The Annunciation of the Lord (Solemnity)

March 25, 2017

The Annunciation

Stained glass window in Holy Spirit Catholic Church

In loving Memory of Infant

Beth Ann Lyons

by her Parents Bob and Peg Lyons and Family

This feast commemorates the most sublime moment in the history of time, the moment when the Second Divine Person of the most Holy Trinity assumed human nature in the womb of the Virgin Mary. Thus it is a feast of our Lord, even as it is of Mary, although the liturgy centers wholly around the Mother of God. — The Church's Year of Grace, Pius Parsch

Mary - Stained Glass Image from Wedding Feast of Cana in the Brides Room at Holy Spirit Catholic Church

COLLECT PRAYER

O God, who willed that your Word

 should take on the reality of human flesh

 in the womb of the Virgin Mary, grant,

we pray, that we, who confess

our Redeemer to be God

 and man, may merit to become

 partakers even in his divine nature.

Who lives and reigns with you

 in the unity of the Holy Spirit,

one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

 Statue of the Blessed Mother

donated to St. John School in 1945 by

Mr. & Mrs. Michael Meaney, Sr.

  Blessed Mother Shrine donated in

 memory of Norman and Rita DeVictor

 by Robert & Gina Wilson and Family

This is a Solemnity, so when this feast falls during the Lenten season, our Lenten penance obligations are lifted. We should celebrate by some special food or dinner. This feast day forecasts the blessed event of Christmas, and illustrates how the liturgical year is an endless circle of days. To celebrate this circle or cycle, serve a cake, coffee rings, or wreath-shaped cookies, or foods shaped in ring molds for this feast day. A perfect symbolic food would be an angel food cake for the archangel Gabriel, baked in a tube pan for the endless circle, decorated with the frosting highlighted with blue for Mary.

 catholicculture.org

Blessed Mother - from original church, currently in the Day Chapel

Artist: Frank Engle