Lissa,

When you look up into the hole is there a junction box up in the ceiling? If not, then do not, by any means put up a fixture without one. What a junction box does is it protects you from a possible fire should something catch on fire. This way the fire would be contained within the box instead of starting in the ceiling and spreading before you even knew there was a fire, catching the floor above on fire at the same time.

If there is a junction box, then you will have to see if it comes down far enough and if you can expose the edges of it so that you can seal the wires within it (between the pendant fixture and the 3 sides of the box).

Hope this helps and good for you taking on such a great project!

Hug 'n hammers,

Heidi