Monthly Archives: March 2017

The Annunciation

The Annunciation, shwoing St Gabriel announcing to Mary the good news.

The annunciation, the Archangel Gabriel telling out Holy Mother the good news of her being chosen to be the mother of our Lord, Jesus Christ.

 

On the feast of the Annunciation we celebrate Mary’s yes to God, which brought the Son of God into the world and our redemption near at hand. It was a momentous moment in the history of salvation and it all depended on the response of a young girl. In this meditation we consider:

  • Why we needed to be redeemed and why God chose this way to bring it about
  • The call of Mary and Joseph from all eternity to fulfil their roles
  • The eminent virtues of Mary and Joseph
  • The significance of the angel’s message to Mary
  • A prayer to Mary by St Bernard calling upon her to say yes
  • Mary’s response and our own promptness and saying yes to God

Jesus and the Eucharist

Our Lord, Jesus Christ, depicted with the Holy Eucharist, a sacrament He founded during His Last Supper.

In the words of St Josemaria Escriva, the Eucharist should be the “centre and root” of the spiritual life. After all, the Eucharist is Jesus himself, who gives himself to us as the nourishment of our soul and who waits for us in the “prison of love”, the tabernacle. In this meditation we pray about how we can grow in love for Jesus in the Eucharist, using words that Catalina Rivas puts on his lips in her book The Passion, published by the Apostolate of the New Evangelization. We consider:

  • Why Jesus washed the feet of the apostles before instituting the Eucharist
  • The many fruits that come from receiving Jesus well in Holy Communion
  • The sorrow of Jesus when people receive him unworthily
  • The story of a Chinese girl who was killed  for her love of the Eucharist
  • How we can grow in love for Jesus by keeping him company in the tabernacle