Today we celebrate a very great feast day of the Church, the Solemnity of the Annunciation of the Lord, the moment when our Lord Jesus was conceived, and when the Divine Word and Son of God was incarnate into flesh, and assumed the form of Man through the intermediary of His mother, the Blessed Virgin Mary. On this day we commemorate the day the Archangel Gabriel came to the small, poor and humble village of Nazareth in Galilee, to break the news regarding the end of the long wait for the coming of the Lord’s Promised Messiah, the Good News announced to the world through Mary. Is this not the most wondrous of mysteries, when Heaven touches Earth, and sinful Man is rescued by a Loving Saviour Who had promised our first parents He would not leave us in our sinfulness?
“When the time appointed for the redemption of mankind had come, our Lord Jesus Christ entered this lower world, descended from His heavenly throne, and, without receding from the glory that He had with the Father, took flesh by a new means, by a new birth: invisible in His own nature, He became visible in ours; being incomprehensible, He willed to be comprehended; remaining before time began, He began to exist in time; the Lord of the universe veiled the glory of His majesty and took the form of a servant; impassible God did not disdain to become a suffering man; and immortal God subjected Himself to the laws of death.” – (Pope St. Leo the Great)
“Let Him Find You Ready! Receive today the Divine Victim into yourselves, even as the Virgin of Nazareth received Him into herself. Let Him find within you a sanctuary for the offering of His Sacrifice, an altar for His immolation, and an adoring silence worthy of His divine liturgy. Even more, let Him find you ready for His immolation, not as spectators looking on in awe, but as souls wholly abandoned to the overshadowing of the Holy Ghost.” – (The Benedictine monks of Silverstream Priory in Ireland)
Lord Jesus Christ,
Divine Victim hid in the sanctuary of Mary’s womb
and immolated upon the altar of her heart,
unite us to Thyself:
our bodies to Thy Body,
our blood to Thy Blood,
our souls to Thy Soul,
our hearts to Thy Heart,
so as to make us with Thyself
one Priest and one Victim
offered to the glory of the Father,
out of love for Thy Spouse, the Church,
and in reparation for the sins by which
Thy Sacrifice is scorned,
Thy presence dishonoured,
and the brightness of Thy glory dimmed
in the sight of men
who, even without knowing it,
yearn to gaze upon the beauty of Thy Face.
Amen.
Catholicism Pure & Simple 
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