This is the explanatory preamble from my missal for today’s feast, the Nativity (birth) of the Blessed Virgin Mary (nine months to the day after the Feast of the Immaculate Conception, naturally).  I thought it quite beautiful and timely, for those of us feeling the weight of the darkness of these days:

At the time of Mary’s birth the whole world was plunged in darkness.  The heathen nations were steeped in vice and pride.  The Jews, beloved of God, had strayed from Him.  Everywhere there was sin and gloom, no bright spot on the face of the earth.  But when Mary was born a light arose amidst the darkness:  the dawn of the glorious day that was to usher in the Redeemer.

Remember, The Blessed Virgin was born with the egg that would be fertilized by the Holy Ghost and thus incarnate Our Lord already in her ovary, fully-formed with half of Our Lord’s DNA, just waiting.  

Who knows what foundations and groundworks He has laid on the earth and in our lives, already extant or partially so, just waiting to be completed and realized in the fullness of time according to His will?