Dear Little hearts,

Today is the transferred feast of the Annunciation. A Happy Feast to you all.

The readings for the feast of the Annunciation, known in England in times past as the, “Salutation” are in our Sunday Missal, so today we will look , with Mary at the WORD.

Mary lived ‘Lectio Divine‘ she pondered on God’s Word as no other has ever done, He was her total love, her total focus… her will was in perfect harmony with Gods, her will merged into His, and so there by making her life fruitful in abundance.                                               

In today’s readings we can see how much God desires the gift, the offering, the surrender of our will , our free will to Him, thus choosing HIM above all other things.

God does not want, external worship without the involving of the heart, he’s not interested in sacrifices that are to placate Him or merely trying to win his approval, he wants our hearts, our wills to be HIS.

And in today’s readings we see this shining through all the readings.

Choose a line from todays readings and  really ponder upon it, dwell upon it, absorb it for the essence of our  Christian life is here… to respond to His Sweet will and surrender ours to HIS, this in itself is an act of supreme trust in our Beloved.

The entrance antiphon sets the whole tone , it is taken from the letter to the Hebrews.

 

“The Lord said as he entered the world: Behold O Lord I come to do your will“     ….. IN HIS WILL IS OUR PEACE!.

(Below are the readings from Our Sunday Missal)

First reading

Isaiah 7:10-14,8:10 ©

The Lord spoke to Ahaz and said, ‘Ask the Lord your God for a sign for yourself coming either from the depths of Sheol or from the heights above.’ ‘No,’ Ahaz answered ‘I will not put the Lord to the test.’

Then he said:

Listen now, House of David:

are you not satisfied with trying the patience of men

without trying the patience of my God, too?

The Lord himself, therefore,

will give you a sign.

It is this: the maiden is with child

and will soon give birth to a son

whom she will call Immanuel,

a name which means ‘God is with us.’

Psalm

Psalm 39:7-11 ©

Here I am, Lord! I come to do your will.

You do not ask for sacrifice and offerings,

but an open ear.

You do not ask for holocaust and victim.

Instead, here am I.

Here I am, Lord! I come to do your will.

In the scroll of the book it stands written

that I should do your will.

My God, I delight in your law

in the depth of my heart.

Here I am, Lord! I come to do your will.

Your justice I have proclaimed

in the great assembly.

My lips I have not sealed;

you know it, O Lord.

Here I am, Lord! I come to do your will.

I have not hidden your justice in my heart

but declared your faithful help.

I have not hidden your love and your truth

from the great assembly.

Here I am, Lord! I come to do your will.

Second reading

Hebrews 10:4-10 ©

Bulls’ blood and goats’ blood are useless for taking away sins, and this is what Christ said, on coming into the world:

You who wanted no sacrifice or oblation,

prepared a body for me.

You took no pleasure in holocausts or sacrifices for sin;

then I said,

just as I was commanded in the scroll of the book,

‘God, here I am! I am coming to obey your will.’

Notice that he says first: You did not want what the Law lays down as the things to be offered, that is: the sacrifices, the oblations, the holocausts and the sacrifices for sin, and you took no pleasure in them; and then he says: Here I am! I am coming to obey your will. He is abolishing the first sort to replace it with the second. And this will was for us to be made holy by the offering of his body made once and for all by Jesus Christ.

Gospel Acclamation

Jn1:14

Praise to you, O Christ, king of eternal glory!

The Word became flesh,

he lived among us,

and we saw his glory.

Praise to you, O Christ, king of eternal glory!

Gospel

Luke 1:26-38 ©

The angel Gabriel was sent by God to a town in Galilee called Nazareth, to a virgin betrothed to a man named Joseph, of the House of David; and the virgin’s name was Mary. He went in and said to her, ‘Rejoice, so highly favored! The Lord is with you.’ She was deeply disturbed by these words and asked herself what this greeting could mean, but the angel said to her, ‘Mary, do not be afraid; you have won God’s favor. Listen! You are to conceive and bear a son, and you must name him Jesus. He will be great and will be called Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his ancestor David; he will rule over the House of Jacob for ever and his reign will have no end.’ Mary said to the angel, ‘But how can this come about, since I am a virgin?’ ‘The Holy Spirit will come upon you’ the angel answered ‘and the power of the Most High will cover you with its shadow. And so the child will be holy and will be called Son of God. Know this too: your kinswoman Elizabeth has, in her old age, herself conceived a son, and she whom people called barren is now in her sixth month, for nothing is impossible to God’ ‘I am the handmaid of the Lord,’ said Mary ‘let what you have said be done to me.’ And the angel left her.

 Poor Clare Colettines, TMD.