CONGREGAZIONE
SUORE DELLA PROVVIDENZA ROSMINIANE
Via Aurelia, 773
ROMA
Solemnity of the Annunciation of the Lord, 25 March 2020
My dear Sisters,
We have arrived at the celebration of the Annunciation of the Lord, a day of special significance … even though this year we contemplate it with different eyes.
With the passing of days and weeks, I am struck by how a word or an action of one person, knowingly our knowingly, can completely change the way of life of many others and in the end, can change the face of the earth.
In these weeks, we are all involved, in all countries, by the expansion of the coronavirus and are therefore required to observe the same health and safeguarding standards. We are called to face challenges and a certain uncertainty previously completely unknown to us; we are in this way reminded of the fragility of human life and of our dependence on one another and on God.
Only with lively faith in God and nourished by his Word can we live each new day with courage, serenity and hope.
What can we learn from the Annunciation this year?
After the initial message of the Angel Gabriel, Mary is bewildered as she questions the meaning of the
announcement.
As we ponder on our own questions, let us be guided by the words of St Bernard of Clairvaux, who
focuses on the significance of the dramatic and central moment of our faith, which precedes Mary’s
response.
_________________________The Whole World Awaits Mary’s Response
“You have heard, O Virgin, that you will conceive and bear a son; you have
heard that it will not be by man but by the Holy Spirit. The angel awaits an
answer; it is time for him to return to God who sent him. We too are
waiting, O Lady, for your word of compassion; the sentence of
condemnation weighs heavily upon us.
The price of our salvation is offered to you. We shall be set free at once if
you consent. In the eternal Word of God we all came to be, and behold, we
die. In your brief response we are to be remade in order to be recalled to
life.
… This is what the whole earth waits for, prostrate at your feet. It is right
in doing so, for on your word depends comfort for the wretched, ransom
for the captive, freedom for the condemned, indeed, salvation for all the
sons of Adam, the whole of your race.
Answer quickly, O Virgin. Reply in haste to the angel, or rather through the
angel to the Lord.
Answer with a word, receive the Word of God. Speak your own word, conceive the divine Word. Breathe a passing word, embrace the eternal Word.
Why do you delay, why are you afraid? Believe, give praise, and receive. Let humility be bold, let modesty be confident. This is no time for virginal simplicity to forget prudence. In this matter alone, O prudent Virgin, do not fear to be presumptuous. Though modest silence is pleasing, dutiful speech is now more necessary.
Open your heart to faith, O blessed Virgin, your lips to praise, your womb to the Creator. See, the desired of all nations is at your door, knocking to enter. If he should pass by because of your delay, in sorrow you would begin to seek him afresh, the One whom your soul loves.
Arise, hasten, open. Arise in faith, hasten in devotion, open in praise and thanksgiving.
“Behold the handmaid of the Lord”, she says, “be it done to me according to your word”. (Hom. 4, 8-9: Opera omnia, Edit. Cisterc. 4 [1966], 53-54)
With the whole world we too wait for Mary’s response…
Let us entrust to her our concerns, our world and all its people.
God bless.
With love,
c.m.
____________________________________________
Pope Francis asks all Christians to join their voices in prayer to Heaven.
“I invite all the Heads of Churches and the leaders of all Christian communities, together with all Christians of various confessions, to invoke the Most High, Almighty God, to pray simultaneously”
the Our Father, Wednesday 25 March at noon, a day on which many Christians remember the annunciation to the Virgin Mary of the Incarnation of the Word: “May the Lord listen to the universal prayer of all his disciples who are preparing to celebrate the victory of the Risen Christ”.
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