Daily Reflections
The Solemnity of the Annunciation of the Lord
 
Sign of the Cross
 
 
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Intro
You can see with the statue of the BVM that we have a different setup today.  It reminds us we are taking a break from Lent to celebrate a feast. It is good to celebrate in good and bad and remember God is with us.  We are celebrating the Annunciation of Gabriel to Our Lady to be Mother of Lord. It is really a celebration that God is with us.  It tells of the amazing historical reality that God entered our world.  From now on He looks after us not just from Heaven but from within our world.  He is called Emmanuel because God is with us.  He is called Jesus because His job is to save the world from peril and sin.
 
We know in this One Big Prayer for Deliverance from the Coronavirus contains lots of smaller prayers.  Today I think we will pray especially for our families and their livelihoods to be kept safe and well.  
 
Two housekeeping points. Firstly, you can download a paper copy of my Daily Reflection on our web.  Secondly, some of you noted how I was cut off in mid-sentence yesterday at around six minutes.  Good for the internet to shut me down when I was going on a bit. From now on we’ll try to keep the Reflections to around six minutes.
 
Entrance Antiphon ( Heb 10: 5, 7)
The Lord said as he entered the world: Behold, I come to do your will, O God.
 
Collect
O God, who willed that your Word should take on the reality of human flesh in the
womb of the Virgin Mary, grant, we pray, that we, who confess our Redeemer to be
God and man, may merit to become partakers even in his divine nature. Who lives
and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, forever and ever.
 
First reading ( Isaiah 7:10-14,8:10):  The maiden is with child
The Lord spoke to Ahaz and said, ‘Ask the Lord your God for a sign for yourself coming either from the depths of Sheol or from the heights above.’ ‘No,’ Ahaz answered ‘I will not put the Lord to the test.’ Then Isaiah said: ‘Listen now, House of David: are you not satisfied with trying the patience of men without trying the patience of my God, too? The Lord himself, therefore, will give you a sign. It is this: the maiden is with child and will soon give birth to a son whom she will call Immanuel, a name which means “God-is-with-us.”’
 
Responsorial Psalm ( Psalm 39(40):7-11)
 
R/: Here I am, Lord! I come to do your will.
 
You do not ask for sacrifice and offerings, but an open ear. You do not ask for holocaust and victim.  Instead, here am I.
 
In the scroll of the book, it stands written that I should do your will. My God, I delight
in your law in the depth of my heart.
 
Your justice I have proclaimed in the great assembly. My lips I have not sealed; you
know it, O Lord.
 
I have not hidden your justice in my heart but declared your faithful help. I have not
hidden your love and your truth from the great assembly.
 
Second reading ( Hebrews 10:4-10): God's will was for us to be made holy by the offering of his body made once and for all by Jesus Christ.
Bulls’ blood and goats’ blood are useless for taking away sins, and this is what Christ said, on coming into the world: You who wanted no sacrifice or oblation, prepared a body for me. You took no pleasure in holocausts or sacrifices for sin; then I said, just as I was commanded in the scroll of the book, ‘God, here I am! I am coming to obey your will.’ Notice that he says first: You did not want what the Law lays down as the things to be offered, that is: the sacrifices, the oblations, the holocausts and the sacrifices for sin, and you took no pleasure in them; and then he says: Here I am! I am coming to obey your will. He is abolishing the first sort to replace it with the second. And this will was for us to be made holy by the offering of his body made once and for all by Jesus Christ.
 
Gospel Acclamation ( Jn1:14)
Praise to you, O Christ, king of eternal glory!
The Word became flesh, he lived among us, and we saw his glory.
Praise to you, O Christ, king of eternal glory!
 
Gospel ( Luke 1:26-38)
'I am the handmaid of the Lord'
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, so highly favoured! 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. Listen! You are to conceive 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 forever and his reign will have no end.’ Mary said to the angel, ‘But how can this come about, since I am a virgin?’ ‘The Holy Spirit will come upon you’ the angel answered ‘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. Know this too: your kinswoman Elizabeth has, in her old age, herself conceived a son, and she whom people called barren is now in her sixth month, for nothing is impossible to God.’ ‘I am the handmaid of the Lord,’ said Mary ‘let what you have said be done to me.’ And the angel left her.
 
Reflection
 
Saint Luke sets the scene in what he calls a town in Galilee called Nazareth.  You get the sense its fairly ordinary place, not well known. It could be anywhere. It is meant to sound as if it could be your neighbourhood.  Then its essence is something many have experienced.  A woman finds out she is pregnant and will soon tell her husband that a new member is coming to make their marriage complete.  We will soon know the background too.  Their little town, and the whole world, have been upset by a census ordered by Emperor Augustus.  It’s the first, unprecedented, and it is going to throw the world into upheaval. It will affect everything and intrude in their family’s way of life which, through Bethlehem and Egypt, will not return to normal for a while.  Yet, for all that life goes on and they adapt and settle down to their new normal each time.  All that matters is that God is with them as Emmanuel to protect them and in Jesus, He will save them.  In time Herod and Augustus pass but God stays with them every day and every day somehow saves.    God is with us, our families and our world just as much.  We celebrate today’s Feast because it reassures us the God Who came down to care for families and towns like Nazareth will not leave us for as long as we need Him to keep us safe.   
 
Intercessions
Lord in your mercy, hear our prayers.

We pray: for an end to the public health threat; that this global pandemic may pass quickly and with minimum effect

 
We pray for our loved ones, especially our vulnerable; that they are kept safe

We pray for our families’; that our livelihoods be protected;

We pray for our carers and all working in frontline services: that they are strengthened and kept safe;

We pray for our civic and religious leaders; that they are wise in their guidance of us;

We pray for those with the  care of our financial markets: that they act on behalf of the common good;

We pray for our medical scientists; that they quickly find a vaccine;

We pray for our nations; that they return to the LORD God with faith, love, and hope;

We pray for peoples: that they see our world return to security and peace.
The Lord’s Prayer
 
Prayer over the People
May your servants be shielded, O Lord, by the protection of your loving-kindness,
that, doing what is good in this world, they may reach you, their highest good.
Through Christ our Lord.