Icon of the Annunciation

(Another whirring sound, then blue light)

Miryam: (jumps, startled) What is that? What pursues me?

Voice: Miryam, Adonai finds you are filled with joy and knows you embrace the Presence. I tell you again, you are the one filled with trust and happiness. And God calls you.

Miryam: Not me. (shaking) Not me, Lord. Why do you come to me?

Voice: “Rejoice, young woman you are pleasing God and the LORD has chosen you. The LORD is with you!

Miryam: Where are you? Who are you?

Voice: Gabriel, Miryam! God has sent me. Don’t be afraid! (She still cringes in fear) You will conceive in your womb … you will bear a child.

Miryam: (raises her hand, shielding her eyes from the strange light) Stop, this can’t be true. I have never been with a man. I can’t bear a child.

Voice: Nothing is impossible with God, Miryam! (The wool drops from her hand)

Miryam: (Barely audible) I am afraid. Please, please help me.

Voice: This little child will grow to be great. He will be called the Son of the Most High.

Miryam: My LORD!

Voice: God will give him the throne of David.

Miryam: (whispered) Everyone has been waiting.

Voice: His kingdom will never meet an end.

Miryam: (still puzzled) It can’t be. I am not pregnant because I haven’t known a man.

Voice: The Holy Spirit will come upon you, fill you, fill your womb with this Life! Your child will be holy.

Miryam: But how?

Voice: Nothing is impossible with God.

Miryam: (standing and raising her arms to heaven) Behold, I am yours! Let it be done, God, let it be done to me, according to your word.

(The blue light fades away. Mary sits down at the spinning frame and her head sinks down against it.)

Miryam: (praying softly as she runs her fingers across the purple wool thread) Let this happen and give me strength. (sighs) Ohh, this will make me like the tabernacle cloth I am weaving, Yahweh touching earth. And, I am to be the mother …. (she cries)