, in the province of Galilee.

Third Prelude · Asking for What I Desire (Exx. 104)

Here sits the signature prayer of the entire Second Week: ask for an interior knowledge of our Lord, Who for me has become man, that I may more love Him and follow Him.

Step 3 · The Body of the Exercise (30–40 Minutes)

How to Pray the Incarnation (Three Rounds of See · Hear · Watch)

Ignatius structures this contemplation like a film with three camera angles—(a) The Whole Earth, (b) The Trinity in Heaven, and (c) Mary’s Room in Nazareth—and asks you to pass through those three scenes three times: first to SEE, second to HEAR, and third to WATCH (about 10 minutes per round):

Round 1 · SEE the Persons (Exx. 106 — ~10 minutes)

Use only the eyes of your imagination:

Camera 1 (The Earth): Look across the face of the earth. See so many different people—in different clothes, nations, and conditions: “some white and others black; some in peace and others in war; some weeping and others laughing; some well, others ill; some being born and others dying.” Let your heart see the real, noisy, wounded human world.
Camera 2 (The Trinity): Look at the Three Divine Persons on Their royal throne, gazing down upon the whole surface of the earth with infinite compassion.
Camera 3 (Nazareth): Look inside the quiet, simple room in Nazareth: see the young woman Mary, and the Angel Gabriel entering to greet her.
Reflect on yourself to draw some profit: Pause for 2 minutes. Ask: Where am I in that noisy crowd on earth? And what does it do to me to see the Trinity looking down on us not with disgust, but with tender desire to come down and join us?

Round 2 · HEAR What They Are Saying (Exx. 107 — ~10 minutes)

Pass through the same three scenes again, this time tuning your ears:

Camera 1 (The Earth): Hear what people on the earth are talking about—how they argue, boast, bargain, weep, blaspheme, or cry out in pain.
Camera 2 (The Trinity): Hear what the Divine Persons are saying in response to all that human noise: “Let Us work the redemption of the human race.” Hear the Son offering Himself to go down and take on human flesh.
Camera 3 (Nazareth): Hear the quiet dialogue between the Angel and Our Lady: Gabriel’s “Fear not, Mary... the Holy Spirit shall come upon thee,” and Mary’s unhurried, complete “Behold the handmaid of the Lord; be it done to me according to thy word.”
Reflect on yourself to draw some profit: Contrast the loud, self-important noise of the world with the quiet Yes of the Trinity and the quiet Yes of Mary. Where is God inviting your own quiet “Be it done to me” today?

Round 3 · WATCH What They Are Doing (Exx. 108 — ~10 minutes)

Pass through the three scenes a third time, watching their actions:

Camera 1 (The Earth): Watch how people on earth act—striking, wounding, striving for status, and hurting one another.
Camera 2 (The Trinity): Watch the Most Holy Trinity actually working out the most holy Incarnation—God not staying safe in heaven, but stepping down into poverty and hiddenness.
Camera 3 (Nazareth): Watch the Angel fulfilling his mission and departing, and watch Our Lady humbling herself and giving thanks to the Divine Majesty as the Word becomes flesh within her.
Reflect on yourself to draw some profit: Notice the total kenosis (self-emptying) of God here: no trumpets, no palace, no spectacle—just a hidden Yes in a backwater Galilean village.

Step 4 · Friend to Friend & Looking Back (15–20 Minutes)

Colloquy, Post-Prayer Review & Repetitions

1. The Colloquy (5 Minutes)

At the end (Exx. 109), make a Colloquy—thinking what you ought to say to the Three Divine Persons, or to the Eternal Word now incarnate, or to Our Mother and Lady—asking according to what you feel in yourself for the grace to follow and imitate more our Lord, Who has just so newly become man for you. Say an Our Father.

2. The Post-Prayer Examen of Prayer (15 Minutes · Exx. 77)

After finishing the Our Father, remain quiet for ten to fifteen minutes (sitting or walking slowly) to examine how your prayer went. Ask: Where did my heart feel warmed, expanded, drawn to trust, or moved to tears (consolation)? Where did I feel dry, distracted, defensive, or negotiating with God (desolation or resistance)? Write down two or three honest sentences in your notebook.

3. Repetitions & Carrying the Mystery Through the Day

Notice how Scripture and imagination work together here: you read Luke 1:26–38 first so your contemplation is anchored in the real Gospel text, and then your imagination expands the canvas to see why Gabriel came—because the Trinity looked at our broken world and chose to come down.

Primary Text · From St. Ignatius’s Spiritual Exercises (Exx. 101–109, 262)

[104] Third Prelude. The third, to ask for what I want: it will be here to ask for interior knowledge of our Lord, Who for me has become man, that I may more love Him and follow Him. [106] First Point. The first Point is, to see the various persons: and first those on the surface of the earth, in such variety, in dress as in actions: some white and others black; some in peace and others in war; some weeping and others laughing; some well, others ill; some being born and others dying, etc. Secondly, to see and consider the Three Divine Persons, as on their royal throne or seat of Their Divine Majesty, how They look on all the surface and circuit of the earth, and all the peoples in such blindness, and how they are dying and going down to Hell. Thirdly, to see Our Lady, and the Angel who is saluting her, and to reflect in order to get profit from such a sight. [107] Second Point. The second, to hear what the persons on the face of the earth are talking about, that is, how they speak with one another, how they swear and blaspheme, etc.; likewise what the Divine Persons are saying, that is: "Let Us work the redemption of the human race," etc.; and then what the Angel and Our Lady are saying; and to reflect afterwards to draw profit from their words.

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