Psalm45.10-17│Genesis 3.8-15│Acts 1.12-14│Luke 1.26-38
Psaumes 45.10-17 | Genèse 3.8-15 |Actes 1.12-14 |Luc 1.26-38
Mary
The
feast, which dates from the seventh century, acknowledges the preparation by
God of his people to receive their Saviour and Lord, putting ‘heaven in
ordinary’ and showing that mortal flesh can indeed bring Christ to the world.
(Extract from Exciting Holiness).
To
do it as for thee…
Teach me, my God and King, in all things Thee to see,
and what I do in anything, to do it as for Thee. (George Herbert).
''The Annunciation', church of Sainte-Anne, Auderghem
Ordinary time. I’m sitting in the church of
Sainte-Anne, Auderghem, listening to a children’s choir singing ‘The Virgin
Mary had a baby boy’. In the side chapel, stands a painting of the Annunciation,
depicting Christ at the centre, flanked on either side by the angel and Mary.
The painting illuminates this extraordinary moment of ordinary time: the
incarnation of the Word. It is what the seventeenth-century priest-poet George
Herbert described as ‘Heaven in Ordinarie’.
The
words of the angel’s greeting to Mary in the Vulgate are Ave Maria, gratia
plena (‘Hail Mary, full of grace’). This prayer is still recited by our Catholic
sisters and brothers all over the world. In Luke’s account, the word of
greeting, chairê, is a summons to rejoice that the Lord is with
her. Mary is invited to accept a new vocation as the ‘favoured one’; at the same
time, she is ‘one who has already received grace’ (verse 30)[1].
The painting reminds us that the call comes at a particular moment of time and
that Mary’s acceptance of her unique calling depends on her humanity, her
willingness to say ‘Yes’ to the angel.
Mary’s
humility provides a pattern for our daily existence, our ordinary acts, which
when performed as an act of praise, help us to grow into the image of Christ
and be touched by ‘heaven in ordinary’.
Collect
for the Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary: Almighty and everlasting
God, who stooped to raise fallen humanity through the child-bearing of blessed
Mary: grant that we, who have seen your glory revealed in our human nature and
your love made perfect in our weakness, may daily be renewed in your image and
conformed to the pattern of your Son Jesus Christ our Lord, who is alive and
reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.
L’ange lui dit: Ne crains point, Marie; car tu as
trouvé grâce devant Dieu. Et voici, tu deviendras enceinte, et tu
enfanteras un fils, et tu lui donneras le nom de Jésus. (Luc 1.30-1, Nouvelle
Edition de Genève).
Jonathan Halliwell
[1] As Thomas
Aquinas explains, ‘it is reasonable to believe that she who gave birth to the
only son of the Father, full of grace and truth (John 1:14) had received
greater gifts than any other’.
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