Only a really great feast can supplant a Sunday in Lent, but this Sunday’s festival is such a feast. We commemorate the visit of the angel Gabriel to Mary the Mother of Jesus, to tell her that she had been chosen to be the mother of the Messiah and to elicit her response. Mary did not just passively acquiesce. She questioned the angel’s message reasonably and responsibly before recognising that it was in fact the will of God. In giving her consent, empowered by the Holy Spirit who we are told would hover over her, she became the mother of the Messiah and much more again – the Mother of God the Word, made flesh. Mary’s response is a pattern for our prayer.
Collect
We beseech you, O Lord,
pour your grace into our hearts,
that as we have known the incarnation of your Son Jesus Christ by the message of an angel,
so by his cross and passion
we may be brought to the glory of his resurrection;
through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever. Amen
Comments