Monastery of the Holy Cross

  • Home
  • About
    • Benedictine Life
    • History
  • Visit Us
    • Guesthouse
    • Prayer Schedule
      • Christmas 2024
    • The Catholic Readers Society
    • Caskets
  • Vocations
    • Monastic Experience Weekend
    • Formation
    • Oblates
      • Oblate Podcast
  • Solemn Vespers
    • Chant
  • Contact
  • Donate

Archives for March 2017

The Annunciation

March 25, 2017

[adapted from the notes for Solemn Vespers, 3/24/17 at the Monastery]

The meeting of time and eternity, of the finite and the infinite, of the human and the divine.  Today’s solemnity is a perfect crystallization of the reconciliation willed by God and accomplished through Mary’s fiat (“Amen” in her native Aramaic), as well as of the destiny that the Holy Trinity has allotted humanity. As we say in tonight’s concluding prayer, “may [we] merit to become partakers even of His divine nature,” Who willed to unite Himself to our human nature.

annuniation iconThe Annunciation is one of the most popular scenes in Western art and Eastern iconography. The Virgin Mary holds in her hand a spindle and scarlet material used to make the veil of the Temple. This veil is what separates the divine from the human, but also, being a central item in the Temple represents the meeting of God and Israel. We should recall that Herod began rebuilding the Temple at about the time of the Virgin Mary’s birth (there are many references to its construction in the New Testament). She will give birth to the true and everlasting Temple, the Body of Christ.

There is good reason to suppose that the solemnity of the Annunciation predates the celebration of Christmas, a noteworthy reminder that Christians have traditionally held that life begins at conception and that childbirth is the public manifestation and arrival of a child already long-nurtured by his or her mother. Many liturgical scholars, perhaps the majority at this point, fix the date of the Annunciation by the traditional date of Good Friday, since Christ was believed to have become man and to have died on the same date. From today’s date was then calculated the date of Christmas, nine months from March 25.

Our Lady’s gracious “yes” to the divine invitation to participate in the salvation of the world is a model of faith for all believers. Every time we obediently say, “yes,” to life, to suffering, to the commandments, Christ’s life is strengthened in us, and His healing presence is manifested to the world. Through our perseverance, we will save our lives by bringing to birth the life of Christ conceived in us at our first “yes” at baptism.

In tonight’s Processional chant, another ancient teaching is celebrated, the naming of Mary as the destroyer of all heresies. The key to understanding right belief is the Incarnation itself (the Trinitarian doctrines distinctive of Christianity are consequences of reflection on the virgin birth by the overshadowing of the Holy Spirit). One could rightly read the first seven Ecumenical Councils as continued explorations of the mystery revealed in the encounter of Our Lady with the Archangel Gabriel, and the resulting unity of God and man. If ever we are troubled by doubts about the doctrine of the Church, the Mother of God is always waiting to illuminate us. She is a sure protector in times of temptation. She who listened to the voice of Gabriel undid the sin of Eve who listened to the voice of the tempter. Thus is Our Lady a model of discretion.

So many of these images come together in the final antiphon, Ave Regina Caelorum, traditionally sung from the Feast of the Presentation (formerly of the Purification) until the Paschal Triduum. “Hail root of Jesse! Hail gate of heaven!” In the Annunciation is fulfilled so many prophecies of the Old Testament foreseeing the coming of the Messiah and the reopening of Paradise. As God entered the world through the gate of Mary’s womb, we enter the divine life through the womb of the font of baptism. And so each evening, as we prepare for the dark hours, filled with many temptations, we call on the assistance of the great Mother of God and recall our baptisms by the sprinkling of holy water.

May this wondrous celebration fortify us in our Lenten practices of self-denial, and may it remind us of the glory that God has promised to those faithful to the teachings and practices of Holy Mother Church, in whom is fulfilled what was begun in the life of our Holy Mother, the Virgin Mary.

 

Blog Topics

  • Beauty (11)
  • Contemplative Prayer (47)
  • Contra Impios (2)
  • Culture (18)
  • Discernment (21)
  • Formation (8)
  • General (40)
  • Going to the Father (18)
  • Gregorian Chant (5)
  • Holy Spirit (3)
  • Jottings (25)
  • Liturgy (78)
  • Meditations on Heaven (4)
  • Monastic Life (42)
  • Moral Theology (43)
  • Music (17)
  • Scripture (52)
  • Vatican II and the New Evangelization (20)

Blog Archives

  • May 2025 (1)
  • April 2025 (4)
  • March 2025 (4)
  • February 2025 (3)
  • January 2025 (5)
  • December 2024 (8)
  • November 2024 (3)
  • October 2024 (9)
  • September 2024 (8)
  • August 2024 (9)
  • July 2024 (9)
  • June 2024 (8)
  • May 2024 (9)
  • April 2024 (4)
  • November 2023 (1)
  • April 2023 (1)
  • December 2022 (1)
  • October 2022 (1)
  • March 2022 (1)
  • February 2022 (1)
  • August 2021 (2)
  • June 2021 (1)
  • May 2021 (1)
  • April 2021 (1)
  • February 2021 (2)
  • January 2021 (1)
  • December 2020 (1)
  • August 2020 (4)
  • June 2020 (1)
  • May 2020 (4)
  • April 2020 (9)
  • March 2020 (4)
  • February 2020 (1)
  • January 2020 (1)
  • December 2019 (1)
  • July 2019 (2)
  • June 2019 (1)
  • May 2019 (1)
  • April 2019 (2)
  • March 2019 (1)
  • February 2019 (3)
  • January 2019 (1)
  • December 2018 (1)
  • November 2018 (2)
  • October 2018 (2)
  • September 2018 (2)
  • August 2018 (1)
  • July 2018 (2)
  • June 2018 (4)
  • May 2018 (7)
  • April 2018 (1)
  • March 2018 (1)
  • February 2018 (1)
  • January 2018 (2)
  • November 2017 (1)
  • October 2017 (1)
  • September 2017 (1)
  • August 2017 (1)
  • July 2017 (2)
  • June 2017 (2)
  • March 2017 (1)
  • February 2017 (2)
  • December 2016 (1)
  • November 2016 (3)
  • August 2016 (2)
  • May 2016 (2)
  • April 2016 (5)
  • March 2016 (2)
  • December 2015 (1)
  • November 2015 (2)
  • October 2015 (3)
  • August 2015 (10)
  • July 2015 (12)
  • June 2015 (17)
  • May 2015 (2)
  • April 2015 (7)
 
© 2025 Monastery of the Holy Cross
  • Accessibility
Web Design by ePageCity