But the angel said to him, "Don't be afraid, Zacharias, because your request has been heard, and your wife, Elizabeth, will bear you a son, and you shall call his name John.
Thy supplication is heard ...  The most natural way to understand this is as a reference to the prayers of this holy couple for a child; and, although his priestly duties of that occasion demanded that he should also have prayed for the coming of the Messiah and the bringing in of the kingdom of God, it certainly appears that his prayer for a child, whether uttered again on that occasion or not, was nevertheless continually in his heart; and it was to THAT PRAYER which the angel referred in this appearance.