The Gospel of the 4th Sunday of Advent proposes to us the account of the Annunciation (Lk 1:26-38), the mystery to which we return every day in reciting the Angelus. The prayer makes us relive the decisive moment at which God knocked at Mary’s heart and, having received her “Yes”, began to take flesh, in her and from her.  The Collect from today’s Mass is the same as the one we recite at the end of the Angelus.  With only a day until the Feast of Christmas, we a re invited to fix our gaze on the ineffable mystery that Mary treasured for nine months in her virginal womb: the mystery of God who is made man.

(Pope Benedict XVI)