Day 67 – 2 hours   day 68 1.5 hours           368 to go

The angel Gabriel was sent to the Virgin May who was betrothed to Joseph.  The light filled her with fear, but the angel said to her:  Do not be afraid, Mary; you have found favor with God,  Behold you shall conceive and bear a son,,, and he will be called the Son of the Most High. –"I am the handmaiden of the Lord; let it be to me according to your Word." was her response.  "What came about in bodily form in Mary, the fullness of the godhead shining through Christ in the Blessed Virgin, takes place in a similar way in every soul that has been made pure. The Lord does not come in bodily form, for ´we no longer know Christ according to the flesh´, but He dwells in us spiritually and the Father takes up His abode with Him, the Gospel tells us. In this way the child Jesus is born in each of us." Gregory of Nyssa

Without Mary’s “YES” we would not be a people saved by the Christ.  Mary was the first step – then the death of her Son, then the final part: His resurrection.  Our redemption is threefold – it started with Mary, the young Jewish girl who was called by the angel, holy. In his reflection in Catholic Online, Deacon Keith Fournier wrote this: “Mary´s Fiat was spoken from a heart filled with pure love for God.  In a Biblical context, "heart" is a word that means much more than the fleshy organ at the center of our chest cavity. It refers to our center, the core of each of us, the place where our deepest identity is rooted, and from which our fundamental choices about life are made. Mary´s words proceeded from a humble heart.” In the original languages, the words in Holy Scripture which are translated into the English word "holy" mean set apart or consecrated, entirely dedicated to God’s service, given over to God and His worship.  If we want to be holy, we need to explore the meaning of these words and make them our own. We are also called to be set apart for the living God. We are to make a place for Him within ourselves and within the world. We are to bear His message through a lifestyle that radiates His love”. 

It is my prayer that the church will soon issue the fifth dogma on Mary; that of her as our Coredemptrix.  Again, with her YES, human history changed.  She is not merely a passive recipient of the message, but she was given an active role, and heaven awaited her free choice. It is precisely by her free consent to collaborate in God's saving plan that she becomes the Coredemptrix.

In yesterday’s second reading of the OOR, Saint Leo the Great wrote this: “Lowliness is assured by majesty, weakness by power, mortality by eternity.  To pay the debt of our sinful state, a nature that is incapable of suffering was joined to one that could suffer.  Thus, in keeping with the healing that we needed, on and the same mediator between God and men, the man Jesus, was able to die in one nature, and unable to die in the other”.  The feast of the Annunciation is to celebrate the fiat of Mary – it also must be remembered that Jesus, the Son of God humbled himself after her YES to become a man; a man capable of suffering, agony, torment, misery and even death; death on a cross, with arms outstretched to embrace us all in His endless, infinite, and eternal love.

My chaplet was for the people of Haiti & Chile and my rosary on Wednesday was for the Lopez family & yesterday was for my Liturgy of the Hours prayer partner Brother Paul & his prayer partner Father Ron

Peace