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Annuciation 2021
4 years ago
Feast of the Annunciation, 2021
The Angel of the Lord declared unto Mary.
And she conceived of the Holy Ghost.
Happy Lady's Day.~
Today marks the Feast of the Annuntiation; that is, the announcement from Gabriel to Mary that she had been chosen to be the mother of God the Son, and her acceptance and Jesus' subsequent conception. It falls nine months before Christmas -- March 25 - December 25 -- because that is the interval of pregnancy. Whether the date of the Annunciation determined the date of Christmas; or Christmas determined the date of the Annunciation; or both actually do reflect reality; is now not truly knowable, and not of importance.
The name (Our) Lady's Day presumably is due to it being the oldest major holy day associated with Mary, at least in English. It is, by Wikipedia, very old, always having been observed on March 25 since the earliest records. Apparently, there were a number of beliefs entwined around this date -- that it was the date of Jesus' death, and that a prophet was supposed to die the same day as either his birth or conception. Also it was believed that the spring equinox coincided with God's creation of the world; hence also He began His renewal of creation on the same date.
That is more noteworthy to me, as it is the purpose of liturgical time, to reintegrate heaven and earth in our daily lives. Thus, while the Church calendar begins with Advent, this marks another beginning, a second chance if you will to make a fresh start and accept God's Word into yourself after the example of Our Lady.
In closing, I note something that saddens me. I have a liturgical calendar according to the rite I am observing, the revision of the Tridentine Rite of 1962. According to that calendar, the celebration of the Annunciation, despite being one of the primary feasts of the Church, does not take precedence over the Lenten fast. This to me a grievous error -- I do not mean on the part of the calendar, which I think is correctly printed; but on the part of the Church that set the rules, and it is the worse for being deeply entrenched.
That is, the error that Christianity is primarily about suffering, ascetism and self-affliction. This is not so; Christianity is to be a religion of happiness, of great merriment, a perpetual wedding-feast, for as it is written "we have the Bridegroom with us." This is not to deny the value of fasting, but should be a temporary exercise, a practice to be used as seems good for us.
For "sufficient to the day are the evils thereof;" Christians need not go adding hardships to their lives in a misguided attempt at "mortification." Our primary business is to rejoice, and to show our happiness to the world, that others may also enter the feast of love and rejoice in the bounty of God.
While I believe each should choose for himself whether to observe Lent or the feast of the Annunciation (and I'm so late it kind of doesn't matter >< ), I would encourage the observance of the feast. For if Lent and Passiontide represent the ills of the world, the Annunciation very appropriately represents God coming into the world to heal those ills and so lift our spirits.
The Angel of the Lord declared unto Mary.
And she conceived of the Holy Ghost.
Happy Lady's Day.~
Today marks the Feast of the Annuntiation; that is, the announcement from Gabriel to Mary that she had been chosen to be the mother of God the Son, and her acceptance and Jesus' subsequent conception. It falls nine months before Christmas -- March 25 - December 25 -- because that is the interval of pregnancy. Whether the date of the Annunciation determined the date of Christmas; or Christmas determined the date of the Annunciation; or both actually do reflect reality; is now not truly knowable, and not of importance.
The name (Our) Lady's Day presumably is due to it being the oldest major holy day associated with Mary, at least in English. It is, by Wikipedia, very old, always having been observed on March 25 since the earliest records. Apparently, there were a number of beliefs entwined around this date -- that it was the date of Jesus' death, and that a prophet was supposed to die the same day as either his birth or conception. Also it was believed that the spring equinox coincided with God's creation of the world; hence also He began His renewal of creation on the same date.
That is more noteworthy to me, as it is the purpose of liturgical time, to reintegrate heaven and earth in our daily lives. Thus, while the Church calendar begins with Advent, this marks another beginning, a second chance if you will to make a fresh start and accept God's Word into yourself after the example of Our Lady.
In closing, I note something that saddens me. I have a liturgical calendar according to the rite I am observing, the revision of the Tridentine Rite of 1962. According to that calendar, the celebration of the Annunciation, despite being one of the primary feasts of the Church, does not take precedence over the Lenten fast. This to me a grievous error -- I do not mean on the part of the calendar, which I think is correctly printed; but on the part of the Church that set the rules, and it is the worse for being deeply entrenched.
That is, the error that Christianity is primarily about suffering, ascetism and self-affliction. This is not so; Christianity is to be a religion of happiness, of great merriment, a perpetual wedding-feast, for as it is written "we have the Bridegroom with us." This is not to deny the value of fasting, but should be a temporary exercise, a practice to be used as seems good for us.
For "sufficient to the day are the evils thereof;" Christians need not go adding hardships to their lives in a misguided attempt at "mortification." Our primary business is to rejoice, and to show our happiness to the world, that others may also enter the feast of love and rejoice in the bounty of God.
While I believe each should choose for himself whether to observe Lent or the feast of the Annunciation (and I'm so late it kind of doesn't matter >< ), I would encourage the observance of the feast. For if Lent and Passiontide represent the ills of the world, the Annunciation very appropriately represents God coming into the world to heal those ills and so lift our spirits.
