An orchid Picture by Mark Rusch
Our Blog is inspired by The Holy Spirit.
Solemnity of the Annunciation of the Lord
Listen, O house of David!
Is it not enough for you to weary people,
must you also weary my God?
Therefore the Lord himself will give you this sign:
the virgin shall be with child, and bear a son,
and shall name him Emmanuel,
which means “God is with us!”
Part of the First reading Isaiah 7: 8:10
“In the written scroll it is prescribed for me,
To do your will, O my God, is my delight,
and your law is within my heart!”
R. Here I am, Lord; I come to do your will.
Emphasis mine: Part of Psalm 40:8b-9, reading
First he says, “Sacrifices and offerings,
holocausts and sin offerings,
you neither desired nor delighted in.”
These are offered according to the law.
Then he says, “Behold, I come to do your will.”
He takes away the first to establish the second.
By this “will,” we have been consecrated
through the offering of the Body of Jesus Christ once for all. Emphasis mine Part of the Second Reading Hebrews 10:5-10
Mary said, “Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord.
May it be done to me according to your word.”
Then the angel departed from her.
Underlining mine Part of the Gospel Reading Luke 1: 38
When we first read the readings I, yes I thought we were just before Christmas, and I couldn’t figure it out until the Holy Spirit slapped me on the side of my head and said it’s March dummy, nine months to the day before the birth of Jesus.
All of the readings tied in to the theme of saying “Yes” to the call of God to do his will. We didn’t include the full texts, but just those portions that specifically pointed to doing the will of God.
Mary was born without sin, we all know that,
And,
So were Adam and Eve.
All three had free will.
Two said “No” and only Mary said “Yes.”
In a homily by Monsignor Henchal, Monsignor Henshal said all of Heaven looked on, and held their breath as the Angel Gabriel popped the question to Mary, and with her “Yes,”a new world or we should say a new life would be established, life in “The Spirit of Truth.”
We are faced with the same option as Mary was faced with,
Except,
We know the end of the story about her son.
We also know that God is a Triune God.
We know God the Father sent Jesus so all men and women might be Justified,
And
We know They sent The Holy Spirit to be infused into our Souls at Baptism, making us living Temples of God.
No brick nor mortar, we are living Temples.
How awesome is that!
and,
All that is asked of us is to continue the tradition of Mary which is continuing to say “I come to do your will.”
Prayer:
If you want to grow in Love, Joy and Peace, this is a result of growth in Patience, Kindness, Generosity, Faithfulness, Gentleness and Self-Control.
Sidebar:
When I retired, I swore I would never head up another organization again. I am not a great leader. Sooooo now I am eight-five, and I am heading the Altar servers for weekday services, and Veterans Home Communion Services.
I am reminded of the saying, “if you want to make God laugh, tell Them your plans.”
The V/A needs five people and we only had two when we took over, and one of them had cancer. We were able to get three men to join our group.
The man, who was still active, as we said, has cancer and he decided last week that he should stop doing the first week Communion Service, and this is hard for him because at an older age this is something else in his life that is lost.
I thankfully turned my predicament over to God, “You got me into this, please solve the problem of the vacancy.”
And
I met a man, who was bringing communion to a patient at the V/A, at the first week Communion Service, that we were substituting for the man with cancer, and he said he could be interested in doing the first week service,
but
He is bringing Communion weekly to three or four nursing homes now, and this could mean a change would have to take place.
He and I agreed that he enJoyed bringing communion to the different nursing homes, so he wouldn’t be able to do a communion service.
A week went by, with my wondering how God will solve the problem – new thinking on our part.
At the next week’s Saturday Mass, Bryan, who knew me from our Faith Group meetings on Saturdays, came up and asked if he could come into the jail with me, and we explained that John Kiernan was already coming with us and three people would be too many.
But,
Would he be interested in doing a Communion Service on the first Sunday of every month?
He said he would.
We are telling this story because I felt for too long that prayer was only Our Fathers, Hail Marys, etc, and this isn’t true, prayer is a conversation and it can be long and complex, or short and direct, after I realized the first man couldn’t do the communion service , our prayer was,
“Help!”
That prayer, “Help,” has proven very powerful.
But
When the prayer is answered if you don’t thank God for the answer you lose the Joy of acknowledging God working in your life.
I did instantly, actually I thanked my Father numerous times, how I wished I had changed in my younger years to we instead of I, and gave God the task of leading me. Life would have been much easier,
And
Filled with even more Joy!
Picture:
The Denver Botanic Gardens had nothing blooming outside, but inside they had an orchid exhibit that was stunning. Picture by Mark Rusch
Please keep Snapping!
And if you want the ten calling cards shown above, email me and I will send you my address, send me a STAMPED self-addressed envelope and I will send you ten cards.
The offer for the cards is for American readers only. The Post office won’t accept foreign stamps.
If you want a copy of the prayers we discussed.
Send an email to: fprince101@gmail.com
Remember, if you want to submit a picture, please do not include people. We have to get permission from that person to use their photograph.
