On this day, the 25th Of March, the Great Feast of the Annunciation

Blessed Feast Day to all!

At this time, when we can easily focus on the virus or give in to feelings of sadness and isolation let us resist. Let us focus on the Good News that God gave to the world as we remember the Annunciation of our Lord to the Virgin Mary. St Bernard of Clairvaux wrote:

“You have heard, O Virgin, that you will conceive and bear a son; you have heard that it will not be by man but by the Holy Spirit. The angel awaits an answer; it is time for him to return to God Who sent him. We too are waiting, O Lady, for your word of compassion; the sentence of condemnation weighs heavily upon us.

The price of our salvation is offered to you. We shall be set free at once if you consent. In the eternal Word of God we all came to be, and behold, we die. In your brief response, we are to be remade in order to be recalled to life.

Tearful Adam with his sorrowing family begs this of you, O loving Virgin, in their exile from Paradise. Abraham begs it, David begs it. All the other holy patriarchs, your ancestors, ask it of you, as they dwell in the country of the shadow of death. That is what the whole earth waits for, prostrate at your feet. It is right in doing so, for on your word depends comfort for the wretched, ransom for the captive, freedom for the condemned, indeed, salvation for all the sons of Adam, the whole of your race.

Answer quickly, O Virgin. Reply in haste to the Angel, or rather through the Angel to the Lord. Answer with a word, receive the Word of God. Speak your own word, conceive the divine Word. Breathe a passing word, embrace the eternal Word.

Arise, hasten, open. Arise in faith, hasten in devotion, open in praise and thanksgiving.”

These words also apply to us too. In our prayer, in our concern for others, forgiving those who have sinned against us, asking for the forgiveness of our sins, we become true children of the Virgin Mary.
Every time we do these things, we allow Christ to become present in our lives and the lives of others.

In this time of tribulation, when we need divine help let us ask the all pure Mother of God to intercede for us and say: “Answer quickly, O Virgin through the mercy of your son.”

Praying for you before the altar of God,
Fondly,
Fr. Phil