Posted on March 19, 2017 View all news
Laudetur Jesus Christus! Gelobt sei Jesus Christus! Sia lodato Gesù Cristo! Praised be Jesus Christ!
This coming Saturday is the Patronal Feast Day of the Parish. Please be sure to pray for our parish and to visit us on its Feast Day, the Annunciation. Visiting the Parish on its Patronal Feast Day, and also saying the Our Father and the Creed while there, affords a person the ability to gain a plenary indulgence under the conditions of sacramental confession (within 21 days), reception of Holy Communion, prayers for the Holy Father’s Intentions, and detachment from all sin.
We will have First Vespers of the Annunciation on Friday, March 24, at 6:00 p.m. Solemn Latin Mass (Ordinary Form) will be on Saturday, March 25, at 10:00 a.m. Please join us for one or both of these, especially as we celebrate 175 years of Old St. Mary’s. It would be nice to have as many parishioners and
guests present as possible. So please spread the word about this important day!
Please find the following from St. Bernard of Clairvaux concerning the Feast of the Annunciation. Have a blessed week ahead!
“You have heard, O Virgin, that you will conceive and bear a son; you have heard that it will not be by man but by the Holy Spirit. The angel awaits an answer; it is time for him to return to God who sent him. We too are waiting, O Lady, for your word of compassion; the sentence of condemnation weighs heavily upon us.
The price of our salvation is offered to you. We shall be set free at once if you consent. In the eternal Word of God we all came to be, and behold, we die. In your brief response we are to be remade in order to be recalled to life.
Tearful Adam with his sorrowing family begs this of you, O loving Virgin, in their exile from Paradise. Abraham begs it, David begs it. All the other holy patriarchs, your ancestors, ask it of you, as they dwell in the country of the shadow of death. This is what the whole earth waits for, prostrate at your feet. It is right in doing so, for on your word depends comfort for the wretched, ransom for the captive, freedom for the condemned, indeed, salvation for all the sons of Adam, the whole of your race.
Answer quickly, O Virgin. Reply in haste to the angel, or rather through the angel to the Lord. Answer with a word, receive the Word of God. Speak your own word, conceive the divine Word. Breathe a passing word, embrace the eternal Word.
Why do you delay, why are you afraid? Believe, give praise, and receive. Let humility be bold, let modesty be confident. This is no time for virginal simplicity to forget prudence. In this matter alone, O prudent Virgin, do not fear to be presumptuous. Though modest silence is pleasing, dutiful speech is now more necessary. Open your heart to faith, O blessed Virgin, your lips to praise, your womb to the Creator. See, the desired of all nations is at your door, knocking to enter. If he should pass by because of your delay, in sorrow you would begin to seek him afresh, the One whom your soul loves. Arise, hasten, open. Arise in faith, hasten in devotion, open in praise and thanksgiving. Behold the handmaid of the Lord, she says, be it done to me according to your word.” – St. Bernard of Clairvaux