Today the Eastern and Western churches celebrate the Lord's Annunciation to Mary.
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Today the Eastern and Western churches celebrate the Lord’s Annunciation to Mary.
Reading of the Word of God
Praise to you, o Lord, King of eternal glory
I am the good shepherd,
my sheep listen to my voice,
and they become
one flock and one fold.
.
Praise to you, o Lord, King of eternal glory
Luke 1,26-38
In the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent by God to a town in Galilee called Nazareth,
to a virgin betrothed to a man named Joseph, of the House of David; and the virgin's name was Mary.
He went in and said to her, 'Rejoice, you who enjoy God's favour! The Lord is with you.'
She was deeply disturbed by these words and asked herself what this greeting could mean,
but the angel said to her, 'Mary, do not be afraid; you have won God's favour.
Look! You are to conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you must name him Jesus.
He will be great and will be called Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his ancestor David;
he will rule over the House of Jacob for ever and his reign will have no end.'
Mary said to the angel, 'But how can this come about, since I have no knowledge of man?'
The angel answered, 'The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will cover you with its shadow. And so the child will be holy and will be called Son of God.
And I tell you this too: your cousin Elizabeth also, in her old age, has conceived a son, and she whom people called barren is now in her sixth month,
for nothing is impossible to God.'
Mary said, 'You see before you the Lord's servant, let it happen to me as you have said.' And the angel left her.
Praise to you, o Lord, King of eternal glory
I give you a new commandment,
that you love one another.
Praise to you, o Lord, King of eternal glory
The Liturgy of the Church wants us to remember with a special memory the day on which the angel was sent to Nazareth to announce to Mary that she would become Jesus’ mother. The Gospel does not bring us to the temple in Jerusalem, but rather to a poor abode with a teenager, alone, and with an ordinary name: Mary. The angel enters and greets her. She is a young woman like many others, living an ordinary life in her village. And yet, the gaze of the Lord has come upon her. Since her conception, she was chosen to be the mother of the Saviour. Since her conception, God had preserved her and cared for her; he had to make her beautiful and to purify her from any blemish so that she could welcome the Lord Jesus. This is why the angel can say to us: "Hail, full of grace." Yes, Mary is full of God’s love. In this she is the first of us; that is, she is the one who is able to listen to the word of the Lord most deeply. Upon hearing these words, Mary grows fearful. But the angel comforts Mary: "Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favour with God. And now, you will conceive a son... and [you] will name him Jesus." In reality, these words upset her even more, in part because she had not yet gone to live with Joseph. So she says: "How can this be, since I am a virgin?" The angel adds: "The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you." We can imagine the many confused thoughts that unleashed in the heart of this young woman! Mary listens to the angel and obeys: "Here am I, the servant of the Lord; let it be with me according to your word" (v. 38). That girl from Nazareth, the first to be loved by God, is also the first to answer "yes" to his call. Today she stands before us, before the eyes of our hearts, so that by contemplating her, we can imitate her, and we, too, can receive the tender embrace of the Son that fills our hearts and our lives.
She could have said no and remained quiet in her life. She could have done it, certainly, but if so, she would have refused God’s horizons. If she said yes, in the best of both worlds, she would appear to be an unwed mother. But Mary, not relying on her strength but solely on the angel’s word, answers: "Here I am, the servant of the Lord, let it be with me according to your word." Mary, the first loved in such a great way by God, the first of the believers, offers us a model on how to be listeners of the words of God. Her obedience is at the root of salvation. That day, in her yes,’ the disobedience of our ancestors was overturned and the time of redemption was set into motion. Let us learn with Mary to welcome the Gospel in our heart and we will participate in the mystery of salvation.
Prayer is the heart of the life of the Community of Sant'Egidio and is its absolute priority. At the end of the day, every the Community of Sant'Egidio, large or small, gathers around the Lord to listen to his Word. The Word of God and the prayer are, in fact, the very basis of the whole life of the Community. The disciples cannot do other than remain at the feet of Jesus, as did Mary of Bethany, to receive his love and learn his ways (Phil. 2:5).
So every evening, when the Community returns to the feet of the Lord, it repeats the words of the anonymous disciple: " Lord, teach us how to pray". Jesus, Master of prayer, continues to answer: "When you pray, say: Abba, Father". It is not a simple exhortation, it is much more. With these words Jesus lets the disciples participate in his own relationship with the Father. Therefore in prayer, the fact of being children of the Father who is in heaven, comes before the words we may say. So praying is above all a way of being! That is to say we are children who turn with faith to the Father, certain that they will be heard.
Jesus teaches us to call God "Our Father". And not simply "Father" or "My Father". Disciples, even when they pray on their own, are never isolated nor they are orphans; they are always members of the Lord's family.
In praying together, beside the mystery of being children of God, there is also the mystery of brotherhood, as the Father of the Church said: "You cannot have God as father without having the church as mother". When praying together, the Holy Spirit assembles the disciples in the upper room together with Mary, the Lord's mother, so that they may direct their gaze towards the Lord's face and learn from Him the secret of his Heart.
The Communities of Sant'Egidio all over the world gather in the various places of prayer and lay before the Lord the hopes and the sufferings of the tired, exhausted crowds of which the Gospel speaks ( Mat. 9: 3-7 ), In these ancient crowds we can see the huge masses of the modern cities, the millions of refugees who continue to flee their countries, the poor, relegated to the very fringe of life and all those who are waiting for someone to take care of them. Praying together includes the cry, the invocation, the aspiration, the desire for peace, the healing and salvation of the men and women of this world. Prayer is never in vain; it rises ceaselessly to the Lord so that anguish is turned into hope, tears into joy, despair into happiness, and solitude into communion. May the Kingdom of God come soon among people!
For the sick, in memory of the dead, for peace
