THE GREATEST ANNOUNCEMENT IN HISTORY ~ CookingFood.Org

“GENEROUS LENT 2017”

Lenten Reflections

Saturday, 25th March 2017,

Third Week of Lent

Solemnity of Annunciation of our Lord

Is 7:10-14, 8:10;

Ps 40:7-11;

Heb 10:4-10;

Lk 1:26-38

THE GREATEST ANNOUNCEMENT IN HISTORY

The Church today celebrates the announcement of God’s saving will to humanity. The Feast of the Annunciation is an invitation to each one of us to be filled with joy and gratitude, as we contemplate God’s saving love for us. We rejoice to see the total, unconditional availability of Mary. It shows how a simple unconditional ‘Yes’ to God’s plans for us can bring about unbelievable events, just like Mary’s ‘yes’ brought about the salvation of mankind. With that ‘yes’ not only God’s plans are set into motion, but He himself comes to dwell in and amongst us.

Mary shows us how to be a disciple of Jesus, making a loving surrender into the hands of God who loves us. When we wonder if we can make such an act of trust and abandonment into the hands of God let us remember that when God calls us he also gives us the grace. Surrendering to God, making that act of trust or abandonment into the hands of God, is not easy. It means letting go and like Mary facing the unknown and the unknown scares us. God cannot give himself to us unless our hands are empty to receive him. The deepest reason why so few of us are saints is because we will not let God love us. To be loved means a naked, defenseless surrender to all God is. It means a glad acceptance of our nothingness, a look fixed only on the God who gives, taking no account of the nothing to whom the gift is made.” We are all faced with a decision like Mary. Will we surrender to God and allow God to do what from our human point of view seems impossible?

Prayer: Almighty Father, May the prayers of Mary bring Jesus to the waiting world. Jesus, I trust in You. Amen.