CRUSADERS FOR CHRIST
  • Blog
    • Staff only
  • About Us
  • Downloads
    • Catholic Homeschool - Study Guides
    • Handwriting
    • Student Planners
    • Coloring Pictures
    • St. Catherine's Academy Gazette
    • Printable Children's books
  • Catholic Reading
    • Books We Have Enjoyed
    • Saint of the Day
    • Just Stories
    • Chapter Books >
      • Jesus of Nazareth - The Story of His Life Simply Told
      • Little Therese
      • Lisbeth - The Story of a First Communion
    • Sermons for Children
    • This and That
    • The Blessed Mother for the Child in all of us!
  • For Moms
    • Popular Instructions on the Bringing Up of Children

Lady-Day - The Feast of the Annunciation - March 25th

3/25/2014

0 Comments

 
Picture
Good pictures are a great help to devotion. They tell a story at a glance, yet seem to leave the telling to the onlooker. They supply ideas to the unlearned and recall the wandering thoughts of preoccupied minds. Of all the Gospel stories none has been oftener painted than the Annunciation. It is one evidently dear to the artist mind. Yet why! There is no scope for elaborate grouping; only two figures are needed— an angel and a Virgin—None for elaborate scenery— only a little room at Nazareth. It must be the occasion then. Yes. The angel is a messenger, and his message changes a Virgin Child into the Immaculate Mother of God, changes the face of the earth: "Thou shalt renew the face of the earth." No wonder artists, with their keen appreciation of things, have chosen out this bit of Gospel story.

Let us think of it for a little time together. For on the 25th of March, we keep the Feast of the Annunciation, and it is well to be with the Church in our thoughts. We will try to reconstruct the scene. St. Ignatius, when he meditated, divided his subject into places, persons, and words. This division is good for serious study of any kind. We will therefore order our thoughts in some such wise. The scene is a little room in the village of Nazareth. The village is situated on the slope of a hill, on a range due west of the Sea of Galilee. The Nazarenes had a bad reputation, they were ignorant: poor, and vicious. "Can anything good come from Nazareth?" the cautious Nathaniel asked. "Come and see," Phillip answered. And we will come too. The persons are St. Gabriel and the Virgin espoused to a man called Joseph. The Archangel described himself to Zachary as "one of the seven who stand before the throne." There is deep significance in these words. "One of the seven" - impersonal, but distinguished - seven only. "Who stand"— ready to do the will of God; "before the Throne"— denoting the majesty of the service. Then we listen to the words of the salutation:

"Hail, full of grace !" Gabriel had just come from the presence of God, yet he was struck with the beauty of Mary's soul. And he tells her so. All great minds praise easily; it is the little of soul that grudge praise. "The Lord is with thee." This is a scriptural phrase used on sublime occasions— to Moses before starting on his perilous journey to Pharaoh's court; to Jeremias when "his soul was an adamant"; to the Apostles by Our Lord Himself, when about to leave them alone upon earth ; by the Church in her solemn rites. But of all the sublime occasions this was the most sublime.

"The Lord is with thee, thou blessed among women." And now we must look at her, this Blessed among women, the Lily of Israel. How beautiful painters have made her in their pictures. Their thoughts about her must have been beautiful. Her purity, her spotlessness of soul, her modesty of exterior, her deep humility seem to have taken hold of their imagination and have wrought themselves out upon their canvas. '
"She had found grace with God," the angel told her, and she had found favor with men. There never was a queen so reverenced, never a mother so loved, never a virgin so imitated. She has the faithful of the world at her feet. And greater still, she has the fallen, the crushed, the outcast. "Nature's solitaiy boast," the sinless one, seems to hold out hope to those who have forfeited seemingly every claim to hope.

Mary's soul was full of grace, the angel said. Not that it had attained the measure of its sanctity, but that she was perfect as a child could be. As Mother of God she would rise immeasurably higher. When Gabriel gave his message of praise Mary was startled and wondered what kind of salutation this might be. But the angel comforted her: "Fear not, Mary, for thou hast found grace with God. Be hold thou shalt conceive in tby womb, and thou shalt bring forth a son; and thou shalt call His name Jesus. He shall be great and shall be called the son of the Most High; and the Lord shall give unto him the throne of his father David; and he shall reign in the house of Jacob for ever. And of his kingdom there shall be no end.  Mary pondered: Jesus, Savior; David's son; King of the house of David, reigning forever. Then she was to be the Mother of the Messiah, the Mother of God. But she is a virgin. How can this be? she asks. The angel explains the mystery. "The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the Most High shall overshadow thee. And therefore the Holy which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God. '

The Holy Ghost, the Son of God, all three Persons of the Blessed Trinity working in Mary's soul. She answered: "Behold the handmaid of the Lord; be it done unto me according to thy word." A moment at midnight, a maiden's consent, and the work of redemption began-- "And the Word was made Flesh."

The Church appoints many weeks of joy at Christmas in honor of Our Savior's birth; many weeks of sorrow in Lent in honor of His sacred Passion; many weeks of gladness at Easter in honor of His glorious Resurrection. But running through all this joy and sorrow and gladness is the daily triple homage paid to the Incarnation. When the sun rises, when it sets, when it is on the meridian, the bell rings out the "Angelus," and at the sacred words "the Word was made Flesh"every Catholic within hearing renders homage to God and the Son made Man for men. Eternity is the ever-present. Great truths do not happen there and become forgotten. So the eternal Church of God keeps for ever before her children this most wonderful of mysteries, and there rises up from earth to Heaven an everlasting praise in honor of the Son of God. We are Catholics. Shall we be dumb when the bell praises God? Shall we let the convent children and the peasantry of Catholic countries have all the praise to themselves? Or shall we in our own country be to ourselves reminders, and in default of a bell sing in our hearts the Angelus' triple praise? The "Angelus" well said three times a day would go far to the making of saints.

Source: Manual of the Holy Catholic Church, Imprimatur 1906

lady_day_-_the_annunciation_-_march_25th.pdf
File Size: 845 kb
File Type: pdf
Download File

0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    Unless otherwise noted all Saint stories are taken from:  "Saints for Young People for Everyday of the Year." The saints may or may not be those that are on the calendar for the particular day listed.   The book does have an imprimatur but no year is listed.

    Archives

    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014

    Categories

    All
    Agatha
    Agnes
    Agnes Of Montepulciano
    Alban
    Aloysius Gonzaga
    Alphege
    Andrew Of Bobola
    Annunciation Of Mary
    Anselm
    Appolonia
    Athanasius
    Audrey
    Bademus
    Barbatus
    Benedict Joseph Labre
    Benedict The Moor
    Bernadette
    Bernadine Of Siena
    Blaise
    Blessed Herman Joseph
    Blessed Osanna Of Mantua
    Bl. Mary Of The Incarnation
    Boniface
    Boniface Of Tarsus
    Bridget Of Ireland
    Candlemas
    Canute
    Casimir
    Catherine De Ricci
    Catherine Of Sweden
    Conversion Of St. Paul
    Cunegunde
    Cuthbert
    Cyril
    David I Of Scotland
    Dominic Savio
    Dorothy
    Dositheus
    Eucherius
    Eudocia
    Eulogius
    Euphrasia
    Faustinus And Jovita
    Felicitas And Peretua
    Felix Of Cantalice
    Fidelis Of Sigmaringen
    Forty Holy Martyrs
    Francis Caracciolo
    Francis De Sales
    Francis Of Paola
    Gabriel Of OL Of Sorrows
    George
    Gerard
    Gregory VII
    Hermenegild
    Hugh Of Grnoble
    Isadore Of Seville
    Jane Of Valois
    John Baptist De LaSalle
    John Bosco
    John Capistran
    John Chyrsostom
    John Climacus
    John Damascene
    John Of God
    John Of Matha
    John Of The Cross
    Joseph
    Julia
    Julianna Falconieri
    Julie Billiart
    Justin
    Ludger
    Lydwina
    Margaret Of Cortona
    Margaret Of Scotland
    Mark The Evangelist
    Martina
    Matilda
    Matthias
    Onesimus
    Our Lady Of Good Counsel
    Our Lady Of Lourdes
    Paschal Baylon
    Patrick
    Perpetua And Felicitas
    Peter And Marcellinus
    Peter And Paul
    Peter Canisius
    Peter Chanel
    Peter Nolasco
    Peter Of Verona
    Philip And James
    Polycarp
    Pope Leo I
    Porphyry
    Purification Of BVM
    Raymond Of Penafort
    Richard Of Chichester
    Rita Of Cascia
    Robert Bellarmine
    Romanus And Lupicinus
    Romuald
    Sabas The Goth
    Scholastica
    Sebastian
    Serenus
    Seven Holy Founders Of The Servites
    Simplicius
    Soter And Caius
    St. Athanasius
    Stephen Harding
    Thomas Aquinas
    Thomas More
    Timothy
    Ubald
    Valentine
    Vincent Ferrer
    Vincent Of Saragossa
    Walburga
    Waldetrudis
    William The Abbott

    RSS Feed

© Crusaders for Christ 2012