That generous word, "Be it done" ...

  The ANNUNCIATION of the LORD

March 25

Solemnity

 "The Virgin Mary uttered that generous word, "Be it done" 

... Immediately the Heart of Jesus, ever to be adored, 

has begun to pulsate with love, divine and human."

Pius XII, On Devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, 63

"The Wisdom of God creates poets. How evidently this is so can be seen by considering Mary of Nazareth. When she had given to the Lord of Hosts the Flesh that would become our Bread, Wisdom caused her to break into a poem of praise, a song repeated by more people than probably any other ever composed. 

The Presence within stirred her to exult and proclaim the One 'who has filled the hungry with good things'. And the praise owed to the Presence of embodied Wisdom among us has never ceased in the Church from that day until this."

James T. O'Connor

The Hidden Manna

“When the Divine Child was conceived, Mary’s humanity gave Him hands and feet, eyes and ears, and a body with which to suffer. Just as the petals of a rose after a dew close on the dew as if to absorb its energies, so too Mary as the Mystical Rose closed upon Him Whom the Old Testament had described as a dew descending upon the earth. When finally she did give Him birth, it was as if a great ciborium had opened, and she was holding in her fingers the Guest Who was also the Host of the world, as if to say, ‘Look, this is the Lamb of God; look, this is He Who takes away the sins of the world.’”

Ven Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen

Life of Christ

Top Image: The Annunciation,  Adolphe-William Bouguereau (1888)
Bottom Image: Mystical Rose - Sr Marie Pierre Semlar, M.M.

Pray for us, O holy Mother of God, 

that we may be made worthy of the promises of  Christ!

Encountering Christ...

   ...at his tabernacle will I sacrifice with shouts of joy: 

I will sing and make music to the LORD.
...Your face, LORD, will I seek. - Psalm 27:6b, 8b

 
"Christianity is not a new philosophy or a new form of morality. 
We are only Christians if we encounter Christ... 
We can encounter Christ in reading Holy Scripture, 
in prayer and in the liturgical life of the Church - 
touch Christ's heart and feel that Christ touches ours. 
And it is only in this personal relationship with Christ,
in this meeting with the Risen One, 

that we are truly Christian."

Pope Benedict XVI

Reflections on the conversion of St Paul

__________________________________________________

 

Happily remembering today...

Traditional Feast of St Gabriel the Archangel,
patron of telecommunications and diplomats
March 24

_______________________

A day in history:  24 March 2011
Adoration Chapel, 

Cathedral of St Paul (Minnesota)
Inspiration Day
Seven Sisters Apostolate...
committed to praying for priests.

15 years of praying 

for our shepherds!

A Seven Sister: one holy hour/one priest/
each week/one heart of prayer

 

Visit the Apostolate website… leave a comment!  
www.sevensistersapostolate.org

PRAYERFULLY CONSIDER joining

this growing, international Apostolate!

Now in 37 countries!

 

"In strengthening the priest you strengthen the whole Church. ...

Strengthen the priest and

you strengthen the whole foundation,

you strengthen everything in the Church."
Fr Gerald Fitzgerald, s.P.

Bear Christ fully...

   O God, you are my God,

earnestly I seek you...  Psalm 63:1

  

 "Bear Christ 

in heart, mind, and will.

Bear Him in your mind 

by His teaching.

Bear Him in your will 

by your observance of the Law.

Bear Him in your heart 

by the Holy Eucharist."

Ven Pope Pius XII

Central point of our life: Fifth Sunday of Lent...

  Fifth Sunday of Lent*

*Final Lenten Sunday before Palm Sunday

Give me justice, O God, and plead my cause 

against a nation that is faithless.  From the deceitful 

and cunning rescue me, for you, O God, are 

my strength. - Entrance Antiphon (Today's Liturgy)

 "Without the Eucharist, 
the Church would not exist.

The holy Eucharist is the central point of our life. 

I remember once a priest I met. He never talked at great 

length about the sufferings, persecutions and tortures, 

but he mentioned that even in prison, 

all the priests would celebrate the liturgy.

We were amazed; how could this be possible? 
Where did you get a Chalice and a Paten? 

He took off his glasses and said: 
'This is what we used; one lens served as the chalice 
with a drop of wine and on the other a piece of bread 
was placed, which served as the paten.' 

This is how they celebrated the liturgy in the prison 
or around the premises of the concentration camps.”

Major-Archbishop Swiatoslav Schevchuk

Primate of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church

Same Body broken, same Blood flowing...

   “Our way of thinking is attuned to the Eucharist, 

and the Eucharist in turn 

confirms our way of thinking.” – St Irenaeus

"The Mass is that which makes the cross visible 

to every eye; it placards the Cross at all the 

crossroads of civilization; it brings Calvary so 

close that even tired feet can make the journey 

to its sweet embrace; every hand may now 

reach out to touch its Sacred Burden, 
every ear may hear its sweet appeal, 
for the Mass and the Cross are the same.

In both there is the same offering of a 

perfectly surrendered will of the beloved Son, 
same Body broken, the same Blood flowed 

forth, the same Divine Forgiveness.

All that has been said and done and acted 

during Holy Mass is to be taken away with us, 
lived, practiced, and woven into all the 
circumstances and conditions of our daily lives."

Venerable Fulton J Sheen

Calvary and the Mass: The Ite, Missa Est

The Sick Child - Edvard Munch