Advent meditation: After Adam and Eve fell, Satan was told by God that although he would pursue the woman and her seed, ultimately his head would be crushed. Some ancient manuscripts say that it is the seed, Christ, that crushes the head of the serpent, while others say it is the woman, Mary. It is both Christ and Mary together that crush the head of the serpent. Christ crushes Satan through His incarnation, death, and resurrection, and Mary does so through her perfect obedience to God which enabled Christ to accomplish all that He did.
Prayer: Hail Holy Queen, Mother of Mercy, our life, our sweetness, and our hope. To thee do we cry, poor banished children of Eve; To thee do we send up our sighs, mourning and weeping in this valley of tears. Turn then, most gracious advocate, thine eyes of mercy toward us and after this our exile show unto us the blessed fruit of thy womb, Jesus. O clement, O loving, O sweet Virgin Mary!
Scripture: And they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden. But the Lord God called to the man, and said to him, “Where are you?” And he said, “I heard the sound of thee in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked; and I hid myself.” He said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten of the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?” The man said, “The woman whom thou gavest to be with me, she gave me fruit of the tree, and I ate.” Then the Lord God said to the woman, “What is this that you have done?” The woman said, “The serpent beguiled me, and I ate.” The Lord God said to the serpent, “Because you have done this, cursed are you above all cattle, and above all wild animals; upon your belly you shall go, and dust you shall eat all the days of your life. I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed; she shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise her heel.” The man called his wife’s name Eve, because she was the mother of all living. (Genesis 3:8-15, 20)
