Readings here.

Morning and Evening Prayers here.

Children’s Prayers here.

The feast of the Annunciation of the Lord, March 25th, celebrates the mystery of Word of God made flesh, who dwelt among us. Jesus Christ was conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of the Virgin Mary. Though Mary has a key role in this  feast of the Incarnation, this is primarily a feast of Jesus, not of Mary.

The feast originated in the 5th century, probably in Jerusalem. Gradually it was adopted by other churches of the Christian world. To appreciate the rich symbolism of this feast, it is important to recognize the role of the Church of Jerusalem in its creation. That church had a hand in creating many of our ancient  feasts.

Established by Constantine in the 4th century, the great churches and shrines of the Jerusalem Church, especially the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, became a center for pilgrims to the Holy Land. The Church of the Holy Sepulcher, built next to the ruins of the Temple Mount, never abandoned the rich symbolism found in Jewish tradition.

The date of our feast of the Annuciation, March 25, offers an example. The spring equinox, when light began to conquer darkness, was associated in Jewish tradition with the  Exodus from Egypt, but also the creation of the world, the creation and fall of Adam, and Abraham’s offering of his Son to God. 

This early Christian feast in Jerusalem embraced the same ancient saving events and saw them completed in the mysteries of Christ. On this day Mary accepted the invitation of the angel and nine months later, December 25th,Jesus Christ, the Light of the world was born. He is the New Adam. His death and resurrection bring to Israel and to the world the promise of a land flowing in milk and honey.

The Letter to e Hebrews, read on our feast today, proclaims the role of Jesus, who said “a body you prepared for me…behold, I come to do your will, O God.’” God’s will was that his Son take a body in the womb of Mary.

Most of our readings in the liturgy for the last few weeks of Lent are from St. John’s Gospel, which presents Jesus as a divine teacher and worker of wonders.

This feast reminds us of the humanity of Jesus, silent and unknown in Mary’s womb. He lived unrecognized among the people of Nazareth. He was human all his life.

Our first reading for this feast cautions us in the figure of Ahaz about misreading

the presence of God among us. “ The Word was made flesh and dwelt among us.”

3rd Sunday of Lent c

In Luke’s gospel Jesus answers two stories that asks about responsibility.

Who’s responsible for the Roman Procurator Pilate killing innocent people

at some religious event. Who’s responsible for a building in Siloam

collapsing killing 18 people?

Was God punishing these people? No, Jesus answers. God doesn’t punish

people through the cruelty that comes from wars or from accidents like a

building collapse. We face tragedies like these because we are human

beings. God will get us through them.

Let me talk about two stories from our time similar to our gospel stories.

Last March a large container ship crashed into Francis Scott Key Bridge in

Baltimore, Md, destroying the bridge, killing 6 construction workers and

causing thousands of people and companies a loss of income. The tragedy

caused massive damage to our economy. Who’s responsible for that

accident?

Are the people who built the large container ship? The people and

agencies who monitor bridge safety? Businesses and labor unions who

want to keep our economy going no matter what? Is God responsible?

They say this case will be in courts for years. But is the responsibility out of

our hands? Have we not responsibility for how justice is done and how

government performs?

The story about the Roman Procurator Pilate killing innocent people is a

story about war and its consequences. St. Augustine said that of all the

creatures God created human beings are the most destructive. They go

beyond lions and tigers and other savage animals, who only seem to go so

far in the way they kill. Human beings are the most savage of God’s

creatures.

We see that in the way we are waging our wars. We’re now in an arms race

to create weapons of war that are more destructive than ever. A recent

article from the Vatican began: “We are creating more and more weaponsof destruction, and do you think they won’t be used?” More than ever we

need to find ways to control war and make peace.

The questions Jesus raises in the gospel are unsettling questions and his

answer may not altogether satisfy us. Tragedies are part of life, he says, so

we should repent. Repent means we face these questions and do all we

can to deal responsibly with them. Repentance involves more than facing

personal issues. Repentance also means facing public issues in our world

and doing something about them.

But remember we are not alone. Listen to the story of God speaking to

Moses in our first reading for today from the Book of Exodus. Moses is all

alone, caring for a flock of sheep in the desert and God tells him to back to

the imperfect world of Egypt. Go back to his people.

But the LORD said,

“I have witnessed the affliction of my people in Egypt

and have heard their cry of complaint against their slave drivers,

so I know well what they are suffering.

Therefore I have come down to rescue them

from the hands of the Egyptians

and lead them out of that land into a good and spacious land,

a land flowing with milk and honey.”

We’re not facing a world where we can do nothing. God sent his Son,

Jesus Christ, into our world, our world of here and now. We ask him to be

with us and to lead us. We are not alone.

With the parades, the soda bread and the rest, let’s not forget the saint at the heart of celebrations today:

From the Confession of Saint Patrick, bishop

Through me many peoples have been reborn in God

I give unceasing thanks to my God, who kept me faithful in the day of my testing. Today I can offer him sacrifice with confidence, giving myself as a living victim to Christ, my Lord, who kept me safe through all my trials. I can say now: Who am I, Lord, and what is my calling, that you worked through me with such divine power? You did all this so that today among the Gentiles I might constantly rejoice and glorify your name wherever I may be, both in prosperity and in adversity.

You did it so that, whatever happened to me, I might accept good and evil equally, always giving thanks to God. God showed me how to have faith in him for ever, as one who is never to be doubted. He answered my prayer in such a way that in the last days, ignorant though I am, I might be bold enough to take up so holy and so wonderful a task, and imitate in some degree those whom the Lord had so long ago foretold as heralds of his Gospel, bearing witness to all nations.  How did I get this wisdom, that was not mine before? I did not know the number of my days, or have knowledge of God. How did so great and salutary a gift come to me, the gift of knowing and loving God, though at the cost of homeland and family? I came to the Irish peoples to preach the Gospel and endure the taunts of unbelievers, putting up with reproaches about my earthly pilgrimage, suffering many persecutions, even bondage, and losing my birthright of freedom for the benefit of others.  

If I am worthy, I am ready also to give up my life, without hesitation and most willingly, for his name. I want to spend myself in that country, even in death, if the Lord should grant me this favour. I am deeply in his debt, for he gave me the great grace that through me many peoples should be reborn in God, and then made perfect by confirmation and everywhere among them clergy ordained for a people so recently coming to believe, one people gathered by the Lord from the ends of the earth.

As God had prophesied of old through the prophets: The nations shall come to you from the ends of the earth, and say: “How false are the idols made by our fathers: they are useless.” In another prophecy he said: I have set you as a light among the nations, to bring salvation to the ends of the earth.  It is among that people that I want to wait for the promise made by him, who assuredly never tells a lie. He makes this promise in the Gospel: They shall come from the east and west, and sit down with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. This is our faith: believers are to come from the whole world.

   

 On Wednesday March 12, Father Lionel Pacheco CP gave a talk at Thomas Berry Place in Jamaica, NY.  He reflected on the Charism of St Paul of the Cross and how remembrance and prayer on the Passion of our Lord Jesus Christ has the supernatural effect of “softening” our hearts wich may have been hardened and become stony and cold in reaction to so many negative things all around and within our personal lives. I really need this gift from God in order to love those whom I see as my enemies and enemies of humanity. I need the peace of mind that only God can give. Meditation on the Passion is helping me so much this Lent, yet it is not an easy road. 

     Father Lionel spoke of the mysticism of St Paul of  the Cross, but he also said something that moved my heart: all Christian mysticism comes from our “Mystic par excellence”, Our Lord Jesus Christ. Two great examples of this mysticism are found in the Gospels of the Baptism of Jesus in the Jordan, and of The Transfiguration. Father Lionel said something that I had never thought about. According to him, in those holy moments the human Jesus “saw” that His Heavenly Father “delighted” in His Son’s humanity. Our Father loves the people that He has created, specially because Jesus has made us His brethren. So Jesus was further inspired to respect and love and heal us, and even die for us.  We should be be inspired to try and do the same.

     And yet, I wonder, when these beloved children commit unspeakable acts of cruelty and destruction, how does our Heavenly Father feel?  Angry (“wrathful”), disappointed, sad, still forgiving, or something Holy and vast beyond our understanding?

     When His Son cried on the Cross, “My God, my God, why have You abandoned me?” How did our Father feel then, certainly not delight? How did our Lord feel? How did they feel about each other, and about us? I lose my mind within this vortex of emotions, trying to stay afloat, not to drown in confusion, or sorrow, or hopelessness. I feel with all my soul that at the very core of this whirlpool is LOVE, Love beyond my comprehension. I rest within this mystery and feel my heart of stone becoming just a little softer.

     Lord help us. Teach us to love and forgive. Thank You for the gift of Your Passion. May it be always in our hearts. 

Orlando Hernández

Our readings for the 1st week of Lent are wonderful teachings on prayer. .Prayer is a conversation with God, who made heaven and earth. We can come into God’s presence. Monday’s readings this week remind us of God’s care for everything in heaven and earth. As his children, we’re to share his care for all things.

.In Matthew’s Gospel , Tuesday, Jesus tells us God is “Our Father”.We can come to God as his children. He gives us daily bread, what we need each day. He gives us forgiveness and strength to come to him, no matter what trials we meet. God gives us the gift of prayer to know him. Like the snow and rain that falls constantly on the earth, that gift always falls on us. We can pray to him.

Wednesday’s readings tells us that prayer is about more than ourselves and our own needs. The story of Jonah says we’re part of a world bigger than our own. Like Jonah in Nineveh, we belong to a larger world we must care for, God’s world.

Never lose confidence in prayer and what it makes possible, Jesus tells us in Thursday’s readings. “Ask and you will receive, seek and you will find. Knock and the door with open” .

In Friday’s readings Jesus says we must approach the altar of God’s presence with hearts free from resentment, harsh judgment and anger. Otherwise, our prayer become weak and blind. We cannot see.  (Friday)

We must pray even for our enemies, we hear on Saturday, this week, for our Father in heaven makes the sun shine on the just and the unjust and the rain to fall on saints and sinners.

Lent is an important time to appreciate the gift of prayer. It’s a time for all of us, young or old, even those who don’t pray, to grow in prayer,

For this week’s homily please play the video below.